What books are we reading at the moment ?

[fuzzy]

David Millar 'Racing through the dark'

The boy Millar used to race BMX on a track built and run by a colleague.

he won his first road race aty the top of a hill that is on many of my regular routes.

There our similartity ends and I dissapear in the background choking on Millars dust

[citoyen]

Chris Brookmyre - Where The Bodies Are Buried

Just started it this morning. Never read any Brookmyre before, though I've heard good things about him. But I must say I'm not hugely impressed so far. It reads like the screenplay for an ITV1 Sunday evening detective drama.

Hmmm.

d.

[red marley]

Chris Brookmyre - Where The Bodies Are Buried

Just started it this morning. Never read any Brookmyre before, though I've heard good things about him. But I must say I'm not hugely impressed so far.

Like Iain (M) Banks, there's Chris Brookmyre and Chistopher Brookmyre. He uses the latter for his 'comic crime fiction' stuff, which I think can be very funny, a little like a Scottish Carl Hiaasen mixing polemic with OTT characterisation.

[citoyen]

Ah, thanks! That would explain the distinct lack of the laughs I'd been led to expect... 

d.

[jogler]

Reg Harris by Robert Dineen

[citoyen]

Reg Harris by Robert Dineen

What do you reckon? Completely scandalised yet?

d.
 

[jogler]

I'm only on page 82.First mention of the "bobby sox".


edited to correct  booby to bobby

[Canardly]

OT I know but my first bike was a Macclesfield made reg harris

[citoyen]

The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton

M'colleague received a copy in the post this morning, which he passed on to me. Started reading it over lunch. So far, it's an absorbing account of a wide-eyed, idealistic neo-pro's slide down the slippery slope into doping, very reminiscent of David Millar's story. Shame I had to put it down and go back to work, though - the next chapter opens with the line: "When I heard Lance was joining Postal for the 1998 season, I was excited and nervous..."

Oh boy!

d.

[spesh]

... like a Scottish Carl Hiaasen mixing polemic with OTT characterisation.

 

Though in all seriousness, can Scotland at its weirdest even compete with the Florida panhandle? I got the impression Hiaasen's characterisation wasn't that OTT, given what he had discovered of Miami in his work as an investigative journalist.   

[mattc]

Depends on how much of The Wasp Factory was factual.

[tiermat]

"Outlaw Platoon" by Sean Parnell.

The story of a young graduate's first tour of duty on the Afganistan/Pakistan border.  At age 21 he is leading men older than him into battle and trying to keep their moral up through the fire fights and internal politics that are rife when they return the the FOB.

It's surprisingly addictive.

[jogler]

OT I know but my first bike was a Macclesfield made reg harris

maybe not

[jogler]

Reg Harris by Robert Dineen

What do you reckon? Completely scandalised yet?

d.

As I read a wide range of emotions were solicited.Suprise,fascination,disappointment, but overall...sadness.
I was not scandalised;perhaps due to my scepticism & low expectation of human nature.

I was massively interested & suprised to learn of RH's association with Macclesfield,Leek & the Swinnertons who I have known since my teens.

It was difficult to put the book down untill I finished reading it.The most engrossing book I've read for a long time.

[tiermat]

Finished Outlaw Platoon and have moved onto "Skagboys" by Irvine Welsh.  Got through the first few chapters, but it is hard going as it is all written in phonetic.

[citoyen]

It was difficult to put the book down untill I finished reading it.The most engrossing book I've read for a long time.

Good, glad you got that out of it - as I may have mentioned, I didn't get on with it so well, but I think that's largely because the name Reg Harris doesn't mean that much to me (he was long since retired by the time I got interested in cycling), so I struggled to care much about the personal stuff. I found the bits about his racing career interesting though.

d.

[mr magnolia]

I'm trying to finish john j nivens 'cold hands' but I'm too scared.
Not a comfy book...

[David Martin]

Just read 'the secret race'. I have a feeling that because he was heavily involved in a team that was systematically doping, his perceptions are that everyone was doing it. There is some interesting insight into Ferrari (a very talented sports scientist) and Fuentes, and the representation of Lance as a texan mafia don. How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

And now I am reading the new Pratchett 'Dodger'. Entertaining so far.

[citoyen]

How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

Yup, same here. Certain details may or may not be entirely accurate but it generally has the ring of truth about it - especially the portrayal of Lance and Riis, and other riders like Landis, Ullrich and Hincapie. My feeling is that it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know in general terms but fleshes it out with names, dates and places. Coyle has said there was quite a lot of stuff left out because he couldn't corroborate it, which is reassuring. And it's quite well written, I thought.

As you say, lots of good stuff about Ferrari and especially about Fuentes. Celayo sounds like a very interesting character too.

Tbh, I found the most difficult bits to read were the bits about riding the Tour with a broken collarbone. Ouch!

d.

[David Martin]

Probably more suited to the Racing thread, but it does seem that doping was a) widespread, 2) not universal, 3) not desired by most, but thought of as 'cheating is breaking the 11th commandment' by some.

[fuzzy]

David Millar 'Racing through the dark'

The boy Millar used to race BMX on a track built and run by a colleague.

he won his first road race aty the top of a hill that is on many of my regular routes.

There our similartity ends and I dissapear in the background choking on Millars dust

Finished now and a very good read it was too.

I think it is a good insight into how easy it can be for athletes to find themselves on the slippery slope.

Also a very damning overview of the actual action as opposed to the stance of the governing body.

Now on to Ned Boultings 'How I won the Yellow Jumper'. SFSG

[citoyen]

The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell

This was one of the first books I bought for my kindle when I got it at the start of this year but I'm only just getting round to reading it. Wish I'd started it sooner. It's wonderful! One of those books that's a pure joy to read for the sake of reading alone, just to savour the words. But it's a cracking story so far too.

I don't know if, strictly speaking, it's possible to open a novel with a coup de théatre, but it's a book that certainly hits the ground running.

I've now added the rest of David Mitchell's oeuvre to my to-read list too.

d.

[clarion]

I've just finished Never Mind The Quantocks by Stuart Maconie, which is a compilation of his columns for Country Walking, with one longer article (presumably also in the same magazine) about his completion of the Wainwright peaks.  His enthusiasm really shines through, and I wonder if he manages the same tone as his radio shows by dictating the pieces rather than typing them (though he refers to use of an internet cafe in Northumbria at one point).

Now I'm revisiting a book I lightly skimmed many years ago - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  I've read a few of his other works, but I felt drawn back to this one.  It's at once a knowing and a brutally raw account, and you can see the way in which he tries hard to avoid really thinking about what he actually experienced in Dresden.

Just over one chapter into it, and it is the first book in a while to make me cry.

So it goes.

[citoyen]

Now I'm revisiting a book I lightly skimmed many years ago - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  I've read a few of his other works, but I felt drawn back to this one.  It's at once a knowing and a brutally raw account, and you can see the way in which he tries hard to avoid really thinking about what he actually experienced in Dresden.

Just over one chapter into it, and it is the first book in a while to make me cry.

So it goes.

Amazing book. I read it about a year ago for the first time but I want to read it again and again (I will, but I have so many other books on my to-read list...). The idea of being "unstuck in time" seems almost whimsical at first but as the book goes on, you realise it's a profound reflection on the lasting psychological effects of the war. (Had PTSD been invented in those days?)

d.

[Quint]

Just read 'the secret race'. I have a feeling that because he was heavily involved in a team that was systematically doping, his perceptions are that everyone was doing it. There is some interesting insight into Ferrari (a very talented sports scientist) and Fuentes, and the representation of Lance as a texan mafia don. How much is true? I find it hard to disbelieve the general tone.

And now I am reading the new Pratchett 'Dodger'. Entertaining so far.

      Thing is all we have to go on are doping results and personal denials, if we don't believe Armstrong and his results showed clean how can we believe Wiggins Cavendish etc, I believe Wiggins and Cav are clean so leaves a dilemma.
       Although a different sort of read for me I have just got The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt tis very understandable (although family and friends are asking when I get the anorack  )