Recent reading

*Tristram Shandy* soars above the rest of these. I started reading it just as wedding prep got ridiculously stressful. It's pleasant, wafting absurdity was such a welcome escape from logistics, phone calls and bills. I was surprised by how modern it was too. It's as if one is watching a scene in some 18th century English country house, and then Eric Idle pops in wearing an all-white morning suit and starts crooning away. It's similar in place to *Tom Jones*, mostly in how it has a fair bit of bawdy humour and also not a few addresses to critics. I'm guessing both are functions of the time. Happily, *Have His Carcase* refers to *Tristram Shandy*. It's one of the more mysterious of Sayers's mysteries, and a lot of fun. It is very hard not to like Lord Peter Wimsey. He turns up in the short stories in *Hangman's Holiday* too. *Un Lun Dun* is the first China Miéville book I've started reading and not immediately hurled at a nearby wall. It's a kids book (not even a "young adult" book), but is fun for all that. *Ready Player One* is mindless, harmless escapism. It could have done with slightly less geeky wish fulfilment though: at one point, the protagonist is literally playing video games all day, except for when he is using his elite hacker skills to get buff. *The Psychopath Test* is typical journalist non-fiction. Currently working through some more anthologies of short stories. Now that I'm back from holiday will try to get stuck into my non-fiction books again.