Cover of Jonathan Vaughters’ biography, One Way Ticket: Nine Lives on Two Wheels
March 2026 #chopsbooks #bookstack
Only one book finished this month.
Another cycling biography but a really good one. Vaughters was a pro cyclist at peak drug use time and has some interesting insights into that period. He’s made mistakes but he’s very honest about them #cyclingbooks
Montage of the book covers for Out of Service (a picture of a service station with a car parked up, red & yellow colours) & The Eye of the Beholder (a black & white picture of a distant man in a hat looking at a nearer lady with long hair)
February 2026 #chopsbooks #bookstack
Out of Service is the 2nd of The Rooks trilogy. I enjoyed book 1 but absolutely loved this one. It’s funny & well paced but quite dark.
I discovered The Eye of the Beholder via Backlisted. A tale of obsession, murder & love.
#markbehm @scriblit.bsky.social
Right: Richard Moore’s Slaying The Badger was a well written exploration of the tail end of Bernard Hinault’s career and the rise of Greg Lemond which I really enjoyed. I wasn’t really watching cycling when Hinault was around but this made me want to go and find some old footage. Left: Appointment with Death is one of those Agatha Christie stories that was filmed in the 80s with Peter Ustinov playing Poirot. Instead of the Nile or the Orient Express this has the ancient city of Petra as the back drop.
January 2026 #chopsbooks #bookstack
Off and running with my new year reading with a couple of easy comfort reads. Enjoyed both.
#booksky #agathachristie #cyclingbooks
Book 25: Parable of the Sower - Final book of the year was a tough read in places. Butler writes so well though & this is one of the best books I read all year. This is the first of a trilogy she sadly passed away before completing. I’ll aim to read book two this year #oliviabutler #chopsbooks
Book 24: Wish You Weren’t Here - Book 1 of Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch’s supernatural trilogy The Rooks. I really enjoyed this, it’s pretty full on, with very little drop in pace, but introduces us to The Rook family nicely and is both exciting and funny #chopsbooks
Finished this book back in November but seems like I forgot to post that here #chopsbooks
Book 23: Tooth & Nail - I was starting to think maybe the Rebus books aren’t for me. The prose felt a bit stodgy early on & I realised I might benefit by skipping some early stories. It picked up as the pace increased & gave me an easy train read during a month I did a lot of travel #chopsbooks
Book 22: Northline - I love Vlautin’s books so much I’m not sure I can been objective about them anymore. This is a sad story delicately told with a lightness of touch that ultimately leaves you feeling hopeful about the chance of finding a way to survive no matter how far you fall #chopsbooks
Book 21: Murder in the Mews - Four short stories from Agatha. All long enough to get my brain ticking over and all neatly wrapped up by Poirot #chopsbooks
Book 20: James - Brilliant retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the point of view of fugitive slave James. The story flies along with a similar episodic approach to Twain’s original but the impact is more powerful by changing the perspective #chopsbooks
Book 19: Randomly picked this up from the library as i was looking for holiday books and really glad i did. Dystopian novel about a woman trapped alone behind a transparent wall beyond which there appears to be no life. She writes her story with no idea if anyone will read her words #chopsbooks
Book 18: Flew through this tale of time travel that takes a light touch on the science and focuses on developing the characters. A naval commander rescued from a doomed artic mission is the real star of the show. A fun, easy read perfect for the poolside #chopsbooks
Book 17: A thinly veiled allegory of life in Zimbabwe taking inspiration from Animal Farm. At its heart is an important and inspiring tale of fighting power & corruption but I didn’t really enjoy it. The use of animal characters didn’t seem necessary, the pace of prose made it drag #chopsbooks
Book 16: Had this in my to read pile ages after picking it up from a charity shop. Was daunted by its size but found the pace quicker than expected. My memory of the film helped I think. However, it gets bogged down with misogyny & racism and the latter half got harder to enjoy #chopsbooks
Book 15: Possibly a little out of order as i need to locate the next set of Poirots but this was a standalone novel by Agatha Christie featuring a lesser known sleuth Luke Fitzwilliam. I really enjoyed it, there’s a cheesy romantic subplot but the actual murder mystery is very engaging #chopsbooks
Check out Gabby’s brilliant books. I loved the Darkwood trilogy and very much plan to read the other two #booksky #chopsbooks
Book 14: I loved the band We Are The Physics who some of you may remember from the early 00s. I guess they were a band I discovered via Drowned in Sound. This is a brilliant memoir by lead singer & bassist Michael M. He is a great writer, it’s very funny but also full of pathos #chopsbooks
Book 13: The 6th book in the Rivers of London series and probably my favourite so far. I’ve found these perfect kindle options to read on my phone when I’m travelling but I’m also enjoying the world Aaronovich has built and this felt like a big plot step towards the bigger story arc #chopsbooks
Book 12: This had been on my must-read list for ages & I finally got a copy this year. I absolutely devoured it. Brilliantly written memoir which is as relentless as The Fall were. Manages to get the balance between humour and the emotional reality of life in a band just right #chopsbooks
Book 11. Made heavy going of this Tommy & Tuppence. Ostensibly a short story collection, loosely tied by a detective agency narrative. The cases were solved too simply and the parody of detective styles got a bit much. Maybe not helped by my slow pace, but not one of Agatha’s best #chopsbooks
Book 10. The 3rd book in the @johnynocash.bsky.social coming of age trilogy (?). This Is Not The End is a hopefully prophetic title as I’ll be disappointed not to hear more from Wilf and his journey to adulthood. Another fab read (with accompanying music) from my favourite Boltonian #chopsbooks
Book 9. My reading pace has dropped in the last couple of weeks but I really enjoyed Cheri Percy’s treatise on the album Come Away With ESG. They were a band I knew very little about and I’ve loved listening to their back catalogue whilst reading #chopsbooks
Book 8. Crikey. The best part of four months to get through this. It’s quite the thing. Thank heavens for the Patrick Gibson narrated audio book to help me maintain pace. Joyce loves a list & has a hugely expansive vocabulary, this is a wild ride of a book. Spectacular yet challenging #chopsbooks
Book 6. My ongoing quest to read all of Agatha Christie’s work and a nice standalone novel without her regular sleuths. Really enjoyed this one #chopsbooks
Book 5. I gave up on this years ago but tried again & got through it. I feel a bit conflicted now. Kesey uses unnecessary racist & misogynistic slurs and romanticises the power of masculinity. This undermines the impact of a story which does have something interesting at its heart #chopsbooks
Book 2. A speedy read through a short John Wyndham novel. I really enjoyed this, the dialogue is a bit stilted but I think it suits the era it was written in. Wyndham has great ideas and tells his stories well. Fast becoming one of my favourite authors #booksky #chopsbooks
First book of the year Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. An enjoyable read even if I’m not sure the humour came across as keenly as it would have in the 1930s #booksky #chopsbooks
Penguin classic cover of Cold Comfort Farm
First book of the year Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. An enjoyable read even if I’m not sure the humour came across as keenly as it would have in the 1930s #booksky #chopsbooks
A pile of paperbacks balanced on the mantle piece in my bedroom. Agatha Christie - Dumb Witness Fern Brady - Strong Female Character Mark Lanegan - Sing Backwards & Weep (I also read Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovich on kindle)
2024 #chopsbooks - Third quarter book stack
I forgot all about doing this, hence the precariously balanced book stack photo. Only four books read (one on kindle) but they were all pretty good. Highly recommend Fern Brady’s autobiography. Lanegan’s book is astonishing too.
#books #bookstagram
2024 #chopsbooks - second quarter book stack
Five excellent books this quarter. The very latest from Willy Vlautin, an outstanding novel by Jen Calleja and corkers from Wyndham, Vonnegut & Christie.
#books
