Book 24: Happyslapped by a Jellyfish by Karl Pilkington

Karl Pilkington amuses me. His child-like observations are entertaining and occasionally funny and his persona of ultra-straight man (in the comedic sense) being buffeted around by circumstances that are only made funny by his responses to them (which usually are either bafflement or misery), make for entertaining television.

An Idiot Abroad is possibly the best antidote you can find for an overdose of self-important travel shows, because it shows you that you don't have to enjoy travelling all the time - it's okay to sometimes just endure it. When I first came across the TV series An Idiot Abroad, I couldn't figure whether he was acting or not, but I came to the conclusion that he probably wasn't - he's just never developed a brain-to-mouth filter and so says what he's thinking and doesn't feel he needs to pretend to be sophisticated or profound.

Anyhow, this isn't the kind of book that I would ever pay full price for - but I have enjoyed his TV work enough that when I found it in a second-hand shop, I bought it and have been reading it piecemeal for a few months. It's an excellent loo book: short chapters and not a lot to digest.

It contains Pilkington's observations on life, travel and other things that are on his mind, with photographic snapshots and illustrations of and/or by him. It's not a book you should read in one go - you would soon stop being amused because it gets predictable after a while, but reading it one chapter or diary entry at a time is a nice way to while away a few minutes. You will find some chuckles and maye one or two things to make you laugh out loud.

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How to make a simple origami bookmark

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Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

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Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Reading in Reykjavík

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