- “Dishonesty Is The Second-Best Policy and Other Rules to Live By” by David Mitchell
- “Michael Palin In Venezuela” by Michael Palin
- “Happiness: Lessons From A New Science” by Richard Layard
- “The People on Platform 5” by Clare Pooley
- “Encyclopaedia of Narrow Gauge Railways of Great Britain and Ireland” by Thomas Middlemiss
- “Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System” by Martin Sixsmith
- “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged Thirteen and Three-Quarters” by Sue Townsend
- “The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” by Sue Townsend
- “Adrian Mole: The Collected Poems” by Sue Townsend
- “How To Live Like A Stoic” by Tom Hodgkinson
- “The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass aged 37 3/4” by Adrian Plass
- “This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti
- “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes” by Daniel Everett
- “Brutal Scotland” by Simon Phipps
- “Idler XXX: Thirty Years of The Idler, A Visual History” by Tom Hodgkinson
- “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
- “British Railways Mark 1 Coaches” by Keith Parkin
- “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
- “The Story of Railways” by Richard Bowood, illustrated by Robert Ayton (Ladybird)
- “Riders” by Jilly Cooper
- “The Dark Half” by Stephen King
- “Everything In Color” by Stephanie Stalvey
- “Final Destination: Riding Britain’s Trains to the End of the Line” by Nige Tassell
- “Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee” by Charlie Higson
- “Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness” by Bill Bailey
Date Started: 3rd September 2026
Date Finished: 10th September 2026
2/5 stars
I picked this up from a charity shop recently. Given that Bill Bailey is a very talented and funny guy, and absolutely one of the nicer and more worthy humans on the planet, I had high hopes for this, but I think it largely missed the mark.
It’s formed of a couple of dozen or so chapters about activities, ideas, hobbies and things that Bailey believes will bring happiness and fulfilment, and there’s quite a range of stuff covered, from the very active (scuba-diving, paddleboarding etc) to the much more contemplative (reading, letter writing, being in nature, trees etc).
There’s some nice little gems in here, but there’s a couple of things I thought made the book disappointing. First, there were too many chapters, and each of them was too short, not doing the more interesting topics justice, and including a few that are not likely to appeal to everyone. I read the “sport” chapter, but didn’t get anything out of it, and I skipped the “dogs” chapter completely, given that I hate dogs with a passion. There were rather too many of these, where I just couldn’t really engage or relate. Making them longer and a bit more in-depth would have greatly improved the book.
Second, it was written during the pandemic lockdowns, and this gets mentioned repeatedly throughout the book. It feels like the sort of thing we saw too much of – people trying to jolly us along through a difficult time. I fucking hated every second of the lockdowns, and I never want to read about them, think about them, talk about them or be otherwise reminded about them ever again until I die. It was easily the worst thing I’ve had to tolerate in my entire existence, and I don’t have any fond or redeeming memories of them at all. This really spoiled the book for me and it’s the reason why I can’t give it more than the rather mediocre score I’ve settled on, despite there being some good writing in it.
There’s plenty of other similar books out there that are more inspiring and cover the topics of this book in more detail and depth. It’s funny and amusing in places, and a nice light read, but it’s not particularly memorable, and I hated it constantly wanging on about something I’m determined to forget about completely.