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Perusing Rambling Readers is getting expensive. This is the second book I've bought this week after seeing reviews on Rambling Readers.

I recently read "Four Thousand Weeks" and was surprised that, although many of Burkeman's conclusions aligned with Stoic teaching, I remember no explicit mention of Stoicism in the text. It will be interesting to read this book and then go back and read "Four Thousand Weeks" again and see what changed in the nine years in-between.

Starting with the subtitle, "The Antidote" positions itself against "positive thinking" - the sort of mind-over-matter faith in the future that pretty much every other self-help book espouses, a doctrine that author Burkeman neatly and thoroughly dismantles with copious endnotes. But there's no lazy cynicism here, in a search for happiness via unconventional and counterintuitive ways, and a surprising amount of, well, positivity. From Seneca and the Stoics to memento mori's and a shrine to Saint Death, Burkeman guides the reader on a whistle-stop tour of philosophies that reorient our ideas about happiness, success or even the self. I absolutely devoured it - it's also, in parts, very funny! - and think it might become an annual read, or at least a great starting point on further reading.

I came across this book that came out in early November. British historian, Anthony Seldon, walks the new 1000km "Western Front Way" which is a walking and cycling trail along the length of the World War One trench lines from Pfetterhouse on the Swiss border to the Belgian coast at Nieuwpoort. Looks really interesting. More about the project here: thewesternfrontway.com

I read a later book by Nicola Upson - another Josephine Tey mystery called Nine Lessons - before this one. I enjoyed that one. It was well paced with a good plot and kept my attention. In contrast, this was really hard work and has taken me ages to finish it as I got so bored I abandoned it several times. The main issues are page after page of dry diary entries from someone who lived 100 years previously, and so much irrelevant padding. I was determined to finish it, and it did finally pick up pace in the last few chapters. I have several other books by the author, so I hope they are better than this one!

@mark Would love to read Middlemarch again. I wrote a paper on it for an English Literature course and had to read the entire book, 900 odd pages, over a weekend. I'll go at a more sedate pace next time, and enjoy it a bit more!