Category Archives: Reviews

Kindle

The other night whilst in bed I thought
* ooh could do with a book to read,
* think I still have £10 of Amazon vouchers,
* what was that book called which featured God in the title and was in the Radio 2 book club the other month,
* quickly launch www.bbc.co.uk/radio2 on the phone,
* find the “desktop version” link, then the book club link,
* discover the book is called “When God Was a Rabbit“,
* launch the Kindle app and search,
* price is £4.99, reasonable,
* press Buy
all done in under 5 minutes.

It’s this reason why I really like having the Kindle App on my mobile. It gives me instant access to a book, on a device I already carry around with me all day long, so if I’m in a queue, in bed, on a train, in a coffee shop, I can continue to read from where I last left off.
Continue reading Kindle

Zutons at the Engine Shed

Wow, my second blog post in as many days.

On Friday night the David, Estelle the misses and me went to watch the Zutons at the Lincoln Engine Shed.
Whilst at best I recognised around 7 of their songs (really should have listened to their albums before going), it was a great night.

The highlight was the encore where they just jammed for around 10 minutes including a great drum solo.

If you get the chance they are great live, and if you live near Lincoln and haven’t been to the Engine Shed you should. It’s one of the best venues I’ve been to.

7/10

11 hours and 607 pages later

Harry Potter This morning at 6.30 I headed down to Asda, knowing that if I went via Amazon the postman would only be arriving by now and also for only a fiver I was getting a much better deal.
Now if by this point you don’t realise that I’m talking about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where have you been.
As this was the last book I was sure the spoilers would appear as soon as possible, so I put myself into a media blackout. The mobile was left upstairs, the TV was unplugged and the local newspaper was still in the door. Even the trip to the supermarket involved a silent car journey and fingers in my ears.
So why all the fuss? I only started reading Potter in 2001 after book 4 came out. Bored one day at uni I stole a copy of book one, the following day book two and by the fifth day all four were finished.
The books aren’t bad, a bit repetitive but I was hooked. So every time a new book came out I got it straight away. However this time I went for no stop reading.
The final book is a good read, it only drags a bit near the middle. Tales of good vs evil, right vs wrong and of course the predictable plot lines.
Now I could spoil it for you by saying how it end, so here it goes

well.

if you can still get a copy for a fiver it’s worth it. £8.99 at a push but not the £17.99 it says inside the cover. And whilst were there Bloomsbury were saying that it’s worth it, yet book 6 has the same number of pages and is a quid cheaper and 5 had almost 200 more pages! With sales in the millions surely some economies of sale could be reached in reducing the costs?
7 out of 10

The Stars’ Tennis Balls

The Stars' Tennis BallsSpending a night in A&E gives you a good chance to read so when Heather went home to get my stuff, I got her to pick up the only book I could remember that was on my book shelf that I hadn’t read.
First starting the book it felt quite a bit like The Liar, which was a good read from Stephen Fry. However not too long into the book the plot line felt even more familiar, to the point where I was sure I had read the book before. Then I realised that this book is a really crap rip-off of the The Count of Monte Cristo a book which I spent a year reading and really enjoyed. So by this point I knew what was going to happen. In the end the book was just a let down. Shame on you Mr Fry! 0/10

Spamalot

SpamalotHaving just watched The Secret Life of Brian on Channel 4, I remember that I’ve yet to post my review of Spamalot.
I took Heather along just before Christmas for her birthday to a Saturday Matinee (the only tickets left). The musical follows the basic plot line of the Holy Grail and includes scenes from the film, but has been re-scripted for Broadway, which is the first problem.
It felt like some of the English humour was taken away to accommodate the Americans, and forgot to be put back in for the West End version.
Tim Curry - King ArthurAlso the extra bits felt like they were written by either Mitch Benn or Richie Webb, both I can go and see for less than a tenner, a lot less that Spamalot!
However it was still funny. The set is really good and has been made to look like the original style of Python animation. The French and the Knights who say Ni. A full 10 out of 10 to Tim Curry who played a great King Arthur, if you do get a chance try and see the show before he goes (although if Keith Allen is free, I’m sure he would make a great replacement).
As per any West End show you will need to take out a small loan for tickets, programme and drinks but it was worth it.