Why leave Spotify?

There are multiple reasons that have built up over time until finally being tipped over the edge to put the effort into leaving:

• The treatment of artists. They take in a LOT of money but pay only a tiny amount to artists who actually make the music.
• Escalating costs. The plan prices keep ramping up.
• Losing focus. They started doing podcasts, audiobooks, etc. I just wanted music from them.
• Paying hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to Joe Rogan for his podcast, repeatedly. Then promoting his podcast widely, building a massive audience. Rogan uses the podcast to spread racism, sexism, misogyny, disinformation, far-right propaganda, and conspiracy fictions. Media Matters analysed a year of the podcast and the findings were deeply troubling. Yet Spotify keep bundling up our subscription dollars and sending it to him by the truckload, and pushing his podcast as widely as they can to new audience members.
• Hosting and promoting a misogynistic 'Pimping Hoes' training course podcast about how to manipulate women into sex work, from the Tate brothers who are under criminal investigation in multiple countries for sexual offences. They only took this down after a backlash from users, media and their own staff.

Alternatives to Spotify

I searched online, and asked around on Bluesky for tips about alternatives. Here's what I found...

Choosing to own music again

Many people are choosing to buy music again, rather than stream it.

This is attractive to me as I love listening to albums in full, like having the physical 'thing', and like supporting the artists.

I'm no hipster, so this'd be on CD rather than vinyl.

Other streaming music services

I looked around to see what my choices were for a more direct replacement of Spotify:

• Apple Music: I already subscribe to Apple TV, iCloud storage, etc, so actually converting to an Apple One subscription that gives me Music too wouldn't change price. It also allows Family Sharing. It's easy to make and share playlists. Main downside is it locks me into Apple even more.
• Youtube Music: A few people said they like this, but in my evaluation (a) I didn't like the user experience; (b) it's expensive; and (c) it has many of the same problems that I'me leaving Spotify for. I think this'd be out of the frying pan into the fire.
• Tidal: The ethics of this one are great, as is their focus on sound quality. Testing found quite a few gaps in the available artists though.
• Qobuz: I'd never heard of this, but someone replying to my Bluesky thread recommended it. It's based in France, so extra points for not being American, and being firmly under GDPR. They also seem to invest a lot in editorial curation of music recommendations rather than just algrorithms.

I started out by evaluating Apple Music and Tidal, but once Qobuz was recommended I switched from Tidal to that.

Migrating my favourites and playlists from Spotify

I researched the options and chose an iOS app called Songshift.

There's a free option but I paid £6.99 for the pro option for a few months to contribute.

You connect it to your music services and can then choose to migrate playlists and favourite artists, albums or tracks from one service to another service.

I migrated mine from Spotify to my test accounts.

This was fairly easy, though there was a bit of manual matching. Often just for minor differences like 'and' instead of '&' in a band name, which was frustrating.

Anyway, it was much much easier than rebuilding the lists and favourites manually.

The result

I started buying more CDs again. Initially this is building up a bit of a back catalogue of some classic albums, but I'll be more ready to buy new albums I like too.

I did consider simply going without a streaming service — but I found that I do like (a) the convenience of music being with me on my phone when out and about; (b) the ability to discover new music easily; (c) being able to make playlists and share them with friends.

But I'm stuck on deciding which streaming service:

• Apple Music is good for sharing playlists with family and friends.
• But Qobuz is AMAZING for music discovery, which is one of my main uses for streaming services. They have put so many artists and albums in front of me that I'd never have found otherwise, and I've found some absolute treasures in just a couple of months. I like their app. I also like that it's European.

So, for the moment I'm running with both.

And I've cancelled Spotify, and am very glad about that.

Album recommendations

Because Qobuz is so good at album recommendations, I'll share a couple here that I've really enjoyed that I wouldn't have found otherwise:

• La femme aux yeux de sel, by Gabi Hartmann
• Poems for travellers, by Emil Brandqvist Trio
• Get Sunk, by Matt Berninger

I want to reduce, or eliminate, doing business with Amazon. That's because of their general business practices, but also because it provides the wealth and power base for Jeff Bezos. He's then used this to support Trump (financially and otherwise), suppress the free press in the US, and generally be an arsehole.

The Amazon service I used most was Kindle, so I need to unpick myself from that.

Exporting my Kindle wishlist

I've built up hundreds of titles on my wishlist, and want to keep this list in a usable form. Ideally I'd like to be able to import it into a new service.

So I used a script in the devtools of my browser to create a table of wishlist items, then copied and pasted it to a spreadsheet.

Backing up my Kindle books

I used Calibre, with the KFX Input plugin, and 'an additional plugin' 😉 to create a backup of my Kindle books that means I know I'll always be able to access them and load them onto any ereader I have. Amazon keeps trying to close off this possibility of having backups of your books, and I got in just before they closed the last working option to do it. So I don't think this step is possible now.

Removing this option for me to download and backup my own ebooks is another reason for me to stop buying Kindle books.

Choosing a new ebook service

What I would love is if publishers put out their ebooks in a standard format, and any online bookshop could sell them. Then every device manufacturer could allow you to buy from your favourite online bookshop.

But, of course, that's not how it works. Each company wants to build their own walled garden monopoly. Small players are effectively shut out, and a couple of big companies battle it out. The consumer loses, and authors lose.

So, given the limitations, here are the options I considered:

Device:

• Stick with Kindle: I could just keep using my Kindle Oasis for now. But then I have to figure out how to get non-Amazon ebooks onto it. Most other ebook shops sell ePub formats, with Adobe DRM, and this isn't supported on Kindle.
• iPad: I have an iPad. I could just use it for ebooks, especially if I get them via Apple Books. But the brightness just isn't nice for reading for long periods. Rules out reading at night. Doesn't suit me as an ereader.
• Rakuten Kobo: Seems to go toe to toe with Kindle, with very similar designs.
• Boox: Some great devices that have been getting good reviews. Seems to be way too much choice though. I freeze in the headlights each time I visit their site. Can they really handle so many SKUs effectively and sustainably?!
• Daylight: Some lovely design choices, and I like the general principles. People who have got one seem to recommend it.

Bookshop:

• Apple Books: Books. From Apple. You can only read the books in Apple's own Books app, not on ereader devices.
• Rakuten Kobo: A Japanese company that is Kindle's main competitor.
• Overdrive: 'Lends' audiobooks in partnership with your local library.
• Hive: A UK company that mainly sells print books but also does ebooks. Requires you to use an Adobe app to access the books, eugh.
• ebooks: US-based. Requires you to use an Adobe app to access the books, eugh.

The result

After all my research and thinking, here's what I decided to do for now:

Device: I have a Kindle Oasis, which was very expensive and has lots of life left in it yet. It'd be daft to send that to landfill early. So I will keep using this until it keels over beyond repair. Then I will probably get a Kobo, Boox or Daylight device (or maybe something new and brilliant will come out by then).

In order to be able to keep using this device I'm going to have to ensure I can create DRM-free backups of ebooks I buy.

Stefan Czerniawski helpfully points out that Calibre can use your Kindle device's email address (which you can find in 'Manage your content and devices' on the Amazon website) to email copies of ebooks from other platforms to your device.

Bookshop: I'm going to switch to buying ebooks from Kobo for as long as they let me create my own personal backups (via Calibre and the obok plugin) that I'm able to load onto my Kindle device. If they break that at any point, I'll shop around again.

Back to Paper: I did consider giving up on ebooks altogether, and going back to buying on paper.

That'd give me the flexibility of buying from any bookshop, and no device incompatibility or DRM issues.

However, I live between two countries, and don't want to be carrying around stacks of books. I also want to be able to buy books in English easily when I'm not in the UK for a long period.

So, what I've decided is I'll reduce my ebook buying, mostly to just fiction. For non-fiction that I'm likely to keep referring to (books for work, cookbooks, etc), I'm going to buy on paper where possible.

Additional Notes

Availability

Even in the few weeks I've been working on this, I've found books I wanted to buy that are only available on Kindle. Often these are self-published non-fiction books I want for work, but sometimes it's fiction.

Please, please, publishers. Make a concerted effort to distribute your ebooks on all platforms. Authors, please press your publishers on this.

Getting the best price

Terence Eden has two good blog posts (for people confident with code) with scripts to:

• Get an alert if a book on your Kobo wishlist drops in price
• Automatically claim the refund from Kobo under their price guarantee if the ebook is cheaper on Kindle

I haven't done these yet, and am by no means a coder, but will look into them in future.

AI policy

I was very impressed and reassured by the CEO of Kobo, Michael Tamblyn, posting a clear and thorough explanation of how they use AI.

First, they clearly understand the difference between the different kinds of things that are called 'AI' — from machine learning to large language models.

Then they clearly understand what the technologies can be useful for, and what they aren't able to do (which is more than most tech companies seem to understand, or admit to).

Then they have set clear ethical boundaries, and these are focused on being author-friendly, by respecting the authors' work and rights.

Finally, it's all been thought-through well and then communicated well.

More of this from tech companies, please!

(Titles in bold were my favourites, and I highly recommend them.)

• London Fields, by Martin Amis
  This is the first time I've read a Martin Amis. Something made me think they'd all be macho alpha-male posturing, but this showed me I was wrong. It's more about taking the piss out of macho male posturing.
  
  This was creative, witty and zingy. So well written. I'll definitely read more of his.
  
• Patriot Games, by Tom Clancy
  This was mostly some rather silly American fan-fiction about the British royal family. The hero, Jack Ryan, gets hurt foiling a terrorist attack on Charles and Di in 80s London. While he's recovering, the Queen invites his wife and daughter to hang out in Buck Pal where they chat over meals about life and men. It builds up to a Royal visit to the US in which Prince Charlie jumps into a Navy speedboat to go chasing after the terrorists and see them brought to justice. Hmmm.
  
  I love a thriller with global action and a plot on a grand scale — and am perfectly willing to suspend a lot of disbelief to get immersed — but suspending disbelief in this case needed a crane too big to fit down my road.
  
• Sphere, by Michael Crichton
  It's fair to say this is a bit of a copy/paste/edit of the plot, characters and vibe of 'The Andromeda Strain', but it was entertaining, well constructed and well written.
  One of those books where right from the first few pages you know exactly what kind of book you're in for, and that you're in good hands.
  
• Moon Palace, by Paul Auster
  I love a good epic family saga across generations and this ticked all the boxes for me. Deliberately pushes you to the limit of, or even beyond, what is believable — as part of serving its theme — but does it so well that you're fully on board.
  
  It's funny, it's sad, it's an adventure.
  
  In terms of the writing, it's a masterclass. The characterisation, the dialogue, the development and echoing of the themes and motifs.
  
  I read one or two of the author's other novels years back, and this reminds me I must read more of his.
  
• Stonemouth, by Iain Banks
  I love Banks' novels, and am going to gradually re-read them over the next few years as a treat. This isn't one I'd place in his top 5, but was still a really enjoyable read.
  
• Utopia Avenue, by David Mitchell
  In the first half, this didn't seem to be a book that needed to be by David Mitchell. It had the feeling of trying to be something in the way of a Nick Hornby book. Then, it gradually evolves into something that can only be a Mitchell book, really comes alive — and gets strange. I think I'll be thinking about this for a while.
  
  The writing is superb, as you'd expect — except for various celebrity cameos in which the dialogue and action reads more like fan fiction.
  
  More enjoyable are the various connections and echoes from Mitchell's other work, both in terms of simply spotting them, and then how that is part of building up the main theme.
  
• The Beat Goes On, by Ian Rankin
  
• Rivers of London / Whispers Underground / Moon Over Soho / Broken Homes, by Ben Aaronovitch
  I am really not into fantasy or magical realism. This series of books has been strongly recommended to me before, I read the blurbs and thought "I'm sure it's good, but not really my thing." Eventually I dipped into the first one and was immediately hooked, reading four of the series in quick succession.
  
  If Tom Clancy failed to get me to suspend disbelief in Patriot Games with a hero's family staying in Buckingham Palace and Prince Charles joining in a boat chase after terrorists (see above) — which is all completely possible scientifically speaking — then how on earth does Ben Aaronovitch get me to believe in a secret branch of the Met Police in modern London staffed by wizards who are responsible for policing the various competing branches of the magical world, using spells discovered by Isaac Newton?
  
  Aside from being hugely enjoyable — brilliant main character, strong concept, deftly deployed wit and such good writing — these books provide a writers masterclass in carrying the reader along with you into a different world.
  
• Extraordinary People, by Peter May
  This reads like the author finished The Da Vinci Code, thought "Pah! I can do better than that!" and bashed out a thriller. It's fine, but it's a bit painting by numbers. The hero is a Scottish former forensic scientist who moved into French academia to be with the love of his life.
  
  He takes on a bet to solve one of France's biggest unsolved murders. This involves uncovering various caskets in which there are body parts and a series of clues.
  
  Solving the clues basically involves a lot of Googling, which leads to gripping prose like "He typed 'Paris football clubs' into the search engine and pressed return. A page of results was displayed, the first of which were about recent game results. At the bottom of the page was a selector to choose other pages of results. He selected page 2 and the next search results were displayed. Halfway down the page he spotted what he was looking for, a link to an article about the history of all the clubs in the French capital city. He moved the pointer using the mouse and clicked to follow the link to the full article." (I'm making that up but it's representative of actual passages). Is there a better way to write about using computers in a thriller? Does each keyboard press need to be reported, or could we have assumed things like the return key and mouse click?
  
• Down Cemetery Road, by Mick Herron
  I didn't click with this as well as I have with Herron's espionage novels. It's the first of his Zoë Boehm private investigator series, and, well, she's the most interesting character and supposedly the star — but is hardly in it?!
  
• Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
  A spy story that spans much of the lifetime of the main character. As required by the literary end of the genre, it's as much about the secrets and lies of those involved in the spying, as the ones they seek to discover about enemies. It's brilliantly told, and also quite playfully. It feels like the author is having some fun with the genre.
  
• Three, by Valerie Perrin
  I asked around for some recommendations of French authors to read and Valerie Perrin was high on the list. This is a dual timeline story of a trio of friends teenagers, and when grown up. It's a big story taking in three eventful lives, but it's handled brilliantly. I really enjoy this kind of novel.
  
• The Glass Hotel, by Emily St John Mandel
  Another novel that spans multiple troubled lives in different timelines. I love St John Mandel's writing, and this was a treat to slip back into her universe. What made this more of a treat were the connections with some of her other novels. It doesn't matter what order you read them in though. It's just that they exist in the same universe and have some characters or events in common, though not always the same. As a writer I really like the playfulness of that idea, creating a universe and dipping in and out at will, without necessarily creating canon because you determinedly mix things up.
  

One of the hardest platforms to separate myself from has been Audible.

I joined in its very early days, even having conversations with founder Don Katz (who is a lovely guy).

I listen to a lot of audiobooks for work, and for leisure, so over that span of more than 25 years, my Audible library has grown to over 1000 titles, and my wishlist has over 500.

Sadly, Audible got bought out a long time ago by Amazon, and so is included in my digital detox now because of Jeff Bezos' actions in supporting Trump, his actions against journalistic freedom at the Washington Post, and Amazon's problematic business practices.

So, I had to figure out how to protect my existing audiobooks, and how to buy and listen to audiobooks in future.

Exporting data about my Audible library and wishlist

I used an open source browser extension Audible Library Extractor to end up with .csv files of both my library and wishlist.

It extracts this data from the Audible website while you're logged in, and then cleverly uses the Google Books API to try to add back the ISBN data (Amazon of course doesn't use the standard ISBNs, it uses its own proprietary numbers 🙄).

My hope in future is to be able to import these lists into another audiobook service to be able to mark books in my Audible library as 'already owned' so I don't accidentally buy them again (and don't key getting marketed about them), and mark books in my wishlist as 'want to buy' (so I then DO get marketed them!)

But for now it just acts as a spreadsheet where I can check from time to time what to buy or what I have.

Exporting my audiobooks

I wanted to create a personal backup of the audiobooks I've already bought, and to then be able to listen to them without being logged into Amazon owned apps.

To do this I used OpenAudible, which retrieved them from Audible's API, and saved them on my laptop's hard drive.

A new player for my audiobooks

I want to be able to listen to the personal backup of my audiobooks on my mobile.

For this I settled on the open source mobile app BookPlayer. It's free for nearly all features, but you can pay for a pro level to support it, which I've done.

A new place to buy audiobooks

I've been searching around for where to buy audiobooks from in future:

• Spiracle: A nice independent service, but expensive for digital audiobooks unless you get them in a membership plan — and then your choice is very limited
• Everand: This is a brand of Scribd, offering ebooks and audiobooks. But I found it had a very limited catalogue. I searched for a few titles I want to read and it didn't have any.
• LibroFM: An ethically-minded audiobook service, which makes a contribution to local bookshops too, like bookshop.org. Another big win is the audiobooks are DRM-free. They're a bit more expensive with membership, but I'd live with that for no DRM. However any books you buy outside of your membership credits are crazily expensive. I like that they have a section where they promote banned books' which seems to include titles the Trump regime is trying to remove from public libraries in the US. (referral link, may earn me a free audiobook eventually if used!)
• OverDrive (Libby): An app that enables you to borrow audiobooks via your membership of a local library. While it's free, I've heard that it's generally not easy to get the book you want when you want it, and you have to reserve and wait.
• Spotify: They offer a lot of audibooks, but with a limited number of listening hours per month in your membership. And besides I'm leaving Spotify as part of my Digital Detox!
• Storytel: You pay a monthly subscription and can access all the audiobooks in their collection. However, a search of titles I want to listen to next drew a lot of blanks, so their collection seems limited.
• XigXag: This is a new kid on the block, a small indie company — and it's British! This was recommended to me on Bluesky by Hilary Hall from DCMS who have supported them. There's no membership, but the price decreases over time based on how many audiobooks you buy in a year, plus the price is a very reasonable £7.99 per title. Main downside is you can't download the titles to desktop to back them up in anyway, so you're relying on this company always being around to be able to access your purchases. That's concering for me, given how many audiobooks I buy. Another downside for me is they don't have an Apple Watch app, or any plans for one, because they develop their app on a non-native platform. I listen to my audiobooks at times when I don't want to have my phone with me.
  

Based on this research I'm going to try out XigXag, and see if I can mitigate my concerns about backups, and how much of a problem it is to have to listen from my phone. I've emailed the founders of XigXag with some feedback.

I'm also going to try out LibroFM, and have taken their initial offer of 3 credits for price of 1. I'm attracted by their DRM-free approach, and they have an Apple Watch app for listening.

I'll also experiment with Libby in the near future.

Result

I've now paused my Audible subscription (with expectation of cancelling it before 90 days pause is up), and already bought my first audiobook from XigXag.

Digital Detox step: Done!

Leaving aside non-fiction and work reading, I read 49 novels this year — almost one a week.

There were also at least 4 novels I started but decided to abandon in the first quarter of the book. These were mostly thrillers where the writing, plot and characterisation were just too painful to continue.

In many cases this year I was reading around the genre I'm writing in, with thrillers of the political/tech/spy variety. In other cases I just wanted damn good writing to admire and be inspired by. And in others still, I simply sought escapism into brilliant fictional worlds.

I've just looked back at my notes, and these are my favourites. Books that gave me greatest enjoyment, and in many cases have stayed with me.

• Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
• Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
• Killing Commendatore, Haruki Murakami
• Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
• Karla's Choice, Nick Harkaway
• The Tsar of Love and Techno, Anthony Marra
• Parable of the Sower, Octavia E Butler
• The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins
• The Overstory, Richard Powers

Next year I plan to read less, and write more.

That means I want to be far more selective about books I choose to pick up.

Until now I haven't tended to read blurbs or reviews, just launching into books I come across that might be interesting. That's led me to regret a few choices (including the four I abandoned).

This year I'd like to read more:

• Political/tech/spy thrillers, of course — but really, really well written. Thrillers where I can learn from the craft, as well as being swept along by the action.
• Epic stories across generations or different characters (like The Overstory)
• Stories that open my eyes to new perspectives and situations (like Demon Copperhead)

All recommendations welcome — and I'll also be reading blurbs and reviews thoroughly to be very selective!

• The Editors, by Stephen Harrison
  This managed to be both fun and thought-provoking. It's an interesting look into the world behind the editing of a fictional online encyclopedia that may or may not reflect the Wikipedia that Harrison has made a name for himself in reporting.
  
  I've read lots of thrillers by journalists that relate to their beat, and they can often fall into the trap of stuffing in lots of their hard-won research as dull exposition. None of that here. It's a light journalistic touch, and everything is left to the novelist's pen — making for an easy read you will whizz through and enjoy.
  
• Winter, by Ali Smith
  The second in her seasonal quartet, and it's just as great as you'd expect from her.
  
  No gripes at all to learn anything from as a writer, and I can only takeaway her light touch with her characters and scenes. She manages to get out of the way as the author so deftly that everything feels very naturalistic.
  
• The Director, by David Ignatius
  I love thrillers with a blend of politics, espionage, and international intrigue. This is the first I've read by Ignatius, and I found he writes really well in the genre.
  
  But. Oh and it's a but. The premise for this is so ridiculous it kind of derails the whole thing.
  
  The whole plot hinges on a secret that the CIA was originally created by Britain's MI6 after the second world war as part of a plot to keep the younger headstrong nation under Britain's imperial control. Since then it's been run by people who secretly subscribe to this loyalty to the old country, and that's the root of all the CIAs problems, and its illegal behaviour.
  
  Then, in an Ayn Rand-ian wet dream, a billionaire businessman is brought in to sort it out and he turns out to be a highly-principled action hero who sees down the threat and frees the agency. Along the way he takes anti-political-correctness stances, such as telling a black character not to play on their racial identity for advantage.
  
  And then, it's a thriller with a strong tech plot, in which hackers have a fiendish plan. The author, who is a journalist, has obviously done lots of research, and sprinkles this liberally — but doesn't quite understand it. At one point an ace hacker on the run buys "a new tablet with a new IP address." Anyone with any tech knowledge is then jarred out of the story even more.
  
  Maybe it's just this one story that's so ridiculous and the author has better plots they understand more in others? He writes well, so I may try some of his earlier works. But maybe the Randian views will keep getting worked in?
  
• The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy
  The writing is superb, the characters are great. But it just feels all too bitty. It was written in pieces over decades, and maybe it's a symptom of that. But maybe McCarthy is genuinely trying to resist the normal confines of plot. The result, though, can be a bit frustrating. Every time a plot starts to develop I want to know what happens, but it just evaporates. It needed a stronger editorial hand.
  
• Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy
  This is apparently an attempt to fill out the interesting main female character in The Passenger who went painfully under-explored before. But it's written entirely in the form of transcripts of sessions with her therapist, which can get a bit wearing and means not a lot actually happens. But again, the writing is superb.
  
• The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron
  A great pleasure for anyone immersed in Herron's Slow Horses universe. masterfully done.
  
• The Morning Star, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
  Wonderful writing, great world-building, compelling characterisation — but just as with the McCarthy books I read above there's a 'literary' writer's resistance to plot. So many interesting ideas and events emerge but are just cast aside. Then Knausgaard instead has his trademark obsession with minutiae. The result is that there may be some kind of apocalypse going on outside the window, but we're going to spend the next three pages on describing coffee being spooned into a pot or something. It makes for a frustrating read. If you're a proudly literary writer and want to resist plot, then simply don't bother introducing one in the first place, rather than create it then ignore it. Am I being curmudgeonly?

• Karla's Choice, by Nick Harkaway
  I'll confess: I read this with great trepidation. Nobody is going to be able to pull off a Smiley novel in a way to match Le Carré. Harkaway may be his son, but literary talent isn't inherited in the genes. But fairly soon into this book I relaxed. He's got it, I realised, he's really got it.
  
  By the end I was overjoyed that he'd written it, because it filled a big gap in the Smiley history that I'd always wished Le Carré had written more into. A great read, and I'll be looking out for more.
  
• Gabriel's Moon, by William Boyd
  Like the last Boyd novel I read, this was a perfectly decent novel. But that's all. It didn't need a writer of Boyd's talent to pull it off. I'm sure it's unfair to expect genius in every book from a single writer, but I do with Boyd. Sorry William.
  
  In particular, I became a bit set against this one because the main character is a bit of a prat. He's wet, self-absorbed, not particularly competent. And not much to redeem him.
  
  But also, the prose. It kept falling into what I can only describe as 'Peppa Pig narration'. I'll give a made-up, only slightly exaggerated, example of what I mean. It began to feel like this: "Gabriel entered the pub. He bought a drink. He sat at a table. Gabriel sipped the beer. He looked around. The pub was quiet. He got out his book. He began to read."
  
  And the internal monologue, which there's a lot of as the main character is constantly decorated with "wondered Gabriel", "Gabriel speculated" and "Gabriel considered". It became very distracting and would have been much better as free indirect speech.
  
  Also, this loses points with me for being yet another damn book about a damn writer!
  
  The reviews were glowing, however, so what do I know. Marcel Theroux in The Guardian was particularly glowing, but this wouldn't be the first time Marcel and I have had our differences ;)
  
  Boyd inexplicably intends this to be the start of a series, but Gabriel can moon around all he likes and I won't be following along.
  
• Trust, by Hernan Diaz
  Clever, well-written and thought-provoking.
  
• The Overstory, by Richard Powers
  I read this while I was ill, and so wasn't as attentive as normal. As a result I'd like to go back and read it again in a few years, because I think it deserves more from the reader. It's a multi-epic tale across families and generations, cleverly woven together. I loved the concept, and some of the issues considered.
  
• The Eagle Has Landed, by Jack Higgins
  What a talent Higgins has for plot and prose that propels you through a book. So assured. And I found the clever way of setting it up as a true story really convincing.
  
• The Nix, by Nathan Hill
  Another book in which the main character is a writer. Authors, please can we dream up some other things people could do in life and still be considered worth having a novel written about them? But anyway, leaving that aside, this is a good story, with great writing. I like the epic style, and this is the kind of thing that William Boyd constructs when he's at his best.
  
• Smiley's People, by John Le Carre
  A classic.
  
• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E Butler
  Blimey. Stunning world-building, fantastic development of the character. And all in a masterful writing style that just unfolded. We feel so close to the main character, and believe in her world though it is so shockingly different. Though this was written a long time ago, it's set now, starting in 2024 and continuing for three or four years. Thought-provoking.
  
• The Housekeepers, by Alex Hay
  A really well-written period caper. Not a genre I'd normally pick up, but I enjoyed this a lot.
  
• Pines, by Blake Crouch
  A great premise and a solidly-written action thriller, but a bit too intensely detailed in the violence for my tastes. Like sex, violence is best when left mostly to the reader's imagination, rather than getting into describing specific body parts and fluids and sounds.
  
• Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel
  A brilliantly imaginative time-travelling story. Loved it (though it did include another main character who's a writer, probably modelled on the author. Argh! But there's more purpose to that than usual, and the rest of the book carried me past it being an issue.) I won't say much more to avoid spoilers, but highly recommend it.
  
• 10:04, by Ben Lerner
  Aaarrrgggh, It's another writer as protagonist. And they're neurotic and self-absorbed, too! Even worse, it's clearly a thinly disguised avatar of the author. Nearly abandoned this as a result. But there is gentle humour too, and the writing is good. I enjoyed it despite my prejudice against this kind of book. But the critics and book prize judges (who of course love navel-gazing about writers and writing), so again, what do I know? Perhaps what we have here is just a great writer who doesn't have much imagination or interest in other people.
  
• Europe in Autumn, by Dave Hutchinson
  I started this thinking it was a classic spy novel in sixties Europe, like many others. Then a few references made me think I had to update that. Then I spent a while being confused... and then the reveal came. Ohhh! I won't give anything away. Very creative and thought-provoking, with writing that rattles along. I enjoyed it and will read others in the series.
  
• The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
  A classic. I remembered the film more, though, so I got surprised by how much of a 'bureaucratic thriller' this is. So much of the action is meetings, memos, documents and so on. And Jack Ryan is so much more passive than we came to know him as (and as he somewhat ridiculously became in later stories). A good read.
  
• Kafka on the Shore, by Huraki Murakami
  Always love a Murakami, and this really drew me in to the strange world in his mind once more.
  
• The Satsuma Complex, by Bob Mortimer
  I nearly abandoned this in the first few chapters as it seemed it was going to be simply page after page of blokey banter. But I stuck with it and it did turn into more than that. An entertaining caper, that was a pleasant light read.
  
• The Dark Remains, by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin
  I hadn't read the blurb, so got a bit lost at first at where I was in the Laidlaw universe. It turns out this is a prequel to the other Laidlaw books, following Jack's first case. Therefore it's not as dark as the other books. It's a perfectly decent crime story.
  
• The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra
  I love epics with multiple characters across multiple generations, all linked through some particular thread. And I've enjoyed Marra's writing a lot before. So I really enjoyed this again. He's a great writer, brilliant at portraying people in such different circumstances in such trying times.

• Bloody January, by Alan Parks
  Another nicely gritty Scottish crime tale, this time from my honorary cousin 😜. Very much in the footsteps of William McIlvanney, with the same quality of punchy prose (and punch protagonist). Really connected with the main character and am going to follow the series with interest.
  
• Trio, by William Boyd
  I'd been saving this as a treat, because Boyd is one of my favourite authors. Unfortunately, although this was a perfectly good novel, I was left a little disappointed.
  
  What I look forward to with his work is being deeply immersed with a character, often for their entire life, to an extent that you really connect with them and invest in their journey. But this was an ensemble piece, and I didn't feel particularly invested in anyone.
  
  It was gently humorous, lightly mocking the vanities of the entertainment industries, and it gingerly explored the identities and tales we spin around ourselves. But not very deeply.
  
  Many authors could be pleased with producing this novel, but it left me wondering why it needed someone of Boyd's talents to write it.

• Before The Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  A creative take on a time travel story. What's notable here is how the story is made by the constraints the author imposes. It's almost entirely in one room, except a few backstory recollections, and there are a host of rules that limit the time travel. Also, it's an ensemble pieces, so in many ways it's like a collection of interwoven short stories.
  It's a very enjoyable read, but it all wraps up perfectly for me — so I don't think I'll read the sequels. Am I wrong?
  
• Strange Loyalties, by William McIlvanney
  If you like your noir bleak, this is for you. McIlvanney has crafted a great antihero in Laidlaw, and this puts him through the wringer. The writing is as sharp and effective as the main character. The next one in this series was unfinished by the author before his death, with Ian Rankin stepping in, so I'm really looking forward to that one.
  
• A Philosophical Investigation, by Philip Kerr
  I enjoyed another of Kerr's books last year, and had this recommended to me.
  
  I do like a good speculative thriller. There's a great concept behind it, but it falls into the traps that are so easy with speculative fiction. So I'm going to delve into those a little deeper here, as part of recording my own learning as a writer through my reading...
  
  It was published in 1992 imagining a world in the early decade or two of the 2000's.
  
  In this world, Britain has joined a federal Europe and is beholden to European masters (er, nope). Draconian anti-crime measures have been taken, at the heart of which is a terribly prejudicial crackdown on alpha males (er, really nope).
  
  Then there's the imaginings about technology. People can have 'pictaphones' installed in their homes and offices, but when out and about they need to use their carphone or a satellite phone briefcase. A state of the art computer is going to run data to try to match a DNA sample against the database of everyone in the UK, but it can only do 1 million checks a day, so will take 70 days!
  
  These things are a shame because they pull you out of the flow of a story that's otherwise well-plotted and well-told.
  
  That is the challenge with speculative fiction though. What is the shelf life when you set it in the near future?
  
  I need to bear this in mind because in my own novel I'm writing about a time in the near future in what is essentially a speculative/political/spy/tech thriller. But the story will be utterly changed if various world events happen, such as Trump winning a second term (I do understand there are bigger things to worry about in that case other than the shelf life of my story!)
  
  

So, what can I learn from this month's reads for my own writing?

• Create constraints. Restrict your characters' options and see what they do. Create the rules of your world clearly. Story comes out of that.
• Keep prose lean.
• Be inside your main character's head as much as possible. Reveal the side of them they're not proud of. Their fears, self-doubt, regrets, anger.
• When imagining a near future realise that people very rarely adopt new words in everyday speech. Especially not clumsy portmanteaus. My incredibly powerful iPhone in 2024 still gets called a phone just like the old bakelite rotary telephone my parents had plugged into the wall 50 years ago.
• In speculative fiction, don't let the description of the context in the new world take over. If a series of paragraphs could be on that long scrolly thing at the beginning of Star Wars, take them out and find other ways to drop in the world-building.
• There may be benefits in making it a 'parallel' world at an unspecified time (as in The Handmaid's Tale), rather than being so clearly a near-future of the present world. This is common in movies and TV series.

It's a speculative fiction story I wrote seven years ago, but that feels more timely now than ever. It's about the start that young people get in life, the responsibility of adults to pass on a better world, and the power of money to constrain and control us all.

The long list is announced in September, so there's a lot of waiting. And, as can be seen from the anthologies published of previous entries, the standard is high and competition will be fierce.

It's perfectly understandable that it takes months to judge when there are so many entires. In fact, it's amazing to be able to do it in only 3ish months.

But we authors aren't good at waiting to be judged or given notes.

Given the odds of success, maybe literary competitions should just send out an email two days later saying "Sorry but your entry has not been selected this time [etc]". Then for the one person who wins they send an email three months later saying "Terribly sorry, you were sent an email by mistake three months ago. Actually you've won!" 😂

Anyway, until that system is adopted, I'll just have to sit and wait...

• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
  Why has nobody told me about this author before?! I stumbled upon this by chance, and really enjoyed it. It's speculative fiction about a dystopian future after a pandemic wipes out 99% of humanity, breaking down society entirely. Those who are left have to rebuild precarious basic existences, defending against those with the worst human instincts. But, amidst all of that, this is a story of humanity and hope. Highly recommend, and I'll now go out and buy her other novels and drip them into my reading in future as special treats.
  
• Killing Commendatore, Haruki Murakami
  Murakami books are like quicksand. At first it feels like slow going and you think you might turn back. But then, without warning, you realise you're in deep and can't move. The only way to proceed is to lie back, put your feet up and be carried by it. This is a biiiig book though and so was a little daunting at first, but by the end I wanted more. I don't know how he does it. The writing seems to be so lean and simple — yet the interior monologue is lengthy, detailed and deep, bringing you so close to the main character. I wouldn't put this up at the level of Murakami's best, but it was very good. Like all Murakami books you're left with a lot to think about afterwards and it takes some time to process. Essentially this is a story about art — its creation, its meaning, its enjoyment.
  
• The Crocodile Hunter, Gerald Seymour
  A thriller in which the protagonist is an under-appreciated lowly counter-terrorism analyst in MI5, who was about to retire but then, by chance, gets to demonstrate the value of all his information gathering and analysis. He's persuaded to stay, and tasked with tracking down a British jihadi fighter who is returning for a suicide attack. Enjoyable. Reading as a writer though, one note is that the author has a distinctive abbreviated style — and uses that for all dialogue and internal monologues, so the characters all sound the same.

As before, I'm reading around the thriller genre. Partly because I thoroughly enjoy such books, and partly to learn as a writer.

The thrillers I'm drawn to are more the 'someone good is determined/compelled to put right a really terrible situation at great personal risk/cost by using their knowledge and skills. They may succeed or fail in the end, or even succeed while also failing in some way' variety than either the more gung-ho action or the psychological style thrillers. Sometimes this overlaps nicely with speculative fiction, which I also enjoy.

So, I've read three thrillers this month, plus also treating myself to a literary novel which has long been on my reading list and I've been looking forward to.

So, here's what I read this month:

• The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton
  He is one of the big names in speculative fiction and rightly so. This one is seen as a classic and is the one that established his fame. However, I couldn't help feeling it could have done with another draft that tightened it up a bit more around the core theme, and focused the plot. There were a lot of characters who weren't fully developed, a lot of bureaucracy playing out, and a lot of 'telling'. A lot of key plot points were played out through characters recounting them in memos or meetings, rather than us being there with key characters for the events. So it all felt a little detached. But hey, it's a massive bestseller and highly acclaimed, so what do I know?
  
• Autumn, Ali Smith
  Should have won the Booker over Lincoln in the Bardo. Looking forward to reading the next three, but will space them out as treats.
  
• The Swiss Spy, Alex Gerlis
  Well crafted, well written spy thriller.
  
• Uncommon Danger, Eric Ambler
  Ambler is the godfather of spy fiction and often cited as an influence on Le Carré. I also think there was a lot of inspiration in here for The Swiss Spy. Great writing.

Here are the books whose words were the vitamins that nourished me back to health...

• A Legacy Of Spies, John le Carré
  A clever way of le Carré revisiting some of his classic characters for a retrospective.
• Dead Lions, Mick Herron
• Raven Black, Ann Cleeves
• Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
  An important and impressive book, about the journey of a boy to becoming a young man, through every kind of obstacle modern US society (or lack of it) can throw at him. Without giving any spoilers it goes on to take us inside a rarely seen viewpoint on one of the biggest harms America has done to its people in the last 50 years. Reading as a reader I was completely drawn into the story by the characters, events and their telling. Reading as a writer I admired the extremely direct character-to-reader narration throughout, that means we felt so close to Damon. This absorbs you deeply into the story and propels everything along brilliantly. I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator does such a good job that he lifted my experience of the story significantly above just reading it myself. So I highly recommend the audiobook.
• Old God's Time, Sebastian Barry
  This won all sorts of awards and critical acclaim and, yes, it is good. It just sometimes felt like the author was trying a little too hard to dial 'literary prose' up to 11 for the critics and awards panels. I'd have liked an editor to just get the dial turned back down to 10, which would have allowed me to be absorbed by it more. Reading as a writer, it's a great example of writing an unreliable narrator.
• Proof, Dick Francis (reread)
  I read Francis' books when I was a teenager, borrowing from my dad's shelf. They still hold up really well. Really enjoyable read.
• Reconstruction, Mick Herron
  This predates his famous Slow Horses series, and may even be one of his first few books. Really well plotted, and really well told. He has a lovely casual style of connecting to the reader from the page, and a knack for humanising people who do the big 'thriller' jobs who are normally made out to be all powerful tough nut geniuses. Makes for a very entertaining story.

Now, just as we're about to roll over into April, I've started my next read. More on that next month.