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What book (s) are you reading now ?

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Posted by: olddonald

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.


 
Posted : 15/04/2026 9:15 pm
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Posted by: Scapegoat

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… 🤨


 
Posted : 15/04/2026 9:21 pm
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Posted by: wordnumb

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.


 
Posted : 15/04/2026 9:41 pm
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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.


 
Posted : 15/04/2026 9:41 pm
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Posted by: CountZero
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.


 
Posted : 15/04/2026 10:00 pm
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Posted by: wordnumb

stopped reading in favour of video games.


How Could You What GIF

 
Posted : 16/04/2026 8:50 am
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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. 


 
Posted : 16/04/2026 10:27 am
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Just finished "Forgotten Voices of Burma" by Julian Thompson and the IWM. Basically a collection of individual recollections of their experience in Burma 1941 -1945. Some incredible first hand accounts in date order (including some Japanese) of the British and Commonwealth (and civilians) retreat and advance across Burma - also some grim stuff that must have haunted them post war for as long as they lived. And some dark humour.


 
Posted : 24/04/2026 3:00 pm
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I'm currently drifting through the wonderful surreal world of Murakami with Norwegian Wood.  


 
Posted : 24/04/2026 3:35 pm
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