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Mirage came out at the end of last year and I got the vibe that it was fine. I finished it over the weekend and it is indeed fine. Perfectly fine. Given the playable character and at least one other main character, there wasn’t a huge amount possible with the story. It feels like a lot of Horus Heresy books where it’s just filling background lore for some characters who can’t die because we’ve already seen them in the future. [Read More]

I bought Beyond the Wall by Katja Hoyer entirely because of the cover. Some striking design and photography. It’s the history of the German Democratic Republic. Hoyer goes into what I think is a reasonable level of detail given it’s covering the entire history and ideology of the GDR. That works well for my entry level knowledge of the country. If you have a poke around online there are lots of positive reviews but also a a fair chunk of people unhappy with the often rosy picture the book renders life in the GDR to be. [Read More]

I’ve pre-empted my last few posts with how long it’s been since the previous post. Well it’s been another two months and I’ve not finished much, and yet I am alive. I have been continuing the path of the Retro Oner. I’ve made it through the XFM days and miss Vin a lot. I just finished the Self Assessment Tax Deadline episode in 2022. Hundreds of hours down and yet there’s more. [Read More]

Has it really been a month since I finished a book? Not good form. Not good. I finished the breezy Keith Brymer Jones autobiography yesterday. I knew a little about the star of the Pottery Throwdown but his life before going global was totally new to me. If you’re at all interested in pottery I think this is a must read. I’ve done a little bit of throwing recently and this book makes me want to do a lot more. [Read More]

It’s been a while. I’ve been reading but not finishing anything. With the release of Dune Part 2 I picked up Dune again for a rare seconding reading. I finished it on a 4 hour train back from Glasgow. Dune is flawed but I love it. There’s not a lot to say that hasn’t been said over the last 59 years. It’s very prog rock and waistcoat coded. I started Dune Messiah moments after finishing it. [Read More]

I’m a big Kent Beck fan. Big fan of Extreme Programming ideas. Tidy First is his latest book and I wish it was around when I started working on software. Kent details some tidyings (refactorings) and then talks about when to use them. He discusses the tension between delivering changes vs having options for change in the future. There’s a really nice aside on coupling and how it only makes sense with respect to changing the code. [Read More]

TLDR: skip. This was on a big list of books someone enjoyed last year. There were some bangers on the list as well as this book. I gave it a go and got half way through. It’s a vague intro to Stoicism using the Great man theory, and I never want to hear about Lou Gehrig again. A lot of the Great man examples directly contradict each other which is annoying. [Read More]

2023 was the year I was awoken to Elis James via The Socially Distant Sports Bar podcast. I’m now on my way to become a Retro Oner (listening to all of Elis and John’s podcasts). I have been sharing my Retro Oner journey with a friend and I said “Wouldn’t it be great if John Robins had written a book?”. Turns out Elis and John already wrote a book and it’s good fun. [Read More]

I Kickstarted this back in April 2021, it arrived last month and I’ve given it a thorough read but haven’t made anything from it yet. A beautiful hardback with that Games Workshop rulebook smell. Utterly fantastic production values. So many incredible photographs of finished terrain and excellent step-by-step ones too. I’m not sure you can get this any more but I’d recommend it to anyone wanting some inspiration. It really gets back to the core principles of making models from random crap you might put in recycling. [Read More]

How did I do on last years goals? Paint more. Smashed it. Painted a lot of stuff I wanted to play with. Boshed out an infinity army and a bunch of 15mm historicals. Play more games with said painted miniatures. Pretty good. I did some Lard events and played with the Sheffield crew. I didn’t make it to the local club. Read more. Smashed it. 20 books which I mostly enjoyed. [Read More]