Pleasure Ground by Orrie Hitt (Bedside Books BB819, 1959). #PleasureGround #OrrieHitt #1950s #book #books #paperback #cover #covers #coverart #artwork #BedsideBook #BedsideBooks

Warped Thrills by Joe Weiss (Bedside Books BB827, 1959). #WarpedThrills #JoeWeiss #1950s #books #book #paperback #cover #coverartwork #coverart #artwork #BedsideBooks #BedsideBook

Woman Chaser by Don Elliott (Robert Silverberg) (Bedside Books BB1201, 1961). Cover Art by Harold W. McCauley). #WomanChaser #DonElliott #RobertSilverberg #1960s #book #books #paperbacks #paperback #cover #artwork #CoverArt #HaroldWMcCauley #BedsideBooks

It is finished! I am sure we can all agree David Tennant is a fine actor (and if you cannot agree than sorry you are wrong…). Like many I first became aware of him as the 10th Doctor in Doctor Who. Between ending as the Doctor and coming back as the 14th Doctor, he has had a variety of TV roles which seem to be a consistent hit. On Boxing Day 2021, Tennant appeared in the first episode of an eight part series _Around the World in 80 Days _which was broadcast on the BBC in the UK. I really enjoyed the series, binge watching the last few episodes which had already been realised on iPlayer. While I vaguely knew the story of Around the World in 80 Days, as I watched the series I realised I had never read the book. In fact, after a quick skim of Jules Verne’s Wikipedia page, I realised I had not read any of his novels. Given his status as a founder of Science Fiction as a genre, this felt remiss of me, so I ordered Seven Novels by Jules Verne. What arrived was a 1196 page collection including Five Weeks in a Balloon, Around the World in Eighty Days, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. And when I say 1196 pages, I mean densely packed pages in about the smallest print still comfortable to read. A brick of a book which even at a regular pace would take time to work through. I did not start reading the book immediately. I was still working through a copy of 1001 Arabian Nights given to me as a gift by a colleague, and even then would only read these particular books at night. Most of the time I have a couple of books on the go at once, one to read during the day, the other a bedside book for night. Jules Verne (and Arabian Nights) both fell into the night time reading option. I probably started reading Jules Verne around Spring 2022, trying to get through a chapter or two a night before sleep overtook me. At that pace, I probably should have finished the book within the year. My daughter coming along put paid to that. First, while pregnant my wife would regularly be asleep before I even made it up to bed so I would not have chance to read, and once baby was born, well any parents reading this will know sleep is a precious commodity which can often mean bedtime reading is a luxury best abandoned. In the end is has taken the best part of three years, but tonight I can finally say I have finished all seven novels! I’m making it sound like it was all a slog, and at times it did feel a little like that, but at other times the stories were enjoyable and overall I am glad I have read them. Jules Verne clearly had a vivid imagination, and despite (as far as I can tell) never leaving Europe, he paints a convincing picture of large swathes of the world visited by his characters on their travels. Of course it is not all positive. Jules Verne as a writer was definitely of his time, both in his love of empire and regular use of _savages_ , but also of the science which is cutting edge for him but crude at times for someone in the 21st Century. He is also fond of the Competent Man trope, and if you are looking for female representation, well at least one woman appears in Around the World in 80 Days… I have not quite decided what will be my next bedtime read, for now I am just celebrating finishing the Seven Novels. Perhaps I will take another stab at finishing The Tale of Genji. On second thoughts, maybe not… ### Share this: * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Like Loading...

It is finished! A celebratory blog post.

#Reading #Books #BedsideBooks #ScienceFiction #JulesVerne

http://twaddle.blog/2025/04/13/it-is-finished/

What are you reading? Let’s see if we can make #BedsideBooks a thing here. Always on the lookout for recommendations to add to the pile (and maybe even finish reading).

Shelf life: our new #BedsideBooks serves up wise mini-reviews on a dizzyingly diverse selection of books: a study of Pakistani education NGOs, first-person reflections on disability, queer London in the 1960s and Zygmunt Bauman on relationships. Dive in!

thesociologicalreview.org/reviews/beds...

What books are stacked on your bedside table? Mine: The 5th Sacred Thing, Women & Power, Rites of Spring, The Lost City of Z, Ragtime, Draft No. 4, Doing Harm, Fed Up, Bitch Planet Vol. 2. #bedsidebooks