Robert Macfarlane (2019)

A lyrical exploration of underground, in all sorts of senses, from potholing in England to trekking across a barren Norwegian island in search of palaeolithic rock art. It’s an amazing journey to be taken on.

And the writing is quite amazing in many places. I’ve never been a caver (I used to be a rock climber), but the claustrophobia of some of the caving exploits made me squirm and get almost panicky even though I was sitting out in the sunshine. The description of the Paris necropolis and the way it’s now a centre for an alternative nightlife is almost beyond belief, and Macfarlane’s descriptions of artic villages and treacherous mountains are equally vivd and engrossing. This is one of the few books that really draws the reader in, like standing alongside the author in his adventures. Not to be missed.

5/5. Finished Saturday 12 October, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

June Thomson (2015)

The premise of this book is that Sherlock Holmes, now retired to the coast, is still applying his mind to the mysteries he finds in his vicinity. The problem is that the “mystery” isn’t actually all that mysterious, or gripping, or in any way exciting, which means there’s never any real sense of Holmes engaging with anything of importance. While I think Thomson captures Holmes and Watson quite well, there’s a lot of be desired in terms of plot.

2/5. Finished Saturday 12 October, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

John Scalzi (2018)

4/5. Finished Saturday 12 October, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Richard P. Rumelt (2011)

Definitely a classic text on the subject, and coming from a slightly broader angle than many other approaches. In common with other authors, Rumelt bases his strategy around identifying the challenges being faced; in contrast, instead of then moving straight into the realm of actions, he considers the values at work so that any actions are consonant with them. But perhaps the most revealing facet of this book is the coverage it gives to bad strategy, the confusions that arise when one mistakes a mission statement (or indeed a set of values) for a strategy, where the former are not executable and not targeted at any particular challenge. Should be required reading for anyone in a leadership role.

4/5. Finished Saturday 12 October, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Randall Munroe (2019)

What happens when the writer of xkcd puts his mind to common everyday tasks? Hilarity, of course…. and as usual, a lot of fascinating physics.

I would place this in the middle of Munroe’s two books. It’s far better, funnier, and grown-up that Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words, but less fresh than What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. For all that it’s still laugh-out-loud funny, grounded in solid physics (albeit in absurd ways), and manages somehow to change the way you might actually look at problems in the future.

4/5. Finished Saturday 12 October, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)