Barnes, Simon – How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher
****
Like many birdwatchers I’m quite a bad birdwatcher.  I enjoy watching birds and consciously try to improve my birding skills but can’t be bothered with scanning through a flock of 500 gulls to find the elusive white-winged bird or 500 terns to find the one that may possibly be of the rarer roseate variety.  Whether you are a good or bad birdwatcher or maybe not even a birder at all, there is plenty to enjoy and discover in this book.  
How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher is an amusing book on how to watch birds by journalist Simon Barnes.  It serves as a witty introduction to beginners and acknowledges facts to more experienced birders which they had realised inside but never fully expressed or thought through.  In the book, the Award-Winning writer cleverly uses simple language and well-reasoned arguments to make fundamental, quite complex points on why we like watching and identifying birds, how to get more involved in birdwatching and much more.
How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher is a delightful, easy–to-read book.  It is recommended for anyone who has a vague interest in birds as well as providing telling anecdotes to those of us who are already birdwatchers – good or bad ones.
Published:  2004
Read by me:  12.8.06-25.8.06

Bragg, Billy – The Progressive Patriot
****
Fuelled by Billy Bragg’s dismay and anger at the British National Party’s success in the local elections in his beloved Barking, The Progressive Patriot looks at the area’s more radical past as well as the concept of English-ness in our increasingly multi-cultural country.  As is the case with many of Billy’s best songs, it mixes the personal and the political with revealing accounts of his initial interests in music (Simon & Garfunkel) and politics (Rock Against Racism in the late 1970s) amongst the family and general history elsewhere. 
The historical context is very well researched with footnotes-a-plenty whilst the excellent prose is full of the warmth, wit and persuasiveness you would expect from Billy Bragg.  Despite this, The Progressive Patriot is quite hard-going in places and critics have considered the difficulty as to whether it is primarily biographical, historical or political as a shortcoming.  Typically for the author, it is of course all three and written with a great deal of heart.  Strongly recommended for Billy’s music fans, historians and politicians…and anyone else who may be interested!
Read by me:  2.5.07-10.8.07