Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
Adam B said:
now on this following a recommendation here i think, so far quite amusing
just finished "Whats that button do"?
Bruce Dickinson autobiography. as with most of these things nowadays its a very sterile/sanitised look at the life of the Iron Maiden lead singer. the lawyers probably had a big say, hence no major drug or drink revelations!
interesting aspects are his flying career and some tales around that, will appeal to rock n roll fans etc i suspect.
if anyone wants it and wants to pay postage, message me and its yours!
Bruce Dickinson autobiography. as with most of these things nowadays its a very sterile/sanitised look at the life of the Iron Maiden lead singer. the lawyers probably had a big say, hence no major drug or drink revelations!
interesting aspects are his flying career and some tales around that, will appeal to rock n roll fans etc i suspect.
if anyone wants it and wants to pay postage, message me and its yours!
200Plus Club said:
just finished "Whats that button do"?
Bruce Dickinson autobiography. as with most of these things nowadays its a very sterile/sanitised look at the life of the Iron Maiden lead singer. the lawyers probably had a big say, hence no major drug or drink revelations!
interesting aspects are his flying career and some tales around that, will appeal to rock n roll fans etc i suspect.
if anyone wants it and wants to pay postage, message me and its yours!
Bruce seems to have avoided Zeppelinesque levels of debauchery.Bruce Dickinson autobiography. as with most of these things nowadays its a very sterile/sanitised look at the life of the Iron Maiden lead singer. the lawyers probably had a big say, hence no major drug or drink revelations!
interesting aspects are his flying career and some tales around that, will appeal to rock n roll fans etc i suspect.
if anyone wants it and wants to pay postage, message me and its yours!
Halmyre said:
Bruce seems to have avoided Zeppelinesque levels of debauchery.
yes i've read the zeppelin books and you can at least say they lived life to the full lol!i do suspect Bruce has had his moments, he did put in the footnotes he specifically avoided any mention of marriage, divorce and children entirely, but there is almost zero reference to any sexual shenanigans.
After watching Tom Selleck in the TV series, I've been reading the Jesses Stones novels, by Robert B Parker.
Parker passed away in 2010 with 9 books written.
Two other authors have continued the stories, but I'm only on book 8 at the moment, so will see if the change works or not.
A complicated character, Jesses Stone, has that moral compass that drives him to "Do the right thing",
The other character are also interesting, especially his shrink!
Parker passed away in 2010 with 9 books written.
Two other authors have continued the stories, but I'm only on book 8 at the moment, so will see if the change works or not.
A complicated character, Jesses Stone, has that moral compass that drives him to "Do the right thing",
The other character are also interesting, especially his shrink!
200Plus Club said:
yes i've read the zeppelin books and you can at least say they lived life to the full lol!
i do suspect Bruce has had his moments, he did put in the footnotes he specifically avoided any mention of marriage, divorce and children entirely, but there is almost zero reference to any sexual shenanigans.
Any recommendation for good Zeppelin books/autobiographies/etc? Love the band but never read anything about the people behind it.i do suspect Bruce has had his moments, he did put in the footnotes he specifically avoided any mention of marriage, divorce and children entirely, but there is almost zero reference to any sexual shenanigans.
wombleh said:
Any recommendation for good Zeppelin books/autobiographies/etc? Love the band but never read anything about the people behind it.
There may well be one here if the good lady hasn't donated to charity. If so you are welcome to it.It does detail the red snapper incident :-)
Theoldman said:
After watching Tom Selleck in the TV series, I've been reading the Jesses Stones novels, by Robert B Parker.
Parker passed away in 2010 with 9 books written.
Two other authors have continued the stories, but I'm only on book 8 at the moment, so will see if the change works or not.
A complicated character, Jesses Stone, has that moral compass that drives him to "Do the right thing",
The other character are also interesting, especially his shrink!
I am a Jesse Stone fan too, rather think that Mr Selleck 'does' him well tooParker passed away in 2010 with 9 books written.
Two other authors have continued the stories, but I'm only on book 8 at the moment, so will see if the change works or not.
A complicated character, Jesses Stone, has that moral compass that drives him to "Do the right thing",
The other character are also interesting, especially his shrink!
I would love it if more Stone books came out, the 'new' writers seem to keep fairly faithful to the Parker style in the Paradise books, maybe a bit too laconic two-paragraph-a-chapterish in the other, Spenser books
Just finished Stephen Baxter's Proxima and the sequel Ultima.
Proxima starts off a bit slowly, actually slightly depressing, but then picks up well and is difficult to put down. Seems to be a space travel story at first but actually the usual Baxter parallel universe stuff with interesting ideas. Ultima starts off well but slows down a bit towards the end, both good though. Most Baxter fans really liked Proxima but were disappointed by Ultima and I don't quite see why. But there is the usual Baxter thing of throwing an amazing idea into the mix then not really explaining it. There is plenty of scope for more sequels and prequels to fill in the gaps.
Proxima starts off a bit slowly, actually slightly depressing, but then picks up well and is difficult to put down. Seems to be a space travel story at first but actually the usual Baxter parallel universe stuff with interesting ideas. Ultima starts off well but slows down a bit towards the end, both good though. Most Baxter fans really liked Proxima but were disappointed by Ultima and I don't quite see why. But there is the usual Baxter thing of throwing an amazing idea into the mix then not really explaining it. There is plenty of scope for more sequels and prequels to fill in the gaps.
Goaty Bill 2 said:
Which is on my list of 'must read again'
I've just started this as something different to read (I have been working my way through the Harry Dresden series). So far it's quite good, not exactly a relaxing, easy read, mostly to do with the prose and language differences. It make you think and concentrate much more. No bad thing and I shall persevere with it.I am finally done with ‘Mein Kampf’. Readability is not Herr Hitler’s strong point; the poster who described the book as ‘turgid’ was bang on the money. As several English translations exist, I’ll point out that I read the James Murphy translation; the opening line is “It has turned out fortunate for me to-day that Destiny appointed Braunau-on-the-Inn to be my birthplace”, should anyone own a copy whose translator they are unsure of.
Murphy’s translation was the earliest English version, and was the version endorsed by the Nazis. Certain words are repeated countless times as their German equivalents must have been. Take a shot of vodka every time you read ‘epoch’, ‘poltroon’ or ‘Weltanschauung’ and I guarantee you’d die. If ‘poltroon’ strikes you as a remarkably archaic word, you are absolutely correct. Murphy's translation perfectly captures the slight feeling of discomfort you probably should feel as Hitler, time and time again, links social problems to the Jews and/or international Jewry.
Numerous versions of ‘Mein Kampf’ exist in English and the Jaico Books version is one of the cheapest on Amazon (for several reasons). Printing quality is wildly inconsistent between individual pages, with certain pages appearing very faint and others so heavily printed that it has blotted. It’s an onerous book made yet more difficult to read. Names are occasionally misspelt, like 'Josept II' for the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and 'Bethman-Holweg' with a missing 'n' and 'l'. Not an enormous issue if you are familiar with these names but not everyone will be.
Grammar also crops up as a problem, with some paragraphs lacking any ending full-stop and some German words rendered wrongly. Völkisch is a key example - at no point did I see a version featuring the umlaut or an alternative. I have some understanding of German (nowhere near sufficient to tackle the original text) but not every reader will, and there is nothing to warn such a reader of this fault.
I think I spent the better part of a month crawling through the muck that is 'Mein Kampf'. Hitler is more interesting to read about than to read himself. On that basis, the first four chapters of Volume I are as close as the book gets to being enjoyable.
Murphy’s translation was the earliest English version, and was the version endorsed by the Nazis. Certain words are repeated countless times as their German equivalents must have been. Take a shot of vodka every time you read ‘epoch’, ‘poltroon’ or ‘Weltanschauung’ and I guarantee you’d die. If ‘poltroon’ strikes you as a remarkably archaic word, you are absolutely correct. Murphy's translation perfectly captures the slight feeling of discomfort you probably should feel as Hitler, time and time again, links social problems to the Jews and/or international Jewry.
Numerous versions of ‘Mein Kampf’ exist in English and the Jaico Books version is one of the cheapest on Amazon (for several reasons). Printing quality is wildly inconsistent between individual pages, with certain pages appearing very faint and others so heavily printed that it has blotted. It’s an onerous book made yet more difficult to read. Names are occasionally misspelt, like 'Josept II' for the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and 'Bethman-Holweg' with a missing 'n' and 'l'. Not an enormous issue if you are familiar with these names but not everyone will be.
Grammar also crops up as a problem, with some paragraphs lacking any ending full-stop and some German words rendered wrongly. Völkisch is a key example - at no point did I see a version featuring the umlaut or an alternative. I have some understanding of German (nowhere near sufficient to tackle the original text) but not every reader will, and there is nothing to warn such a reader of this fault.
I think I spent the better part of a month crawling through the muck that is 'Mein Kampf'. Hitler is more interesting to read about than to read himself. On that basis, the first four chapters of Volume I are as close as the book gets to being enjoyable.
Desiato said:
Goaty Bill 2 said:
Which is on my list of 'must read again'
I've just started this as something different to read (I have been working my way through the Harry Dresden series). So far it's quite good, not exactly a relaxing, easy read, mostly to do with the prose and language differences. It make you think and concentrate much more. No bad thing and I shall persevere with it.I had to go back a bit to recall what the book was!
Dostoevsky is lessons in realities.
Many of them quite painful to read, if the person reading is affected by reading literature at all.
Rodion Raskolnikov's spiral into a Hell of his own creation. Even though it appears inevitable, one cannot avoid reading to the end to feel sure of the outcome.
If it helps, I find the Constance Garnett translations often to be the easiest, while retaining a style of writing that is most easily associated with the time period in which Dostoevsky was writing.
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