Book thread: what are you reading?

[JonM]

On 6/20/2018 at 2:57 PM, DavidM said:

I haven’t . Last one was Moscow and St Petersburg . Really hits you when you go to these places 

I was working in Moscow a few years ago and went into the Kremlin (amazing that you can just turn up and walk round) and one of the very striking things is that all through the communist era, they kept the Orthodox churches inside. There is one church in particular where Stalin & the communist leadership went to pray, at the point where the Germans were less than 20 miles from Moscow

[heartofGold]

On 6/20/2018 at 4:16 PM, Moose said:

Police by Joe Nesbo, book ten in the Harry Hole series. It's unusual in that I'm on page 120 and as yet Harry although mentioned occasionally has yet to become part of the story, non the less it's gripping stuff

I've read all the Harry Hole books and never been disappointed.  Outside of the Hole series The Son is a great book

[Exiled Townie]

22 hours ago, Yorkie44 said:

I am a fairly big historical fiction fan, so waiting in anticipation for Bernard Cornwell's new Saxon Chronicles book to see what Uhtred is up to now he has finally reclaimed Bebbanburg (Bamburgh), I have a feeling that he will play a pivotal role in Aethelstan's battle at Brunanburh where he becomes Englaland's first king.

 

Waiting for the latest Uhtred book too. I read books about 'real' history most of the time, whatever that means, but always read the latest Cornwell  when it comes out.  The man is an absolute natural storyteller. 

[Exiled Townie]

15 hours ago, DavidM said:

James McGee Hawkwood series . Bit like Sharpe only as a bow street runner

Never heard of it, looked it up and read the reviews, all of which were very good. 

Now I will have to get the first book in the series and have a read.

[Yorkie44]

1 hour ago, Exiled Townie said:

Waiting for the latest Uhtred book too. I read books about 'real' history most of the time, whatever that means, but always read the latest Cornwell  when it comes out.  The man is an absolute natural storyteller. 

I totally agree there, fantastic at telling a tale and as I advocated before Giles Kristian is quickly catching him up.

[Moose]

3 hours ago, heartofGold said:

I've read all the Harry Hole books and never been disappointed.  Outside of the Hole series The Son is a great book

I have a copy of The Son waiting to be read, I only buy books second hand and usually have a healthy stock of good reads waiting to be picked up and opened.

I've managed to find copies of nearly every book written by my favourite authors over the years, there's a vast amount of used books out there often available for very little money. I even managed to find a copy of the first Harry Hole book, The Bat in a charity shop in  Majorca ( I don't think it had been translated from Norwegian until more of Nesbo's books became successful )

Finally in Police Harry becomes part of the story, on page 202.

[heartofGold]

5 hours ago, Moose said:

I only buy books second hand and usually have a healthy stock of good reads waiting to be picked up and opened.

Where I work we have 45-50 staff.  Those of us who read always bring in the good ones and leave them in the staff room for others to take and recycle.  Luckily many of us are crime readers so there's always a good selection.  I have Amazon Prime which offers a good selection of free downloads every month and have joined a few libraries across the UK for e-books.  If you join more than just your local library you get more chance of getting the most popular books.  They are easy to download and you get 21 days to read a book all for free.  I got the latest Jo Nesbo from the library while it was still in hardback on the shelves in the supermarkets!

[Bleep1673]

On 6/22/2018 at 9:08 PM, heartofGold said:

Where I work we have 45-50 staff.  Those of us who read always bring in the good ones and leave them in the staff room for others to take and recycle.

We used to that when I worked as Agency staff in theatres, people would put their name & date they started it inside as though to say "I was here" more than hoping to get the book back. One day I turned up at a new hospital that I had never worked in before, and found two of my previous books there, with about 5 other names in spread over 3 years. They stopped the practice as management thought it an infection risk.

[heartofGold]

27 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

They stopped the practice as management thought it an infection risk.

We haven't gone that far yet with the staff books but all the kids books and toys have gone from the waiting room for the same reason sadly.

[Oxford]

On 6/21/2018 at 9:23 PM, DavidM said:

James McGee Hawkwood series . Bit like Sharpe only as a bow street runner

I was just looking for the holidays so got this thanks!

[Oxford]

Trying Don Quixote again and The Alexandrian Quartet

 

[Route66]

On 6/21/2018 at 9:23 PM, DavidM said:

James McGee Hawkwood series . Bit like Sharpe only as a bow street runner

Will try these books soon,love Cornwells books,also Conn Igguldens war of the roses and his genghis khan series. Best book though of historical fiction would be Tim Willocks 'the religion ' set in Malta.Always looking for recomendations on any genre and recently loved Granada tv's tony Wilson's '24 hour party people ' for those of us of a certain age

[Futtocks]

Matthew Engel - 11 Minutes Late. Partly a history of railway travel, partly a good-humoured travelogue, as Engel journeys around Britain on various train lines, starting with a trip from the most Southern station to the most Northern.

He's a good writer for this sort of stuff, and also got to interview quite a few involved people, including John Major, for the historical sections..

[Futtocks]

I just heard that Craig Brown's Ma’am Darling, which is apparently very entertaining and scurrilous, is currently discounted fro, £9.99 to £1.99 on Amazon as a Kindle download.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Johan Cruyffs autobiography. Infinitely better footballer than writer.

[MattSantos]

Pending a Japan trip in September i'm reading 1Q84 by Harukami or whatever his name is.

Good start

[Copa]

I’ve just started In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

It must me the longest novel I’ve ever attempted. The previous big effort was Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and that was absolutely brilliant. This Proust novel is around 4-5 times longer. 

Sometimes I just want to be totally consumed by a novel and I’m hoping to do that with this publication.

Wish me luck!

[Gerrumonside ref]

Deep thinking by Garry Kasparov

Charts the history of artificial intelligence and where it is going in the future.  He has an interesting perspective as the first chess world champion to be defeated by a machine in the mid 1990s (he’s still regarded as one of the best players of all time).  He writes clearly and coherently, and is drawing on his post chess career as a consultant to businesses (mainly in the hi-tech sector).  He is trying to explain what is coming and why not to fear it in terms of AI using analogies from the past.

[DavidM]

I’m a big fan of Anthony Horowitz and I’ve just got his new James Bond novel . The previous one and his Sherlock efforts were brave matters to rework  but enjoyable so looking forward to this 

[JonM]

31 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Deep thinking by Garry Kasparov

Interesting book.

 

[Oxford]

The Dubliners by Joyce, read it as a teen and thought I'd like a look now.

[High Peak Rhino]

3 hours ago, Copa said:

I’ve just started In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

It must me the longest novel I’ve ever attempted. The previous big effort was Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and that was absolutely brilliant. This Proust novel is around 4-5 times longer. 

Sometimes I just want to be totally consumed by a novel and I’m hoping to do that with this publication.

Wish me luck!

Have you finished it yet

[Futtocks]

4 hours ago, Copa said:

I’ve just started In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

It must me the longest novel I’ve ever attempted. The previous big effort was Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and that was absolutely brilliant. This Proust novel is around 4-5 times longer. 

Sometimes I just want to be totally consumed by a novel and I’m hoping to do that with this publication.

Wish me luck!

If it's any guide, my mum recently read it for the first time, and said that a lot of it was very funny and bitchy. I have it on the Kindle, but haven't felt ready to start it yet.

[DavidM]

28 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

If it's any guide, my mum recently read it for the first time, and said that a lot of it was very funny and bitchy. I have it on the Kindle, but haven't felt ready to start it yet.

You mean the courage !?

[Futtocks]

On 7/20/2018 at 3:38 PM, Futtocks said:

I just heard that Craig Brown's Ma’am Darling, which is apparently very entertaining and scurrilous, is currently discounted fro, £9.99 to £1.99 on Amazon as a Kindle download.

Just finished this - disappointed that no contemporary diarists could agree exactly how many pint glasses John 'Biffo' Bindon could hang from his erect manhood.

Other than that, Princess Margaret comes across pretty poorly overall. The almost-phonetic transcript of her appearance on 'Desert island Discs' was very funny, and the names that intersected her life are a broad church, from Britt Ekland to Pablo Picasso. It is also a sign of her sense of judgement that so many of the people she confided in were of the catty, backstabbing types, who couldn't wait to stick the knife into her and everyone else as soon as they got home and wrote in their diaries.

The eventual portrait appears of a socialite who managed to be lonely, and the sort of person who could have been happier if she hadn't made a life-long habit of arrogance, gaucheness, rudeness and taking advantage of every inch of her steadily-decreasing rank. Strange woman.

Royal biographies are not normally my thing at all, but her social circle was so varied and high-powered that you get lots of fascinating stuff on many interesting and significant people. Also, the book being written by a satirist means that it was never going to be either creepily fawning or trashily sensationalist - he quotes extensively from both types of source, but his own writing adds the spice.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Futtocks