As May recedes into the distance I can now say that I have been at this blogging game for a half decade – something that seems improbable. I’ve still not adapted to the ever-changing present and moved into vlogging or whatever the trendsetters are up to now – Zoella is welcome to it – in fact, the longer the blog has been going, the more verbose my reviews seem to have got. Flying in the face of all commonly accepted blogging practice. Bugger. Yet I remain convinced that there is still a place for longer pieces of writing in this Twitter-saturated web we collectively weave, where even Vines – mind-flashes of inanity – are considered overlong if they continue beyond their seventh second. So here’s to words, the more of them the better.

With that in mind, I’ve got the lovely summer months coming up where commitments are fewer and the days longer. Traditionally it is a perfect storm in which to crank out some reviews if you are a me (and I am). Which is a good thing as, by my latest calculation, I need to review seventeen books in June to get up with my target output for 2016. Not to be defeatist, but the odds of that happening make Leicester’s 5000-1 to win the Premier League look laughably short.

What will I be trying to review though? Well, Frankenstein is pretty much ready to go, aside from needing to be completely rewritten. So that’s easy enough. I’ve got a little more Roth up my sleeve following on from my review of Goodbye, Columbus a few days ago too.




On things completely new, I’ve got my sights firmly set on Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which, to this point, is not impressing me hugely. A shame as, having just realised that I haven’t issued a 5-star rating on Goodreads for almost a year, I am on the lookout for a book onto which I can lavish praises so sycophantic that even the perennially positive would tell me to steady on.

Other than that, I’ve somewhat of a mixed bag. Confessions of a Justified Sinner will be an excursion into early nineteenth century Scottish moral literature (I know, hold steady for that one). I’ve got Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart on the go too, although that has failed to spark into life for me yet so that elusive 5-star rating is looking no nearer from becoming a reality.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the coming summer months and will check in to see if and when I ever issue another 5-star rating again.