Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square. Quite impressed. Not quite Greene or Orwell (Blair for purists..), but with a few touches of Ambler and John le Carré. All in all worth a read for sure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover_Square
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover_Square
I don't read a lot,except when I go on holiday.
I took 3 books and still ran out early.
1st ....Johnny Herbert autobiography.....What doesn't kill you.
Enjoyed this as I have always been a fan of his,since he won stuff in FF1600.
Rather a glaring mistake after the death of Senna,killed driving a Williams,so why did McLaren ring JH after looking for a driver to fill vacant seat ?
5\10
2nd ...Enzo Ferrari by Richard Williams.
An outstandingly good book,mentions all the important drivers and engineers who worked with him.
Enzo was quite a strange man TBH.
I learnt a lot about drivers I knew almost nothing about .
Just a great read.
10\10
3rd....Stirling Moss by Robert Edwards The authorised biography.
Learnt a lot I didn't know about Sir Stirling,including his real surname was Moses but changed it due to anti Semitic abuse he received a long time ago.
8\10
Should have taken the Damon Hill book I also bought and ironically bought a book on his father from a second-hand seller in Lucca.
I took 3 books and still ran out early.
1st ....Johnny Herbert autobiography.....What doesn't kill you.
Enjoyed this as I have always been a fan of his,since he won stuff in FF1600.
Rather a glaring mistake after the death of Senna,killed driving a Williams,so why did McLaren ring JH after looking for a driver to fill vacant seat ?
5\10
2nd ...Enzo Ferrari by Richard Williams.
An outstandingly good book,mentions all the important drivers and engineers who worked with him.
Enzo was quite a strange man TBH.
I learnt a lot about drivers I knew almost nothing about .
Just a great read.
10\10
3rd....Stirling Moss by Robert Edwards The authorised biography.
Learnt a lot I didn't know about Sir Stirling,including his real surname was Moses but changed it due to anti Semitic abuse he received a long time ago.
8\10
Should have taken the Damon Hill book I also bought and ironically bought a book on his father from a second-hand seller in Lucca.
Binged my way through the James S. A Corey Expanse series over the past couple of months. Some excellent ones, some less good, but overall a great series I think.
About half way through the latest Neil Stephenson "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell". Not liking it as much as most of his others, although it has some nice ideas.
About half way through the latest Neil Stephenson "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell". Not liking it as much as most of his others, although it has some nice ideas.
I've just finished "Free Fire" by CJ Box, one of the series featuring national park warden Joe Pickett. An enjoyable read, though I'm getting a bit mixed up as there are quite a lot of them and I think the one I read before was later than this one. Only makes a small amount of difference, though. There's a bit of a similarity with some other authors characters, in that Pickett has a handy sniper mate that turns up at opportune moments. I've got a couple more from the same series, and another by the same author that appears to feature a new character.
essayer said:
Just read “Player of Games” from Ian (M) Banks’ Culture series - I’ve never read any of his books before, struggles initially to get into it but once I’d got my head around the “Culture” and he(?)’d gone off to the Empire it picked up a bit.
I quite enjoy the ‘far away Sci-fi’ genre and found a lot of Harry Harrison’s works in the same vein, especially the Stainless Steel Rat series.
Now moved on to Heinlein’s “Moon is a Harsh Mistress” and will try to make some inroads into it this weekend..
I love Ian M Banks Culture series, and think 'The Player of Games' is in some ways the very best, because it is so concise if you have tried some of the others (which offer different things, on a much larger canvas - which I found enthralling because unlike so many SciFi writers, IMB could actually write...) - make of that what you will.I quite enjoy the ‘far away Sci-fi’ genre and found a lot of Harry Harrison’s works in the same vein, especially the Stainless Steel Rat series.
Now moved on to Heinlein’s “Moon is a Harsh Mistress” and will try to make some inroads into it this weekend..
The Stainless Steel Rat was always worth a go; any R Heinlein book much over 150-200pages, not so much.
'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' is a classic, though.
I just finished The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. Mild fantasy - the setting is a medieval stage technology world with overactive seismic activity, legends of past higher tech civilizations, killed by massive seismic activity, and one extra related human "sense". It follows a number of intertwined lives around the time of "The Big One". It won the Hugo in 2016, book 2 won it in 2017, book 3 in 2018. The world building in particular is excellent, the plot kept me reading and I've two books to go. Recommended.
Just finished 3 days in june.
About the falklands war and the parachute regiments assault on mount longdon
Written with the timeline including the radio chatter.
Split into each company so its in rffect same story with different companies so some crossover.
Excellent read.
I was aware it was a difficult battle but the book was an eye opener
About the falklands war and the parachute regiments assault on mount longdon
Written with the timeline including the radio chatter.
Split into each company so its in rffect same story with different companies so some crossover.
Excellent read.
I was aware it was a difficult battle but the book was an eye opener
tertius said:
TheJimi said:
Yes quite a while ago , I enjoyed it - rather unusual but a good read.currently back to Jack Aubrey book 8 The Ionian Mission and its as good as ever.
a welcome return to fiction after The God Delusion which I finished this time round. an excellent book indeed.
The "Republic" by Plato.
Translation by Francis Macdonald Cornford
This is the third translation I have read of the work (don't have the other two to hand to list, sorry), and each time I get something new from this.
It seems very much to depend as much on what the translator prefers to concentrate on, rather than the specific translation of the text.
This translation barely touches on Plato's theory of 'Forms', and makes unusually short work of the 'Allegory of the Cave' or 'Plato's Cave' as it is sometimes referred to.
Especially good notes and explanations in this version.
The translator clearly knew his Plato, with many references to his and the works of other ancient Greeks.
Plato; One of the earliest Utopians (and something of a feminist / egalitarian),
Translation by Francis Macdonald Cornford
This is the third translation I have read of the work (don't have the other two to hand to list, sorry), and each time I get something new from this.
It seems very much to depend as much on what the translator prefers to concentrate on, rather than the specific translation of the text.
This translation barely touches on Plato's theory of 'Forms', and makes unusually short work of the 'Allegory of the Cave' or 'Plato's Cave' as it is sometimes referred to.
Especially good notes and explanations in this version.
The translator clearly knew his Plato, with many references to his and the works of other ancient Greeks.
Plato; One of the earliest Utopians (and something of a feminist / egalitarian),
From memory the Cave is a small allegorical reference, however that and the ship of state are perhaps the most powerful and apposite visions of reality even today.
On the general theme I’ve just finished ’The True Believer; Thoughts on the nature of mass movements’ by Eric Hoffa, written in the fifties but still resonant today with its examination of the mass movement phenomenon. What a common man philosopher Hoffa was, I will certainly be exploring his work further.
Next up is Jung, ‘The Undiscovered Self’ which looks at the individual in society and the essence of his teaching for the unfamiliar.
On the general theme I’ve just finished ’The True Believer; Thoughts on the nature of mass movements’ by Eric Hoffa, written in the fifties but still resonant today with its examination of the mass movement phenomenon. What a common man philosopher Hoffa was, I will certainly be exploring his work further.
Next up is Jung, ‘The Undiscovered Self’ which looks at the individual in society and the essence of his teaching for the unfamiliar.
Edited by andy_s on Sunday 14th July 13:25
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