Reading Plans for 2026 and Beyond- 6 Month Update 

Despite having plans and being reasonably well trained/experience in planning things (it was actually my JOB for the last 10+ years of my career) my READING plans each year are more... aspirations than actual PLANS. So, how am I doing in 2026? 

Following the Labels   

This is a bit more hit/miss and random so far this year. Although (obviously) some of the labels are getting ‘traffic’ others are still being politely ignored. I hope to address that a bit more consciously later in the year and AIM at getting as many as possible into double figures. 

The ‘Knowledge Streams’   

The streams are doing reasonably OK – again mostly with unplanned additions at this point – but, especially with the US 250th (TODAY!) I’ll see if I can focus a bit more on USA:WTF and looking at the PRESENT (or would that be PRESIDENT) insanity later in the year. I might even make a bit of a splurge of US history/Politics in the run-up to Christmas/New Year [muses] 

Rolling the Dice   

I’m still rolling them dice after every completed book. I think I’ve added 3 extra reads this year. It’s good to add just a bit of randomness to my reading. 

Finishing/Progressing Series    

ZIP on this so far this year. With luck and a fair wind, I *might* manage to move forward with either the Dune or Foundation series. 

Classics and Re-Reads   

I’m still (slowly) working my way through the twin Classics boxsets and have even managed to sprinkle a few larger classics in there too. As predicted, I’ve also managed some Cyberpunk re-reads. More revisiting of ‘classic’ SF to come. 

Deep Dives   

Zero deep dives so far this year but I do have a few in the pipeline. It’s just finding a chunky enough slot to cram them into. They are, as always, from a wide variety of topics. I’ll see if I can fit in at least ONE by the end of the year. 

Ukraine and the Middle East   

I’ve managed ONE book on each this year but really want to do more. I have a deep dive (4 books) on the US & Iran that I’d like to get to and a stack of about 15 books on Ukraine. Maybe THIS year! 

BIG Project    

I’ve been planning a BIG (if somewhat silly) Project for this year – actually intended for LAST year – and the good news is that I’ve actually started it. First results will be in about 2 weeks. Just don’t get your hopes up TOO high...  

Coupling and more   

I’m definitely ‘coupling’ more and enjoying it. Much more of that to come plus a scattering of sandwiches. It’s fun going through my stacks and putting them together in odd little bunches... and then going back and putting some into slightly different bunches... 

Philosophy & Sci-Fi   

STILL haven’t managed any Philosophy reading but at least ONE will drop (probably) before New Year – maybe. I’m AIMING to read some modern (post-2000) Sci-Fi too but I don’t actually have that much to pick through. I’m rather out of touch with the genre these days. I’ll see what I can dig up. I’m also going to try to read at least one belief-based book before the end of the year (over and above one I’ve just finished). It’ll probably be something around Christianity, but I haven’t decided yet...  

As usual, if I actually get HALF of that done, I’ll be both pleased and more than a little amazed....  

Happy Birthday: Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006.

Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression. His parents' financial difficulties affected their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood. He often took refuge in movie theaters, where he enjoyed watching early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After graduating from high school and serving a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve, he began writing comedy scripts for radio programs and popular early television shows. Among the latter were Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows (where in 1950 he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart and Selma Diamond), and The Phil Silvers Show, which ran from 1955 to 1959.

His first produced play was Come Blow Your Horn (1961). It took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway. It was followed by two more successes, Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd Couple (1965). He won a Tony Award for the latter. It made him a national celebrity and "the hottest new playwright on Broadway". From the 1960s to the 1980s, he wrote for stage and screen; some of his screenplays were based on his own works for the stage. His style ranged from farce to romantic comedy to more serious dramatic comedy.

Overall, he garnered 17 Tony nominations and won three awards. In 1966, he had four successful productions running on Broadway at the same time, and in 1983, he became the first living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre, named in his honor.

Erm.... It's SATURDAY. *Very* few people are @ work today. But enjoy your Independence... WE certainly are! 

Just Finished Reading: Riots and Rebels – Popular Protest in Britain from The Peasants’ Revolt to Extinction Rebellion by Nick Rennison (FP: 2025) [197pp] 

I’m still not 100% sure why exactly but I have long been interested in rebels and revolutionaries. It might well stem from growing up in the 1970’s when some (at least) of my History teachers were young radicals themselves. It's certainly where I first learned of Hereward the Wake, (possibly) Boudica and other famous English rebels and, of course, we had our fictional heroes such as Robin Hood. So, when I saw this slim volume laid out on a table in my Indie bookshop (next visit in August!) I snapped it up. I was not disappointed. 

Clearly, we Brits are a feisty and rebellious lot! Putting aside the usual regular dynastic conflicts that punctuate Britain’s bloody history the author concentrates on rebellions and uprisings from the ‘lower orders’ of society kicking off with the Peasants Revolt (1381) led by Wat Tyler [another rebel learnt about in school] and Jack Cade’s rebellion (1450) [ditto] before moving onto the rather tumultuous Tudor period. 

Even a cursory knowledge of the Tudors will point you towards THE cause of the numerous rebellions/uprisings of that fascinating period of British history – religion. As the country moved from Catholicism to Protestantism, back again and then back AGAIN its hardly surprising the number of people who suffered from ecclesiastical whiplash (to say nothing about stake burning!). Some of the uprisings I was familiar with [school AGAIN] such as the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536) and Kett’s Rebellion (1549) but a few of them, covered by the author, had obviously passed me by (there only SO much rebellion you can cover in a few school years of history). 

Naturally, one of my favourite periods for such activities is the Civil Wars of the 17th century. I’m a BIG fan of both the Levellers and the Diggers and will be reading more about both later. I’m somewhat familiar with the political debates within the New Model Army (some of which were very modern and very radical for the time) but I was unaware of groups such as the Fifth Monarchy Men nor of the Bowdy House Riots of 1668 which sound interesting to say the least! 

Upheaval in the 18th and 19th centuries revolved around increasing mechanisation (Go Luddites!) and the results of rapid social and economic change. The focus though of the 19th century was on the struggle for increased Rights and especially the Right to Vote. The Chartists definitely need some of my attention going forward. Generally, my knowledge gets increasingly sketchy before the mid-19th century which is something I need to address! 

Of course, the 20th century was hardly a time of calm – even putting to one side both World Wars! We had the Suffragettes (definitely a terrorist organisation), the unrest following demobilisation after the Great War, the General Strike of 1926, the Battle of George Square in Glasgow (tanks on the streets!), the Invergordon Mutiny (1931), the infamous Battle of Cable Street (1936), the Jarrow hunger march (also 1936), various race riots in the 1950’s, anti-Vietnam protests in the 60’s, anti-Nazi protests/riots in the 70’s, Greenham Common and anti-nuclear protests in the 1980’s (I was there for some of those demonstrations) and, of course, the Poll Tax riots during the Thatcher premiership (I saw the aftermath of some of that when I worked in central London in the late 1980’s. 

Phew...! Yup, LOTS of upheaval over MANY years. Never a dull moment as they say! I was impressed by how much the author covered and by how many new incidents I discovered to find out more about – I forgot to mention the Peterloo Massacre and the Tolpuddle martyrs!! (more of which later). This was a fun and fast read and was especially interesting considering the present protests and rioting both here are elsewhere. It's always good to put things into historical perspective. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in our turbulent past – and probable future! 

Welcome to July - We Made It! I hope that you're enjoying the weather where you are (as much as you *can*) and are also enjoying this Summer of Pop Culture here @ SaLT. MUCH more to come...... 

Just saw this interesting Met Office weather chart comparing the 'classic' heatwave of 1976 to what we've just been hit by. I remember the Summer of '76 very well as it was around the time I took my 'O' levels. I'm 'planning' to read up about '76 later in the year for a bit of nostalgia... [lol]

Just Finished Reading: The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry (FP: 2019) [406pp] 

Edinburgh, 1849. Will Raven is back in Scotland. After a year in Europe and now a newly minted MD, he’s looking to a bright, or at least brighter, future. The only fly in the ointment he can see is Sarah Fisher. When he left for the Continent, she was a housemaid in Dr Simpson’s house and, although they were close, he couldn’t see a way forward at that time without putting his career in jeopardy. With Dr Simpson on a call, he asked after Sarah and his heart fell – in the intervening 12 months she had married, not only married but married well, to another doctor. Still working in Dr Simpson’s house as his assistant the two were inevitably thrown together on a daily basis. But bigger issues needed both of their attentions. Sarah’s new husband was ill, very much so, and a new disease seems to be sweeping Edinburgh leaving a trial of bodies behind it. Raven is convinced that uncovering the origin of this strange malady could make his reputation. Sarah is not so sure and is convinced of a much more mundane if disturbing possibility – that one person is responsible to the growing death toll, not as an unknown carrier of a new disease but as a killer, one who dispatches men, women and children with equally chilling efficiency. Worse the killer, whoever they are, is a woman... 

This is a second book in the Fisher and Raven series. I enjoyed the first book a great deal with its mix of medical mystery and a great feeling for the time and place where the events transpire. Despite looking forward to future works it's taken me an age to catch up – as, no doubt it will, for the next books! I was, actually, slightly less impressed by the second book. Part of that was that I thought it was a little slow at times with a little too emphasis on the European ‘backstory’ which, despite being quite interesting, didn’t add a whole lot to the narrative (I couldn’t help thinking that the European angle might have been the author’s initial idea for the whole book but that the publishers wanted the focus to be back in Edinburgh – just my thoughts...). The other thing that slightly irritated me – despite agreeing with every word – was the preaching about the position of women at that time and the hurdles (essentially Great Wall of China sized) stopping them – and Sarah in particular – from progressing as they could if they had been born male. I’ve LONG held the belief that human civilisations across the planet and since the dawn of time could have progressed much further and much faster if half of their population hadn’t been sidelined, under-educated and dismissed as nothing more than vessels to fill with babies. That being said, the *odd* mention of Sarah’s frustrations would have been enough. 

OK, back to what I LIKED about the book. As I had expected both the characterisation (yes, THAT again) was very good and I liked the way that Will Raven’s character developed throughout the novel. He certainly learnt a lot between these covers and not all of it medical. Sarah is an excellent character and I’m looking forward to her progressing as a medical professional in a VERY male dominated environment – both inside and outside the hospital. The secondary characters were well drawn and even the criminal elements managed to be sympathetic ones. One of the MOST interesting was the killer herself. I really liked the way that we spent quite a bit of time inside her head to understand the WHY of what she ended up doing. This didn’t justify the deaths, but we at least got an insight into HOW her mind became so twisted. That was interesting if, at times, rather creepy. 

Overall, despite a few (rather minor) niggles, this was a fun pager-turner. I very much like that fact that the ‘detectives’ are in fact medics rather than the police. I also very much liked the forensic side of things – just emerging as an actual profession – with its emphasis on science as a means to actually PROVE who did what with what method. Oh, one final thing... I did that the impressions that the authors took a particular delight in getting Will Raven splashed with various bodily fluids much to his annoyance and embarrassment. Some readers might want to skip over those bits. Recommended and more to come.

[Highest page count of the year so far: 406pp][+5pp]