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I'm audiobooking The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It's incredibly long, and I was wary as it became something of a right-wing cult classic.
I'm really enjoying it; it's very well written and I'm properly invested in the story. It's not overtly political, rather a case for free-thinking individualism over collectivism, which isn't surprising for a author who was raised in brutal Soviet Union.
I'd be interested in others' opinions. Am I a selfish right wing freak for rooting for Howard Rourke?
Looking forward to reading A Gentleman in Moscow soon, once I’ve finished The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell which I’m quite enjoying but not yet fully sold on.
One Ive just finished and really enjoyed was A woman in the polar night. It is a short book by an Austrian artist in the 1930s who went off to join her husband living in a trappers hut in north Svarlbard for a year - as you do. That doesn’t sound very promising but it is really good.
Just finished - The Crusader Armies by Steve Tibble - very readable - challenges the many assumptions of who fought for who and why during the crusades.
Currently on Bernie Taupin’s autobiography which is name drop heaven.
Something I enjoyed late last year was the story of the USS Jeanette, In the Kingdom of Ice. I’ve been interested in reading about exploration since reading a book about Shackletons mission, this Jeanette story is amazing and includes the origin of the saying ‘Gordon Bennett!’ (One for the kids there)
Not sure what’s on my bookshelf next
Empire of Normality - Neurodiversity and Capitalism. Robert Chapman. "shows how the rise of capitalism created an 'empire of normality' that transformed our understanding of the body into that of a productivity machine."
Epitaph for a Spy, Eric Ambler
Always a sucker for 1930s written books for the insight into the concerns and fear of Germany before WWII.
Recently finished IQ84 by Haruku Murakami. Not my favourite Murakami, but worth reading (my favourite is Kafka on the Shore).
Now on Maiden Castle by John Cowper Powys. Very Victorian, but once you get over that, good stuff.
Daniel Clowes marathon. Started with Monica, which was excellent, checking out some of his prior stuff but nothing's tickling the synapses the same yet.
About halfway through City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Very good, it's like if Perdido Street Station was easier to read and less oppressive and horrible. Tchaikovsky's a genius I think, it feels so different to the apt series for his fantasy, never mind the sf stuff.
Before that was Year Of Our War by Steph Swainston, which I loved. Not perfect, far from it but I just loved the characters and wanted to spend time with them.
Currently reading 'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking' by Susan Cain, and 'Triumphs and Turbulence' the Chris Boardman autobiography.
Having previously never listened to a podcast, I've also become somewhat addicted to the podcast series: The Hilarious World of Depression, and the follow up, Depresh Mode. (Apologies those aren't about reading!)
The Book About Everything: Eighteen Artists, Writers and Thinkers on James Joyce's Ulysses
Kiberd, Declan; Terrinoni, Enrico; Wilsdon, Catherine
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville.
A big book of crazy.
Most of the time it's in a good way.
Just finished Wool (part 1 of the silo trilogy) that someone bought me. Typical badly written sci-fi with great ideas and absolutely no characterisation and the only genre that seems to dispense with editors. Won't bother with the other 2.
Just started Behave by Robert Sapolsky, the story of human behaviour, Heard him interviewed on Leading and he sounded like he had a few interesting ideas so bought the book - its a bit more in depth than I thought with a whole appendix on Neuroscience 101 which I've just ploughed through. Hope I learn something!
Just got this one. Kasser's ideas expressed in cartoons. Only read a few pages so far.
Hyper-Capitalism: the modern economy, its values, and how to change them Paperback – Illustrated, 10 May 2018
by Larry Gonick (Author), Tim Kasser (Author)
I think there's a few on here that have had dealings with him. A thoroughly good bloke.
Just finished In Ascension by Martin MacInnes. Woman's work in algae studies takes her from an underwater research trip to an stellar journey to the edge of the Oort cloud. Mixed if I'm honest, the writing can be mesmerising and infuriating in equal measure and the ending's a cop-out.
Just finished Wool (part 1 of the silo trilogy) that someone bought me. Typical badly written sci-fi with great ideas and absolutely no characterisation and the only genre that seems to dispense with editors. Won’t bother with the other 2.
You forgot it completely ignoring basic physics too - radio waves from walkie-talkies transmitting through solid earth and underwater, and being able to dive very deep without any pressure implications and being able to come straight back to the surface.
I'm also reading an Adrian Tchaikovsky, Doors of Eden. About parallel evolution and crossovers between different Earths where life evolved differently. Very good.
I can handle doors between multiverses, but not radio waves transmitting through water.
I quite enjoyed the first Wool. I thought the conceit was pretty cool. Yeah, you can make the obvious anti-physics claims, but y'know; SciFi...If you think that's bad; in book 2 there's a man who's frozen and revived a couple of times over 50 years or so, and in book 3, it turns out to have been a big worry over nothing, so y'know, in the big scheme of things...
I think Wool (like the Southern Reach series) was just a bit too ambitious and I have a sneaky suspicion that the authors were probably offered an advance they couldn't turn down.
I’ve just finished- scattershot by Bernie Taupin. (Lyricist for Elton John)
This is a sort of autobiographical account of his early years in the music industry, his time as a bonefide rodeo rider and other bizarre bits of his very interesting life. As a wordsmith it’s beautifully written, but I suspect he’s got selective memory and the drugs have taken their toll.
@bunnyhop I’m in the last few chapters and I’m always amazed how those with a drug and alcohol laced past can be so clear on things that happened whilst in the same sentence be off their feet on tequila and powder.
I do take some great pub quiz question stuff from the book though, which member of Dads Army has a son who played in a band with the man who wrote candle in the wind type stuff.
@white101 - Bernie Taupin's a bit of a naughty one, because I've followed him and Elton since I was at school in the 1970's, Taupin has definitely changed many things he's said over the years. But I find these types seem to get away with it.
I absolutely love his lyrics (I'm not a fan of most of Elton's singles) on most of the albums they wrote together. His 'American wild West' leanings while being an English farmer's son is astonishing.
I met Bernie once at an Elton John backstage concert, all I remember was how tiny he was and Elton's not exactly a tall chap.
I’m in the last few chapters and I’m always amazed how those with a drug and alcohol laced past can be so clear on things that happened whilst in the same sentence be off their feet on tequila and powder.
They aren't clear on stuff at all, they're just setting out their version of the truth.
Reg Harris' biography, Amid the high hills by Hugh Frazer, Letters to young shooters by Ralph Payne Gallway, some thing about the spring claasics but it is the summer house and I'm not going out in the rain to check the author and next to start, both Mein Kampf and Das Capital. Found in an deceased aunts book case. Thought I have a balanced approach.
i have a few books i have to read that i bought on kindle but 3 hardbacks that i have recently bought that are great (if you are into guitars/bass) are...
messengers the guitars of james hetfield
marr's guitars (johnny marr)
geddy lee's beautiful big book of bass (and it is big/massive book).
all 3 books are great with some fab pics of the guitars/basses.
Just started Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan after enjoying Mayflies.
Reading Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan. Really enjoying these books and this is almost what I'd say is the 6th book in the powder mage series but its really the third of a second trilogy. Quite a different magic system involved and im now quite attached to some of the characters.
Once this ones done ive four or five at home still to read but no idea what I'll read next as im quite often a just whatever is on top of the pile person.
I'm having another go at getting through Empire of Democracy by Simon Reid-Henry. Its making more sense to me now, and feeling a bit more relevant as its tying in nicely with what I'm currently studying.
Read Go Like Hell this week, the book that Le Mans 66 was based - was ok, they definately took some liberties with the film! 🙂 You can tell it was written by a non-motorsport journalist, lots of hyperbole (Moss apparently smashed almost every bone in his body at Goodwood in '62...), and he also talks about Surtee's big crash in the Lola in Canada without actually saying what car it was (T70, I now know). But it's all right, passed a few rail miles happily enough. 🙂
Just finished The myth of normal by Gabor Mate Very good I now understand trauma a bit better.
Before the Mate book I read, Why Zebras don't get ulcers by Robert Sapolsky- Also very good I found it more useful than the Mate book.
Just finished Good cop, bad cop by Simon Kernik. I liked it. But then I like all the books of his that I have read 🙂
Coffee First, Then The World by Jenny Graham - every bit as good as I hoped it would be.
I’ve just discovered Tim Winton, read Breath and just finishing Dirt Music.
Really enjoyed both so looking forward to reading more of his work.
Heartstone by CJ Sansom (reading through the Matthew Shardlake series) and Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart.
Alternating between the two.
Hope you are enjoying >> Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan.
Went to hear him do a reading from it last night,he was very,very good ,and interesting to hear the places his research took him. He had been working on it since 2013.
I recently finished the Last Policeman by Ben Winters; it had been in storage for 3 years so I was looking forward to it! Definitely not as good or as multi-textured as Underground Airlines, but a fantastic overarching premise, gripping enough to want to find the next book somewhere.
Also whipped through book 4(?) of Slow Horses by Mick Herron. Fantastic as ever, some definite "wtaf?" moments. And the beauty of the TV adaptation is that when reading it now the characters do feel like the actors - Ho, Louisa, Lamb, Cartwright et al.
Just started on Solitary by Albert Woodfox; very much a companion piece to In the Place of Justice by Wilbert Rideau, about life as a black prisoner in the infamous Angola prison in Louisiana
I’ve just discovered Tim Winton, read Breath and just finishing Dirt Music.
Really enjoyed both so looking forward to reading more of his work.
I've got a load of his books. Generally I like them, but he really can't write a good ending IMO. They just go weird.
Notes On A Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. Hoping to inspire myself to cut back on social media and be happier with my lot.
@reeksy haha, just read Shepherds Hut as my first intro after nabbing it from my sister's & couldn't agree more
Mister-P
Free Member
Notes On A Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. Hoping to inspire myself to cut back on social media and be happier with my lot.
Pretty sure I've got this in my pile somewhere. I can manage max 1 'sensible' book and 1 fun book at a time, though - the sensible ones get read less quickly than the fun ones. So I've had it in the pile for a couple of years now!
Currently working through The Norm Chronicles as my sensible book - it's about stats and probabilities of death. Quite interesting (to me), quite well presented.
How about this for minority interest - "Be glad for the song has no ending - an Incredible String Band anthology". 800-odd pages about the band and their records. Very limited numbers printed (hardly surprising, really). I'm loving it. Even I, as a long time fan, was surprised to discover how popular they were. Very influential, too.
Am near Wigtown for a few days, where the books are. Picked up the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft and the selected writings of Dylan Thomas for starters. Was already halfway through Project Hail Mary and have an Anthony Bourdain. Deciding which Lovecraft to read my girls before bed.
@fasthaggis - Yes really enjoying it, you can tell there's a lot of work gone into it from a very talented writer.
About halfway through Ken Macleod's Beyond The Hallowed Sky and tbf it's a bit rubbish. I love Ken Macleod, his Fall revolution series is superb but this just isn't hitting on any counts. Maybe it'll pick up, it got great reviews