Books - What are you reading?

[RizzoTheRat]

Huff said:

Thanks for this - picked-up a copy on the basis of your recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I found it the kind of economic, literate & focused/crafted writing that sits beautifully along-side, say N. Monserrat's /The Cruel Sea/ ( a favourite author, and book, of many years, previously referenced in thread)


Obvs. I need to read more C.S Forester... & am looking forward to it. Thanks again for the introduction

Currently only £2.99 on kindle so I've picked up a copy too. Quite a lot of books in my queue to get through first though

[droopsnoot]

I've just finished "Not Dark Yet", the latest DCI Banks novel by Peter Robinson, very much enjoyed it. I think it follows on quite quickly from the previous one, but it's ages since I read that and I can't properly remember. Very good though, as always.

[Laurel Green]

droopsnoot said:

I've just finished "Not Dark Yet", the latest DCI Banks novel by Peter Robinson, very much enjoyed it. I think it follows on quite quickly from the previous one, but it's ages since I read that and I can't properly remember. Very good though, as always.

Particularly enjoyed the ending.

[akirk]

just been reading the Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus books, have read 1-7 and about to start no 8, they definitely improve as he gained experience, which he admits in his introductions (reissued editions)

[g3org3y]

Taita said:

toasty said:

grumbledoak said:

A further opportunity to have someone beautifully articulate some things you may have thought and others you did not. It will take a second reading to properly digest.

I started his first 12 Rules book but at some point it started getting all religious.

It's not often I give up on a book but when I fundamentally disagree with the author, I lose all patience to continue.

I tried to read the first book too, it just seemed VERY hard to follow, with lots of meandering prose and difficult sense structures.

The other argument is, I am too dumb with a limited vocabulary to understand it .

Maybe I need one of those 'summary' books, but I guess the devil is in the detail.

I find Peterson a much better orator than writer.

I found 12 Rules for Life quite heavy going about 2/3 of the way in. Quite a lot of tangential (but extremely detailed i.e. long) parts. If you see him speak, you can see how that happens. It works in a lecture, not so much in the book IMVHO.

Obviously I've bought the second book.... (I love his podcasts, some fascinating topics and guests)

Speaking of which, I've been working though this:


And now this:

andy_s said:

Got tired of the poor print quality so got something a lot older/heftier/pricier but far more legible.

After I read this (very enjoyable btw):


...I bought the Montaigne essays as above...still on the 'to read' pile. One day...

Edited by g3org3y on Tuesday 6th July 12:57

[DRFC1879]

I got both of Richard "Sniff Petrol" Porter's Roy Lanchester books (How to be a Motoring Journalist and Steel Flies) for my birthday last week.

I had finished them both within five days. I'm a big fan of the Smith & Sniff podcast with Porter's humour bang on point for me so the books had me crying with laughter several times. Very much recommended. As are his two books of "Boring Car Trivia."

[g3org3y]

Finished today.



Measured, well written and very very interesting.

Don't blame the kids, blame the parents.

Now onto this:

[spikeyhead]

I'm halfway through Barchester Towers by Trollope. It takes a long time to get going.

[Huff]

A book I've been meaning to find a copy of, for a while now,and I'm so glad I did.

Utterly riveting; and wonderfully written!

I've previously recommended Nicholas Monserrat's 'The Cruel Sea' - this is the real thing, from a man who rose from volunteer status (RNVR) to become a distinguished submarine commander.

(Edward Young also drew the iconic Penguin Books logo and came up with the cover colour coding, pre-War)

[tertius]

Huff said:

A book I've been meaning to find a copy of, for a while now,and I'm so glad I did.

Utterly riveting; and wonderfully written!

I've previously recommended Nicholas Monserrat's 'The Cruel Sea' - this is the real thing, from a man who rose from volunteer status (RNVR) to become a distinguished submarine commander.

(Edward Young also drew the iconic Penguin Books logo and came up with the cover colour coding, pre-War)

And One of our Submarines was published as Penguin no. 1000

[glazbagun]

biggbn said:

Roll of Thunder, hear my cry. Damning with faint praise to say its a bit of a poor man's To Kill a Mockingbird, but a really good read.

I found it pretty meh when I read it as a teen. I read it for a holiday book review and felt I'd get slated for my criticism as my English teacher was raving about it. When I came back my teacher was off sick and the replacement lauded me for being the only one to throw anything negative at it.

From what I remembered the protagonist seemed to be awake at all hours to witness the plot, the bad guys felt like charactatures as did her uncle(? the uncommonly strong guy).

Maybe I should revisit as I don't remember the plot and my review was probably not as objective as it would be today. Should probably read Mockingbird first though.

Edited by glazbagun on Saturday 10th July 11:02

[jet_noise]

Just started My Bass & Other Animals by Guy Pratt.

Hooked (pun intended ). Well written, entertainingly humorous autobio-ish story of an itinerant bass player to/with the stars.
I can't recall who on PH recommended this but thanks

[lowdrag]

Huff said:

A book I've been meaning to find a copy of, for a while now,and I'm so glad I did.

Utterly riveting; and wonderfully written!

I've previously recommended Nicholas Monserrat's 'The Cruel Sea' - this is the real thing, from a man who rose from volunteer status (RNVR) to become a distinguished submarine commander.

(Edward Young also drew the iconic Penguin Books logo and came up with the cover colour coding, pre-War)

Ordered, and thank you.

I have just finished "The Bugatti Queen" by Miranda Seymour, and a most amazing biography of Hellé Nice, she who rose from being a postman's daughter to one of the female stars of prewar motor racing, associating with all the stars and protégé of Ettori Bugatti himself. An amazing story of a life full of gay abandon, lovers, but at the same time an extremely gifted racing driver. The appendices keep your fingers busy, and just to quote one of the records she set how about, in 1937 at Monthlèry, 20,000 miles at 82 mph!

If you are into motor racing, this is a must. Extremely well researched.

[gforceg]

I've just finished A short walk in the Hundu Kush by Eric Newby, again. I've started The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, also again.

I like to revisit the good books I've read.

[hairykrishna]

ElectricSoup said:

Cage of Souls is free on Amzon Prime Kindle edition at the moment. Just downloaded it. Thanks. I enjoyed the Children of Time/Ruin books last summer.

Apologies for mentioning Kindles. And Amazon. I know. Sue me.

It'd be interesting to know what you think of it. I loved it, one of my friends hated it. I think it depends if you enjoy the world building for the sake of world building. I think my favourite of his is "Doors of Eden".

I've not long finished "Shards of Earth" which is the first in his new series. It was good but not really up there with some of his others. It'll be interesting to see how it develops. I'm currently about half way through "Empire in Black and Gold". Again, good but not amazing. I doubt I'll do the whole Shadows of the Apt series.

[lowdrag]

Continuing on with the series, another good read and another session of searching out words no longer in use! Unusual though to read one of the series that is mostly based on land.

[g3org3y]

g3org3y said:

Now onto this:

Paused ^this and just finished this:



Author is a neuroscientist and self confessed (regular) drug user, especially heroin.

Didn't find his arguments re legalisation of cocaine or opiates that compelling tbh.

[Regbuser]

gforceg said:

I've just finished A short walk in the Hundu Kush by Eric Newby, again. I've started The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, also again.

I like to revisit the good books I've read.

Good stuff.

In that vein, I've started re-reading LeCarre's Smiley novels

[droopsnoot]

I've just finished "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman, on the local charity bookshelf in the Co-op so I thought I'd give it a go. It was pretty good, decent enough storyline.

[McGee_22]

'Louise Brooks' by Barry Paris.

It's a biography of quite an exceptionally driven individual who initially lived through one of the fascinating periods of cinema meeting the most fabulous and famous in the world but then through personality and life choices drove herself to the brink of her own humanity, self destruction and suicide before being re-discovered and re-invented as a most skilled, intuitive and talented writer.

Both the author and the subject pull no punches whatsoever in their exacting and ruthless examination of a woman who might, through more selfish and thought-through choices have become the greatest and well known actress of the 20th century but, for reasons known only to her, walked away from riches, stardom, fame and fortune.

I've always been a reader of biographies and autobiographies, more especially those that straddled the early 20th Century, but never have I read of a person who so single-mindedly drove on and on through that period touching both the heights of greatness and the very deepest depths of despair, and providing her own bittersweet insights no matter what became of her.