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59 ratings | 11 reviews | avg rating:4.78

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James Hider

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Born

London

Twitter

jimbohider

Member Since

May 2013

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I have always been fascinated by what you might call the pathology of ideas -- how they mutate as different societies inherit, steal or are infected by foreign concepts, customs and gods. How a Disney character can become an icon of Islamist martyrdom, how we invent gods because we are afraid of dying, then end up dying for these invented gods. Having seen at first hand, and all too often, the most extreme results of these ever-warping ideas, I sat down and tried to write about them in "Spiders of Allah," the result of seven years covering conflict across the Middle East. Because the history of the region stretches back so far, the ideas that have come out of it have had millennia to warp and twist. You can see front lines that date back th ...more

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James Hider’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 2,017 ratings · 202 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	Ripe 4.06 avg rating — 1,685 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Spiders of Allah: Travels of an Unbeliever on the Frontline of Holy War 3.83 avg rating — 181 ratings — published 2009 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cronix 4.21 avg rating — 163 ratings — published 2014 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sad Monsters 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	ripe: poems from the tallest tree by Theodore James, James Hider (Goodreads Author), Alien Buddha (Contributor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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James Hider's Blog

Come to the Dark Side

I haven’t blogged on this site for several years now, partly because I was so busy — covering the Arab Spring, having a kid and then moving to Brazil, after a brief stint in Miami — but now I am returning to it. I had hoped, standing on Tahrir Square and then covering the frontline battles with Libya’s rebels, or talking to Syrians standing up to their terrifying government, that the Arab Spring m

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James’s Recent Updates

James Hider answered Lovetoread's question: huge fan of the novel Ripe, because of the ending is there going to be a book two? Hi! Sorry for the late reply (only two years!!) I hadn't actually seen this page on Goodreads. But the timing is actually quite good, as there will be a sequel out in October this year, called "Sad Monsters".
Aug 11, 2026 03:56PM · like

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