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Book thread: what are you reading?


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1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Wow, I-spy books, completely forgotten about them, must be 20 years since I last saw one of them, do they still make those? 

Seems like they do! https://www.waterstones.com/author/i-spy/3158077 

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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Did anyone ever complete an I-Spy book? I don't think I did.

I have vague memories of having 2 or three when I was little, but there were always some hard-to-spot things among the everyday stuff.

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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  • 3 weeks later...

I have recently begun reading a series of 'action and adventure' books by an author named Andy Mcdermott.

I have already finished the first 4 books and I am currently 200 pages into book 5 'The Cult Of Osiris'.

If you are a fan of the Uncharted series of games or Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones then I think you will find a lot to like in these books.

The two main characters are very likeable and if myths such as Atlantis and Excalibur tickle your fancy then you will find a lot to like here as they find themselves in conflict with religious sects, shady government departments and others who would quite like to rule the world.

Strong sense of humour throughout the pages as they travel the world unravelling clues and ultimately finding the prize.

Worth taking a punt on these if any of the above sounds appealing to you.

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Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain by Pen Vogler. I'm only in the first chapter, but that was after a long introduction that helps set the scene. Interesting and (so far) very readable.

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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  • 4 weeks later...
On 13/03/2021 at 12:07, Futtocks said:

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain by Pen Vogler. I'm only in the first chapter, but that was after a long introduction that helps set the scene. Interesting and (so far) very readable.

This is very good. Like one of those Bill Bryson books about a specific subject.

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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Just bought 'Contract In Blood' by Ian Glasper.

A history of thrash metal in the UK.

As a genre UK thrash is often overlooked and dismissed as not being up to the American and German varients so a book like this was long overdue.

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14 hours ago, Johnoco said:

Who is mentioned in it? I can think of a few likely candidates but curious to see who it mentions.

There's 100 bands in it. The usual suspects such as Onslaught, Sabbat, Acid Reign, Xentrix, Re-animater, Lawnmower Deth but also bands that came later ie Shrapnel, Solitary, down to bands that only has a single release but are considered important in the scene.

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Just started 'All these Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners' by Rutger Hauer and Patrick Quinlan. So far, so very readable.

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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2 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Ooh sounds like something I'd be interested in! 

I recently re-watched Blind Fury and wondered if Rutger had ever released an autobiography. Turns out he did, and it starts with him getting a job with Christopher Nolan, before flashing back to the beginning, when he was in a penniless touring theatre company, playing the likes of village halls.

He gets spotted by a guy who makes TV programmes about regional arts, and the next thing he knows, he is introduced to a bloke who'd directed some training videos for the Dutch army. A somewhat deranged young man called Paul Verhoeven.

Like I said, I'm only a chapter and a bit into it, but this is extremely promising.

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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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On 12/04/2021 at 23:18, Futtocks said:

Just started 'All these Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners' by Rutger Hauer and Patrick Quinlan. So far, so very readable.

Just finished it. The co-author credit suggests that Quinlan may have tidied up the flow of things, but the voice of the book has Hauer's personality and his insights into the various roles he played.

He obviously liked to have input into his movies, so suggested script and scene changes a lot, which may have played better with some directors than others. He also seemed to have a bigger picture, making time to explore and enjoy wherever he found himself making movies. It didn't hurt that he'd converted a huge truck into a mobile, marble-floored home-from-home, including space for a garage containing an off-road bike and a car, so he could feel at home anywhere he could drive in Europe. Elsewhere, he seems to have a recurring talent for flooding hotel rooms.

The main body of the autobiography is followed by a short chapter on what he thinks about the craft of acting, then some diary excerpts, which are less polished and more colloquial. Then a chapter on his AIDS charity.

It occasionally feels a little over-polished and partial, but is still a damn good read.

Edited by Futtocks
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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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  • 2 weeks later...

Arthur C.Clarke - The Lost Worlds of 2001. This is a collection of Clarke's writings about the novel and the film, which developed concurrently.

There are also diary entries, many memories of working and just chatting with with Stanley Kubrick, alternate stories for almost every part of the final plot, and 'The Sentinel', a short story that was the germ of the idea. A really good read.

Next up is Civilizations by Laurent Binet, an alternative history that imagines what would have happened if the Incas, under the leadership of Atahualpa, invaded Europe instead of the other way round. It has been pretty well reviewed. Here's the blurb: 

c.1000AD: Erik the Red's daughter heads south from Greenland
1492: Columbus does not discover America
1531: the Incas invade Europe

Freydis is the leader of a band of Viking warriors who get as far as Panama. Nobody knows what became of them...
Five hundred years later, Christopher Columbus is sailing for the Americas, dreaming of gold and conquest. Even when captured by Incas, his faith in his superiority and his mission is unshaken.

Thirty years after that, Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, arrives in Europe. What does he find? The Spanish Inquisition, the Reformation, capitalism, the miracle of the printing press, endless warmongering between the ruling monarchies, and constant threat from the Turks.

But most of all, downtrodden populations ready for revolution. Fortunately, he has a recent guidebook to acquiring power - Machiavelli's The Prince. It turns out he is very good at it. So, the stage is set for a Europe ruled by Incas and, when the Aztecs arrive on the scene, for a great war that will change history forever.

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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Bargain Alert! Nigella Lawson's new book Cook, Eat, Repeat is available for £1.99 as a Kindle download from Amazon (UK) until the end of today.

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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On 12/04/2021 at 23:18, Futtocks said:

Just started 'All these Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners' by Rutger Hauer and Patrick Quinlan. So far, so very readable.

My father gave me "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", to read when I was about 11/12 & it blew my mind, long before Blade Runner.

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