I definitely sold more records than I bought this year

Gewalt- deutsch 7"

Come- near life experience

Carla bozulich- quieter 

Mark Lanegan- somebody's knocking

Swans- leaving meaning

Dead witches - ouija 

Gewalt- snooze/puppe 7"

Mark Lanegan- straight songs of sorrow

Mark Lanegan- houston

Black Phoebe- s/t 12"

I was listening to a lot of Mark Lanegan this year after reading his book, I also bought a few albums on cd as some are hard to get on record and I wont pay more than £30 for a record anymore. 

 

#pictures are not records I bought this year, they are "in" jokes that you wouldn't understand
 

Considering I didn't work for most of the year this isn't that many books.

Towards the end of time - JOHN UPDiKE

The Idiot -FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY 

Colossus of Maroussi - HENRY MiLLER

Till We Have Faces - C.S.LEWiS

Good omens - TERRY PRATCHETT & NEiL GAiMAN

Invisible man - RALPH ELLiSON

Ariel - SYLViA PLATH

Johnny panic and the bible of dreams - SYLViA PLATH

A girl is a half formed thing - EiMEAR MCBRIDE

Phantom of the opera  - GASTON LEROUX

 

Netochka nezvanova - FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

Child of god - CORMAC MCCARTHY

The perks of being a wallflower- STEPHEN CHBOSKY

The little Prince - ANTOiNE DE SAiNT-EXUPERY

SilaS marner - GEORGE ELiOT

There is no planet B - MiKE BERNERS-LEE

Tess of the D'urbervilles - THOMAS HARDY

Espedair street - iAiN BANKS

Case histories - KATE ATKiNSON

One good turn - KATE ATKiNSON

 

When will there be good news - KATE ATKiNSON

Started early took my dog  - KATE ATKiNSON

Big sky - KATE ATKiNSON

The doll factory - ELiZABETH MACNEAL

The hard times first 40 years

Private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner - JAMES HOGG

The favourite game - LEONARD COHEN

Dead souls - NiKOLAi GOGOL

The box I call life - LiLY LU

Bird song - SEBASTiAN FAULKS

 

Skinema - CHRiS NiERATKO

Flannery O'connor complete stories

A special providence - RiCHARD YATES

Alice's adventures in wonderland - LEWiS CAROLL

Through the looking glass -LEWiS CAROLL

Paradoxia -LYDi LUNCH

After the hanging -O.V ViJAYAN

Time travellers wife - AUDREY NiFFENEGGER

The book of revelation- RUPERT THOMSON

survivor  -CHUCK PALAHNiUK

 

Watership down - RiCHARD ADAMS

Sing backwards and weep - MARK LANEGAN

freedom from the known - JiDDU KRiSHNAMURTi

bloody chamber and other stories -ANGELA CARTER

Geek love - KATHERiNE DUNN

We need to talk about Kevin- LiONEL SHRiVER

The wall - JOHN LANCHESTER

The woman in white - WiLKiE COLLiNS

Marabou stork nightmares - iRViNE WELSH

Billy Liar - KEiTH WATERHOUSE

 

Tender is the night - F.SCOTT FiTZGERALD

The shining - STEPHEN KiNG

Cemetery drive - JOE WiLSON (DEATHSEX BLOODBATH)

Cannery row -JOHN STEiNBECK

My name is red -ORHAN PAMUK

Good as gold -JOSEPH HELLER

Mark Lanegan sleevenotes

The woman in black - SUSAN HiLL

Small island - ANDREA LEVY

Killing floor -LEE CHiLD

 

I am the wolf - MARK LANEGAN

Rebecca - DAPHNE DU MAURiER

The centaur - JOHN UPDiKE

Short stories of Dostoevsky

Junk- MELViN BURGESS      

Northern lights - PHiLiP PULLMAN

About a boy - NiCK HORNBY

Confessions of a sociopath - M.E.THOMAS

A theft - SAUL BELLOW

The death of bunny munro - NiCK CAVE

 

Slow man - J.M COATZEE

The color purple - ALiCE WALKER    

Private - JAMES PATTERSON

Oryx and crake - MARGARET ATWOOD

Christmas holiday - W.SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Private London - JAMES PATTERSON

The subtle knife - PHiLiP PULLMAN

Armed to the teeth with lipstick - BLAG DAHLiA    

 

(colour code is, green for books I chose to read and Red for books Gemma chose for me.  

 

          

                    

Why I drove 1725 miles in 41 hours

 So, the world is going through the corona virus epidemic.
Nothing is NORMAL.
I haven't had to work for month's.
I have been saying for a while now (since reading "on the road", I don't like Jack Kerouac but that's a different story) how I want to drive from John O Groats to Land's end in a day.
I always thought the whole trip would require over night stays at each end so I would need to plan it around time off work etc.
But now I don't have work so I decided on Sunday afternoon, that I would get up early Monday morning and DO it Do it without needing to worry how long it took.

I think doing it now during the corona virus had some advantages like the fact the roads are very quiet anyway, and when I got to both John O groats and Lands end there was hardly a soul in sight.
The main disadvantage though is of course nowhere is open, so that made it difficult to buy anything resembling a good meal, and also meant that I would have to sleep in the car if at all.

Sadly the famous SIGN at land's end is privately owned and because of the corona situation it was also CLOSED, and the owner removes the signs so my proof photograph is just me stood next to the pole that the signs should be attached too.

My main concern about doing this during the corona period is that the police could stop me and not be too impressed with this level on unnecessary travel and potentially even give me a fine and send me home. Also its all still very unclear what the rules are about travel between England and Scotland, so I didn't know if police would be waiting on the borders.

So I did the drive in my 2002 Audi A4 3.0 Petrol Quattro sport, the total round trip was 1725 miles and took me 41 hours.
My car definitely needs a service and the MOT expired during the trip, but due to corona virus guidelines it didn't matter.
Starting mileage was 138,589
Mileage at end was  140,314

I had to fill up petrol 6 times.
my car has poor fuel economy and only an average size tank meaning I had to fill up every 300 miles approx.
Total fuel cost came to £280, another advantage to the corona virus situation is that even though most of this was motorway services prices, fuel prices are lower than normal, so the six tanks cost me between £1-£1.20 per litre.
I also had to put about 1.5 litres of oil in over the course of the journey so perhaps I am losing a bit too much oil too. 

Here is the time taken for each segment of the journey

Monday 15th June
4AM-Get in car in Witney and start driving to John O Groats
4PM-Arrive at John O groats
5PM- get back in car and start driving to Land's End.

Tuesday 16th June
3PM- arrive at Land's End.
4PM-start drive back to Oxford
9PM-fill up petrol at Tesco Cowley.

The weather for this whole trip was amazing for the most part, it stayed light till gone 10pm at night and was sunny all day, I had a small bit of rain driving out of Scotland but the real rain started when I got to Exeter, then throughout Cornwall and various parts of the drive home I experienced some of the worst rain I have ever driven in, people were parked on the side of the motorway to avoid driving in it.