The Big Read - Your Recommendation for PHers?
Discussion
Rivethead by Michael Moore's old mate Ben Hamper would be top of my list.
It's a collection of stories from Hamper's time on the GM production line during the '70s and '80s; what the workers got up to and management techniques that David Brent couldn't even dream of.
Way, way funnier than you could possibly imagine.
Modern Car Technology by Jeff Daniels is definitely worth a look too. Explains all you ever wanted to know about how a car works but were too afraid to ask.
It's a collection of stories from Hamper's time on the GM production line during the '70s and '80s; what the workers got up to and management techniques that David Brent couldn't even dream of.
Way, way funnier than you could possibly imagine.
Modern Car Technology by Jeff Daniels is definitely worth a look too. Explains all you ever wanted to know about how a car works but were too afraid to ask.
) 
Some very interesting suggestions - I've trawled Amazon and picked up a couple of these secondhand for next to nothing! I have heard about "253" before and the Lance Armstrong book has to be a good read
It sure is and is my all time favourite book with driving connections! (Second, I would have Clarkson's "Born to be Riled" and then a copy of "Roadcraft"!)
But have you read Pirsig's follow up - it took him another 20 years to write it! - "Lila"? Boy, that was hard work, and where I thought I understood (some of) Zen, this one was just weird!
Ffirg 005 said:
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a great read ......
It sure is and is my all time favourite book with driving connections! (Second, I would have Clarkson's "Born to be Riled" and then a copy of "Roadcraft"!)
But have you read Pirsig's follow up - it took him another 20 years to write it! - "Lila"? Boy, that was hard work, and where I thought I understood (some of) Zen, this one was just weird!
For a brillaint book that needs to read over and over just to get the drift of it then it has to be this :
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1854875744/qid=1069152846/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-1144531-3201218
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1854875744/qid=1069152846/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-1144531-3201218
For some thought provoking non-fiction (excellent docu on 2 about same person last night):
Gitta Sereny; Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth
About Hitler's architect, who designed the plans for the new Berlin -'Germania'- and, despite being at the heart of the regime, denied involvement in the Final Solution throughout his life (hence battle with truth)
Gitta Sereny; Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth
About Hitler's architect, who designed the plans for the new Berlin -'Germania'- and, despite being at the heart of the regime, denied involvement in the Final Solution throughout his life (hence battle with truth)
beano500 said:
Some very interesting suggestions - I've trawled Amazon and picked up a couple of these secondhand for next to nothing! I have heard about "253" before and the Lance Armstrong book has to be a good read
Part of the reason I like '253' so much, is that it tells a story by description and the form of the book.
253 pages, 253 words on each page, 253 characters. It sounds contrived, yet is very very well crafted...
I'd also recommend '45' by Bill Drummond.
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316853852/202-7090333-9089429
ex-klf man and his kind-of autobiography.
sparkyjohn said:
Gitta Sereny; Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth
About Hitler's architect, who designed the plans for the new Berlin -'Germania'- and, despite being at the heart of the regime, denied involvement in the Final Solution throughout his life (hence battle with truth)
I've got "Into That Darkness" by the same author. All about Franz Stangl, commandant of Treblinka death camp. Thought provoking and disturbing. I've always been more interested in why they did what they did and how they lived with it, and themselves, rather than the horrific deed itself.
I read 'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan on a trip to Ireland last year. Before you make 'girls books' assumptions, read the synopsis on Amazon www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099276585/qid=1069157463/sr=1-11/ref=sr_1_2_11/202-0153400-9593407
One of the most disturbing and finely written books I've read in ages - I couldn't put it down.
One of the most disturbing and finely written books I've read in ages - I couldn't put it down.
sparkyjohn said:There was a documentary on the box about this bloke last night!
Gitta Sereny; Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth
Read Enduring Love a couple months ago. Very good. McEwan is one of my favourites, as is Graeme Green. Neither are a bundle of laughs. The Catastrophist is excellent too. Currently reading Churchill's "The Second World War" (picked the whole lot up for a tenner at a car boot sale which was a bit of a bonus). It's a bit of an undertaking as it must be 3000 odd pages. But it is very readable and I'm finding it fascinating.
I read Churchill's 'My Early Life' years ago. Now you mention it, I think it might be worth a re-read.
Graham Greene's 21 Short Stories are stunning - I can still remember almost all of them, and I haven't read them for about 15 years!
There's a pattern emerging between PH and a fascination for the disturbed mind here - Ian McEwan, Joe Conrad, Graham Greene....
Graham Greene's 21 Short Stories are stunning - I can still remember almost all of them, and I haven't read them for about 15 years!
There's a pattern emerging between PH and a fascination for the disturbed mind here - Ian McEwan, Joe Conrad, Graham Greene....
Loved Enduring Love. Trust me title is misleading!
Zen and the Art is not half as good as it's cracked up to be.
"Catch 22" a classic.
I'd recomend:
"Atonement" McEwan
"Birdsong" Faulkes
"Stalingrad" Beever (Factual but you can read it like a novel)
"Crete - the Lost Battle" (Factual but you can read it like a novel)
"Three Corvettes" by Monsarrat[1] (and after that anything else by Monsarrat)
"Claudius, The God" Graves
"Goodbye to All That" Graves
"A Picture of Dorian Grey" Wilde
"That Eternal Summer" ???? [2]
"One Spring in Picardy" ????
[1] Written in note form. Why? He simply didn't think he would live long enough to have time to release it in full hand. THe man and his comrades was a god.
[2] Which effected me to the point, if I'm in the Caterham area, I will take a detour on my bike and stand for a quited contemplate beside a BofB pilot's grave before checking out the 7 showroom... Poor sods, but also lucky.
>> Edited by toad_oftoadhall on Tuesday 18th November 14:28
Zen and the Art is not half as good as it's cracked up to be.
"Catch 22" a classic.
I'd recomend:
"Atonement" McEwan
"Birdsong" Faulkes
"Stalingrad" Beever (Factual but you can read it like a novel)
"Crete - the Lost Battle" (Factual but you can read it like a novel)
"Three Corvettes" by Monsarrat[1] (and after that anything else by Monsarrat)
"Claudius, The God" Graves
"Goodbye to All That" Graves
"A Picture of Dorian Grey" Wilde
"That Eternal Summer" ???? [2]
"One Spring in Picardy" ????
[1] Written in note form. Why? He simply didn't think he would live long enough to have time to release it in full hand. THe man and his comrades was a god.
[2] Which effected me to the point, if I'm in the Caterham area, I will take a detour on my bike and stand for a quited contemplate beside a BofB pilot's grave before checking out the 7 showroom... Poor sods, but also lucky.
>> Edited by toad_oftoadhall on Tuesday 18th November 14:28
Unbelievable (but believable!) "the silver sword" - read it a few years back, its about a jewish family in Poland and it follows the story of them getting taken to the camps and chambers, and the jounrey home of one of the sons to find most his family dead and his home town destroyed.
Quite an eye opener, and very moving.
Quite an eye opener, and very moving.
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