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Book thread: what are you reading?


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I've just finished reading two books about actual spies by the same author: Ben Macintyre.  One was about Kim Philby (obvs!) and I enjoyed it but the other I found utterly gripping.  It's called The Spy and the Traitor and is about Oleg Gordievsky, a colonel in the KGB who ended up spying for MI6 until he was betrayed, and he was spirited out of the USSR in the kind of operation which had Hollywood written all over it.  How they succeeded I don't know but they did, and Gordievsky is still alive, living somewhere in the UK under an assumed name (and with a 24 hour armed guard since the Skripal poisonings). 

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1 hour ago, Saintslass said:

I've just finished reading two books about actual spies by the same author: Ben Macintyre.  One was about Kim Philby (obvs!) and I enjoyed it but the other I found utterly gripping.  It's called The Spy and the Traitor and is about Oleg Gordievsky, a colonel in the KGB who ended up spying for MI6 until he was betrayed, and he was spirited out of the USSR in the kind of operation which had Hollywood written all over it.  How they succeeded I don't know but they did, and Gordievsky is still alive, living somewhere in the UK under an assumed name (and with a 24 hour armed guard since the Skripal poisonings). 

If you like the spy stuff, this short read might interest you: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00EOER0G0/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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13 hours ago, The Future is League said:

I've just finished reading "The iron horse" by Edward Marston.

A nice light and enjoyable read. Certainly something different to what i normally read, but i needed to change my reading habits.

Only if you want to.

There is nothing wrong with nice and light and that may be more important in these times.

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Oxford said:

Only if you want to.

There is nothing wrong with nice and light and that may be more important in these times.

Absolutely. And there's a current trend to judge quality by length and darkness/grittiness. Not just in books, but other forms of entertainment, and it has led to a regrettable tendency towards wallowing in angst and pages/hours of blatant padding.

Being light, witty and uplifting is seen as the mark of a lesser talent. It isn't. If that was the case, we'd be overwhelmed with Wildes, Sakis, Perelmans and Wodehouses. And we aren't.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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39 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Absolutely. And there's a current trend to judge quality by length and darkness/grittiness. Not just in books, but other forms of entertainment, and it has led to a regrettable tendency towards wallowing in angst and pages/hours of blatant padding.

Being light, witty and uplifting is seen as the mark of a lesser talent. It isn't. If that was the case, we'd be overwhelmed with Wildes, Sakis, Perelmans and Wodehouses. And we aren't.

I think we probably are overwhelmed with those very writers but the fashion for Turgid prison sentences instead is a mark of intellect like dense long drawn out pieces of music with no lyrics. They may come to light later on.

What made me laugh was that awful Sky Yawn pundit trying to include kick & Clap as an indication of of its iclusion in that kind of group. Having far too many rules that makes the game almost incomprehensible is not a sign of intelligence so much as  group of people who can't be @rsed to fix it, and who have never been happy with change.

Anyway are you and yours alright, everything okay?

 

 

Edited by Oxford

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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On 06/04/2020 at 22:37, Saintslass said:

I've just finished reading two books about actual spies by the same author: Ben Macintyre.  One was about Kim Philby (obvs!) and I enjoyed it but the other I found utterly gripping.  It's called The Spy and the Traitor and is about Oleg Gordievsky, a colonel in the KGB who ended up spying for MI6 until he was betrayed, and he was spirited out of the USSR in the kind of operation which had Hollywood written all over it.  How they succeeded I don't know but they did, and Gordievsky is still alive, living somewhere in the UK under an assumed name (and with a 24 hour armed guard since the Skripal poisonings). 

I read the Spy and the Traitor last year on Kindle, it's a great story, well written

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I'm also still reading a book about British Lighthouses, when my Kindle can be assed to charge up, and a book by Antony Beevor, About Operation Market Garden the story of Gen Montgomerys ego trip to beat the Yanks into Germany in WW2, Arnhem, filmed as A Bridge Too Far.

 

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19 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

I'm also still reading a book about British Lighthouses, when my Kindle can be assed to charge up, and a book by Max Hastings(?) About Operation Market Garden the story of Gen Montgomerys ego trip to beat the Yanks into Germany in WW2, Arnhem, filmed as A Bridge Too Far.

 

That is incredibly coincidental, just a few minutes ago I was reading the Wikipedia article for Wolf Rock Lighthouse in Cornwall. I had my reasons. 

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20 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

That is incredibly coincidental, just a few minutes ago I was reading the Wikipedia article for Wolf Rock Lighthouse in Cornwall. I had my reasons. 

Wolf Rock is in the  book,  history and design. 

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12 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

That is incredibly coincidental, just a few minutes ago I was reading the Wikipedia article for Wolf Rock Lighthouse in Cornwall. I had my reasons. 

Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancolis.

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3 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancolis.

Looks interesting, think I'll get that. Reason I was reading about Wolf Rock was cos I was watching a documentary about horrible jobs and they talked to a former keeper of that lighthouse and how he dealt with the mental strains of being so isolated. 

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Just finished 'The Nanny State Made Me' by Stuart Maconie, couldn't say I disagree with any of it, lot's that the so called 'enlightend' will however time has proved otherwise.

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18 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Looks interesting, think I'll get that. Reason I was reading about Wolf Rock was cos I was watching a documentary about horrible jobs and they talked to a former keeper of that lighthouse and how he dealt with the mental strains of being so isolated. 

Yeah, quoted in the book.

In these strange days of Lockdown, we are all Lighthouse keepers, not knowing when, of if releif is coming.

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3 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancolis.

For those not aware, these were rock lighthouses, not the ones based on shore, where you could nip off for a pint after a shift, these were out at sea, on shoals and reefs for months on an end. 

It was awful, 3 men in a tower built by designers, not architects or engineers at first, this was true death by design TESTING. When a storm broke, they didn't know whether the Lighthouse was still going to be there in the morning, sometimes it wasn't, neither were they, ever.

Edited by Bleep1673
Testing rather than building
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29 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Looks interesting, think I'll get that. Reason I was reading about Wolf Rock was cos I was watching a documentary about horrible jobs and they talked to a former keeper of that lighthouse and how he dealt with the mental strains of being so isolated. 

Get it, It is a great read.

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Just finished Joe Country by Mick Herron, the sixth Slough House book. I am not a great fan of the espionage genre, but have always enjoyed this series. This book, however, was a little disappointing. While still amusing, it was pretty insubstantial. It felt like a book  written to complete a contract.

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I've just read the first chapter in the first book of a trilogy. However I've had to stop as the 2nd chapter hasn't been written yet. 

My son, while in lockdown at Uni, has started writing his first novel. He went to Uni to study acting but has discovered he prefers writing and directing. Already completed one screenplay (filming suspended) and now onto a book. 

I started reading it thinking "Ok, let's encourage him" but after finishing it I thought "actually that's really good". 

Can't wait for chapter 2...? 

Edited by Wiltshire Rhino
2014 Challenged Cup Winner
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4 hours ago, The Future is League said:

I have just finished reading " The shortest history of GERMANY " by James Hawes. A really brilliant summing up of German history and even more so for me who spent a lot of my time in the armed forces there.

I recommend this book to everyone especially those who have spent any amount of time there.

Yep, totally agree with this, really great read. 

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After series 2 finished, i picked up a copy of one of Luke Jennings' books that Killing Eve was based on. I've only just got round to starting it and... now I really appreciate Phoebe Waller-Bridge's work in turning this into an exciting and compelling TV show.

Seriously, this isn't very good at all. Not quite Steve Bruce* levels of thriller-writing, but thin gruel all the same, loaded down with luxury brand name-dropping and formulaic sex scenes.

*yes, that Steve Bruce.

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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Got to love self published books. Reading one at the moment set in 1952 where the hero has arrived directly from being a British military policeman in the League of Nations mandate of Palestine, despite the former having been sound up six years previously and Israel having been independent for four years by then. He meets someone on arrival who is said to come from Bangladesh even though that country would not come into existence for another 17 years. Later the hero who is the narrator proves his point by saying his knowledge of the first world war was hazy but everyone knew the story of how the Japanese conquered Singapore. The author also writes that a substantial part of the population in Singapore in 1952 were Japanese (despite in reality all Japanese being banned from the colony from 1945 to 1953). I only need to read now that Singapore was founded by space aliens to realise the author has got all his facts from the History Channel

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