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Just started Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Bought it in a charity shop the the other day, mainly because of his association with motorbikes. Not sure how it stacks up today but I'll give it a try....
Just started Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Bought it in a charity shop the the other day, mainly because of his association with motorbikes. Not sure how it stacks up today but I'll give it a try...
Good luck with that. I found it pretty dull and didn't finish it.
Got a couple on the go just now, dipping in and out of them as I like.
Stunning the Punters by Robert Sproat. Starting to think this is a real bit of underrated genius. So many voices from one man.
Long Time No See by Dermot Healy. Well known in Ireland, much less so here. He's a master of the slow reveal and one of the things that comes across in all his books is the subtle differences between Ireland and the UK.
The Golden Apples of the Sun, short story collection by Ray Bradbury. Struggling a bit with this although it did lead me to the rather wonderful poem which the title comes from. I generally love his work but this is early stuff and I think he's not quite hit his stride although it does contain the classic The Pedestrian.
Bob Mortimer - Satuma complex. Really don't think this is very good, but anything in Bob's voice is massively entertaining.
I love Bob Mortimer but not in print.
I've been enjoying audiobooks for the last few months. Listened to both of Bob Mortimer's novels after reading his autobiography. They're probably not books i'd read, but somehow they work as audiobooks.
I've liked comedian's autobiographies since reading Spike Milligan's as a kid and somehow have found myself listening to these recently. I think it's the incredible unashamed honesty mixed with humour that I find compelling:
Adam Buxton - I Love you, Byeeee: Ramblebook
Lee Mack - Mack the Life
Louis Theroux - Gotta get Theroux this
Rich Hall - Nailing it
Nigel Planer - Young Once: A life less heavy
Michael Pennington - Becoming Johnny Vegas
Fern Brady - Strong Female Character
Alan Davies - White Male Stand-Up
Alan Davies - Just Ignore Him
I've enjoyed all of them. I'd probably pick out Alan Davies, Fern Brady and Michael Pennington as favourites - their life stories and the way they tell them are so confronting.
Book reading I have done with my own eyes recently
Ken Jennings Maphead - a bit dated but entertaining enough
Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - I thought I was re-reading it but now I'm pretty sure I'd not read it before. I'm glad I have now.
Forty Years a Hermit - Ken Smith. There's a man who'll tell you Ben Alder cottage is definitely haunted.
Guess I’ll stick to reading on my 11” iPad/iPhone, but an iPad mini for reading ?……….that'd be a better size/weight and you can pick up a mini for the same price as a Kobo Clara.
The Kobo Clara is £149.99 and the cheapest new iPad Mini is £499.
You can pick up a second hand 5th generation Mini for about £140 but OS updates for that model are likely to cease within 12 months so you would maybe get a couple of years use out of it before not being able to install newer apps and security vulnerabilities make it difficult to use.
Google suggests the Clara is lighter, too. 🙂
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Is an excellent book, well worthy if you stick at it.
Top tip, print out the cast from the film and use as you go along.
PS My dad was in the film.
Still reading Dracula.
I'm finding it boring and hard work.
I liked the start, hate the dairy style. Common style of the time apparently.
Going to try Carmilla next.
I liked the start, hate the dairy style. Common style of the time apparently.
Is it a bit cheesy?
Just finished Mark Morris - The Anglo Saxons - fall of Roman Britain to 1066 -did a lot of this during my A' Level history in 1983/4 - its well written covers the heptarchy and the arrival of the Danes / Vikings. Good use of sources and supported with archaeology.
Martin Amis - Night Train. I started Quentin Tarantino's Cinema Speculation but it wasn't engaging me. May go back to it.
Dracula.
I'm finding it boring and hard work.
I did too. Don't think I even made it half way through.
I've got a hardcopy of Blood Red Snow on the go at home; good, but it's a weighty tome. I'm away on the bike next week so I'm going to re-read a couple of books on the Kindle:
The Last Light/Afterlight books by Alex Scarrow.
Pedaling Through the Ruins, by K Z Lambert.
Seem appropriate for some reason...
John le Carré: call for the dead.
Then on to smiley's people. Quite enjoyed tinker, tailor, soldier, spy.
Also going to try, the chronicles of a travelling cat, book club choice. Last one was slaughterhouse 5 which I really did not enjoy.
its well written covers the heptarchy and the arrival of the Danes / Vikings. Good use of sources and supported with archaeology.
I’ve not read that book, but I have read quite a lot about Britain during that period, in fact I was reading an article about just how fast and violent the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons might actually have been before reading this.
I have a particular interest in this, because King Alfred had a hunting lodge at the top of town, where the registry office and museum is. The Great Heathen Army attacked around Christmas, and captured the town, ultimately, Alfred raised an army and beat the Vikings into submission at Edington.
I live in Chippenham, formerly Cepenham, around Alfred’s time.
As others have mentioned, I read Nineteen Eighty Four as a teen, probably because I had to which ruins a lot of books ..... BUT I found my son's A Level copy the other day and started to read it. It's massively relevant to today's era of misinformation.
Absolutely! I read it at school, haven’t read it since, but I’ve been reading enough references to it in connection to current events that I feel I know it all too well… 🤨
Tau Zero is very good, haven't read anything else he wrote.
It is, and most of his books are worth a read. I read a lot of them decades ago!
After working through Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ten book series, I’m now most of the way through Claire North’s first actual SF book, Slow Gods, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. I’ve read everything she’s written, starting with her first Urban Magic book A Madness Of Angels, written as Kate Griffin, then all of her YA books she wrote as Catherine Webb, which she started when she was still at school, age 14, then she changed tack and started writing as Claire North. She’s a terrific writer, and refuses to stick with one genre.
Things We Found in the Ground: A Metal Detecting Journey Through Britain by Eleanor Bruce and Lucilla Gray.
I was passing Hatchards bookshop in Cheltenham this lunchtime and saw that the authors were doing a book tour this evening. Went along - it was quite interesting so bought the book.
It is, and most of his books are worth a read
I'll take that recommendation. Weird to click on a thread due to feeling like I've not been reading enough lately and immediately see myself quoted from a year ago, roughly when I basically stopped reading in favour of video games.
The tsundoku currently consist of;
Money Lies and God, by Katherine Stewart - about the extremist right wing anti-democratic and authoritarian forces at play in the US currently. Like all these sorts of books, it's always going to be just slightly out of date, but it's a well researched look at who the people are, what they believe (and don't), and their [often] conflicting agendas.
The Next World War - Peter Apps - Looks at the ways in which the next global conflict may arise. The messages is - we really really as a matter of some urgency, need to pick up our defense game. Like previous book, somewhat overtaken by events in Iran.
Exit Stalin- Mark Smith (no, not that one) _ examines Russia as a society and culture, from the day to day perspective of the actual Russians living in both the world's first socialist/communist state and one of the largest states to have ever existed. Genuinely fascinating.
There is no Antimemetics Division - Qntm- Haven't started it, was recommended to me.
Tunisgrad - Saul David - The turning point (November 1942) of WW2 - not started yet, but if you like James Holland and Rowland White, it's pretty familiar stuff.