My capacity for reading – once voracious – has never really recovered from those early Covid days in 2020 when something short circuited in my brain and seemingly permanently damaged my attention span and ability to focus.

It hasn’t gone entirely – I do still go through bursts or binges of reading but more books get discarded than completed these days.

All that said though I now find myself with at least five weeks off (longer if I can’t find a new gig pretty sharpish), only one little city break booked and a need to fill my days with something other than watching obscure sports at the Olympics and comfort TV shows on DIsney+.

So I have dusted off my Kindle, dipped into my almost infinite booklog of unread or unfinished books (and in one case pre-ordered and soon to be delivered) to see how many I can get through before I start a new job. I’ve mixed it between professional, fiction and non-fiction. Crime and sci-fi. Political and digital. So hopefully some of them will land. I’ll write reviews of any I finish as well – either here or my other blog.

The Book of Elsewhere: A novel by Keanu Reeves & China Miéville

Who Does What By How Much? Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden

The Mimicking of Known Successes: Malka Older

Transformed: Marty Sagan

The Last King of California: Jordan Harper

Great Britain? Torsten Bell

The Mercy of Gods: James S.A. Corey

Wiring the Winning Organization: Gene Kim

Owning Up: George Pelecanos

Where We Come From: Aniefiok Ekpoudom

Chain Gang All-stars: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Mission Economy: Mariana Mazzucato