craig robert martin

Ulysses by James Joyce My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first read Ulysses almost thirty-five years ago, when I was roughly the same age as Stephen Dedalus - one of the first characters we meet in the book. I was backpacking across Indonesia on the cheap with a friend, eating Gado-Gado and Nasi Goreng, and climbing volcanoes. In Sumatra, where I first opened the pages of the book, a cramped day-long mini-bus odyssey across the equatorial jungle cost a few dollars, accommodation a dollar, lunch just 25 cents. In truth, I enjoyed the sights and sounds and smells and tastes of Indonesia more than I enjoyed the book back then, and I recall swapping the finished book with some satisfaction at one of the many travellers' shops for a couple of Julian Barnes’s novels. ‘Look, it’s almost 1000 pages; that must be worth two books.’ Ulysses is this year’s family project - we intend to visit Dublin on Bloomsday, the long summer day when the book's protagonist jo...

Ulysses by James Joyce My rating: 4 of 5 stars I first read Ulysses almost thirty-five years ago, when I was roughly the same age as Stephen Dedalus - one of the first characters we meet in the book. I was backpacking across Indonesia on the cheap with a friend, eating Gado-Gado and Nasi Goreng, and climbing volcanoes. In Sumatra, where I first opened the pages of the book, a cramped day-long mini-bus odyssey across the equatorial jungle cost a few dollars, accommodation a dollar, lunch just 25 cents. In truth, I enjoyed the sights and sounds and smells and tastes of Indonesia more than I enjoyed the book back then, and I recall swapping the finished book with some satisfaction at one of the many travellers' shops for a couple of Julian Barnes’s novels. ‘Look, it’s almost 1000 pages, that must be worth two books.’ Ulysses is this year’s family project - we intend to visit Dublin on Bloomsday, the long summer day when the book's protagonist jo...

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear My rating: 5 of 5 stars I am always a bit wary of the 'Top-Selling' books; I know.. I have an underlying streak of 'Road-less-travelled' that could be misread as a Frosty arrogance. It's not, I promise. Atomic Habits is an excellent book. I listened to the audio version, and it had lots of practical tips and protocols (yay - just like Huberman). The book doesn't replace [book:The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business|12609433, but augments it. 'Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate more attention to other tasks.. its only by making the fundamentals of life easier that you can create the mental space needed for free thinking and creativity' I would definitely recommend the book, and also the audiobook (read by the author James Clear) is excellent. I gave it five sta...

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Ulysses Unbound: A Reader's Companion to James Joyce's Ulysses by Terence Killeen My rating: 5 of 5 stars An excellent guide to a notoriously difficult classic. I re-read Ulysses earlier this year ahead of a family holiday in Dublin, timed to coincide with Bloomsday - the day the book is set in. Killeen provides an easy and enjoyable way to distil the essence of Joyce’s masterpiece. His systematic approach to each episode (chapter) with a good and clear description of the Homeric parallels, should appeal to the novice Joycean (me) as well as more learned students of literature. I enjoyed walking through this book, as much as I did walking the scenes for real this June. We started off at the Martello tower - and after lunching in Sandymount, progressed through to Davy Byrnes for a glass of Burgundy. The book, of course, carries on to 2am, which is past my bedtime. I have read Ulysses twice, in full chronological order, and collapsed exhausted ...

The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life by Morgan Housel My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews