6 January 2025

Fable

NickoHeap

This is not a paid advertisement!

It’s been a while since I’ve contributed to The Reading Project, for one reason or another; one reason being 4 consecutive years of university and subsequently 1 year of full time work; another being that I am inextricably addicted to my phone. I’ve tried to remedy this over the last few years by engaging more with art, particularly film and music. And while I find that I still spend countless waking hours hopelessly scrolling through kilometres of my TikTok feed, I’ve also been able to transform at least some of my screen time into something positive that encourages my hobbies. If you’re unfamiliar with the app Letterboxd, it’s a fantastic social media platform for movie lovers that my friends and I now all use – and it really has made us all connect more with the films we love, and the community of other people who also love those films.

But the issue still remains that despite falling deeper and deeper in love with film through Letterboxd, I simply hadn’t found an equivalent that could spark the same excitement for reading books. Goodreads may have a monopoly on the world of book reviewing in a similar way that IMDb has for film, but I tried it, along with a few other apps, to no real success; none of them really clicked. But then a friend of mine suggested Fable to me, which I loved pretty much instantly. I should again clarify that this isn’t a sponsored post. I’m just very excited to be excited about reading again, since it’s been so long. And I’ve found that Fable is just a really wonderful app that has a great community which I couldn’t recommend enough. For those whose brains aren’t broken and don’t need token motivators like daily reading streaks, it may not be particularly appealing. But I know for a fact that many people, especially around my age, really froth over this sort of thing, and I’m one of them. If you want to check it out, you can click here.

If you are committed to the Goodreads platform but would like to try Fable, the app makes it easy to import your Goodreads history. So there’s really nothing to stop you giving it a try!

- NickoHeap

5 January 2025

David Lodge dies

David Lodge

28 January 1935 – 1 January 2025

I read yesterday that David Lodge had died, aged 89 years. David Lodge was an English academic and novelist. I was first introduced to his work in first year university while studying modern literature. The first book I read was Changing Places, a story of two academics on a six-month exchange between their universities. Changing Places was the first of what came to be known as his ‘Campus Novels’. It was followed by Small World and Nice Work, both of which I later read on the strength of his first book in the series.

I would later go on to read other works by him: The British Museum is Falling Down, How Far Can You Go, and I found his work about literary technique, The Art of Fiction both entertaining and informative. Lodge divided this book into chapters, each focussing on a literary technique, which he first illustrated with an extract from a well-known book, followed by two or three pages of discussion. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in how texts work.

I’ve returned to David Lodge more recently when I found a copy of his second novel, Ginger, You’re Barmy, in a street library near where I live. The novel is based on Lodge’s short stint in National Service, and like his other books I have read, it is very funny. It’s also the most recent of his books that I’ve read, and the only one I have reviewed. I more recently discovered another of his books, Therapy, in another street library, although that remains unread at this time.

A little piece of trivia: David Lodge’s academic office was next to Ray Bradbury’s at Birmingham University in the 1960s. Bradbury has gained a wider cultural recognition with his novel Fahrenheit 451 and other novels, but Lodge has long been respected as an academic who also wrote accessible and entertaining novels. He was also twice short-listed for the Booker Prize, for Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988), and he was Longlisted for Out of the Shelter in 1970.

It's sad to see such good authors go. If you haven’t read him, give David Lodge a try. You’ll likely enjoy him.

- bikerbuddy

1 January 2025

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We showed up for another one!

New Years is often a time for renewal: resolutions and that sort of thing. Sometimes this time of year inspires a moment of reflection, too: about mortality and such. After all, it’s another year. I did reflect upon this briefly yesterday afternoon. Since I’m approaching sixty it’s probably not that unusual. My thoughts went something like this: “Well, that’s another year I made it through.” I wasn’t morbid or depressed. It was just a moment of reflection. Thinking about life.

In fact, I was in such a good mood that last night we decided to get takeaway to make it an easy evening – we’re well past the time when struggling into Sydney on public transport to see the fireworks is appealing – and sit in front of the television to watch an episode of Would I Lie to You. Lee Mack was in the middle of telling a story about a supposed altercation with Brian May, the guitarist from Queen (Spoiler – it was a Lie) when he did an entirely inaccurate but hilarious impersonation of Brian May, speaking. It caught me at an unguarded moment, as I was swallowing a mouthful of Coke. This was a moment when that peculiar word ‘guffawed’ is entirely appropriate. Everything went wrong. Coke ended up in my lungs. I was choking. I couldn’t breathe. Tears streamed from my eyes and I struggled to the bathroom where I tried to cough up whatever I could. I managed to start breathing again, but I was soon reflecting on that overly-confident moment I had had in the afternoon when I thought I had the year under my belt. You never know, do you?

LUCY SAYS: “Live well and read well in 2025!”

So, it’s 2025, and now begins the ninth year of the Reading Project. Honestly, it’s grown bigger than I anticipated. When we started this website, it was like that moment when I put the glass of Coke to my mouth, not having any idea what was about to happen. In this last year and a half, we’ve introduced a search function for the reviews, we’ve made the website more phone friendly, we introduced an RSS feed and began a newsletter. We’ve redesigned many elements of the website, have involved a local author in our special projects, have continued to publish reviews by us and other generous contributors, and now we have a new Reading Project icon and site header based on our dog, Lucy, which I put up yesterday. Honestly, it was either her reading a book or me, and the photo of me is so grim and unappealing (I find it hard not to look like a prisoner in photos) that you don’t want to see it. People would have been leaving the site in droves, otherwise!

And another thought. Today is Lucy’s sixth birthday. Happy Birthday Lucy. Although, given the fatalistic tone this post has taken, I guess Lucy has even less reason to celebrate another birthday, being a dog. Lucy may be heading to middle age, but she is just as mad as ever. Good for her! She’s a Jack Russell/Basenji cross.

Our goals for the website remain pretty much the same. Victoria has begun a new reading challenge for Agatha Christie: the Reading the Detectives 2025 challenge. This year the challenge showcases the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot novels. However, of the twelve books in the challenge, Victoria has already read five, and has reviewed three of the first six books already, so that will give her some flexibility.

I have so many different interests and special reading projects I would like to undertake that I feel almost paralysed. To make things easier on myself I’m willing to accept my output will be limited and just focus on reviews and completing The Iliad pages for the moment.

Jenny received a number of new books this Christmas. I bought her a Trent Dalton novel, based upon her interest in the Netflix series, Boy Swallows Universe. She has a number of crime novels to work through.

Whatever happens, I hope to make each day count.

And whatever you do this year, I hope it turns out to be a good year for you, too. Thanks for visiting our site, and if you’re a regular visitor, I say to you thank you, thank you, thank you!

- bikerbuddy