Book thread: what are you reading?

[Oxford]

3 hours ago, Jeff Stein said:

the author has got all his facts from the History Channel

Better that than facebook and Twitter!

[Oxford]

Going over this again at the moment

 

 

[Mumby Magic]

Got to say Zlatans is well worth the read. Only half way thru but one of best ive read in a while

[Copa]

I’ve dragged out my big collection of Indonesian language Agatha Christie books. Am currently reading a collection of her short stories. It’s quite good.

[Bleep1673]

2020-04-20_08-35-10 by David  Hesketh, on Flickr

As posted on another thread, I got time (not Thyme) on my hands, so I might read them both again, shocking story to both

Edited April 20, 2020 by Bleep1673

[Futtocks]

I'm reading this. Absolutely and deliberately awful, but quite fun.

[Bleep1673]

5 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

2020-04-20_08-35-10 by David  Hesketh, on Flickr

As posted on another thread, I got time (not Thyme) on my hands, so I might read them both again, shocking story to both

I have a very nasty habit, from when I worked in NHS theatres of writing my name, and the dates that I read books, so that if they "get lost" in the system, they will eventually return. The Lenin book vanished, i have dated it as 1993, but it went missing. 15 years later when I started working in Hastings, it was on the bookshelf. My Copy. NAMED & dated.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Very soon I will be starting 'Bloody Belfast' by Ken Wharton which is a collection of first hand accounts from soldiers who served in Northern Ireland during the troubles. 

I've read a lot about the troubles but this will actually be my first Wharton book. From what I can tell, he seems to be the leading authority on the soldiers' side of the conflict so I'm very much looking forward to getting into it because I have read very little from that side of things. The soldiers' stories seem to get quite overlooked in writing about the troubles in favour of the civilian side and from other things I've read it seems the soldiers are often used as scapegoats for some of the things that have happened so it will be good to even out my knowledge. 

[Oxford]

On 20/04/2020 at 09:51, Bleep1673 said:

15 years later when I started working in Hastings, it was on the bookshelf. My Copy. NAMED & dated.

Okay I'm game Bleep: How far had it travelled? Were there any other names written in it when you found it?

Can the story be made into a film like those animals that travel across the country to get back to their owners?

[Bleep1673]

27 minutes ago, Oxford said:

Okay I'm game Bleep: How far had it travelled? Were there any other names written in it when you found it?

Can the story be made into a film like those animals that travel across the country to get back to their owners?

No other names in it, but asking a few questions there seemed to be a link.

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, Bleep1673 said:

there seemed to be a link.

This is like To Be Continued on the TV or Saturday matinee pictures ....

 

[Leeds Wire]

Just finished Treasure Island. I can't believe I've never read it before. 

Absolutely wonderful book. What a story!  Yaaaarrrrrr!

[shaun mc]

Have just finished 2 Nick Crane books - the bloke who's on TV series Coast a bit

I knew he had undertaken a few long distance cycle rides before but not these

Clear Waters Rising - a 10,000k trek from Finisterre in NW France to Istanbul by every mountain range (not long after he got married as well)

Two Degrees West - a walk (if the above is a trek) from Berwick to Dorset along the Meridian

Both are fascinating - a travelogue, a historical tome and a logistics & survival exercise all in one 

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, Leeds Wire said:

Just finished Treasure Island. I can't believe I've never read it before. 

Absolutely wonderful book. What a story!  Yaaaarrrrrr!

RLS was a great story-teller. Plenty of good stuff to enjoy from his work. And, because he's out of copyright, you can get a complete edition of his works on Kindle for nothing.

He died in Samoa, where he is still remembered as "Tusitala", the teller of tales. The Samoans insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing him on their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Has anyone ever read any good books on ufo sightings and alien encounters and that sort of thing?

[hunslet ramone]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Has anyone ever read any good books on ufo sightings and alien encounters and that sort of thing?

Yes me , the best book I think you should read is Communion by Whitley Streiber, based on a true story of his abduction, they made a film of this book it was not very good film but the book is an excellent read , I read this years ago having got it from my local library. The book was first published in 1987 and there is a follow up to it called Transformation and that was a great read too.

[Oxford]

9 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Has anyone ever read any good books on ufo sightings and alien encounters and that sort of thing?

I hesitate to ask this about alien contact & abduction but do you prefer fact(!) or fiction, on this one?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

47 minutes ago, Oxford said:

I hesitate to ask this about alien contact & abduction but do you prefer fact(!) or fiction, on this one?

Non-fiction, as I've mentioned before, I have shelves and shelves of sci-fi novels. 

[Oxford]

Just now, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I have shelves and shelves of sci-fi novels. 

Perfect!

[Leeds Wire]

Yesterday I thought I'd have a go at something very British and a bit lighter in tone. 

I sat down to read 'The Cornershop in Cockleberry Bay' and ended up finishing it in two sittings. It's a great story about a young woman in London who was brought up in care and anonymously inherits a little gift shop in a Devon seaside town.

The twists and turns in the story are fabulous, it was a really entertaining read. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

At the start of lockdown I had lofty ambitions of getting stuck into some of the classics.

Fast forward a few weeks and here I am reading a trashy £2 science fiction novel called Thrawn by Timothy Zahn.

Its a former New York Times bestseller, but I think that’s because it’s based around a fictional alien character in the Star Wars universe that wasn’t depicted in the films.

Bubblegum for the mind!

[Bleep1673]

20 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

At the start of lockdown I had lofty ambitions of getting stuck into some of the classics.

Fast forward a few weeks and here I am reading a trashy £2 science fiction novel called Thrawn by Timothy Zahn.

Its a former New York Times bestseller, but I think that’s because it’s based around a fictional alien character in the Star Wars universe that wasn’t depicted in the films.

Bubblegum for the mind!

New York Times bestsellers usually turn me off. Anything that the septics like is immediately put back on the shelf.

[Gerrumonside ref]

35 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

New York Times bestsellers usually turn me off. Anything that the septics like is immediately put back on the shelf.

I agree NYT bestseller means nothing more than ‘popular’ which doesn’t necessarily mean ‘quality’.

I think though not all Americans can be treated as the same.

There’s a lot of very clever people over there after all.

And there’s good and bad in every people.

I wouldn’t write something off so quickly because it has sold well in the states.

[Futtocks]

M*A*S*H goes to Maine. The first sequel to Richard Hooker's book about Korean War medics, and one of only three M*A*S*H books he actually wrote.

There are 11 other MASH books, written by William Butterworth, which are appallingly and cynical bad cash-ins.

[glemiln]

On 27/04/2020 at 08:50, Oxford said:

Perfect!   (Science Fiction)

Currently revisiting John Wyndham’s beautifully written 1951 novel  “The Day of the Triffids” - I was 9 at the time of publication, but did not read it until early teens.  Some parallels with some in the current Covid situation:  “ An obstinate refusal to face facts isn’t going to bring anything back, or help us at all”.....”It must be one of the Race’s most persistent and comforting hallucinations to trust that it can’t happen here - that one’s own little time and place is beyond cataclysms.”   Least said about the film version!