A jolly good read?

[Parkins left foot]

Its the only reason my aunt had a middle name of Disraeli - no way would you encumber anyone with that without a family connection

 

[Parkins left foot]

Actually - forget all of that, having looked up the the family tree (which my Mother produced) the connection is with Gladstone, not Disraeli - so we are are on opposite sides

Though very much doubt that I am influenced by his views this far removed

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I am sorry for slagging off your ancestor

It hasn't passed down the tree anyway...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Well - I had a little look at the Michael Wood book as requested by Parkin.

Very episodic in nature, which you would expect from a work based on a tv series. My copy has been revised since that 1981 show so it seems to cover later archaeological and historical discoveries quite well. The episodic nature is a bit of a boon as you can dive into the bits that interest without having to read the whole thing in order.

People covered

Boudica
Arthur
Offa
Alfred
Aethelstan
Aethelred
Eric Bloodaxe
Cnut (I assume Svein Forkbeard is in this bit, although I haven't checked)
Edward the Confessor
William The Conqueror

It is very well written and an easy and interesting read. Only around 240 pages so hardly a dusty great tome. Well worth your while.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Well - I had a little look at the Michael Wood book as requested by Parkin.

Very episodic in nature, which you would expect from a work based on a tv series. My copy has been revised since that 1981 show so it seems to cover later archaeological and historical discoveries quite well. The episodic nature is a bit of a boon as you can dive into the bits that interest without having to read the whole thing in order.

People covered

Boudica
Arthur
Offa
Alfred
Aethelstan
Aethelred
Eric Bloodaxe
Cnut (I assume Svein Forkbeard is in this bit, although I haven't checked)
Edward the Confessor
William The Conqueror

It is very well written and an easy and interesting read. Only around 240 pages so hardly a dusty great tome. Well worth your while.

Cheers Paddy - will certainly look at getting that.

Hadn't realised that it is based on a TV series - must have missed that entirely when it was on

 

[lemonjelly]

Just finished The Blade Artist.
rollercoaster.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Squeeze told me that her friend's husband had just had a book published on the last will of Alexander the Great. Needless to say I thought I had better order it. To go with I have Philip Freeman's biography of the man himself and a very highly recommended book on the Alexandrian War of Succession by Robin Waterfield that I cannot wait to get my teeth into.

I also picked up some Penguin Classics translations of books I read (or at least sections of) in the original languages when I did latin and greek at school. Herodotus Histories, Tacitus Annals of Ancient Rome and Thucydides history of the Pelopponnesian War. I think reading them in the English versions will be a little easier than I remember the original study, but again it is something I am really looking forward to. When I get to the bits I clumsily translated at O Level I am looking forward to seeing what the correct answers were!

 

[Langers]

Apparently Joey Barton's autobiography (co-written with Michael Calvin) is only 99p on Kindle today only.

Well worth picking up at that price - it's a good read.

 

[Premier Quality]

Time after time, the new Ben Elton - I really enjoyed it. I don't like the guy, or his politics, but I really enjoy his books. This ones around trying to stop the First World War, very fantasy but really well written.

Not as good as Stephen kings 'save jfk' time travel one but still really good.

 

[PPB]

After watching the movie Lion, I'm now reading ' A Long Way Home ' by Saroo Brierley: A memoir.

Wrote with a little happier tone than the movie, but still emotional and charming, and a really great read.

 

[Langers]

I'll have to give that a try after I've finished my current book.

 

[Parkins left foot]

'Saved' - the story of Tony Bullimore who was rescued after 4 days inside the upturned hull of his boat during the Vendee Globe single handed round the world yacht race after it was capsized in a massive storm in the Southern Ocean (nearer to Antarctica than Australia).

How he survived that (as did another sailor Thierry Dubois who was rescued on the same day) is incredible as were the efforts on the Australian Navy & Air Force to effect the attempts.

(Picked the book off the second hand shelf at the Bowls Club as was in there all morning whilst some carpeting was fitted - had read half before I came home & have since finished it!)

Probably the fastest I have read a book - very well written & an emotional story

 

[PPB]

Madame Sadayakko- The Geisha Who Seduced The West by Lesley Downer
The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds by Selina Siak Chin Yoke

Both an interesting read for the ladies.

 

[lemonjelly]

Had a tidy up of the bookcase over the weekend. Here's a list of what I've read (in order) since I last posted in january last year:
David Peace - Red Riding Quartet Ace series based loosely around the late 70's/yorkshire ripper scare
Graham Turner - The Only Way Is Up Saw it mentioned on a thread on here, and decided to have a read. Great tour down memory lane!
Peter Ackroyd - Shakespeare, The Biography Pretty good overview of the life and times of the bard.
John Bennett - Krayology Bennett is an East End historian, and a great true crime writer. His JtR book is one of the best I ever read. This is a cracking overview of the impact of the Krays.
Jon E Lewis - The Mammoth Book of Pirates Purchased in a charity shop on a whim, a fun read (amazing how many characters in pirate stories are based on real people).
Jostein Gaarder - The Castle In The Pyrenees Lost his mojo trying to follow Sophies World (amazing book), and became formulaic. The Ringmasters Daughter was a return to form, and this book does vary Gaarders MO a bit, though sections were a bit predictable.
John Lydon - Anger Is An Energy Lydon is a character! An absolute mine of contradictions, but he's always been pretty honest. This follows and reflects on and sometimes amends "no irish..." but is really engaging. Both are excellent books.
Andre Comte-Sponville - The Book Of Atheist Spirituality A fairly humanist overview of life and ethics. Pretty much demolishes the argument that religion is the only basis for morality.
Richard Adams - Watership Down Classic. Amazed it took me til now to read this book.
Richard Adams - Tales From Watership Down A follow up to the above, further short stories/adventures, plus a couple of new tales.
Wynne Weston Davies - The Real Mary Kelly Another person investigates their family history and concludes their ancestor was MJK from 13 Millers Court. Such books are usually guff. This isn't, though the conclusions are probably not correct. But at least this book isn't a trashing of ones ancestor (as they usually are), and it is both interesting, and in places plausible.
Jimmy Evans & Martin Short - The Survivor Late 50's.early 60's gangland crime, written by a safeblower with tales of criminal and personal vendettas.
Paul Hammond & Patrick Hughes - Upon The Pun A non-visual exploration of the themes behind Patrick Hughes art. I love his books.
Stephen King - Bag of Bones I know this is T-Dans fave. I fell out of love with King. His On Writing brought me back. 11/22/63 was superb, but I remain to be convinced. This was ok, but meandered a bit too much (as King is wont to do).
Dan Farson - Jack The Ripper Famous for giving the world Montague J Druitt as a suspect. Dated.
Iain M Banks - The State of the Art Collection of short sci-fi by Banks. At the risk of being shot, I preferred his short stuff to his sci-fi novels.
Iain M Banks - Excession A contrast of how intelligence deals with a problem, contrasted with sheer brutality.
William S Burroughs - Junky Fucking brilliant first hand experience of addiction. Illuminating.
Patrick Matthews - Cannabis Culture A pretty fair overview of the sub-cultures withing cannabis users. Spoiler alert! Not everyone is a hippy. In its small world, the business side of cannabis production is laid bare.
John Grisham - The Partner & The Runaway Jury At best, this is the fast food equivalent of reading. Instantly forgettable, not exactly satisfying.
Bez - Freaky Dancin' Bez is a twat.
Carlton Smith & Tomas Guillen - The Search For The Green River Killer Written before Gary Ridgeway was arrested for & confessed to being TGRK, a pretty factual overview of the series of crimes. he case is interesting because of the gaps in sprees. Most assume killers don't/can't stop. Ridgeway did, for years at a time.
Stephen Halliday - Newgate History of one of Bitains most (in)famous prisons.
Geoffrey Ashe - The Discovery of King Arthur Good exploration of possible Arthurs. Fair and balanced.
Stephen King - Different Seasons Cracking series of novellas. Really enjoyable.
Paul Woods & Gavin Baddesley - Saucy Jack Wider exploration of JtR more in culture. So-so. Ok, but have read better.
Robin Waterfield - Athens The great democracy form ancient times was actually very short lived! Yet so much of what they achieved in such a short time remains/influences today, inducing the idea of Athens. Cracking book.
Derren Brown - Happy Derren goes all stoic philosopher on us. In many sections a great and thought provoking read.
Karl Hyde - I Am Dogboy One half of Underworld, Hyde started an online diary writing daily in 1999. This book is in part inspired by this. A collection of diary entries, potential lyrics, reminisces, photo's and autobiographical essays. Intruiging as it separates the sections, and trainspotting to 2015 is omitted entirely.
Mark Kermode - Hachet Job People who see kermode as a shouty man have got him way wrong. His books are ace. This one, on the merits and value of good quality criticism has a lot going for it. brilliant read.
The Official Autobiography of Roy of the Rovers A huge great big steaming pile of turn that almost single handedly ruined sections of my childhood. A book that should be burned. Shit of the utmost shitness.
Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers Very different to a clockwork orange. The tale of two families as they rise to the peak of their professions and lives. Held me.
Mike Dixon-Kennedy - The Robin Hood Handbook The history of Robin (if true), exploration of possible areas, and the original texts of the tales in one volume.
Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion A tour de force on the side of atheism. To the point, and occasionally blunt, Dawkins holds religion to account and finds it severely wanting.
David Bullock - The Man Who Would Be Jack Exploration of Thomas Cutbush, alleged by the sun in 1894 to be JtR. What could be great, is horrendously let down by n notes, sources, references, index or even bibliography. As a result, it contains zero verifiable facts.
Iain M Banks - The Hydrogen Sonata I keep trying Banks' sci fi and I'm never quite sure I get it. Reading this book, sections are quasi-religious, and I can't help but wonder if he wrote it knowing he was dying. That could be me reading too much into it though.
John E Keefe - carroty Nell In contrast to Bullock's book above, this is an immensely well researched history of Frances Coles, killed in 1891, argued by some t be the final JtR victim. The whitechapel murders spanned april 1888 - December 1891 and contained 10 murders. Jacks tally varies from theorist to theorist, and also sometimes by suspect. Keefe is clear we should omit Coles at our peril, but he also puts correct a lot of errors commonly assumed about Coles.
irvine Welsh - The Blade artist Cracking, though brief read. Some of begbie's character is a bit obvious, there is a touch of jekyll & hyde. But the ending is really interesting...
Daniel C Dennet - Kinds of Minds Dennet makes the case that consciousness is an emergent property from our biological systems working in tandem. Not sure I agree, but he makes a good case.
Tom Slemen - Jack the ripper British Intelligence Agent Starts really well, then sadly descends into farce with a Jack was protecting the establishment from anarchists/fenians and the like with zero evidence. A shame, as a lot of research has produced terrible results.

Couple of huge coffee table books I also read:
Derren Brown portraits (a look at his art)
Melvin Harris - the ripper file (not a patch on his 2 other ripper books, reads as an opinion piece)
Storm Thorgerson - Mind Over Matter - the art of pink floyd. great excuse to get the floyd cd's out! Cracking book too.
Cobain - journals (newsflash - cobain was a kid who liked making music, had high hopes, the reality was't as imagined, then drugs fucked him).

I am now reading a dean koontz book for the first time in over 20 years.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Is The God Delusion worth reading? I've been meaning to check it out for a while.

What Koontz are you reading? I thought Watchers was superb but nothing I've read from him since was able to match it.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

LJ.

I see you are still reading "Ripper" books. You must have read just about every one out there.

 

[nimrod]

Iain M Banks - The State of the Art Collection of short sci-fi by Banks. At the risk of being shot, I preferred his short stuff to his sci-fi novels.
Iain M Banks - Excession A contrast of how intelligence deals with a problem, contrasted with sheer brutality.
Iain M Banks - The Hydrogen Sonata I keep trying Banks' sci fi and I'm never quite sure I get it. Reading this book, sections are quasi-religious, and I can't help but wonder if he wrote it knowing he was dying. That could be me reading too much into it though.

lol, i didn't know if that was a prompt for me but i certainly don't like all of his books. one he's done, song of stone, is truly awful.

there's some good stuff in state of the art, though i read it a long long time ago.

i don't think i've actually read the hydrogen sonata. his best books imo are the earlier ones which is the same for his non-sci fi books too. he has 'the player of games' and 'use of weapons' listed in the top 100 sci-fi books, so there's a clue. both of these, like the majority of his non sci-fi are character driven books. whilst there's a wider context to them in respect of the Culture, it's clear the story revolves around the main characters. in the bigger picture of the Culture, though, these characters remain relatively unimportant, despite their significance in their respective books.

whilst there are i think there human/alien characters in excession (you've just read it so will know), by now they really are insignificant to the story, which is a stepped change from that point. his later books seem to follow that sort of style. characters set the scene/background to aspects of the book rather than having any significant role. for me, the story in the later books can seem to lack a focal point and direction as a result. having said that i thought excession was brilliant, if unconventional, and better than the books that followed it.

he has a non-culture book called feersum endjinn, which i like a lot. half written phonetically but easy to get used to.

 

[lemonjelly]

Is The God Delusion worth reading? I've been meaning to check it out for a while.

What Koontz are you reading? I thought Watchers was superb but nothing I've read from him since was able to match it.

It's called False Memory. Interesting premise regarding phobia's & their development. I haven't read Kootz since a teenager, and I'm wondering if that decision was snobbery, or over-exposure.

LJ.

I see you are still reading "Ripper" books. You must have read just about every one out there.

Not quite. There's still a few books out there I'd like to read, and a couple coming out this year I'm interested in. Tom Wescott has a fuller length book out soon, Paul Begg & John Bennett have a book out in the summer, and there is a long delayed book on Donald Swanson that looks great. I have about 8 ripper books on the shelf at home yet to be read. I wonder if I ave more ripper books than you have WW1 books? :icon_biggrin:

 

[lemonjelly]

lol, i didn't know if that was a prompt for me but i certainly don't like all of his books. one he's done, song of stone, is truly awful.

there's some good stuff in state of the art, though i read it a long long time ago.

i don't think i've actually read the hydrogen sonata. his best books imo are the earlier ones which is the same for his non-sci fi books too. he has 'the player of games' and 'use of weapons' listed in the top 100 sci-fi books, so there's a clue. both of these, like the majority of his non sci-fi are character driven books. whilst there's a wider context to them in respect of the Culture, it's clear the story revolves around the main characters. in the bigger picture of the Culture, though, these characters remain relatively unimportant, despite their significance in their respective books.

whilst there are i think there human/alien characters in excession (you've just read it so will know), by now they really are insignificant to the story, which is a stepped change from that point. his later books seem to follow that sort of style. characters set the scene/background to aspects of the book rather than having any significant role. for me, the story in the later books can seem to lack a focal point and direction as a result. having said that i thought excession was brilliant, if unconventional, and better than the books that followed it.

he has a non-culture book called feersum endjinn, which i like a lot. half written phonetically but easy to get used to.

I thought of you whilst reading Hydrogen Sonata. Excession is one of his better culture books imo. I think I refer Iain Banks, to Iain M Banks overall. Not 100% sure I fully "get" the M books. State of the Art was more fun I thought. Sonata does seem quite religious to me.

I was also reminded of you when discussing Hydrogen Sonata at work with someone who really loves his non sci-fi stuff, and strongly recommended The Bridge, which I know you did too and I haven't got yet. Agree his earlier stuff was better. I really liked Dead Air. Have to say though I also liked Stonemouth which was recent.

 

[nimrod]

I thought of you whilst reading Hydrogen Sonata. Excession is one of his better culture books imo. I think I refer Iain Banks, to Iain M Banks overall. Not 100% sure I fully "get" the M books. State of the Art was more fun I thought. Sonata does seem quite religious to me.

I was also reminded of you when discussing Hydrogen Sonata at work with someone who really loves his non sci-fi stuff, and strongly recommended The Bridge, which I know you did too and I haven't got yet. Agree his earlier stuff was better. I really liked Dead Air. Have to say though I also liked Stonemouth which was recent.

i think surface detail was the last Banks i read, the one before HS. Have you read any of the early Culture books (Phlebas, Player, Use)?

Authors may be a bit like bands. they have some great ideas which they have time to nurture into great books before being "discovered". after that it's more of a struggle, though they may have built up a fanbase that still loves the later stuff that may only be half as good, if that.

yeah the bridge is a great book. walking on glass is too, if a little weird (which i like). wasp factory, complicity are fun, and espedair street which is about a band - i think i envisaged Fish from Marillion when reading that. canal dreams, bit crap and avoid song of stone.

not read dead air or stonemouth funnily enough.