Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ?  (Read 836085 times)

Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #500 on: 10 March, 2009, 11:42:57 am »
The Damned Utd ~ David Peace.  Contains more instances of the "f" word than any book I have ever read.  Was Brian Clough really that sweary?

A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".

External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #501 on: 10 March, 2009, 11:49:06 am »
Was Brian Clough really that sweary?

Yes.

Quote
A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".

Seems fair.  Though you may find it hard to discover an editor who's been north of Hertfordshire except to shoot something, so the ignorance is not unexpected.
Getting there...

Sir Tifiable

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #502 on: 10 March, 2009, 11:57:21 am »
Heroes, Villains & Velodromes - Richard Moore.


clarion

  • Tyke
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #503 on: 10 March, 2009, 11:59:49 am »
Read that recently.  Interesting, but I felt a bit dissatisfied with it afterwards.  It's workmanlike, but it doesn't quite do the job.
Getting there...

Sir Tifiable

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #504 on: 10 March, 2009, 12:22:46 pm »
Read that recently.  Interesting, but I felt a bit dissatisfied with it afterwards.  It's workmanlike, but it doesn't quite do the job.

As far as I've read to date (about 75%), it hardly does the job at all. But then I'm aware of plenty of people who don't quite do the job!  ;D

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #505 on: 10 March, 2009, 12:39:59 pm »
A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".

Seems fair.  Though you may find it hard to discover an editor who's been north of Hertfordshire except to shoot something, so the ignorance is not unexpected.

They managed to spell other difficult words properly.  Stuff like "Leeds1", and "Nottingham2".

1 - don't Leeds United play just outside Maidstone?
2 - surprised he didn't confuse it with Notting Hill
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #506 on: 10 March, 2009, 07:05:49 pm »
The Damned Utd ~ David Peace.  Contains more instances of the "f" word than any book I have ever read.  Was Brian Clough really that sweary?

A word to the book's editor: you need to be dismissed from your job.  And then be given a map of the north-east of England as a leaving present.  Then you might realise that the place where they hanged one monkey, elected another as mayor and spawned Mr M Series of the parish is emphatically not called "Hartlepools".



Not such a daft mistake - the club was known as "Hartlepools United" for a while, since it was an amalgam of West Hartlepool and the other Hartlepool.  Pools is still their nickname.  When it isn't Monkeyhangers, anyway ;D

bikenerd

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #507 on: 11 March, 2009, 10:28:00 am »
Global Catastrophic Risks, edited by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic.
Link on Amazon

A book about what could cause the end of the human race.  Covers the usual nuclear and biological threats along with the Skynet threat (artificial intelligence).

No mention of the Zombie-apocalypse yet, though.

her_welshness

  • Slut of a librarian
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #508 on: 11 March, 2009, 11:00:59 am »
Just finished reading Watchmen. Brilliant, apart from the last 30 odd page where it appears that Mr Moore is having a wank fest (sorry).

Just started 'A Curious Street' by Desmond Hogan. Book no. 11 out of my 100 books to read in a year challenge.

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #509 on: 12 March, 2009, 04:03:26 pm »
‘Future Noir’, the making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon.

This is a classic book on the film, this particular edition is an expanded version to take into account the recent ‘Final Cut’ and 5DVD box set.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #510 on: 12 March, 2009, 04:07:46 pm »
Mauritius Command. PO'B
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Keillor
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #511 on: 12 March, 2009, 04:29:26 pm »
I generally read detective fiction - there's a lot of it about!  But I do like books with a sense of place, and recently I've been reading a lot of Scandinavian fiction. I've read the Henning Mankell Wallender novels for years, and also Arnulaer Idridasons Icelandic detective Erlendur, but more recently I've been reading Stieg Larssen, Jo Nesbo, Karin Fossum, Mari Jungstedt and Camilla Lackberg, novels set in Norway and Sweden.  Not found any Danish or Finnish ones yet though, but then haven't looked hard.

As a real break from that, try Nick Harkaways "The Gone-Away World".

And I'm looking forward to the new Tom Rob Smith, having thoroughly enjoyed "Child 44" a story set in Soviet Russia, where there is no crime (by order) so murders can't be committed.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #512 on: 12 March, 2009, 04:34:38 pm »
Mauritius Command. PO'B
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Keillor

I’ve tried and tried and I can’t get in to Patrick O’ Brian – I wanted to like his books, I’m very interested in the period and his subject but I just find his style so grating.  Is it heresy to say that I loved the film of Master and Commander though?

ChrisO

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #513 on: 12 March, 2009, 10:32:51 pm »
Mauritius Command. PO'B
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, Keillor

I’ve tried and tried and I can’t get in to Patrick O’ Brian – I wanted to like his books, I’m very interested in the period and his subject but I just find his style so grating.  Is it heresy to say that I loved the film of Master and Commander though?

Yes but if you're lucky we'll hang you from the yardarm rather than flog you around the fleet.

Appalling film - I can't see how it was possible to have any interest in the subject or period and enjoy that film.

It would be like professing an interest in the Tour de France and enjoying a film about Fausto Coppi in which he rode a carbon fibre bike.

I was once at a conference where someone who worked on that film was bigging up how they paid so much attention to the height of the hammocks and so forth. I had to be restrained from rushing the stage and strangling him.


Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #514 on: 13 March, 2009, 10:25:13 am »
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. A tale of New York in the 1980's and much better than the film version, I am told.   (never watched it)

I like Patrick O'Brian's books.  It's possible to enjoy 'Master and Commander' if you enjoy sailing although I fear it paints a far rosier picture of naval life than would have been the case.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #515 on: 13 March, 2009, 10:36:00 am »
Deano is right. It was known as Hartlepools at one point in time. I have seen old roadsigns point to it bearing that name. Not sure if it was Hartlepools when Clough was there though.

History of Hartlepool - This is Hartlepool

Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #516 on: 16 March, 2009, 12:36:22 pm »
Deano is right. It was known as Hartlepools at one point in time. I have seen old roadsigns point to it bearing that name. Not sure if it was Hartlepools when Clough was there though.

History of Hartlepool - This is Hartlepool

Gosh.  Y'learn sumfink new every day.  My memory-branes only stretch back as far as 1972, when my mate Tim supported Hartlepool.  Seems they changed the name at the  start of the 1968-69 season; Clough took over as manager in October 1965.

Note to self: write grovelling letter of apology to Faber & Faber.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

αdαmsκι

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #517 on: 16 March, 2009, 12:39:51 pm »
Lord Edgware Dies, by Agatha Christie.
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

https://tyredandhungry.wordpress.com/

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #518 on: 17 March, 2009, 04:12:45 pm »
Woohoo!

I have just received Hallion's "Test Pilots -- The Frontiersmen of Flight" 1988 extended edition for the good ol' US of A.  :thumbsup:

I'm happy. Just in time for my forthcoming holiday.
Frenchie - Train à Grande Vitesse

Jezza

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #519 on: 17 March, 2009, 04:32:19 pm »
Frenchie - just out of interest, have you ever read Wind, Sand & Stars by St Exupery? Known in French as Terre des Hommes.


Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #520 on: 17 March, 2009, 04:59:35 pm »
Not this one, no, though I have read others such as Vol de Nuit and Courrier Sud.

(I happen to have Volume 2 of St Exupery's integral though; but Terre des Hommes is in the first volume)

Hallion is well known in the telling of modern aviation history. As I am interested in the post-WWII era, in particular the development of supersonic flight and jet aircrafts, I was keen to get some of Hallion's work. For someone like me the NASA websites are a trove of treasures, although getting some of the work may require permission or, when it has been published, tracking obscure editors and editions!
Frenchie - Train à Grande Vitesse

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #521 on: 17 March, 2009, 05:08:15 pm »
I'm reading another book I happened upon in the dusty shelves in the kitchen at work.

This one's Cley by Carey Harrison (son of Rex, if that matters).  I was lured in by the mention of a bike ride.  Indeed there is one - a ride from west London to Cley in Norfolk.  But, once he gets there, that seems to be it.  I'm hoping thare'll be another ride to Liskeard later in the book (it's part of a sequence of novels which are parallel stories about how & why the characters reach Liskeard.  Yeah - I dunno either).

It's a slim volume, and seems a bit chaotic in the middle, but I'm hoping it all becomes more connected by the end.
Getting there...

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #522 on: 20 March, 2009, 08:36:52 am »
Woohoo!

I have just received Hallion's "Test Pilots -- The Frontiersmen of Flight" 1988 extended edition for the good ol' US of A.  :thumbsup:

Well it is well written and rather interesting so far...
Frenchie - Train à Grande Vitesse

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #523 on: 20 March, 2009, 09:12:25 am »
Read Tim Moore's "french revolutions" at the weekend.
Last night I started Alex Ross' "the rest is noise" ... which is intimidatingly thick, so I may be some time.

her_welshness

  • Slut of a librarian
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #524 on: 20 March, 2009, 09:54:09 am »
Am well into 'V for Vendetta' by Alan Moore. I think he is amazing.