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Interesting as a historical artefact in its own right. Masquerading as a chronicle of real events, it's hilarious how inaccurate it clearly is, and I'm surprised it was taken as fact for so many centuries (dragons, Trojans and all). The only other way to view it is as fiction, on which count it doesn't hold up well at all, with poor pacing and a slightly rambling style. I'd recommend reading Books 5–6 and 8–11, which are the ones that set up the legend of King Arthur. The rest I'd skip.

A great introduction to Middle Earth – an intimate, quirky adventure, but with hints at something greater that I can't wait to read about in The Lord of the Rings.

The audiobook is well read by Rob Inglis, who captures the tone of the novel wonderfully. If you'd told me the voice was that of Tolkien himself, I'd have believed you.

Like other books by Hinds, an atmospheric but faithful adaptation of the original comic. I read The Collected Beowulf, an early edition that maintains an archaic and poetic translation throughout, and it really made it. The poetry and action offset each other brilliantly, and made for a great read overall.

Interesting historically, and pleasingly short. Not much in the way of writing though, and anyone hoping to read about King Arthur is in for a disappointment.

I’ve never enjoyed reading plays – I find it much easier to engage with and understand a play when it’s performed. This bridges the gap nicely, with the action “performed” through the illustrations in a comic book. Though the visuals are pretty standard and uninspiring, and Gareth Hinds’ adaptation looks more artistic, the thing that caught my attention here is that the speech bubbles contain the entire unabridged text of the play, meaning readers don’t miss out on anything. That makes this a great read simply because the original play is so good. I may read some other Classical Comics, perhaps starting with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

An enthralling graphic novel adaptation of a great story. Hinds keeps very true to the original here, abridging some details but following the events of the poem book-by-book, and using language translated straight from the original. Aside from bringing the book to life with his vivid illustrations, he uses several visual techniques to make the story easier to follow: each god is drawn in their own single bold colour, and the mortal heroes have the first character of their name subtly worked into their breastplate. There's also a prologue and extensive notes at the end, to contextualise both the Iliad and this interpretation of it. Overall, this is a striking result of an ambitious labour of love.

Almost the perfect science fiction book. Intelligently written, interesting, with more to think about in a short novella than many sci-fi writers achieve in a lengthy novel. It has a lot to say about Victorian society, and takes a strong Marxist perspective, but many of the concepts are quite applicable to today.

I listened to the "version 2" audiobook from Librivox. A good recording.

Some interesting stuff in here, particularly the science, enough to make it interesting and keep me wondering what would happen next. However, in the end I wasn't impressed by the overly philosophical tone and the meandering internal conflicts of individual characters. Perhaps the length could've been halved without too much of the epic scale being lost.

I listened to the audiobook, which was acceptable. I don't think I'd have made it through a printed copy.

A good novella, with an enchanting story and pretty writing, despite a conspicuous lack of Muppets. I read one chapter a night for the last five days finishing on Christmas Day, and it was a great way to anticipate Christmas. Definitely spooky, giving me the chills more than once. Some of the writing was a little hard to understand – I suppose the 1840s were a long time ago now!

Amazing. Close to the perfect adventure, with variety, intrigue, twists and turns, and even some interesting character development. Though I’ve read this before, I always struggled with the language, and this was the first time I could read without ever getting stuck or confused.

As an experiment, I read this in its original instalments from when it was published in Young Folks magazine in 1881, setting up an RSS feed to deliver me an instalment each Saturday. This was a great experience, keeping me longing for the next volume. I’ll be doing this with other serials in the future – anyone who’s reading this, let me know if you’d like to join me!

Surprisingly readable, not requiring a lot of background knowledge to make sense. In form, it's just a neutral-tone legal document, but between the lines it tells a story of violent revolution, of tense conflict, and of bitter compromise (see, for example, the "three fifths of all other Persons" rule). Despite these imperfections, knowing what an effect this document had on the world in founding the first Enlightenment state, it's pretty impressive how bold and optimistic these rules were, protecting freedoms and establishing fair processes that are so often the first thing to go when a new regime takes hold in a revolutionary nation. Also in this volume are all the constitutional amendments and the declaration of independence, which tell even more of the story. Well worth a read.

Winnie-the-Pooh is often aimed at very young children, but it has a depth and wit that is completely lost on them. There’s a subtle insight into humanity that is obvious to anyone who’s a bit older, sometimes funny and sometimes touching, and for that reason I’d recommend this for children aged 9 and up, as well as to any adult in the world. I was utterly delighted by these stories, although some of the later ones were a little less inspired.

Second reading: Still a lovely book, but perhaps dragging sometimes.