Hi.

Wel­come to Planet Mut. Estab­lished in 2004, it’s the per­fect out­let for my more sociopathic tend­en­cies. Email me at planetmut@gmail.com.

If you want to read the five years’ worth of archives on the old HTML site, they’re here.

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Mat­thew Wilkes

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Books (881)

Top books of 2012

Not all books shown as I ran out of space on the desk.

Fic­tion

Void Stalker

Know No Fear

The Vic­toria Van­ishes

A Mon­strous Regi­ment of Women

The Beekeeper’s Appren­tice

Fear To Tread

Every Michael Con­nelly book I’ve read so far: The Black Echo, Trunk Music, Angels Flight, The Last Coyote, Echo Park, The Narrows, The Reversal, Chas­ing the Dime, The Closers, The Con­crete Blonde, The Black Ice.

Non-Fiction

Born Bril­liant: The Life of Ken­neth Wil­li­ams

Notes From A Small Island

Hope And Glory: A People’s His­tory Of Brti­ain

Spill­ing the Beans

You are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Around Unloved Bri­tain

Cream Teas, Traffic Jams and Sun­burn: The Great Brit­ish Hol­i­day

Cap­tain Scott

When the Lights Went Out: What Really Happened to Bri­tain in the […]

December 17th, 2012 | Category: Books, Lists | Leave a comment

Back

IT WAS a great hol­i­day, crappy weather be buggered. The last three times I’ve been home in Octo­ber I’ve had mainly bright, sunny and cold days so I can’t really com­plain that this time the heav­ens opened. At least it peaked early in a frankly ter­ri­fy­ing com­bin­a­tion of rain and wind at Caban Goch Dam in the Elan Val­ley, a storm that had the face of the dam churned into white froth as I sat huddled in mum’s Nis­san, munch­ing ham and cheese sarnies and drink­ing luke­warm Costa cof­fee out of a paper cup. After a mad dash from the car […]

November 1st, 2012 | Category: Books, Home, Wales | 2 comments

First books of the trip

I KNOW, six books in four days is pathetic for me. I wouldn’t have bought any if I hadn’t dis­covered the amaz­ing three-storey Waterstone’s in Chel­ten­ham and spent a happy hour wan­der­ing around with £40 burn­ing a hole in my pocket. I picked up When The Lights Went Out and No Such Thing As Soci­ety and was head­ing to the till when I saw Strange Days Indeed. All three are social his­tor­ies of the 70s and 80s, a topic I got into after read­ing Dominic Sandbrook’s excel­lent Never Had It So Good a couple of years ago. After pay­ing for those I […]

May 9th, 2012 | Category: Books | Leave a comment

Why I’m going off Barnes and Noble

NOW that Bor­ders has winged its way to the great bank­ruptcy court in the sky, I’m left with Barnes and Noble as my primary source for buy­ing books. It may come as a sur­prise that I don’t really like going to a big store that’s crammed with my favour­ite things, but B&N is really start­ing to get on my nerves for sev­eral reas­ons…

The rewards card: It costs $25 for a year and entitles you to 10% off the price of whatever you’re buy­ing. Sounds good until you real­ise you have to spend $250 just to get your $25 back. Apart from […]

March 2nd, 2012 | Category: Books, General Stuff | Leave a comment

Top books of 2011

Fic­tion

Three Sta­tions

The Amaz­ing Maurice and his Edu­cated Rodents

Room

The Wee Free Men

The Grave­yard Book

A Hat Full Of Sky

Lost Echoes

Cor­aline

Win­ter­smith

Jonathan Strange & Mr Nor­rell

Soul Hunter

Sav­age Sea­son

Faith­ful Place

Case His­tor­ies

I Shall Wear Mid­night

Non Fic­tion

Mock­ing­bird: A Por­trait Of Harper Lee

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Fry Chron­icles

Let­ter To A Chris­tian Nation

1959: The Year Everything Changed

The Author­ised Bio­graphy of Ron­nie Barker

Color: A Nat­ural His­tory of the Palette

Hitler’s Empire: How The Nazis Ruled Europe

Fam­ily Bri­tain, 1951-1957

Reefer Mad­ness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the Amer­ican Black Mar­ket

Nix­on­land: The Rise of a Pres­id­ent and the Frac­tur­ing of Amer­ica

State of Emer­gency: The Way We Were - Bri­tain 1970-1974

At Home: A Short […]

December 28th, 2011 | Category: Books, Lists | One comment
 
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