What book(s) are you reading currently?

[scoundrel]

I am the sort of person who reads several books in parallel, probably expressing a restless, superficial mind. Currently, I am re-reading 'The Stand', by Stephen King, after Leprechaun's contribution to the recent Bird Flu thread reminded me how much I had enjoyed this book over a decade ago.

I am also reading Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' for the umteenth time, and Elizabeth Gaskell's 'North and South': nothing to do with the terrible TV series I hastily switch over from, which seems to be like Gone With The Wind rewritten for idiots. This one is the same plot as Pride and Prejudice but with some very different takes on the social divide: less good because there is very little humour, but clever and interesting.

[jch48]

I am the sort of person who reads several books in parallel, probably expressing a restless, superficial mind. Currently, I am re-reading 'The Stand', by Stephen King, after Leprechaun's contribution to the recent Bird Flu thread reminded me how much I had enjoyed this book over a decade ago.


Scoundrel,I have the same problem,have a habit of reading two or three books at the same period,currently finishing off An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina,the true account of Hotel Rwanda,which shows the horror inflicted in the genocide in Rwanda,and the courage and spirit of the man,a true hero.Strangely enough I also re-read The Stand recently,unfortunately I was'nt as impressed as I thought I would be,still a good read,but I felt the additions King put in slowed the pace of the book down,IMO.

[snorkie]

I am also reading Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' for the umteenth time

'Pride and Prejudice' is one of my multi-read favorites, as well (I own four different filmed versions - finding something good in each). Now, currently . . .

1) Non-fiction: 'Kill Everyone: Advanced Strategies for no-limit hold 'em'
2) Graphic short stories: 'The best of The Spirit' by Will Eisner (I refused to see the movie).
3) Queued-up fiction: Recently purchased a new copy of, and plan to re-read 'Farewell, My Lovely' by Raymond Chandler. A terrific film noir under the title "Murder My Sweet."

I also have a couple of fly-fishing and golf magazines laying around.

[tmee2000]

Just finished Les Carlyon's books on the AIF in WWI:
Gallipoli & The Western Front
Two outstanding novels on the Civil War:
Andersonville, by MacKinlay Kantor, which won the Pulitzer. It's the best book I've ever read; and
Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier.

[tabler]

I usually have a few books on the go, at the moment they are:- Pythons autobiography by the Pythons, New Europe by Michael Palin and Race to Dakar by Charlie Boorman. I usually have somthing a bit meatier on the go as well but not at the moment as VEF takes up so much time.:D

[Wendigo]

Watchmen - finally. I've just finished reading chapter 4.
Also on the go right now Boats of the Glen Carrig (William Hope Hodgson), Werewolf of Paris (Guy Endore), the Sixth Pan book of Horror Stories and Essential Marvel Horror vol 2.

[scoundrel]

'Pride and Prejudice' is one of my multi-read favorites, as well (I own four different filmed versions - finding something good in each). Now, currently . . .


Queued-up fiction: Recently purchased a new copy of, and plan to re-read 'Farewell, My Lovely' by Raymond Chandler. A terrific film noir under the title "Murder My Sweet."

Chandler's books spawned a number of top notch Hollywood b/w film noir thrillers, most notably The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart. The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake and The Long Goodbye are (IMO) his best works: totally effortless tours de force in storytelling, no arty farty attempts at ''style'' or ''art'' but in fact they are beautifully written because Chandler merely tells the story, making every word count. He could write ten million times better than the average Booker Prize winner today and without even trying: in his non-fiction writings he sometimes makes disparaging remarks about ''fine writing'', and clearly had no use for it. What mattered (and what paid the bills) was telling the story.

Farewell, My Lovely is good stuff. I think you will not be disappointed, snorkie.

[edgarcasey]

Great thread.

The Breaks Richard Price
Ladies Man Richard Price
Mozart* Marcia Davenport

*This one I just started, as I have been in a major major Mozart mode lately, listening to the Requiem, Die Zauberflote, the Clarinet Concerto, Eine Kliene Nachtmusik, etc., etc...... practicing the B Flat Major Piano Sonata, and so forth. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest biographies of the twentieth century.

For all you fans of beautiful cunt hair and thick full bush, I've been doing a little writing as well. This week, I started this fiction I dreamed up, and posted the opening here:

http://www.hairygalleries.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1820

[snorkie]

The Long Goodbye are (IMO) his best works: totally effortless tours de force in storytelling, no arty farty attempts at ''style'' or ''art'' but in fact they are

Farewell, My Lovely is good stuff. I think you will not be disappointed, snorkie.

Totally agree. Just the way Chandler describes bar drinks early in "The Long Goodbye" demonstrates what a master he was. Where Hammett purposely aimed for literary fiction, Chandler seemed to easily hit that mark. Both were able to make crime fiction something more than simple potboilers.

[flangeworthy]

Gentlemen, may I recommend the 'Flashman' series by George MacDonald Fraser? Highly entertaining and superbly politically-incorrect. If you don't find Flashman a truly inspirational character, then you should probably be reading something by Enid Blyton.

[warlock2112]

A Nomad of the Time Streams by Michael Moorcock

[Bovon]

Heaven and Hell - My life in the Eagles (1974-2001): Don Felder.
Hey, who wouldn't wanna be fit, healthy, making money, making music, and making out with willing Californian honeys??

Before The Fall-Out - Diana Preston. The story, from Marie Curie-to-Hiroshima, of the human chain-reaction that led to the atomic bomb. One word: Riveting.

[snorkie]

A Nomad of the Time Streams by Michael Moorcock

"Behold the Man" is one of the most interesting Sci-Fi novels I've read. Sort of a less cheerful "Life of Brian."

[snorkie]

who would'nt love to go back in time and find out about the birth of Christianity.
Oh, there are more important things. I want to know if tom Brady's arm was really moving forward during the 2001-2002 AFC Divisional Playoff game! (Lost a bundle betting on my least favorite team, the Raiders!) ;)

[jch48]

Brother Ray,an honest account of Ray Charles life,explaining how he made his way in the music business,interesting asides on his drug addiction,as he said only one person who he blamed for it,himself.And were you aware that he learned to fly a plane?No,neither did I.well worth a read.

[chute911]

In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat - John Gribbin

and

Stone Cold - David Baldacci

[jch48]

The Death Zone-Matt Dickinson-A terrific story about the storm which claimed numerous lifes on Mount Everest,set against Dickinson's story of scaling Mount Everest,initially as the film maker of Brian Blessed's attempt on the mountain,however when Blessed dropped out Dickinson took his place,not bad for a first attempt at mountaineering,getting to the top of Mount Everest,well worth a read imo.
P.S.The reason it's called the Death Zone,at that altitude your body is breaking down,due to the lack of oxygen.

[chrissy]

I just got done reading the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon. Before that, I read the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean Auel. Both really excellent. I like getting deeply involved in long books. A series is even better. Right now, I am re-reading the Merlin series by Mary Stewart: The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment.

[Bovon]

Thought I'd have a try at this -

http://img5.imagevenue.com/loc424/th_60608_Books2_123_424lo.jpg (http://img5.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=60608_Books2_123_424lo.jpg)

Mmm - whaddaya y'all think?

Anyway, I've started reading these two. Er, a subject close to my liver, I can tell you. I'll do an Edit when I've read them, let you know what I think.

Edit: So, two stories set in New York/Boston, one featuring a Gay male, and one a Preppy female, both of whom work in the Media industry. I don't know, I'd never come across terms like 'High-Functioning Alcoholic' before. It seems an oxymoron. By definition, Alcoholics don't keep High-Powered jobs for years on end. Having your first drink of the day at 7pm after a hectic schedule, and making it into work for 9am without fail probably means you have a serious drink problem, and you certainly need help (Both attended Rehab), but to my mind (and Liver) there was something a little false about both books. Worth a read if you've had probs with the bottle, otherwise both a bit heavy-going.

[damp-patch]

In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat - John Gribbin

and

Stone Cold - David Baldacci

Gribbin is one of my favourite science writers. At present I'm reading his 'The Universe - A Biography.' The Penguin History of Science is also a fantastic read.

[Davemetalhead]

Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October, but any book by Tom Clancy is a good read, if you don't mind all the details.


Excellent book, and much better than the film - and the film is really good too :-)

As for me, I've just finished "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett, and about to start the next in the series, "Making Money".

[reiver58]

I finished the Patrick O'Brian series dealing with the British navy around the time of the Napoleanic Wars. Great read with lots of background and character development. I do recommend you try to read the series in order.

If you like more action, the Alexander Kent/Douglas Reeman books are much lighter on character development but give you 3x the battles. I read his Bolitho series, which is a more less developed version of Jack Aubrey. Reeman's WWII novels have a standard stock of characters...physically and emotionally scarred hero, unsure how he'll do in the next battle. His boss is a coward and a bully and often stupid to boot. His crew always has an unsure royal or son of an admiral and an Aussie, Kiwi or South African, who will always bed the wife of the unsure royal, or some other dissatisfied officer on board. 60% of the characters will be killed within 2-3 sentences four pages from the end...usually same stock format in determining who dies.

Sharpe series is terrific. I also advise you read it in sequence...a good companion to the novels is the DVD collection. "Sharpe's Enemy"...has a brief breast shot of Elizabeth Hurley.

I'm currently working far away from my DVD and VHS collections and unfortunately can't post...it also explains why I have time to read 20+ book series

Christopher Buckley writes a good series of dark humour political satire. "Thank you for smoking" is much edgier than the movie. Florence of Arabia and No Way to Treat a First lady are equally entertaining.

[Bovon]

Christopher Buckley writes a good series of dark humour political satire. "Thank you for smoking" is much edgier than the movie. Florence of Arabia and No Way to Treat a First lady are equally entertaining.

I read an early one of Chris Buckley's - The White House Mess. Wherein Ronald Reagan refused to give up the Presidency on Inauguration Day. I recall it being quite entertaining, and expected to see it at some time as a Made-for-Television movie. Haven't done yet though.

[boggis]

James Ellroy is sometimes hard going, but The Big Nowhere and LA Confidential just blaze off the page.

PS 'book's' perhaps suggests we should be reading more style guides?

[scoundrel]

I finished the Patrick O'Brian series dealing with the British navy around the time of the Napoleanic Wars. Great read with lots of background and character development. I do recommend you try to read the series in order.

If you like more action, the Alexander Kent/Douglas Reeman books are much lighter on character development but give you 3x the battles. Reeman's WWII novels have a standard stock of characters...physically and emotionally scarred hero, unsure how he'll do in the next battle. His boss is a coward and a bully and often stupid to boot. His crew always has an unsure royal or son of an admiral and an Aussie, Kiwi or South African, who will always bed the wife of the unsure royal, or some other dissatisfied officer on board. 60% of the characters will be killed within 2-3 sentences four pages from the end...usually same stock format in determining who dies.

I haven't read the Alexander Kent books but I have read all of the O'Brian books covering Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin. These are really fine books, gripping and full of human insight. I have also read a lot of the earlier Reeman books: reiver58's merciless summary of his formula made me grin from ear to era because it is so very true. Reeman's characters are two dimensional except the hero's love-interest, who is usually one-dimensional, but still they are good entertaining reading matter.

I re-read Rendezvous South Atlantic recently and was struck by the excellence of the two cat-and mouse shootouts with the disguised German raider, in which Commander Lindsay out-thinks and out-manoevres the unscrupulous enemy (like we British never pretended to be non-combatants to get an unfair advantage - Q Ships anybody?) but is undermined by the basic lack of skill of his own officers and men and so cannot strike the decisive blow. The bleakness, cruelty and terrible danger of this type of warfare is vividly portrayed. The rest of the book is mediocre: Lindsay is the only really interesting character, and this interest is more about seeing how he leads and drives his unskillfull and reluctant crew until they become more dangerous to the enemy than they are to themselves, and insists that they serve and fight with pride in their ship. Lindsay's inner life is as formulaic as reiver58 describes. Reeman is much more focused on action than on character. Nevertheless Rendezvous South Atlantic is a lot better than most of the airport novels one see around the place at the moment and it shows Reeman's strengths as a storyteller.

[snorkie]

James Ellroy is sometimes hard going

Oh, no kidding! I enjoyed The Big Nowhere; but then, The Black Dahlia just plain wore me out. I'm told Cormac McCarthy is even darker; so, in spite of a friend's urging, I'm giving the author a pass.

[lightbearerfallen]

Greetings! I am working my way through HAUNTINGS by Chuck Palahniuk and a more fucked up read I've not encountered. Also re reading The Holy Books of Thelema by Dear Uncle Al.

[Leprechaun]

http://img224.imagevenue.com/loc424/th_88566_0743276957_122_424lo.jpg

Just another 2,50 € Ebay capture (include shipping). ;)
Surprisingly much better and more in-depth than the title suggests.

[jch48]

Have a couple of books on the go presently,both of a sporting nature.The first is The Villain-The Live of Don Whillans by Jim Perrin and My Manchester Utd Years by Sir Bobby Charlton,two very different character,Whillans could be a bellicose,driven individual however during the 1950's created Rock Climbing routes which even today with modern technology are serious undertakings.Sir Bobby needs no introduction,although as a Scot he broke our hearts a few times,compare his standards to the likes of Barry Ferguson this week,no contest

[scoundrel]

http://img126.imagevenue.com/loc1092/th_69595_The_Allotment_Seasonal_Planner_and_Cookbo ok_122_1092lo.jpgThis is a user-friendly and very readable handbook to assist me in my ongoing struggle to clear a piece of land 5 metres by 25 metres from weeds taller than myself and grow some vegetables fit to eat. There is a big rush on for the next two months to get all of my crops in.

http://img203.imagevenue.com/loc584/th_69599_Voyage_to_Desolation_Island_122_584lo.jpg I am drawn to remote and lonely places. I have spent three holidays so far in the Outer Hebrides and will definitely go there for more. But Kauffman takes this quirk in my nature to a totally different level.

This is a very strange but fascinating book about one of the remotest places on earth and what it was like to go there. Written originally in French, it has been translated without losing the French character of Kauffman's authorial voice. I once read a book by Captain Bernhard Rogge of the German navy (WW2) who played havoc with Allied shipping as skipper of the German raider Atlantis, which the Royal Navy knew as 'Raider C': his account of spending two weeks in Gazelle Bay in the deserted Kerguelen islands made me curious to learn more. The excellent Patrick O'Brian book Desolation Island also made me want to find out more.

Once you read Kauffman's book, anything you still don't know about the Kerguelen Islands can only be learned by going there for yourself.

[Bovon]

Read one of this guy's a few years ago, and thought, sh*t, that was formulaic.

Anyway, I picked up two paperbacks for £5, and so I'm going to have a go at this over the Easter weekend.



http://img196.imagevenue.com/loc659/th_94155_MC-Book_123_659lo.jpg (http://img196.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=94155_MC-Book_123_659lo.jpg)

EDIT: There's posssibly a half-decent novel in here trying to get out. But, if after 700 pages you don't give a sh*t what happens to the characters, then something's gone awry. I mean, we are asked to believe that a 30-something Lawyer who lives in Los Angleles (Huh, where else!) helps save the world by, among other things, falling down a crevasse in Antarctica and sustaining frostbite, surviving a lightening-strike in Arizona, being deliberately invenomated with deadly Octopus poison and living (This stuff kills everyone else who comes into contact with it), surviving a flash-flood in which our hero is stranded in a SUV in the middle of a river, flying across the Pacific to help stop a man-made Tsunami...Oh f*ck-off!!! And on the down-side, there's NO sex! 700-pages without a decent hard-on - nah, forget it.

[Bovon]

Read a couple of M'laddo's previously, and I've heard good reports about this

(or was this the one that divided opinion?), anyway here's what I'm picking up now.

http://img214.imagevenue.com/loc398/th_29139_Saturday_123_398lo.jpg (http://img214.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=29139_Saturday_123_398lo.jpg)

EDIT: Mmm. Bit of a mind-stretcher - neurosurgery anyone? Maybe a bit middle-class and claustrophobic for some, but worth persevering with. Asks some decent questions - some of which are now answered with the passage of time.

[jch48]

Bovon,interesting description of Michael Crichton's novel,should'nt speak ill of the dead,however found his books to be formulaic.Currently reading Aldous Huxleys Doors of Perception,interesting read on the effects of Mescaline on the author.
http://img206.imagevenue.com/loc83/th_30849_5175CK9WE5L__SS500__123_83lo.jpg (http://img206.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=30849_5175CK9WE5L__SS500__123_83lo.j pg)

[Bovon]

Bovon,interesting description of Michael Crichton's novel,should'nt speak ill of the dead,however found his books to be formulaic.


JCH - If I drop dead in front of this monitor, I swear I didn't know the guy (M.C.) had died. :o:(

When?

And while I would offer my condolences to his family, I wouldn't retract my statement. The guy is a decent writer, but it always appears to be written to a formula, and with characters who become less and less believable. Have there been films made of his books? I also think the same about everything I've ever read by Linda La Plante by the way.

[scoundrel]

JCH - If I drop dead in front of this monitor, I swear I didn't know the guy (M.C.) had died. :o:(

When?

And while I would offer my condolences to his family, I wouldn't retract my statement. The guy is a decent writer, but it always appears to be written to a formula, and with characters who become less and less believable. Have there been films made of his books?

Mr Crichton died 4th November 2008, aged 66: I have no idea whether it was accident, illness or what.

I haven't read any of his books. However a number of them have been adapted for film, some by Michael Crichton himself. The best known are:

The Andromeda Strain (1971): first class Sci Fi thriller.
Jurassic Park (1993).
The Lost World (1997).

Mr Crichton also wrote directly for cinema and I highly recommend his film Westworld, full of tension, high drama and fine acting performances, especially by Yul Brynner.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it Bovon. You aimed legitimate artistic criticism at the novels. You didn't bad mouth the man himself. James Joyce has been gone a while and I'm happy to say that I thought 'Dubliners' is really good (the last short story, called The Dead, is a fabulous piece of writing) but that his work became more and more self-indulgent as he ''matured''. His last book, Finnegan's Wake, is impossible to read, and his most famous book, Ulysses, is rubbish. I did succeed in reading Ulysses, but with no pleasure and no profit: it might as well have been a telephone directory. None of this has anything to do with my opinion of the late Mr Joyce personally.

Come to think of it, Geoffrey Chaucer has been dead for approximately 600 years now. I thought The Knights Tale was absolute bollocks.

[jch48]

JCH - If I drop dead in front of this monitor, I swear I didn't know the guy (M.C.) had died. :o:(

When?

.
Bovon,He died last year of throat cancer,seems he was a heavy smoker,ironically he was a Physician,so you would have thought he knew the risks.Crichton was very much a Renaissance man,as well as writing he also directed films,most well known was Coma,however he also directed The Great Train Robbery,starring Sean Connery and The 13th Warrior starring Antonio Banderas.He also inspired "ER" and was probably best known for his Dinosaur dramas Jurassic Park and The Lost World.I remember reading both novels at the time that the films were released,and found them to be darker in style than the movies,wonder how they would have turned out if Spielberg was'nt involved.The books were action adventure in style,however not much in the way of characterisation within the books,IMO.

[jch48]

R.I.P. J.G.Ballard
Heard on the news that he had died today.Enjoyed his fictional books,a precursor of the enviromental issues happening today,with his novels The Drowned World and Drought(my next read).Probably more famous for his film work through Empire of the Sun and Crash.Also remember reading his articles in the Bunny publication in the 70's.

[scoundrel]

The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay by John Buchan: printed 1936.

I bought it for £7.50 from a second hand book shop on Charing Cross Road (not No84: thats a Pizza Hut these days). The four adventures are;

The Thirty Nine Steps: lots of film versions but not one which actually resembles the book.

Greenmantle.
Mr Standfast
The Three Hostages.

They tell me a lot about where we British were between 1915 and 1930 when the books were written. There are some revelations of really offensive anti-semitism; we British were clearly superior to everyone else in general and non-white people in particular (not their fault, we just were...); watch out for Johnny Foreigner; the lower classes need to be kept in their place, and deserve respect only if they know their place without having to be told. A really astonishing exhibition of bigotry and prejudice. I want to hate these books.

Yet I can't quite manage it. The basic storytelling is really fluent and at times captivating. There is an underlying shrewdness which makes his characterisations credible, and frequently there shows through a compassion and love of humanity which is at odds with his racial and class prejudices. Buchan is much too warm hearted to be a successful fascist. Even his villains are often shown to be courageous and endowed with brutal honesty. He finds traits to admire in people who one would expect him to detest.

His portrayal of the consciencious objector, Lancelot Wake in Mr Standfast is a good example. Those who do not know Wake well think he is either a coward or actively disloyal to his country: he is even punished by being made to serve in a construction battalion (alternative to prison) because he is not actually a pacifist: he refuses to fight because he thinks WW1 in particular is a stupid waste of life. Buchan (speaking in Hannay's voice) disagrees with Wake's refusal to fight but agrees with Wake's hatred of the war and his refusal to hate the Germans just because they are the ''enemy''.

In Greenmantle there is a remarkable interlude in which Buchan shows ordinary German civilians with respect and sympathy. Hannay is a spy on the run in Southern Bavaria. The weather has turned to snow, it is getting dark, he is hopelessly lost, there are security forces hunting him, and, just to make things perfect, he is going down with malaria. He is literally considering whether or not to lie down and die when his luck changes and he finds a forester's cottage where the family (who do not know he is a fugitive) take him in. Later on he deceives them by pretending to be a German spy undercover, but only to make sure they tell no-one that he was there: he is frightened for their sake, not his own.

The family consists of a woman and four young children: her husband has been conscripted and is fighting in Russia. Hannay has a pack full of food (his emergency rations) and gives it to her for the children just before the malaria makes him totally delerious. He faints as she is weeping and kissing his hands. Afterwards it turns out that it was Christmas Eve (Hannay wasn't very focused on festivities), there was no food in the house, and the woman had only just finished a prayer for God to have mercy on her family on Christmas Day when Hannay hammered on her front door: she is convinced that he is an Angel sent to save them, and tells Hannay so. Her actual words are:

''The Good Lord has sent you...Now the little ones will have their prayers answered and the Christkind will not pass by our door.

I love the ambiguous word ''Christkind''. It can also be translated ''Christ-Child'': as though Jesus has come into their house. That's really subtle writing. Hannay is humbled and rather ashamed. He silently renounces hatred of the Germans as a people for ever.

Greenmantle was written and published in 1916.

Buchan's political and social views are borderline fascist but he is a very good storyteller and full of a redeeming kindness and decency. I frequently flinch at some of the casual prejudices he displays but if you read the books it soon becomes apparent that he doesn't really hate anybody, not even Hannay's deadliest enemies, the cabal of spies in The Thirty Nine Steps: when they are caught, he fears them even more because they are plainly motivated by love of Germany. They were in their own way valiant men of honour, and Hannay is chilled with shock and fear when he realises this, but he cannot hate or despise them.

If you can bear with the bigotted reactionary views, very typical of the period, give John Buchan a chance.

[Bovon]

SC - ^^^^ Love a good potted narrative line. :)

And so -

http://img231.imagevenue.com/loc501/th_43237_Prey_123_501lo.jpg (http://img231.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=43237_Prey_123_501lo.jpg)

EDIT: This is the second of the two-for-a-fiver I picked up by M.C.
For almost two-thirds of the book it was pleasantly believable,
But then, (and I should be getting used to this guy's writing by now),
I expected Month Python's Graham Chapman to come
Storming on to the page saying: 'Stop this. Stop this now. It all
Getting very silly etc'. Anyway he didn't, and to his credit, M.C.
Gives us a not-everyone-lived-happily-ever-after ending.
Yeah, worth a read, and given the Military-Industrial nature of
The U.S., possibly nearer to the truth than I'd like to imagine.


Am now picking up this -

http://img134.imagevenue.com/loc979/th_43250_Billy_123_979lo.jpg (http://img134.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=43250_Billy_123_979lo.jpg)

EDIT: Mmm. The Big Yin has had an interesting life, including some awful experiences at the hands (literally) of members of his family. Comes across as a decent individual (and a very funny one IMO), worth a read.

[jch48]

The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay by John Buchan: printed 1936.

.
Scoundrel that was an excellent interpretation of John Buchans work,it made me want to go back to read the story again,it must be thirty five years since I read the 39 Steps.Strangely enough,I am reading a book which would support John Buchan's prejudices about "Johnny Foreigner",The Stasi Files by Anthony Glees,investigating the methods used by East Germany's spy network to infiltrate Britains political system in the 1970's and 1980's,based upon the paperwork kept by the Stasi organisation,and which they were unable to destroy at the fall of the Berlin Wall,cheery stuff.

[tabler]

I have just started, Eric Clapton The Autobiography but will have a Stephanie Plum novel on the go at the same time.

[breslaubob]

I'm on "The Drowned and the Saved" by Primo Levi. His reminiscences about life in Auschwitz.

Pretty strong stuff - lots of 'survivor guilt' and so on - and all the more poignant as Levi would go on to kill himself in the 1980s.

I always asked myself why someone who had survived Auschwitz would then go on to kill himself, but now I can understand....

BB

[Leprechaun]

I work my way through the German version of Ian Carr's great Rough Guide to Jazz at the moment - and notice how many fine Jazz Rock Releases I not yet have ... :(

http://img107.imagevenue.com/loc62/th_70582_c2c4810ae7a031b03c080210.L_122_62lo.jpg (http://img107.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=70582_c2c4810ae7a031b03c080210.L_122 _62lo.jpg)

[Simo]

(http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Like-Eagles-History-Britain/dp/0061125350/ref=sr_1_7/190-6763074-9825411?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241173932&sr=1-7) With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain (http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Like-Eagles-History-Britain/dp/0061125350/ref=sr_1_7/190-6763074-9825411?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241173932&sr=1-7) by Michael Korda , a very good read .

[jch48]

(http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Like-Eagles-History-Britain/dp/0061125350/ref=sr_1_7/190-6763074-9825411?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241173932&sr=1-7) With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain (http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Like-Eagles-History-Britain/dp/0061125350/ref=sr_1_7/190-6763074-9825411?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241173932&sr=1-7) by Michael Korda , a very good read .
Simo,a couple of excellent books on the RAF during this period are Fighter and Bomber by Len Deighton,the author of The Ipcress Files,worth a read IMO.

[haldane4]

Down To A Sunless Sea by David Graham - about a transatlantic airliner caught mid-flight when a nuclear war breaks out. Not bad at all, one of those 80's holocaust paranoia novels you'd buy at an airport. :)

[nylon54]

I have just started, Eric Clapton The Autobiography but will have a Stephanie Plum novel on the go at the same time.

I even read the book in german - he really has nothing to say - Its just me, me, me and so what?

Sorry, I really dug him when I was 15 -

Nylon54

[jch48]

Picked up a copy of The Guinness Top 40 Charts from a second-hand book-stall,gives the details of the British Singles Charts from 1960 to 1991,terrific to find out the rubbish that was in the charts in the past.great mindless reading.

[jch48]

I even read the book in german - he really has nothing to say - Its just me, me, me and so what?

Sorry, I really dug him when I was 15 -

Nylon54
Nylon54,I've read a few books on "Rock Stars",and sorry to disappoint,most of them are bland,self-centred,full of bull.If you are looking for a couple of interesting reads check out Brother Ray,about Ray Charles and All Too Beautiful about Steve Marriott of The Small Faces and Humble Pie.There is also one about Marvin Gaye,the title escapes me but it does'nt pull any punches either.Ones to forget are anything about Elton,Tina,Paul McCartney they are usually written by fans.Ike Turner gives a counter point argument in his auto-biography "Taking My Name Back" to Tina's bio-pic as well which is also interesting,he does'nt condone his actions,but says that events were embellished to a degree.

[jch48]

John Peel,The Olivetti Chronicles-A series of articles Peel wrote for various publications through the 70's to about 2002,obviously a lot of music articles,but some on tv and his personal life,quirky as you would expect from him.Enjoyable.
http://img167.imagevenue.com/loc830/th_48358_41vAjW3sxYL__SS500__123_830lo.jpg (http://img167.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=48358_41vAjW3sxYL__SS500__123_830lo. jpg)

[doyle]

"The Comedians" by Graham Greene. Though I like old Greenie, I found this a little disappointing.
He even makes some very rookie errors - has one character scratch his chin when he has a broken arm, for example.
It reads like something dashed off in a hurry; or maybe he simply wanted to finish it.

[Wendigo]

and right back down to Earth with, The Seventh Pan Book of Horror Stories
http://img254.imagevenue.com/loc137/th_92753_ph7_123_137lo.JPG (http://img254.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92753_ph7_123_137lo.JPG)
No really classic stories so far but R.Chetwynd-Hayes "The Thing" was pretty good.
I've read further and it has the classic tale "The Monkey's Paw" as well so it gets better.

[Bovon]

"The Comedians" by Graham Greene. Though I like old Greenie, I found this a little disappointing.


This is one of those that GG considered to be his 'entertainments' rather than his heavier work, Power and The Glory etc. I read it years ago and found it a bit thin - the film version I found even more confused.

[scoundrel]

Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik

Technically I have been in the middle of reading this one since 2007 and I'm still only part way through. It is the only book I've ever been so shocked by that I couldn't go on. I managed House of Dolls (awful horrifying story of how a Jewish girl suffered before and during her incareration in a concentration camp until she was happy to die). I managed The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes (short? These crimes were legion and their depravity beggars belief). But Fight Club holds a different horror: the inner sickness of the human soul.

I recoiled when the narrator went to support groups for the terminally ill, pretending to be dying when he is actually fit as a fiddle, just to revel vicariously in the suffering of others. But whenever I related my indignation to my friends they would collapse convulsively in helpless laughter.

I almost threw the book away when Tyler Durden used body fat from his girlfriend's late mother in order to manufacture soap. He cannot understand why she is not a happy camper: its not like he killed her mother or anything...

Again I related this one to my sister and she laughed so much that she almost needed an ambulance.

I'm starting to pick up the wavelength. Fight Club is the UberSickPuppyFest of all time. I'm beginning to suspect that there could be much much worse still to come.

Daddy Longlegs Jean Webster

This one couldn't be more different. I read it once when I was a kid at school. Years later (Millenium) I bought a copy as a present for my niece and had to buy a second one because I kept the first copy for myself.

Its a total girls book (chick lit?) and really targeted at adolescent girls at that. But it is a minor classic and well worth anyones time. The story is told mainly in letters from the heroine to the un-named benefactor who is financing her college education (she is a pennyless orphan from an orphanage) and they are brim full of insight and shrewd understanding of people and life. They are often very funny, laced enjoyably with malice, yet also kind hearted and forgiving. I particularly enjoyed the heroine's love-hate relationship with her terribly terribly posh room mate, Julia Routledge Pendleton, who is sooooooo annoying but gradually turns out to be rather a good egg. When Judy (our narrator) is invited to spend holiday time in Julia's family home she sees Julia differently: her defects are much easier to understand and she deserves credit for being as human as she is.

Most of all I find the heroine's love of life inspiring. As she herself puts it:

''Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh - I really think that that requires spirit.''

Good read, clever book.

[ADA]

Lobsang Rampa - Cave of the Ancients (1963)
his first book was better...

John Wyndham - Chocky will be next

[jch48]

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas,one of my desert island books,usually read it annually.Always an uplifting story,which in my estimation is timeless,and probably this story along with Robinson Crusoe gave me my love of reading.

[Mal Hombre]

Gates of fire by Steven Pressfield,the story of the battle of Thermopylae much better than "300".

[tmee2000]

Gates of fire by Steven Pressfield,the story of the battle of Thermopylae much better than "300".
Wow- I must get that myself, one of the great stories of history. The 1962 movie "The 300 Spartans"- not to be confused with the recent effort- is well worth seeing.

[Mal Hombre]

It is a great book ,a novel but accurate and well-written.

[tabler]

Going back to Scoundrels post about not being able to finish a book, I have tried several times to read the original version of Dracula by Bram Stoker.
It is written in the form of a journal and I find it very hard work, I just cant finish this book.

[scoundrel]

Different strokes for different folks. I love this book. But I always feel nausea when I get to the bit where the good guys try to save Lucy Westenra using blood transfusions. I can watch open heart surgery, animals being slaughtered, the hideous deaths of legions of the innocent with a flint hearted indifference. Anyone else's blood: couldn't care less. My blood: I pass out.

Ironically I do give blood, but I must not catch sight of it as it leaves my system, or I feel faint. What a wuss!

Dracula is an absolute classic.

[Mal Hombre]

Different strokes for different folks. I love this book. But I always feel nausea when I get to the bit where the good guys try to save Lucy Westenra using blood transfusions. I can watch open heart surgery, animals being slaughtered, the hideous deaths of legions of the innocent with a flint hearted indifference. Anyone else's blood: couldn't care less. My blood: I pass out.

Ironically I do give blood, but I must not catch sight of it as it leaves my system, or I feel faint. What a wuss!

Dracula is an absolute classic.
Have you read any of Kim Newman's Dracula novels?Particularly Anno Dracula ?

[scoundrel]

Have you read any of Kim Newman's Dracula novels?Particularly Anno Dracula ?

Why no: never even heard of them. Tell me more...

[Mal Hombre]

Why no: never even heard of them. Tell me more...
Anno Dracula is the first of the series,it takes place in a reality where the count has killed Van Helsing and married Queen Victoria.The book follows the resistance to his brutal rule and his final ousting.There are three more books so far,all are well-written and full of period detail.You should definately give them a try

[Mal Hombre]

Mal Hombre,that sounds like an interesting read,how does it compare with Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles,if you've had the chance to read those novels?I am always keen to read a good horror story,the last recommendation I got was James Herbert,The Secret of Crickley Hall,absolute crap,could have told you the outcome within the first ten pages,no excitement throughout the book.As an aside,who has put in their order for Dan Browns new novel The Lost Symbol?
In my opinion it is superior,Newman fills his book with historical figures,characters from a spectrum of victorian fiction,his own and they blend seamlessly.

[dohupa]

None atm, but read Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach last year and I highly recommend it to all.

It's an awesome book - definitely in my 5 faves of all times. :)

http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/chesil.html

[lightbearerfallen]

Scoundrel I can relate to that squeamishness...I'm probably the biggest oxymoron I know, a squeamish embalmer! I don't get it.

I adore Anno Dracula, by the way. Need to read the rest!

[treyo]

This is one of those that GG considered to be his 'entertainments' rather than his heavier work, Power and The Glory etc. I read it years ago and found it a bit thin - the film version I found even more confused.

Hello mates:

A personal favorite author is Alan Furst, who has authored some of the best spy novels (in the genre of Greene and John LeCarre) in the last 20 years. Try his first novel "Night Soldiers"; others I can recommend are "Dark Voyage" and "The Polish Officer". All are set in 1930s-early 40s europe as the Nazis ascend to power; some characters overlap across books but each stands alone as a complete and satisfying novel. All are great reads.

wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Furst
authors website at: http://alanfurst.net/main.htm

Cheers & happy reading.

[Forbin001]

Ive been going back and forth between Daniel Silva and James Patterson novels. I recently finished A Death in Vienna by Silva, and also finished Double Cross by Patterson, it was so gnarly ehahee.

[diablo mad]

I've got 2 book's on the go at the moment.

The Way Of The Shadows part 1 of the Night Angel Trilogy
by Brent Weeks

The Complete Chronicles Of Conan
by Robert E Howard

Both are damn fine reading if you love your sword and sorcery.

[tabler]

I have just started a wonderful little oddity I picked up in a second hand bookshop in Durham a couple of weeks ago, 'USA For Begginers' by Alex Atkinson, first published 1959.Subtitled 'By Rocking Chair Across America.';)
It comes with illustrations by Ronald Searle and the opening paragraph reads 'Too many books about the United States are written by men who have only spent a few weeks in the country. This is different: it is by a man who has never been there in his life.':D:D:D
It is very, very funny

[jch48]

I have just started, Eric Clapton The Autobiography but will have a Stephanie Plum novel on the go at the same time.
Tabler,just finished the Clapton Autobiography,from the amount of drink,drugs and women he's went through I'm amazed that he is still alive.He does'nt come across as a very sympathetic character,even considering the events of his childhood and the death of his son,although to give him his due latterly in his life he does seem to have had more consideration for others.

[scoundrel]

Tabler,just finished the Clapton Autobiography,from the amount of drink,drugs and women he's went through I'm amazed that he is still alive.He does'nt come across a very sympathetic character,even considering the events of his childhood and the death of his son,although to give him his due latterly in his life he does seem to have more consideration for others.

It is a mark of honesty and self awareness if an autobiography presents a ''warts and all'' portrait of the author.

One of the best autobiographies I have ever read is that of the truly remarkable Benjamin Franklin. IMHO Franklin did even more than George Washington to secure American independence. Washington defeated Lord Cornwallis decisively at Yorktown due to naval support from the French Atlantic fleet, which drove off the Royal Navy just when Cornwallis desperately needed to evacuate his army from the Yorktown peninsula. It was Franklin, diplomat and courtier at Verseilles, who secured both French financial support (how would Washington have held it all together at Valley Forge if he had not been able to pay the troops?) and the vital intervention of the French fleet. Perhaps Franklin rather than Washington should be honoured on the Dollar Bill.

In his book, Franklin deals with these events but does not blow his own trumpet at all. He was in fact pro-British and even after the event saw the separation as an unavoidable tragedy for which, as he convincingly explains, the British were wholly to blame. The self-destructive arrogance of the Hanovarian redcoats is only too clear, even though Franklin did all he could to smoothe over the offences they were forever giving to Americans on American soil, and indeed was careful in his book to emphasise the good points of the difficult and irascible General Braddock: the man was brave, honest, loyal, cared deeply about his own men and was not at all the fool that he often seemed to be. In fact, Braddock in the end was a friend of the Americans: if only other British soldiers and politician had been like him, Franklin's desperate work to hold the two sides together could have succeeded

NB: Winston Churchill (not Franklin) tells how Franklin made one last bid at the strangers bar of the House of Lords to persuade Parliament to repeal the Navigation Act and change its stupid, arrogant and thoughtless policy towards America. Churchill relates how the peers loudly shouted Franklin down and demanded he be arrested and hanged as a traitor. Per Churchill, Franklin was silent until they stopped shouting, then said clearly:

Gentlemen. I shall make your King into a little man for this!

He kept his word.

As well as dealing with key events in US history, Franklin describes his impressive scientific researches: particularly how he conducted electricity by attaching a key to a kite during a lightning storm. His book is at times quite witty and this is one of those times. The experiment was brilliantly conceived except for the fact that Franklin was very nearly killed and didn't even realise it until years later. Not quite so clever after all!

The book also gives a wealth of detail about Franklin's personal life and he does not spare himself: in fact I give him slightly more credit than he gives himself. At one stage he tried to take advantage of a penniless woman in distress, but when she turned him down (even though he was her last chance and she had an illegitimate daughter to think of as well), he relented and helped her to rebuild her life in spite of her refusal to sleep with him. He wrote of this years later and still condemned himself as a rotter: I think he is harder on himself than he needs to be. By his own actions he gave convincing proof that he was sorry.

His on-off relationship with the woman who eventually became Mrs Franklin is also very illuminating. Philadelphia in Franklin's time was still almost frontier territory. The lady loved Franklin but was compelled by her social-climbing family to marry another man who later abandoned her. After seven years, Franklin had his rival declared legally dead and married the love of his life. he doesn't quite say so, but his book hints that the other guy never showed his face again and would be extremely well advised to stay dead! Franklin was very much a man of action and could be relied upon to stand up for his wife and family in no uncertain terms.

Franklin's book is a damn good read and a really important historical document.

[jch48]

Stone of Destiny by Ian Hamilton.The audacious plot by a group of students from Glasgow University to "liberate" the Stone of Scone,which was used in the coronation of the Scottish Kings,prior to Edward the First of England stealing it and taking it to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of the English and subsequently British monarchs.It is quite a good read,amusing in parts in showing how a group of amateurs could get away with this act and shows how complacent the authorities were in protecting state icons.I believe it has been made into a film recently,starring Robert Carlyle.
http://img188.imagevenue.com/loc1031/th_56850_21iluXzO7lL__SL500_AA180__123_1031lo.jpg

[Leprechaun]

http://img243.imagevenue.com/loc131/th_78598_51D88WPJ7XL._SS500__122_131lo.jpg (http://img243.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=78598_51D88WPJ7XL._SS500__122_131lo. jpg)

Yeah!

[slowdiver]

Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head: The Beatles records and the 60's.
It details, song by song, every track that the Beatles recorded and released, giving details of who played what on each song.

The thing that keeps me coming back to this book (I've read it cover to cover a few times now, yet can still come back to it and just dip in if I have a few moments free) is that it puts the songs into a context with regards to what was happening in the group's personal lives, as well as what was happening in the world at large.

For anyone who is a Beatles fan, a fan of the technical side of recording or who has an interest in the 1960's in general it makes for a fascinating read and is highly recommended.

[jch48]

Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head: The Beatles records and the 60's.
It details, song by song, every track that the Beatles recorded and released, giving details of who played what on each song.

The thing that keeps me coming back to this book (I've read it cover to cover a few times now, yet can still come back to it and just dip in if I have a few moments free) is that it puts the songs into a context with regards to what was happening in the group's personal lives, as well as what was happening in the world at large.

For anyone who is a Beatles fan, a fan of the technical side of recording or who has an interest in the 1960's in general it makes for a fascinating read and is highly recommended.

Slowdiver,I found this to be a bit heavy going when I read it,great if you are a big Beatles fan,and to be honest I loved the first section of the book which relates to the early Beatles recording,however later on I lost interest,possibly a combination of tales told before,or too much detail for the lay-man to keep me motivated in the book.

[scoundrel]

http://img9.imagevenue.com/loc361/th_08647_The_Island_of_Sheep_122_361lo.jpg
Fifth and final novel in the Richard Hannay series: it partakes of all the vices displayed in the first four, (see my earlier review of The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay): casual racism, hidebound social prejudices, British superiority complex. But as before, Buchan does tell quite a good yarn.

In this one, Buchan's great strength as an observer and describer of the natural world is also much in evidence, as is his intuitive insight into the psychology of children: Hannay's 12 year old son is a key character, along with the daughter of the crime victim Hannay is supporting. Buchan's impressive knowledge of birds is integral to the story: at one stage the children are being hunted by the villains and evade capture because the boy draws the attention of fledgling pink footed geese, who walk towards the children when any other birds would edge away. This fools the hunters into thinking the children are behind the geese when they are in front of the geese. Ingenious.

Some of the characterisations are very thin: D'Ingraville, the senior villain has virtually no personality, Barralty (the intellectual villain) precious little. The actress/gangsters' moll Lydia is better, though still barely a presence: her best moment is at the very end when the victorious good guys let her and her boyfriend off the hook they made for themselves and she is the one who is decently grateful.

IMO the book is interesting on several levels, though hardly a classic. I particularly liked the emergence of a sedentary bank executive (Lombard) as an unlikely hero who whisks the girl (Anna) out from under the very noses of her would-be kidnappers in an improvised coup of deceit and low cunning, fast footwork and cheerful unashamed cowardice (at least he happily presents it in this light, though Buchan makes his cold blooded courage very clear). This is a book full of unlikely heroes, in which the orthodox hero figures like Hannay would have been sunk without auxilliary help. Buchan is not famous for his sense of irony or his wit but both are evident in The Island of Sheep.

Incidently the cover image on my cheapo Wordsworth edition (above) depicts the main street (hell, the only street) of Tobermory, Isle of Mull, painted in 1906. Some members may know it as Balamory from the children's TV series. Except for the fact that some of the buildings are now painted in bright colours, the town still looks almost exactly like this over a 100 years later.

[Pinkpapercut]

Fiction

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Archly written and dated but it has a powerful sense of claustrophobia and of an unfortunate misfit of a young woman being drawn to her doom.


Non-fiction

Byzantium (3 vols) by John Julius Norwich.

A very easy read, a historian who can write for once. I read this several years ago and I'm now re-reading it. I became interested in Byzantium when I discovered that virtually all the classical knowledge and texts that popular historians claim was transmitted to Europe by the islamic Caliphates was in reality maintained and transmitted to us by the christian greek Byzantines.

[icu]

My next one should be 'How to Shit in the Woods' as preparation for my next coming vacation

[Estreeter]

Written by Bruce,
Got it for a birthday gift a few weeks back:)
Thanks RG
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[jch48]

A "factional" account of the future likely climatic changes resulting in disaster scenarios,this story you may know better as The Day After Tomorrow .I seem to have a penchant for reading hokum like this be it Grail related,Chariots of The Gods nonsense or Alien Visitation,generally I treat it with a pinch of salt,others may disagree.Anyway a light easy read and enjoyable.
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[tamsmith]

Came across an old book of my fathers the other day. Published in 1964 and is all about Government sleeze. Although the book called it "political misdirections". Seems very limited as more truths have come out since then. First two chapters about Profumo, then Suez.

Some things never change.

[kiwi]

I'm so honoured that you folks have been reading about Scottish history, while I am currently bookless :(

I'm currently suspended from the local library at the mo. - They have a better system for the late return of books here, namely, - they suspend your membership :eek:

How long depends on how long you were late ... think 'eye for an eye & a tooth for a tooth' & you'll get my drift :cool:

I'm bookless for two weeks. All I have is the net & the wife & kids.

God help me! :eek:

Kiwi

[jch48]

Started reading this through watching the TV series,hoped it was going to give me more details of the classic cars used in the programme,but it seems to concentrate on the history of the location,shame however it describes a couple of excellent drives I've done myself,the Lake District and the Trossachs.
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[tabler]

'Cassowary Crossing, a guide to OFFBEAT Australia'

I have started this guide with a view to planning my month in Oz next year, I dont want to do the touristy things, I like the weird and wonderful:cool:

[Estreeter]

'Cassowary Crossing, a guide to OFFBEAT Australia'

I have started this guide with a view to planning my month in Oz next year, I dont want to do the touristy things, I like the weird and wonderful:cool:
I'll give ya the OFFBEAT giude, just wait till ya get here:D:D:D:D:D

[tabler]

I'll give ya the OFFBEAT giude, just wait till ya get here:D:D:D:D:D

Seeing as my good friend mv has kindly offered to be my guide to drunken debauchery:cool:

I am now reading 'A Comics Life, Born Standing Up' by Steve Martin, an Autobiography.

[NelsonsGoodeye]

Forgotten Soldier. True story of a German soldiers life fighting on the Russian front.

Generation Kill. Now adapted into a 7 part mini series. The story of American Marines first recon division charge through Iraq.

Auswitch. Nuff said.

[tamsmith]

Reading Sniper One again by Sgt Dan Mills.. Seems I missed a few points in my earlier reading. It is not an American story but a true British one so it will never be made into a movie, although it should and could.

The BBC pulled out of the Area after one day as it was too dangerous. Our British political masters kept it quiet. With the 2004 election Tony had to make sure he got back in.

My son was there the whole time.

A good read folks.

[jch48]

An essay into the poor quality of Britains diet and the reasons behind it,Joanna Blythman blames everybody from politicians to farmers and the big supermarkets for the problems within our country,but she especially kicks ass when it comes to the real problem,you and I.And there was me thinking I had a healthy lifestyle,eating my five pieces of fruit per day,and limiting my alcohol consumption to weekends only.A bit sensationalist however it makes you consider the food industries manipulation of our society.
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[gmcbee]

...I am now reading 'A Comics Life, Born Standing Up' by Steve Martin, an Autobiography.

Steve Martin, Bela Fleck and Tony Trischka on Letterman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jn3KCZEqxc

--
A handsome young pirate named Bates
Attempted a tango on skates.
He fell on his cutlass
which rendered him nutless
and practically worthless on dates.

[gmcbee]

Back on topic, just finished a reread of Stranger In A Strange Land.
Probably gonna reread Lehane's Mystic River next, unless y'all can change my mind by bedtime. :p

[Carrot74]

Finished the Sword Of Truth series and am working on all the books of Tamora Pierce, like The Lioness series, The Wildmage series, etc.

[jch48]

HG Wells classic Sci-Fi novel which has been in my collection for years.At the time of first publication this must have been an incredible story,and over the decades has managed to tap into our consciousness,think of the historical events of the 20th century which have become metaphors to this story,a superb read and I only hope to see a time when Hollywood would respect the story and provide a decent version on film,instead of the crap which Tom Cruise put us through.
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[clonevs]

"Privilege: Harvard and The Education of the Ruling Class" by: Ross G. Douthat
http://img.infibeam.com/img/dbbee676/554/7/9781401307554.jpg

Just finished "Star Trek Titan: Over a Torrent Sea" by: Christopher L. Bennett
http://img.trekmovie.com/images/Titan5.jpg

[jch48]

Enjoyed most of his traveloques,and picked this one up cheap through the web,so looking forward to reading it,let you know my opinion of it once I've read it.
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[scoundrel]

http://img211.imagevenue.com/loc495/th_69066_Tumult_in_the_Clouds_122_495lo.jpg

I have read a number of autobiographical books written by WW2 pilots, of which the one I rate most highly as a quality work of literature is The Last Enemy by Flight Lieutenant Richard Hillary, who died on active service in 1943.

Tumult in the Clouds is second only to Hillary's book in my reading of this sub-genre. I bought it as one of my Waterstone's three-for-two bargains (three-for-two: it's retail literature as porn) and I was delighted with it. Major Goodson had an eventful and fascinating war career, served alongside some equally distinguished officers, had the ear of General Eisenhower, and to cap it all he is a really really good writer, with the skill to make the most of excellent material.

Unlike a conventional memoir, Goodson organises his book by subject matter, not just chronologically. Roughly, the structure is like this (my headings, not his):

Part One: The sinking of the Athenia and how Goodson survived and got home.

He tells the story modestly, but Goodson's role was very creditable. Though they were brave and did their duty, The Athenia's crew couldn't swim: none of them. So Goodson went to the bottom deck of the sinking ship and fished everyone left alive, handing them up to waiting crew members who evacuated them to the lifeboats. His final look at the flooding deck, when everyone else was already gone, is haunting to read. So is the painful scene when he landed in Galway as a shipwrecked mariner and was greeted by two children, 10 years old, asking politely and with pathetic dignity whether he has seen their mother and father. He hadn't, and there were no more survivors coming in after him. This is absolutely heart-rending and Goodson's fierce hatred of the Germans is born.

Part Two

The main section. This covers Goodson's war service and features detailed character portraits and stories of the doings of various key pilots of the 4th Fighter Group, based at RAF Duxford. These men include several of the leading aces of the USAAF in Europe, including John Godfrey, Don Gentile, Ralph (Kid) Hofer, and Duane Beeson, all creditted with more than 25 victories each.

Of these portraits the most significant historically is his insightful presentation of the CO, Colonel Don Blakeslee, a man who heavily influenced the formation of the US fighter force in Europe. The Fourth Fighter Group were created in 1942 out of the RAF's Eagle squadrons and at the time they were the only really experienced fighter pilots the US had, except for the AVG veterans in China and Blakeslee's experience in tactics and leadership were invaluable, though he was only a Captain and a squadron commander at first. In Goodson's account he emerges as a larger-than-life personality, at once loveable, scary and really impressive. You can see exactly why his men loved him and dared not disobey him.

He inherited 133 Eagle Squadron, a mixture of transferrees like Goodson, not happy to be there and surviving members like Don Gentile, resenting the newcomers and in deep mourning for twelve pilots lost at sea because their fuel ran out due to a ghastly planning blunder by someone high up. To make it worse, the squadron was being treated like a poor relation, in squalid quarters at a satelite airfield called Great Sampford (Goodson: There was nothing great about Great Sampford), 6 miles away from the comforts and facilities of Duxford.

With great elan, Blakeslee decided to kill or cure. He made his new pilots take off twelve abreast from the hazardous and bumpy grass runway and fly at daisy cutting height right across Duxford airfield, to show the authorities what they thought of being posted to Great Sampford. Their engine noise shattered most of the windows in Duxford, all at a ghastly early hour. The squadron was re-housed at Duxford that very day.

Goodson gives a really vivid account of this dangerous and bold display of aerobatics, and the various near-collisions involved. From the ground, the other squadron pilots were happy to say that it looked like an inch-perfect aeronautical display and a legend was born. But Goodson makes the point of what it was all really about-

It was when we climbed out of the planes that I understood. There was excitement, enthusiasm, boasting and pride. Everyone was babbling about how, against all odds, they faced and overcame catastrophe and gave a show fit for heroes. That evening Blakeslee wasn't the only 133 pilot with the belligerent swagger as we arrived at the officers' mess in Duxford. It had become a squadron characteristic, and the other squadrons accepted it.

Blakeslee had given the squadron its heart back again. He must have been a really exceptional leader of men.

Final section

A fascinating account of Goodson's experiences in Nazi Germany after being shot down. A fluent German speaker, he ditched his uniform and tried to evade capture but fell into Gestapo hands and was very nearly shot as a spy. His account of how he talked the senior commandant of the Gestapo prison into handing him over to the Luftwaffe and proper captivity is a really gripping story. Ultimately, mere trifles saved him:

He accepts impending death calmly. The German gives him a last brandy and Goodson brazenly cadges a last cigar to go with. When Goodson blows smoke rings the German is delighted, so Goodson teaches him the trick. They converse pleasantly about the relative merits of US and German fighter pilots (as we read, we can see the subtlety of the German making very sure that Goodson really is who he says he is). During the smoke ring lesson, the German treats Goodson to a second brandy:

Thank you-I said. At least I'm going out in style.

Yes-he said. You do have style. Prosit!-and he raised his glass to me.

Offered a last request, Goodson suggests that the Commandant might call the Luftwaffe to take him away. After a witty and bright exchange, the Commandant relents and does exactly that: Goodson had been joking. How strange life is.

Goodson: It was like being born again. everything seemed new and wonderful, and I saw it all in a new, clear light. Through the window, dawn was breaking. As in a dream, I walked over and looked at the trees and fields. They would have seemed ordinary; now they were fabulous

The guards came to take me back to my cell. I pointed through the window:
-Wonderschon, I said. Its beautiful.

This is one hell of a good book, full of vignettes like this. Read it if you get a chance. You will learn a lot about the human condition.

[jch48]

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That sounds like a fine read and I will be keeping a look out for that one in the bookshops.A couple of books I have covered in this genre and enjoyed were The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.
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And the autobiography of Chuck Yeager
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fantastic stories,and an area which fascinates me,read many books on this subject,and if I could ever afford it,would love to go into space,nice to have a dream.

[Pinkpapercut]

To get a bit heavy for a moment, in the last few years I've nursed my father and then my mother through terminal illnesses. Recently a friend recommended me a book she'd read and which she though would help me sort my head out.

I'm just coming to the end of it. It's one of the worst books I've ever read. It's "They F*** You Up" by Oliver James, and those asterisks in the title aptly symbolise the gutlessness of the whole book.

James borrows techniques of self-analysis from elsewhere, from John Bowlby for instance, to create what he calls an emotional audit, and buries this under a steaming pile of spurious psychoanalysis of celebrities, most of whom he's never met but has only read about in the media.

Embarrassingly lazy and most definitely not recommended by this reader.

[bignubber]

this is a great thread for giving people ideas on what books to read. heres a few from me.

as a child, one book i read at school (in the early 1970's) was 'Bottersnikes and Gumbles'. it was about two tribes of animals that lived in a scrapyard and they recycled items, but they were always falling out with each other. a very funny book to read.

other good books i have read are:

Moon by James Herbert.
The Bad Place by Dean Koontz (a great book about a man who has a genetic ability to teleport to random place when he's asleep. i read this book in 2 days and thoroughly recommend it).
Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler.
Daughter of God by Lewis Purdue - a story about how the church covers up the second coming of christ and how one investigator battles the church and russian mobsters to find the documented evidence hidden by the Germans in WW2. - a great read.

finally for those of you who like true war stories- i am currently reading The Last Tommy. a book about the survivors of world war one and their life stories. there are only two of these survivors left now (henry allingham and harry patch).read this book and then give silent thanks for their bravery and true courage.

[tabler]

Ive just started 'The Sound Of Laughter' by Peter Kay, Im not a huge fan though my Son raves about him so I picked this up for £1 from a car boot sale to see if I can get into him.

[dorcelfan]

I've decided to start a re-read of Anne Rices' "Vampire Chronicles".....

"Interview with the Vampire" is already done and I'm a few chapters into "The Vampire Lestat".

Reading them again has also re-inforced my opinion on what a f*cking botch job they did with the movie "Queen of the Damned" which combined the 2nd and 3rd books.

A great series and books which, I feel, easily transport you to a believable reality.

Regards

D

[Wendigo]

and Rick Wilsons Scots Who Made America
The usual suspects such as John Paul Jones and Andrew Carnegie appear,however I think there stretching it a bit nominating Harry Benson,who has taken portrait pictures of the U.S.Presidents,as an important figure in U.S/Scottish relations.

I'm waiting for the White House announcing that Barack O'Bama actually has Iirish ancestors, he must be the only US President in living memory who hasn't claimed that lineage to catch the Irish vote. I love this image - kudos to the creator.
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On books I'm currently reading The Essential Spider-Man Volume 9 and for a little light reading Steve Alten's Meg and the 2 follow ups as I wait for Hell's Aquarium to come out in paperback.

[jch48]

Calvin and Hobbes

Extremely funny and great imagination in the stories
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[cabclive]

7 seconds until the end ot the world
by jack henderson

[haldane4]

Brecht - The Threepenny Novel. Great translation by Desmond Vesey.

[tabler]

At the moment all my time reading is taken up with car brochures as I need a new work car! God they are rubbish who the hell writes these things (oh hang on, people like me:rolleyes:)

[scoundrel]

http://img127.imagevenue.com/loc595/th_63919_Agatha_Christie_1920s_Omnibus_122_595lo.j pgNo question about it, I'm slumming.

The book presents four 1920s Christie novels featuring neither Poirot nor Miss Marple, in an attempt to show that there was more to her than just these two characters. The novels are:
The Secret Adversary (1922)
The Man In The Brown Suit (1924)
The Secret of Chimneys (1925)
The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)
Is there more to Ms Christie? Well, yes, but not all that much.

Her social snobbery and elitist attitudes preclude the idea that anyone who isn't at least from the English minor gentry could be more than a minor, highly stereotyped extra in the drama. Her plots are, more often than not, flimsy and implausible, pivoting brazenly on the weakest of coincidences. Only rarely do her characters achieve slightly more than 2 dimensions and become interesting. Her sycophantic love of the English upper classes shines through over and over again and tests any modern reader's patience.

However: there are good things lurking in these books.

The Secret Adversary is a triumph of style over content but thoroughly readable (Christie is seldom boring) and the two lead characters, older versions of boys and gels found in the pages of Enid Blyton books, still manage to be sympathetic in their struggle to track down the villain, avoid being eliminated and earn some cash because they're flat broke. Their mutual struggle to admit to themselve and to each other that they are in love has a certain comic value and Christie relieves the flimsiness of her plot slightly with her ironic authorial voice:'Tommy' Beresford is following a suspect in the usual private detective tradition.

Though familiar with the technicalities from a course of novel reading, he had never before attempted to follow anyone and it appeared to him at once that, in actual practice, the proceeding was fraught with difficulties. Supposing, for instance, that they should suddenly hail a taxi? In books, you simply leapt into another, promised the driver a sovereign - or its modern equivalent - and there you were. In actual fact, Tommy foresaw that it was extremely likely that there would be no second taxi...

The Man In The Brown Suit depicts the strange events which befall the heroine from the moment when she sees a death on a railway platform where a man falls to his death under a train in his desperation to get away from a man wearing a brown suit. Trouble is, even though this brown suited fellow cannot possibly be The Man From The Prudential Insurance Company, judging by the victim's eagerness to be somewhere else, she definitely likes the look of him. Oh yes.

The mystery is establishing what the strange scene at the railway station was all about, and it soon becomes apparent that the heroine is putting her nose where it isn't wanted...

IMO this one is the best of the four. It doesn't use clunky plot devices nearly as much, so the action has more credibility; it leaves plenty of room for moral ambivalence; it tacitly admits that the heroine likes bad boys; the characters have their context in a world where people pay their own way and are not mere bored spoilt aristos looking for something to do.

The last two are cardboard dramas, both vehicles for Lady Eileen Brent, aristocratic flapper as sleuth. Their best feature is the rather sinister policeman, Superintendent Battle, a man who doesn't trust appearances and doesn't think conventionally and is a natural risk-taker. I also forgive these books because, years before she made her name as Lily Langtree, the actress Francesca Annis was really sexy as Eileen Brent in a very unadventurous BBC 1920s period serialisation on Christies's several Eileen Brent novels and I was just old enough to recognise this. The series was repeated on ITV3, graveyard of the cops and robbers shows, a couple of years ago, and it was nice to be reminded how good (and how attractive) Francesca Annis was, back in the day.

As for the books as books, they are readable and enjoyable but have no substance, except for an occasional subversive and semi-fascist appearance by Superintendent Battle, whose covert contempt for weakness and for cowardly and narrow minded respectability sits at odds with his vocation (it is a real vocation) to be a police detective.

Its like I said. I'm slumming.:D

[Wendigo]

Pan Book of Horror Stories Vol 8
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I've just started re-reading this, there's some great tales including - The Assassin (Raymond Williams), The Children (W. Baker-Evans), The Illustrated Man (Ray Bradbury) and one of my all time favourites The Janissaries of Emilion by Basil Copper.

[fleetwood77]

Not had a chance to do some reading recently,however now picked up a copy of this one,should be a good read.
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SHould be a good quick read!

Seriously though - Wee Jackie and I share the same home town - I always thought it amusing that when Sir J was the fastest man in the world his old father would drive along the High St in his BMC 1100 at 10 mph.

[blondifan]

http://thumbnails3.imagebam.com/4051/4614a940506939.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/4614a940506939)

I personally discovered Neil Young's 'After the Goldrush' album in my early teens. This began a lifelong love of much of his music. I say 'much of' because he has been so prolific and perversely diverse, it's challenging to admire all of his catalogue.
Although initially I had a love/hate relationship with many of his songs, as a thirteen year old, he was radically different from anything else in my small but rapidly growing music collection. My first manuscript book was 'Complete Vol 1'. Here I discovered the wonders of 'Drop D-tuning'.

Forgive me if I digress. Jimmy McDonough spent six years virtually living with this reclusive performer while he wrote this, compiling stories and anecdotes from those who knew him and the man himself. I find the style of narrative very relaxed and natural.
I keep a copy on my bedside table, for nights when I can't sleep, and have read it cover to cover a few times.
It's innarestin' when you find rare bootlegs such as 'Chrome Dreams', to read the stories behind each song, even on unreleased material.

[jch48]

SHould be a good quick read!

Seriously though - Wee Jackie and I share the same home town - I always thought it amusing that when Sir J was the fastest man in the world his old father would drive along the High St in his BMC 1100 at 10 mph.
Bellsmyre,that was probably the top speed of an 1100!!

[tabler]

My first car when I was 17 was an 1100:):):) (it was shite):o

I have just started working my way through the Morse novels by Colin Dexter (again) they are the kind of books I return to periodicaly.

[avidfan]

just finished reading zodiac (2nd time of reading) by robert graysmith, its about the serial killer not my star sign :rolleyes:.

[beezer60]

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Just finished reading this. It's a mix of fact and fiction based on the complex life of Harry Cole, an ex-robber, con-man and blackmarketeer turned British spy in WWII France.

A really gripping read and surprisingly well-written. I'm off to find more of Robert Ryan's stuff for the beach, but I know I'll be re-reading this in a few months.

[haldane4]

A really gripping read and surprisingly well-written. I'm off to find more of Robert Ryan's stuff for the beach, but I know I'll be re-reading this in a few months.

Saw a funny sticker on the front of a Ryan book once, it read:

'Guaranteed as good as Sebastian Faulkes or your money back.'

[retro72]

The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham. An apocalyptic sci fi classic in my not so humble opinion....

[Mal Hombre]

I'm re-reading Michael Herr's Dispatches, about his time as a war correspondent in Vietnam,if you look on page 149 you will find the original Mal Hombre

[jch48]

The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham. An apocalyptic sci fi classic in my not so humble opinion....
Of the four classic British Sci-fi authors namely Clarke,Wells,Aldiss and Wyndham he comes top in my estimation,however I enjoy all of the others writing.

[retro72]

Of the four classic British Sci-fi authors namely Clarke,Wells,Aldiss and Wyndham he comes top in my estimation,however I enjoy all of the others writing.

The BBC did a very decent TV series adaptation of the book in the early 80s. It had such an apocalyptic feel that not only reflected the book but also the scary times where nuclear war was a far from distant possibility between East and West...
In no way whatsoever should anyone subject themselves to the execrable 1953 film however with Howard Keel. A total travesty all round. The triffids looked like Dandelions on wheelchairs... :mad:

Anyway, back to the books and on the same sci fi vein the collected short stories of Philip K Dick. One of the most imaginiative writers ever and inspiration for many a film: Total Recall, Bladerunner etc...

[haldane4]

The BBC have remade The Day of the Triffids, probably for screening in the Autumn. I like to see more SF on our screens but I'd rather they adapted a neglected classic - John Christopher's The Death of Grass or Charles Eric Maine's The Darkest of Nights. They're equally post-apocalypic fun.

[haldane4]

Barrington J Bayley died last year - he was part of the UK New Wave along with Moorcock, Ballard, Aldiss etc. I would really recommend his books to everyone, particularly his short stories which are compiled in two volumes - The Seed of Evil and The Knights of the Limits. Inventive and challenging reading, Bayley often crammed with more ideas on one page than many writers manage in a lifetime.

RIP, Mr Bayley.

[spitalhouse]

I have four books on the go at the moment:

History Of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell; Das Kaptal by Karl Marx; Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Mr Tickle by Roger Hargreaves.

Regards.

[spitalhouse]

A bit of light reading Spitalhouse:)

Actually, I'm finding Mr Tickle somewhat elusive.

Regards.

[jch48]

Actually, I'm finding Mr Tickle somewhat elusive.

Regards.
Theres a lot of hidden meaning within that book,that one is believed to be the "Da Vinci Code"of the Hargreaves series.

[retro72]

Theres a lot of hidden meaning within that book,that one is believed to be the "Da Vinci Code"of the Hargreaves series.

Oh please. Everyone knows that that was Mr Greedy. Almost Kafkaesque in its application...

Or was it Mr Small...?

:o

[avidfan]

zodiac unmasked by robert graysmith at the moment...

[Satiros]

I'm currently re-reading James Blish's Cities In Flight series. It's still wonderful.


My favorite author is J.G. Ballard, and I'll prob re-read the books I have of him after I'm done with Blish.

I'm also a big fan of Philip Roth, Henry Miller, Michel Houellebecq and some others.

[haldane4]

My favorite author is J.G. Ballard, and I'll prob re-read the books I have of him after I'm done with Blish.


I loved High-Rise and am planning to re-read it before the film appears - God knows what they've done to it.

Currently reading Seven Days In New Crete by Robert Graves.

[Satiros]

Who knows when that movie's coming out though. There's always much talk about movie versions of Ballard material (Christian Bale doing Concrete Island, ok), but there are only very few examples of such plans coming to fruition (Crash being the obvious example). Still, fingers crossed!

[jch48]

An interesting summary of a period a lot of us would be familiar with.Up to now I've only read the first chapter dealing with the end of the Second World War and the various actions and frictions which developed between the Allies whilst they faced up to the Axis countries.Some numbers which surprised me,Allied casualties resulting from the Second World War,The U.S.A. lost 300,000,Great Britain lost 375,000 and the U.S.S.R lost somewhere in the region of 27 million.
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[Leprechaun]

Time to read one of my favorite fantasy stories again.

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[jch48]

On the anniversary of the Moon Landings,picked up this book on what happened to the astronauts once they had returned to Earth.The authors major target was Neil Armstrong as the first,however he leads a reclusive life in regards to interviews,so the author did'nt get a chance to see him.Of interest in regards to the way their lifes worked out after their experience of being on the Moon,some shunned the publicity,others used it to their benefit.
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[anklebiter]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.It's a prequel to The DaVinci Code.pretty good too.Been unable to put it down.Hoping to see the movie if it's still playing when I finish reading it.

[Mal Hombre]

The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Wilans and Ronald Searle

[crazybikerme]

Almost wet myself laughing!!!:o

....................I just gotta meet a Honey Badger...............!!! :p

[scoundrel]

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Not Austen's finest book (that would be Emma) but her most accessible and charming book. Instantly readible and full of humour, it is also subtle, rich in irony as Austen always is, and pioneers various techniques of story-telling now taken for granted, such as the use of free indirect speech: the novel is narrated by Austen in the third person, yet we see the action all from Elizabeth Bennet's point of view, very much as if she were narrating in the first person. This clever trick is used to make sure that where Elizabeth is deceived, we are fooled as well, and it also gives us priveleged access to Elizabeth's complex and fascinating inner life.

The story is famous and has been adapted for film and TV many times: IMO the best versions are the 1995 BBC adaptation with Jennifer Ehrle as Elizabeth and Colin Firth as the definitive Mr Darcy, followed by the surprisingly good 2005 Hollywood film with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth. These are both good, but the book is better. The book is fantastic actually.

The evolving relationship of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy is full of comic and complex misunderstandings. Its a third person narrative so we get to see the cards held by both players. Darcy has been a fool to himself by slighting and insulting the girl without first checking her out properly, and doesn't realise until the disastrous first proposal how badly he has let himself down. He is vain and fatheaded, but his confusion isn't all his fault.

Elizabeth is really classy and uses wit and humour where another girl would use temper tantrums and insults to express her wounded and affronted spirit, but Darcy is actually quite clever and would have got the message, except Elizabeth is transmitting garbled signals, because she feels other feelings which she is extremely slow to admit, even to herself. Not to put too fine a point on it, her ill feeling towards Darcy, the intensity of it, is in no small part the fury of a woman scorned. She would bite her tongue rather than say so, but she checked Mr Darcy out when he was being too bad tempered and short sighted to have a proper look at her. He was rude, offensive and seriously affronted her: but he was still good looking...

Its only late in the piece, during her visit to Darcy's family home, (she is desperate not to go but dares not tell her uncle and aunt the back-story, so is sneaking in and out having been assured by the local folk that Darcy is away and not expected back) that a few misconceptions and self-deceptions are straightened out in her own mind. One of these is what she really thinks of Mr Darcy as a man:

[Elizabeth and Mr and Mrs Gardiner, her uncle and aunt, are being shown the pictures in the picture gallery by Darcy's housekeeper: they have come to Mr Darcy's own portrait]

''And that...is my master,and very like him. It was drawn at the same time as the other portrait [Mr Wickham's], about eight years ago''.
''I have heard much of your master's fine person'', said Mrs Gardiner, looking at the picture; ''it is a handsome face. But Lizzy, you can tell us whether it is like or not.''
Mrs Reynold's respect for Elizabeth seemed to increase on this intimation of her knowing her master.
''Does that young lady know Mr Darcy?''
Elizabeth coloured and said ''A little.''
''And do you not think him a very handsome gentleman, ma'am?''
''Yes, very handsome.''

In its context, this is a really telling admission. Austen's heroines are never overtly sexual (she was an unmarried gentlewoman writing in Regency England FHS) but she is incredibly good at conveying the sexual tensions and undercurrents without the slightest indecorum. Elizebeth likes Mr Darcy, and that's the truth, even when she also hates him. He isn't totally a fool for thinking she is giving him positive feedback, because actually she is, in spite of herself. The mind says one thing, but the red blood corpuscles say something else.

Oh man is this clever stuff!

[Mal Hombre]

http://thumbnails13.imagebam.com/4386/c828e843853106.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/c828e843853106)Monster Nation by David Wellington,This is the first zombie novel i have read and it is very good.The zombies are very much in the George A Romero tradition-indeed author Wellington was born in Pittsburgh
like Romero.The story is told through the eyes of three main characters, a National Guard Captain and interestingly two zombies one,Dick is a mindless ,armless apetite on legs ,the other Nilla has retained her mind but has lost her memories even her real name.The plot builds to an unexpected conclusion.I would recommend this book to anyone not perturbed by gore.

[graftzig]

"The man who laughs" by Victor Hugo.

[MaxJoker]

"The man who laughs" by Victor Hugo.



Excellent choice :cool:

I recently finished reading these two very interesting books ( Still wish Man didn`t throw himself into the mix so often though as occasionally it can come across as a travel guide) , which combined probably best describe and explain the birth and death of the Mongol empire. A great read , mind you would have enjoyed more details on the major battles but then i`m a tactical fanatic :D

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Just started this

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So far so very good :cool:

[jch48]

Excellent choice :cool:

I recently finished reading these two very interesting books ( Still wish Man didn`t throw himself into the mix so often though as occasionally it can come across as a travel guide) , which combined probably best describe and explain the birth and death of the Mongol empire. A great read , mind you would have enjoyed more details on the major battles but then i`m a tactical fanatic :D

http://img181.imagevenue.com/loc416/th_38675_A1_123_416lo.jpg (http://img181.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38675_A1_123_416lo.jpg) http://img17.imagevenue.com/loc3/th_38679_A2_123_3lo.jpg (http://img17.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38679_A2_123_3lo.jpg)

Just started this

http://img270.imagevenue.com/loc462/th_38682_A3_123_462lo.jpg (http://img270.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38682_A3_123_462lo.jpg)

So far so very good :cool:

Greenskull,some interesting stuff you're reading,might try the Kublai Khan one in the near future,currently reading this.
http://img152.imagevenue.com/loc220/th_58015_51PZTNZ6K1L__SS500__123_220lo.jpg (http://img152.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=58015_51PZTNZ6K1L__SS500__123_220lo. jpg)
A quick romp through British,or should that be English history?Schama gives an entertaining insight into how our Island has been invaded through the centuries ,from the Romans,Danes and Normans and the concurrent power struggles which developed,he also throws in little snippets to wet the appetite,such facts as Richard the Lionheart only spent one year in England through his reign,his body was eventually buried in France and St Patrick was an English aristocrat who was enslaved and taken to Ireland then escaping to convert the natives to Christianity.There is a second volume to the story,expect to read that one soon.

[DTravel]

Fox On The Rhine, Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson (2000). Alt-hist WWII based on the von Stauffenberg Jul 20 1944 bomb plot succeeding.

[vanadium]

Moore/Galloway - We Were Soldiers Once.........And Young

Glenn Beck - Common Sense

http://img155.imagevenue.com/loc476/th_61613_common_122_476lo.jpg

http://img104.imagevenue.com/loc337/th_61614_soldiers_122_337lo.jpg

[Berferd]

Okay, this is a little mediocre on my part, but I just finished book seven of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. Wow. . . I don't know (because I didn't look at the other posts lol) if it was mentioned, but I liked it and felt that it did the series--and SK himself--justice.
--Berferd

[scoundrel]

Okay, this is a little mediocre on my part, but I just finished book seven of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. Wow. . . I don't know (because I didn't look at the other posts lol) if it was mentioned, but I liked it and felt that it did the series--and SK himself--justice.
--Berferd

Don't think it has been mentioned. If I want to check and haven't got enough life to read every post in a really long thread, I use the search engine ''Search this thread''; its far from infallible but does pick up obvious key words.

I'm not a big Stephen King fan in general, but The Stand is one of my favourite books.

[fleetwood77]

"Norwegian Wood" Haruki Murakami - the saddest thing I ever read.

[eelcat]

Just finished reading Confessions of a Milkman. These books are good fodder to take to the "reading room", so it took a fair few weeks to finish as I only get to read probably no more than 2 or 3 pages at a time (I'm a slow reader). Started buying these books in the early 80's when I was travelling from Newcastle to Sydney via train to visit my girlfriend at the time. I think there's just over 30 books in the series and I'm maybe about 6 short of having the lot.
My mate pointed out in an old Club International or Mayfair or something like that in an interview with Robin Askwith, he claimed that Columbia Pictures had bought the rights to all of the Confessions books. Being a mid 70's issue mag, I would hazard a guess that probably equates to around 15 - 20 books. I love the books and love the movies :)

"Meadow Fresh is a small London dairy eager to expand its customers - and what better man to expand them than Timothy Lea? Yes, the hardened survivor of a score of taxing professions is not slow to adapt himself to the demands of his new job. If the ladies seem to be interested in more than a new flavour of strawberry yoghurt, Timmy is prepared to lend them a sympathetic ear - or any other part of the body that appeals. After all, the firm must come first - provided Timmy doesn't beat them to it."

[tmee2000]

Read recently, The year 1000. A social history of Anglo-Saxon England:
http://img22.imagevenue.com/loc219/th_17286_51QHYGVH8DL._SS500__123_219lo.jpg (http://img22.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=17286_51QHYGVH8DL._SS500__123_219lo. jpg)

No need to explain this:

http://img44.imagevenue.com/loc111/th_17287_fa814310fca06aa6d92a7010.L._AA240__123_11 1lo.jpg

David Howarth is biased, like any historian. No bad thing. He holds Harold II in very high regard, and so he should.

[Berferd]

What I'm reading now I'm good send to a friend of mine overseas who's never been exposed to material like this. It's They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? by Pat McManus. I got a real charge out of reading this kind of fishing/hunting/camping humor and I recommend it to anyone interested. Mr. McManus has a dry sense of humor that works very well.

[avidfan]

the story of o by pauline reage (sp?)

[gapedhok]

Having lived in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, I had the pleasure of meeting briefly with Stephen King years ago while attending the College World Series (King is somewhat of a baseball junkie). Note the mention of towns like Lavista in his books, which is a suburb of Omaha. Currently I am revisiting "It" by King, rekindling my childhood fear of clowns.

[DTravel]

Fox On The Rhine, Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson (2000). Alt-hist WWII based on the von Stauffenberg Jul 20 1944 bomb plot succeeding.

And now I'm reading the 2003 sequel, Fox At The Front.

[Berferd]

Having lived in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, I had the pleasure of meeting briefly with Stephen King years ago while attending the College World Series (King is somewhat of a baseball junkie). Note the mention of towns like Lavista in his books, which is a suburb of Omaha. Currently I am revisiting "It" by King, rekindling my childhood fear of clowns.
Wow--major deja vous! I attended Lavista Junior High lol My cousin's hubby was stationed at OffutAFB and they bought a place in Papillion lol as a teenager I worked at the McDonald's on 84th and (I think) Cornhusker Hwy. I didn't know King was that much of a baseball junkie. If I did I'd have gone to more games! lol

[haldane4]

The Old Men At The Zoo, by Angus Wilson.

I'd been somehow hoodwinked into thinking there weren't any great post-war British novelists, and while I can't stand Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie and that shower, it's a great pleasure to discover Wilson.

All points to one thing - my teachers were illiterate.

[MaxJoker]

Hey was just wondering , know this excellent thread is about books that are currently (Or i hope just recently) being read but is it ok if i use it to ask for personal recommendations ?

See i`m really interested in finding the definitive (Ish) book (S) on these three subjects

1) Celtic druids
2) The Saracen empire
3) Crusades (From first to ninth )

Have had a look on amazon etc but the books i`ve seen at best only have one or two reviews , so was wondering that if any fellow member has read or knows of a very decent publication concerning these subjects could they point me in the right direction :cool:

[scoundrel]

Hey was just wondering , know this excellent thread is about books that are currently (Or i hope just recently) being read but is it ok if i use it to ask for personal recommendations ?

See i`m really interested in finding the definitive (Ish) book (S) on these three subjects

1) Celtic druids
2) The Saracen empire
3) Crusades (From first to ninth )

Have had a look on amazon etc but the books i`ve seen at best only have one or two reviews , so was wondering that if any fellow member has read or knows of a very decent publication concerning these subjects could they point me in the right direction :cool:

http://img139.imagevenue.com/loc443/th_01988_Crusades_122_443lo.jpg

There was a really interesting and informative BBC series co-written by Terry Jones (formerly of Monty Python) and Alan Ereira, and presented with dry ironic humour by Terry Jones. It gives a modern and iconoclastic analysis of how the Crusaders really behaved, which goes a long way towards setting the cultural divide between the Western and Islamic civilisations and George W Bush would have done better to at least dip into this series (the idea of him reading a book to learn something is a bit of a stretch) before talking about a modern crusade against terrorism. That very word ''crusade'' is toxic today.

Above is essentially the book of the series, setting out the arguments and anaysis made on screen. It also has valuable information on Princes Saladin and Beybers and how the Saracens had to adjust to dealing with enemies motivated by religious bigotry, lust for spoil and the desire to export violent hotheads who would otherwise be troublesome at home.

If I can think of anything on Druids and Celtic civilisation I'll let you know.

[blondifan]

......
I'm not a big Stephen King fan in general, but The Stand is one of my favourite books.

Funny thing about King is I personally find that usually his novels make great screenplays and/or movies, which is the opposite of virtually every other author.
(If you can forgive his cameo appearances in the films. I see it like a strange version of 'Where's Wally :D).
I must admit I was 'put off' when I joined a bookclub and received a hard cover plush edition of 'The Dead Zone', with so many typo's it took any joy out of reading it. Not Mr. King's fault, I know, but some things are hard to overcome. To date I still haven't read the Dead Zone.

[Berferd]

The Dead Zone? I enjoyed it almost as much as I enjoyed Cell; I found it well worth the read. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed the movie as well. Christopher Walken (of course) played the coma victim; I forget whom the presidential candidate was. Usually, I find that movies based on King's book leave a lot to be desired at best; to me, that one didn't. All three get my thumb's up. lol

[Mal Hombre]

http://thumbnails13.imagebam.com/4450/5a07de44494820.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/5a07de44494820)This book tells the story of one of the strangest if least characters of the
Twentieth century,Baron Roman Von Ungern Sternberg,a russian nobleman who became (briefly) ruler of Mongolia and a man who managed to combine Buddhism with pathological cruelty.He was an army officer whose scruffiness,drunkeness and violence got him posted to a cossack regiment in the Transbaikal ,a region of Siberia close to China and crucially Mongolia.He became entranced by thie rugged land and it's native nomads-the Buriats .After fairly distinguished service in the great War,He found his homeland engulfed by revolution as a fervent believer in divine monarchy(and a virulent anti-semite) he joined the White cause in the savage civil war that followed.He returned to Siberia ,where joined forces with Grigori Semenyov,a charismatic half buriat leader of a rag tag cavaly unit.After the war was lost in a welter of blood and atrocity,Sternberg took his troops into Mongolia where he ousted the occupying Chinese and briefly ruled the country before his random savageries led to his being betrayed to the Bolsheviks who shot him after a show trial.I would recomend this book to those interested in history particularly Mongolian history-Hello Greenskull

[Berferd]

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston--I wish it were fiction...

[elf4736]

Now reading (Passport to Peril) next (Stop This Man)

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bios.cgi

[Wendigo]

Hey was just wondering , know this excellent thread is about books that are currently (Or i hope just recently) being read but is it ok if i use it to ask for personal recommendations ?
See i`m really interested in finding the definitive (Ish) book (S) on these three subjects
3) Crusades (From first to ninth )
Have had a look on amazon etc but the books i`ve seen at best only have one or two reviews , so was wondering that if any fellow member has read or knows of a very decent publication concerning these subjects could they point me in the right direction :cool:

Hi Greenie, I love reading about the Knights Templar during the Crusades, brave and foolish in equal measure so check out.
Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades by John J. Robinson

Probably the definitive book(s) on the Crusades are A History of The Crusades by Sir Steven Runciman, if you can find it.

[haldane4]

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston--I wish it were fiction...

lol, I read that just last month, the end is just shit shit shit. I mean, come on.

[Estreeter]

I don't read much, can't be bothered, but once in a while along comes a useful book like this
http://thumbnails8.imagebam.com/4489/d4c91544887554.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/d4c91544887554)
Magnificent book with lot's of useful tips. Though Tony Soprano's business was, well questionable, his leadership qualities were great. The book points out how his style is not very different too corporate business.

Reading it not on my time, whilst at work:D:D:D

[Berferd]

lol, I read that just last month, the end is just shit shit shit. I mean, come on.
With all due respect, I liked The Hot Zone. The honest truth is that good reading is hard to come by around here (Blackford County, Indiana)..and I liked it; plain and simple. lol I'd never (fortunately) come across a filovirus or hemoragic (sp?) fever before and found the book to be riveting. Different strokes for different folks. lol

[Berferd]

Hi Greenie, I love reading about the Knights Templar during the Crusades, brave and foolish in equal measure so check out.
Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades by John J. Robinson

Probably the definitive book(s) on the Crusades are A History of The Crusades by Sir Steven Runciman, if you can find it.
Wow, the Knight Templar... fascinating subject...I think I'm gonna have to go watch National Treasure again! lol

[tabler]

I have just started to re-read The Road to Wigan Pier by Eric Blair (George Orwell) from 1937 this book to me is the most important social documentary on the North of England working classes ever written and still has the power to shock.

[gmcbee]

With all due respect, I liked The Hot Zone...

Check this one out, it's a much better book:
http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/showthread.php?p=755139&highlight=zone#post755139

[jch48]

Almost finished reading this Slight and does'nt have the same style and humour of his traveloques.Bryson is hampered by the fact that very little,historically and documented is known of William Shakespeare when he was alive,there is even doubt about his surname.Bryson pads out the book with historical references which could be gleaned from various other publications,interesting in their own way,but I think it is padding.We are left with the legacy of his plays,which at the end of the day provides a reason for attempting to know more about Shakespeare.Bryson has taken on a subject which was difficult,and the results don't seem to gell http://img9.imagevenue.com/loc56/th_23621_41jEIAld86L__SS500__123_56lo.jpg (http://img9.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=23621_41jEIAld86L__SS500__123_56lo.j pg)

[Mal Hombre]

The Dead Zone? I enjoyed it almost as much as I enjoyed Cell; I found it well worth the read. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed the movie as well. Christopher Walken (of course) played the coma victim; I forget whom the presidential candidate was. Usually, I find that movies based on King's book leave a lot to be desired at best; to me, that one didn't. All three get my thumb's up. lol
Martin Sheen:D

[dohupa]

Just finished a book passed along to me ages ago, but never acutally got around reading it.

Michael Crichton's State of Fear

Did not like it that much. My take is Michael is losing his spark; most likely due to his own huge commercial success, I reckon he's trying to impress the reader with an extravagant Hollywood scenario that gets confusing at times.

Naturally you have a peek at the reviews on amazon and it's always 4-5 stars; typical. Oh well, your liking may vary. :rolleyes:

http://www.amazon.com/State-Fear-Michael-Crichton/dp/0061782661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249939706&sr=1-1

[Ceylon]

Got Fight? By Forrest Griffin. :)
Shame on his fight last saturday, he really looked bad against Silva.

[Berferd]

I have a Caleb Carr novel I enjoy--The Alienist. It's kind of a 19th century Silence of the Lambs. It discusses forensic psychology and the still-evolving thoeries, the development of detctive work, and world history--Teddy Roosevelt is a main character, even. (The general setting is New York City but later moves to the west--however, I wouldn't call it a western in the slightest.) The main plot is that they've uncovered their first known serial killer. Their goal is to prevent his behavior and understand his frame of mind--his context, if you will. Granted, it is fiction; but told very well.
http://thumbnails16.imagebam.com/4511/f0ab1045104822.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/f0ab1045104822)

[tobaldo]

The fourth protocol
of Frederick Forsyth

[jch48]

Picked up this book today,A series of articles written by Mark Jacobson.The title is misleading as you assume that it is the story of Frank Lucas who was played in the film American Gangster by Denzel Washington,however it is only a short story in regards to the character,however the other articles look interesting,as they deal with other street characters and notables of the city.
http://img155.imagevenue.com/loc110/th_18820_41UD4oqETlL__SS500__123_110lo.jpg (http://img155.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=18820_41UD4oqETlL__SS500__123_110lo. jpg)

[molfluon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Traveler%27s_Wife

I didn't actually read the book. I listened to the audio book version on Audible. Which is probably the best format the material is in. The book is written in the first person from the perspectives of the two central characters Claire and Henry. It has a time travel sci-fi theme but don't expect ray-guns and monsters.

It's the sort of book that is a bit of a wrench to the heart when you read. Makes you a bit quiet and thoughtful but you feel in the end better for the experience.

[snorkie]

Having lived in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, I had the pleasure of meeting briefly with Stephen King years ago while attending the College World Series (King is somewhat of a baseball junkie).

I grew up in Omaha! The neighborhood I lived in now resembles the aftermath of a King catastrophe! :( Still a wonderful city, IMO (as soon as the local politics enter the 19th century, it will be near perfect).

[Satiros]

I just ordered Ballard's The Unlimited Dream Company. I've been dying to read it for ages. It should arrive (hopefully) on friday.

Haven't been reading as much this summer, which annoys me a little bit.

[Amazone]

I read at the moment the book "Die Brücke". Author is Manfred Gregor.
The book is about seven 16 years old german boys and they must join into the Wehrmacht in May 1945. They get the order to defend a completely unimportant bridge. After intense battles with the Allies only one of the boys survives.

[molfluon]

Almost finished reading this Slight and does'nt have the same style and humour of his traveloques.Bryson is hampered by the fact that very little,historically and documented is known of William Shakespeare when he was alive,there is even doubt about his surname.Bryson pads out the book with historical references which could be gleaned from various other publications,interesting in their own way,but I think it is padding.We are left with the legacy of his plays,which at the end of the day provides a reason for attempting to know more about Shakespeare.Bryson has taken on a subject which was difficult,and the results don't seem to gell http://img9.imagevenue.com/loc56/th_23621_41jEIAld86L__SS500__123_56lo.jpg (http://img9.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=23621_41jEIAld86L__SS500__123_56lo.j pg)

I read and listen to lots of Bill Bryson. Who I think is one of the funniest Americans alive. Mostly a travelogue writer he's also responsible for a really good Science History book-A Short History Of Nearly Everything.

[themidlander]

David Ablitt - Through Great Central England
A man who walked the trackbed of the line through England soon after it closed. If you like railways you'll love this book - but there's plenty for others interested in social history.

[jch48]

Started browsing through this today.It gives you The Good,The Bad and the frankly ridicilous,obviously covers the classics from the Floyd,the Beatles,Led Zep up to the present day.Some cracking albums amongst this list and it would make an incredible sociological study to view the various periods of musical tastes especially from the 70's onwards where you go from Prog Rock to Punk,and the subsequent rise in New Wave,Disco and the R'n'B to Hip Hop of later years.It makes me feel old as I haven't got a clue about most of the quoted albums of the last 10 years or I think there crap.A good book to dip into.
http://img223.imagevenue.com/loc243/th_93033_51vthOHSpqL__SS500__123_243lo.jpg (http://img223.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=93033_51vthOHSpqL__SS500__123_243lo. jpg)

[jch48]

David Ablitt - Through Great Central England
A man who walked the trackbed of the line through England soon after it closed. If you like railways you'll love this book - but there's plenty for others interested in social history.
The Midlander,I remember reading a book by Hunter Davies along the same lines,no pun intended:)I'm not a great railway buff myself,however made me look out my Ordnance Survey map to follow the trail of the disused line where I lived at the time,which I took a walk along.

[Berferd]

"Wolves Eat Dogs" by Martin Cruz Smith
It's a murder mystery set of, all places, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Smith does an excellent job of telling this Arkady Renko tale. It also enlightened me as to what may have happened there. Overall, I liked it--it had me literally guessing until the last few pages. A top-notch mystery.
http://thumbnails8.imagebam.com/4537/d79e7f45365825.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/d79e7f45365825)

[Satiros]

I just ordered Ballard's The Unlimited Dream Company. I've been dying to read it for ages. It should arrive (hopefully) on friday.

Haven't been reading as much this summer, which annoys me a little bit.

Came in today!

The cover on the store site is different from the one I got. I got the really cool white with colored squares HP edition. This is awesome because I already have seven of his novels in that trim.

I'm going to start it tonight. Exciting!

[blondifan]

http://thumbnails12.imagebam.com/4555/e27d1f45545066.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/e27d1f45545066)

Speaking of book covers, I always liked this one.
-You have to look at it upside down to really appreciate it! -
I've read this several times and obviously enjoy it.

Briefly it's the story of Harry Joy a storyteller, who is also an advertising executive, as was author Peter Carey, before he published this successful novel.
Basically Harry has a near death experience, (a heart attack) and is convinced that he has died and his family and associates are all demons or similar. It's fairly humorous, as well as a little ecologically minded.

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/careyp/bliss.html

It was one of the first videocassettes I bought as well.
I used to lend my copy to women I was interested in, until one got annoyed with me and wrote all over it.
Then of course it was reprinted with a different cover. :(

[jch48]

As we had a sunny day yesterday,a rare event in the West of Scotland decided to pack the rucksack and headed off to Glencoe to take in the fresh air and scenery and decided to do a couple of walks recommended in this book
http://img250.imagevenue.com/loc341/th_27480_411D9GAPY3L__SS500__123_341lo.jpg (http://img250.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27480_411D9GAPY3L__SS500__123_341lo. jpg)
Took a walk to the Lost Valley at the Three Sisters and did a jaunt on to Glen Etive,stunning scenery.As a "Munro Bagger",I've covered most of Scotland and also the Lake District in England in my walking trips.We are quite fortunate in having fantastic landscapes in such a small country, I wonder if we should start a thread on favourite viewpoints,providing details and pictures?

[Leprechaun]

As we had a sunny day yesterday,a rare event in the West of Scotland decided to pack the rucksack and headed off to Glencoe to take in the fresh air and scenery and decided to do a couple of walks recommended in this book
http://img250.imagevenue.com/loc341/th_27480_411D9GAPY3L__SS500__123_341lo.jpg (http://img250.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=27480_411D9GAPY3L__SS500__123_341lo. jpg)

I plan to go for a short stroll around town next saturday... to take in the scenery and decided to do a couple of walks recommended in this book:

http://thumbnails11.imagebam.com/4641/782d7f46400070.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/782d7f46400070)

:D

















Just joking. ;)

[tmee2000]

I read and listen to lots of Bill Bryson. Who I think is one of the funniest Americans alive. Mostly a travelogue writer he's also responsible for a really good Science History book-A Short History Of Nearly Everything.

It is terrific.
I e-mailed him recently, and he was good enough to reply. In his book on Australia he goes into some detail on two stories about flying. What he didn't know, and what my father told me, was that the two incidents are connected in a most remarkable way.

[haldane4]

Black Star Rising by Frederick Pohl. In the future an alien spaceship arrives and demands to have words with the President of the USA - trouble is there is no USA, so the Chinese mock up an obscure rice-planter to play the part.

[scoundrel]

http://img262.imagevenue.com/loc416/th_83836_And_Then_There_Were_None_122_416lo.jpg (http://img262.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=83836_And_Then_There_Were_None_122_4 16lo.jpg)

I have just finished reading And Then There Were None, an Agatha Christie murder mystery first published in 1939 under a different title but which is now called And Then There Were None for reasons of political correctness. I do often deplore the revisionist tendency but in this case I have to agree that the revisionists are in the right: the original title is racist and the revised title is actually better. Even in 1945, when Hollywood did the first film adaptation, the movie moguls rejected the original title and called the film And Then There Were None because by 1945 standards the original title was considered unacceptable.

Actually its a cut above most Christies, definitely one of her better books. I'm going to be careful about spoilers because the element of surprise is key: suffice it to say that the mystery is ingenious. There are ten main characters who are all alleged to be guilty, and most of whom are actually guilty of various acts of murder, manslaughter or negligent homicide. The law cannot prove their guilt, or else has punished them much too leniently. They are therefore lured to an island by an unidentified avenger, cut off from any appeal for outside help, and weeded out one at a time in ways which correspond to the words of a nursery rhyme. But the ten are the only human life on the island: so who is carrying out these bizarre executions?

I think this is a shrewd and clever book, better thought through and more believable than the average Christie novel. Although slender, the characterisations are neat and are at least credible as recognisable human types. The characters react to their imperilled and sinister predicament more or less as you would expect reasonable people to do, with lots of vindictiveness, mutual recriminations, mutual suspicion, stupidity and paranoia on the grand scale. Their attempts to combine against their unidentified enemy are hampered by the ineradicable selfishness of their natures.

The novel works quite well as a social document: the various ''guests'' and the two house servants are a cross-section of 1930s British social classes and the friction between them reflects the snobbery of the genteel against the usually hidden contempt of the workers for the idle-rich. Ms Christie also shows a dislike of religious hypocrites which is surprisingly modern and liberal, and which compensates to some degree for the unthinking ignorance she showed in her original title choice. The bible reading, ostantatiously pious Miss Brent has vehemently denied that she has any blood on her hands, but in a private conversation with Vera Claythorne, the only other woman among the ''guests'', a slightly different version emerges. It seems that her ladies' maid got pregnant, and Ms Brent threw her penniless onto the streets (avaunt, ye hussy!) and the poor girl threw herself into the river:

Vera shivered.

She stared at the calm, delicate profile of Miss Brent. She said:

''What did you feel when you knew she'd done that? Weren't you sorry? Didn't you blame yourself?''

Emily Brent drew herself up.

''I? I had nothing with which to reproach myself.

Vera said: '' But if your - hardness - drove her to it.''

Emily Brent said sharply: ''Her own action - her own sin - that is what drove her to it. If she had behaved like a decent, modest young woman, none of this would have happened.''

She turned her face to Vera. There was no self-reproach, no uneasiness in those eyes. Emily Brent sat...encased in her own armour of virtue.

The little elderly spinster was no longer slightly ridiculous to Vera.

Suddenly, she was - terrible.

Victorian values indeed.

[anklebiter]

I'm a re-reader, and if the book is good enough, I'll read it many, many times and be just as caught up.
I'm about 1/2 way through The Hobbit, and plan to read the LOR trilogy again.I haven't read them since the movies came out because the movies, to me, were just as satisfying as the books.
For some strange reason,I'm a seasonal reader too.it's been cool weather here lately, and in the fall, I always get the urge to read certain books, and especially this series.Do any of you ever read certain books according to certain weather, or am I just nuts?It's like that with music too, summer music, fall music, etc.*shrugs* oh well, it don't take much to please me :p

[scoundrel]

I'm a re-reader, and if the book is good enough, I'll read it many, many times and be just as caught up.
I'm about 1/2 way through The Hobbit, and plan to read the LOR trilogy again.I haven't read them since the movies came out because the movies, to me, were just as satisfying as the books.
For some strange reason,I'm a seasonal reader too.it's been cool weather here lately, and in the fall, I always get the urge to read certain books, and especially this series.Do any of you ever read certain books according to certain weather, or am I just nuts?It's like that with music too, summer music, fall music, etc.*shrugs* oh well, it don't take much to please me :p

Since ancient times, the human race has evolved music and story-telling as a group bonding activity and to make use of the dead time when we cannot work, either because it is dark, because the weather is adverse, or there is a feast day/rest day: people need their down time. I myself read more in the autumn, winter and early spring, and it occupies my mind on dreary dark evenings. As for re-reading, there are books which I do re-read a lot and others, such as the Christie books which are usually enjoyable once-only and which, if I ever read them again, will be many years later.

My re-readers include:

All the Jane Austen works except Sense and Sensibility, the one book of hers' which I don't really get on with.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, same as you anklebiter.

Many of the Patrick O'Brian novels featuring Captain Jack Aubrey, though these became slightly less compelling after Clarissa Oakes, which for me was the last great book of the series, though the later books are still quite good.

Many of the Nevil Shute novels but in particular:

Lonely Road: this could have been adapted into a really good film noir.
Most Secret: a wartime novel which expresses through art the fanaticism and cruelty of the nice, tea drinking, scone-eating, dog-loving British when they have been pushed just a little bit too far.
No Highway: In regular life, Shute was an aeronautical engineer and designer, and this book was inspired by the Comet disaster, caused by metal fatigue.
The Far Country: a particular favourite of mine. Shute emigrated to Australia in the early 1950s and this book is his love letter to his new country.
A Town Like Alice: A really mature, honest and insightful book about what happens to a woman captured with other women and their children by the Japanese in British Malaya in 1942. Unlike Most Secret, it does not demonise the enemy but shows their human nature. Some are monsters of callous cruelty, others are rather kind and good natured when they can get away with it. The last third of the book, where the heroine forges a new life in Australia's North West Territory, is also compelling and well observed. It is a hopeful and optimistic book which yet doesn't hide from the dark side of human nature.
On The Beach: As pessimistic as a story can be because it deals with the death-throes of the human race. It covers the doings of a group of people in Melbourne, Australia, the southernmost of major world cities, as they wait their turn to fall under the radiation dust coming down slowly on the trade winds after the Mutually Assured Destruction of a totally insane nuclear war. It is a moving and very credible story, the more so because, as is often seen in convicts in the condemned cell, the doomed people face their end with courage and dignity, the human race never finer or nobler than when it is about to end.

I'll say more about some of these when I have re-read them. The Shute books are out of print in the UK just now: Random House are planning a new run in September but apparently they under-stock their classic authors as a matter of business economics, so will make good and sure that no-one can buy a Shute book from a bookshop for quite a while before printing any more. Frankly, that is a scandal. The sooner Shute books fall into the Public Domain the better.

[Leprechaun]

http://thumbnails7.imagebam.com/4718/a8bd1c47179389.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/a8bd1c47179389)

Same old world ... different view!

[Satiros]

My copies of J.G. Ballard's The Complete Short Stories Vol. 1 + 2 came in last week.

Over 1600 pages of Ballard short story goodness. Currently making my way through his The Unlimited Dream Company, which is very dream-like/trippy.

[jch48]

[QUOTE=Leprechaun;776870]I plan to go for a short stroll around town next saturday... to take in the scenery and decided to do a couple of walks recommended in this book:

http://thumbnails11.imagebam.com/4641/782d7f46400070.gif (http://www.imagebam.com/image/782d7f46400070)

:D





Leprechaun,Looks as if you need a bit of support,how about some help from these guys,I'm sure they could deal with any problems.
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[haldane4]

Black Star Rising by Frederick Pohl. In the future an alien spaceship arrives and demands to have words with the President of the USA - trouble is there is no USA, so the Chinese mock up an obscure rice-planter to play the part.

Well, that was rubbish, had to abandon it after 100 pages. Now reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, it's a fabulous read, recommended, though very derivative of Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

[tabler]

I am about a third of the way through B-Road Britain by Robbie Coltrane, subtitle- Off the beaten track and into the heart and soul of Britain.
This is the written account of the TV journey of the same name, however because of the time limitations of the TV series it is a lot more involved and what comes across is Robbies enthusiasm, and love for the quirkyness of the British psyche.
Up to now well reccomended.

[jch48]

Currently reading this.Fairly light reading,Theroux decided to follow up some of the characters he interviewed for his tv documentaries,so decided to uproot himself and live in the States to track them down,so he catches up on the UFO believers,gets involved with the Porn industry(he paints a depressing account in regards to the "Gonzo" style current in American Porn),Neo Nazis and Prostitutes.What comes across in his accounts are the sadness of the people he interviews,especially in the chapter relating to the Patriot Movement,where his subject rues the lost years of his daughters growing up.His style of writing is very similar to his interviewing technique within his documentaries,showing sympathy and understanding,even in views from his subjects which are clearly abhorrent.i.e.Neo-Nazis.
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[billbean]

the queen of bedlam-robert R McCammon

[Clouddancer]

Have just finished Ian Rankin's - The Black Book .. so so.. typical Rankin, a few too many characters but worth a read.

Also just finished Sam Bourne's - The Last Testament a bit DaVinci codish, lots of Bible stuff woven into fiction, it filled a few hours.

Have just started a Martina Cole novel - Close.

you tend to only be able to get english books here that people bring on holidays to read, mostly "Chick Lit" thrillers etc.

[DTravel]

What Ifs? of American History - edited by Robert Cowley

[tamsmith]

VC Heroes. Excellent read.http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/0755316339/sr=1-1/qid=1252361364/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books&qid=1252361364&sr=1-1

[scoundrel]

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Although it is essentially a mystery thriller written to a familar formula, involving crime, espionage and violent goings on, this book is a cut above your typical airport novel. Mary Stewart writes a clean, evocative prose which doesn't try to be precious but succeeds in describing mood and place far better than a lot of Booker Prize poseurs such as Salman Rushdie could ever hope to. Her characters are neatly drawn, believable, and you care what happens to them. She is a good practitioner, creating suspense and drama in all the right places, but she has other qualities as well.

One of the subplots is the discovery that an old and injured piebald horse in an Austrian travelling circus, is not what he seems. He is nearly put down as not worth the cost of saving. He is saved only because Ms Stewart's first person narrator, Vanessa March, is a vet on holiday and volunteers to operate without charge, and because the Herr Direktor' daughter pleads for the life of her dead uncle's horse. A day later, Vanessa walks her patient to an alpine meadow for grazing and exercise while the circus gives a summer evening performance in the village below. The passage describing the setting is superb, especially the detail of the meadow alive with flowers, butterflies and bees, which Vanessa contrasts gloomily with the emptiness and silence of the intensively farmed English countryside. But then the Herr Direktor's daughter, Annalisa, commences her act in the circus tent, in which she takes a genuine Lipizzaner stallion called Maestoso Leda through haute ecole movements as done by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. She and the horse spent years being drilled by her late uncle in these extremely difficult movements:

There had been an interval of silence from the circus...quite distinctly in the clear still air, the music started again. I heard the fanfare and recognised it; it was the entrance of Annalisa and her white stallion. The trumpets cut through the air, silver, clear and commanding. Old Piebald stopped grazing and lifted his head with his ears cocked, as one imagines a warhorse might at the smell of battle and the trumpets. Then the music changed, sweet, lilting and golden, as the orchestra stole into the waltz from Der Rosenkavallier.

There was some enchantment in hearing it at that distance on that lovely evening in the Alpine meadow...but then something about the old horse caught my attention and I sat up to watch.

He had not lowered his head again to graze, but was standing with neck arched and ears pricked, in a sort of mimicry of the white stallion's proud posture. Then, like the white stallion's, his head moved, not in an ordinary equine toss, but with a graceful, almost ceremonial movement of conscious beauty. A forefoot lifted, pointed, pawed twice at the soft ground; then slowly, all by himself, bowing his head to his shadow on the turf, he began to dance. He was old and stiff, and he was going short on the injured off fore leg, but he moved to the music like a professional.

I sat among the lengthening shadows of the lomely meadow watching him, infinitely touched...then I realised this was not the movement of a liberty horse. It was not 'dancing' as the paleminos had danced; this was a version, stiff but true, of the severely disciplined figures of the high school: first the Spanish Walk, shouldering-in in a smooth skimming diagonal; then the difficult pirouette, bringing him sharply round to present him sideways to his audience; then, as I watched, he broke into a form of the piaffe. It was a travesty, a sick old horse's travesty of the standing trot which the Lipizzaner had performed with such precision and fire, but you could see it was a memory in him, still burning and alive, of the real thing, perfectly executed. In the distance the music changed: the Lipizzaner down in the ring would be rising into the levade, the first of the 'airs above the ground'. And in the high alpine meadow, with only me for an audience, old Piebald settled his hind hooves, arched his crest and tail, and, lame forefoot clear of the ground, lifted into and held the same royal and beautiful levade.

And this it seemed had been enough. He came down on all four feet, shook his head, dropped his muzzle to the grass, and all at once was just a tired old piebald horse pegged out to graze on a green meadow.

Thus the ancient piebald horse is unmasked as a Lipizzaner stallion stolen many years earlier from the Spanish Riding School by Annalisa's dead uncle and hidden in her father's circus, unsuspected and little valued. This is a really good piece of writing, which brings out the pathos of the horse's wasted life without veering into mere sentiment, emphasising the passion and the joy of performing of which this wonderful horse has been robbed.

Mary Stewart knows how to write. This is a good book.

[jch48]

Bet that title fooled you:)Got this book as a present,takes me back to the times of the early 70's when my two loves were Soft Core Porn and Football.The Porn still interest's me,the football I don't really bother about it nowadays,especially after Scotland's latest demise in World Cup qualifying.The book is a series of pictures and articles from the Goalden days of British Football from the early to late 70's,plus some from the 80's. well worth looking out for.
http://img265.imagevenue.com/loc410/th_33889_51Ufdg5-tjL__SS500__123_410lo.jpg (http://img265.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33889_51Ufdg5-tjL__SS500__123_410lo.jpg)
P.S.The bloke in the Ajax strip with the birds is Johnny Rep

[scoundrel]

http://img262.imagevenue.com/loc335/th_83343_The_Great_Gatsby_122_335lo.jpg
A 20th Century American classic: a tragedy of lost hope and unrequited love, and a pitiless satire on the mores of East Coast America in the roaring twenties. It is still a very modern book in its recognition of how it is possible for a man to be at the eye of a storm of party-goers and revellers, and yet the loneliest man imaginable. He is a semi-mythical and legendary figure but his secret turns out to be touchingly and pitiably human. The woman he loved and lost lives across the bay from his house and was always a socialite: the lavish parties are thrown every weekend to attract this female moth to the lights of his house. After every party, he stands alone on his back lawn in the dark and extends his arms imploringly to the green light at the end of the boat landing at Daisy Buchannan's house as though the mere hunger of his soul might draw her to him. But his wagon is hitched to a star he can never attain because the perfect moment when he might have reached out to her is lost in the past. It is time, not distance, which stands between the two of them. But Gatsby is so obsessed that he fatally loses his understanding of the dangers of the here and now.

The narrator, Nick Carraway, who scarcely knows him, is almost the only man who gives a damn about him once he dies. Except for Carraway and Gatsby's father, the only mourner at the funeral is a nameless man in spectacles who Carraway once found drunk in Gatsby's library: at the funeral he appears in the cemetary, too late to go to Gatsby's house before the procession:

As we started through the gate into the cemetary, I heard a car stop and then the sound of someone splashing after us over the soggy ground. I looked around. It was the man with owl-eyed glasses whom I had found marvelling over Gatsby's books in the library one night three months before.

I'd never seen him since then. I don't know how he knew about the funeral, or even his name. The rain poured down his thick glasses and he took them off and wiped them to see the protecting canvas unrolled from Gatsby's grave....

''I couldn't get to the house,'' he remarked.
''Neither could anybody else.''
''Go on!'' He started. ''Why, My God!, they used to go there in their hundreds.''

He took off his glasses again and wiped them outside and in.

''The poor son of a bitch'', he said.

[Wendigo]

Kronos - as I love books on sea monsters.
http://img179.imagevenue.com/loc145/th_66048_kronos-1_123_145lo.JPG (http://img179.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=66048_kronos-1_123_145lo.JPG)

Dungeon, Fire & Sword by John J Robinson as the history of the Crusades,especially the Knights Templar is fascinaing.
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[Futuro]

"Himmler`s masseur- Memoirs from Third Reich" by Felix Kersten, 1947
http://img105.imagevenue.com/loc187/th_63858_Kersten_123_187lo.jpg (http://img105.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=63858_Kersten_123_187lo.jpg)
Memoirs of Finnish-citizen, Estonian born doctor, who saved maybe thousands of lives in Germany. Afterwards there have been variable opinions about him, but It`s very intense reading, a doctor who really takes risks, pressures and manipulates Himmler to save human lives, It`s like a report from very unusual and dangerous circumstances where you play a Russian roulette with two bullets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Kersten

[rotobott]

John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids.

A book about walking plants.

Better than it sounds.

[scoundrel]

http://img225.imagevenue.com/loc562/th_52814_On_The_Beach_122_562lo.jpg (http://img225.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=52814_On_The_Beach_122_562lo.jpg)

This is a famous novel, IMO one of the classics of the 20th Century, yet obtaining a new copy to replace the one I bought in 1983 (which has finally dropped to pieces) was incredibly difficult. The whole Nevil Shute canon, including A Town Like Alice and Pied Piper and No Highway have been out of print in the UK for years: last printed in June 2000, the Vintage Classics subsidiary of Random House are doing a new run as I type. I ordered three last month: On The Beach, The Far Country and Beyond The Black Stump, these being what I regard as the best of Shute's Australian novels. On The Beach arrived last Friday: The Far Country was in print last Friday and I am led to believe it will reach me this weekend. Lord alone knows when Beyond The Black Stump will physically get printed. but no doubt it will reach me sometime...Yet I have visited various bookshops and they have all told me that they could sell lots of copies of most of Shute's books if they could source them. It is reminiscent of Stalin's Russia, where all the customers have to make do with whatever the producers feel like supplying and what the customer wants is totally irrelevent.

Shute postulates a worst case scenario in which the major powers fought their war using dirty bombs (with a Cobalt 60 element) and throwing them around like grass seed. All animal life north of the equator was eliminated in a couple of months, but there were no worthwhile targets below the equator so the southern hemisphere never gets a bomb. Instead it gets the slow creep of lethal radioactive dust, gradually blanketing the world, spreading evenly down the latitudes.

The last major city to go will be Melbourne, Australia. Here the book plots the lives of a group of the condemned, who have in common a connection to the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion. Scorpion is a rare bird in the era of the book, a sub which can sail for months underwater, and this enabled her to take her crew to this temporary haven. Here she attachs herself to the Royal Australian Navy (its something semi-constructive to do). The Australian characters are mainly the family and friends of Lt Commander Peter Holmes RAN and of a civilian scientist, John Osborne, both of whom are posted to serve aboard Scorpion. Through Holmes and his English wife, Mary, the Scorpion's CO, Commander Dwight Towers USN, a bit of a loner in a foreign land, is introduced to the vivacious but decidedly erratic girl-about-town Moira Davidson and he gradually starts to find a place in this close-knit society where everyone knows everyone.

The book lays emphasis on the inescapable nature of their fate. Plenty of people drop out, lie around drunk, doing nothing because there seems no point. Those who stay half-way sane do so by having strategies to cope, a common one being to carry on their lives resolutely as much as possible as if there is a future. Mary Holmes plans her beloved garden years ahead: Peter knows better than to destroy an illusion which makes her happy. John Osbourne is a realist who has accepted the real deal: his escape is psychotically dangerous motor racing against competitors who equally recognise the new conditions and race on an accurate valuation of what their lives are now worth. Osbourne's great uncle Douglas, a retired Army general, has discovered that the wine committee of the pastoral club has laid up several years worth of port, vintage wine and brandy, and has nobly set aside the doctor's warning that he will die in a year if he carries on drinking: the waste of all that first class wine cellar is insufferable. '' Really, I blame the committee very much. Very much indeed. They ought to have seen this coming...''

Moira Davidson drinks and parties relentlessly at first, like an IT girl gone hyper (Uncle Douglas:''A nice girl, but she drinks too much. Still, she does it on brandy, so they tell me, so that makes a difference'') but gradually quietens down, finding a new escape in her doomed love for Dwight Towers. Dwight actually does love Moira enough to spend every spare minute of his time with her, the minutes which were desperately empty until she entered his life: but his escape is the pretence that he is only on a very long voyage. The radiation date for Melbourne is estimated to be September, so he takes September as the date when he will go home to Norfolk, Virginia and be with his wife again and their two children. He even makes a project of buying all the presents he will bring home with him in September. He and Moira can only be friends because he has never cheated on his wife and never ever would: for all her frantic socialising, Moira is fastidious and would not love a man who had low moral standards, but it's rotten luck that Dwight has not adjusted to being a widower. If they were going to survive, Dwight tacitly acknowledges that he would handle things another way. He would mourn his family decently, Moira would bide her time, then they would re-marry and start a new family. There is an awful lot for them to live for, if only they had the option, but they don't.

Shute's narrative style is low key: the moments of high drama, such as when Peter Holmes is forced to tell his horrified wife how to euthenise their baby and kill herself if he cannot be with her when the radiation comes, are all the more telling because the story-telling is so lacking in cheap melodrama. Shute creates a fascinating and dreadful portrait of the human race facing their end with dignity and courage, but refusing to die one minute earlier than they must. In my opinion this is a must-read. It is a dispassionate and horrifying portrait of the consequences of Mutually Assured Destruction.

John Osbourne laughed. ''Its not the end of the world at all. Its only the end of us. the world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.''

Dwight Towers raised his head. ''I dare say that's right. There didn't seem to be too much wrong with Cairns, or with Port Moresby either.'' He paused, thinking of the flowering trees, the palms standing in the sunlight. ''Maybe we've been too silly to deserve a world like this.''

[jch48]

Bought this one from a charity shop recently.Basically its a "Grumpy Old Men" rant about society,before the term came into use,as the book was published in 1999,therefore its pre 9/11 so does'nt follow that area,although it does have a section on ways that government is attempting to control us.Humphrys if you're not familiar with him is the broadcaster of Today on Radio 4 and usually "kicks ass" to some of the clowns who attempt to run/ruin? our country.He looks back to the past with rose-tinted glasses,something which seems to come with age,I know I am guilty of this.
The areas he considers is the change to a blame culture in the UK,how society is becoming fragmented,the changes occurring in broadcasting and the "dumbing" down within that genre.Humphry is strong on the problems,however he does'nt seem to have many answers to the problems.If you are aged 40 and above you will probably agree with his sentiments,as I said previously "Grumpy Old Men" before the idea took root.
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[Clouddancer]

John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids.

A book about walking plants.

Better than it sounds.

If you liked this you should try ...The Cracken Wakes, by same author, a marvellous read.

[jch48]

Haven't read a horror novel in a while,and up to now resisted the charms of the Vampire Lestat,therefore about to have a go at this one.
http://img231.imagevenue.com/loc555/th_10542_482074m_123_555lo.jpg
However after reading some of the reviews,I've possibly made a mistake in starting on this one,oh well its always best to make your own decision on these matters,let you know my own interpretation once I've read it.Update.stuck with this one as the early chapters revolve around Lestats relationship with two vampires he has "made",Quinn and Mona,and the angst he feels around their grouping.Another substory eventually arises with Mona's family,The Mayfairs who are witches and also Lestats feelings toward Rowan,Mona's aunt.Eventually we get a piece of history regarding an ancient civilisation,the Talos who through the centuries have formed an attachment to the Mayfair family,to be continued.
Another update-disappointed with this one,only way to describe this would be to imagine if Barbara Cartland had made an attempt at a horror novel,when I read a horror story I want to have suspense and anticipation of the act about to enfold,this story had neither of these elements,however I am going to read "Interview with the Vampire",as I want to satisfy myself that Rice's reputation is justified.

[rich2rob]

The books by Colin Forbes featuring Tweed from SIS, Forbes death last year was a sad loss to the spy/crime genre imho.

I am also reading Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough that was loosely turned into a movie.

A general question, how many times do you read the same book? I can re read a book several times over the years and not get bored with it.

[rad2927]

If Chins Could Kill-Autobography of actor Bruce Campbell. Very funny and great stories about Sam Raimi and all of their work together. Ends with the end of the Hercules series-needs updating.
Renegade- Richard Wolfe-Insights into Obama election. Very interesting so far.
Lost Symbol-Dan Brown-Just starting newest Robert Langdon set in Washington DC.

I have read many books more than once-for example I read The Lord of the Rings every fall-its a tradition that goes back to high school.

[anklebiter]

Has anyone started The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown?Really looking forward to it, but I'm 3/4 through fellowship of the Ring, and I don't want to break up reading the set.I wish I knew it was being released-I would have waited.

[jch48]

If you liked this you should try ...The Cracken Wakes, by same author, a marvellous read.
Agree with you,The Kraken Wakes is an excellent book,another of Wyndhams novels which I would recommend is The Midwich Cuckoos,which has been filmed twice as The Village of the Damned,the second version was Christopher Reeves last film before he was injured and paralysed,it also starred Kirstie Alley.
The story like most of Wyndhams revolve around a quintessentially English setting,the village of Midwich where over one day anyone within a two mile radius are put in a coma,upon wakening the next day they have no memory of anything happening,however during that time,the women of the village have been impregnated by an alien race and nine months later 61 children are born,31 boys and 30 girls.Over time they are noted to be different from the rest of the village,blonde haired and light-skinned and they have a telepathic ability which they use to protect themselves.The authorities are aware of them,as it is discovered three other groups in other areas of the world have also had children under the same circumstances,however Midwich is the only surviving group.As time goes on they are perceived as a threat and make demands of the authorities to be placed in a location where they can develop in isolation,however as we now know that is most unlikely as their differences are viewed with suspicion and fear amongst the local population.I'm not telling the ending,suggest you read it yourself:)

[haldane4]

A lost Wyndham novel was discovered quite recently - it's been published privately so is very difficult to get hold of - last copy I saw was trading for 50 quid on ebay. Hopefully a major publishing house will pick it up for widespread release.

Much of the rather iconic imagery for The Midwich Cuckoo's comes from Wolf Rilla's 1959 film rather than the novel - it's amazing how those blonde. blue-eyed kids have passed into the public domain, yet the film was made in black and white. It's perfect.

[scoundrel]

http://img105.imagevenue.com/loc215/th_85869_Pied_Piper_122_215lo.jpg
My copy is actually a dingy-looking hardback published in 1943, with the handwritten message Denis J Parsons 1943 on the flyleaf and a stamp which says ''Book Production Standard. The paper and topography of this book conform to the authorised economy standard''. It is a little piece of wartime history.

Pied Piper is itself a little piece of wartime history. It takes the disaster of the fall of France in 1940 and presents it realistically, without excuses, but also as a rallying point for propaganda purposes: the book was first published in 1942 and isn't meant only as an entertainment.

The hero is an 70 year old retired solicitor who went to France ostensibly to fish, but really to get away after his only son was killed in the RAF in March 1940. He has a daughter and two grandchildren but they live in America. His country wants no service from a 70 year old (no Homeguard yet) and so there is neither love or duty to claim him: he feels unwanted.

The first intimations that France is being defeated prompt him to seek to return to Britain: he is convinced that Britain will fight on and might need him after all. But he is immediately lumbered with two small English children with no-one else able to look after them, at least unless Mr Howard takes them to their relatives in the Home Counties. Then, in Dijon, the hotel is requisitioned by the French government for civil servants fleeing Paris, and the chambermaid is out of a job: how will she support her daughter now, especially if the Germans arrive? But le petit Rose has an uncle who is a wine waiter in London...

Almost like the outlaw Josey Wales, Mr Howard finds himself attracting followers on a surreal journey through an increasingly alien and hostile landscape. The first plan, to hire a car, is simply not possible. Then the trains stop running. Then the attempt to circumnavigate Paris and connect with the St Malo ferry by bus fails because the Germans are bombing and machine-gunning refugees on the road. Shute gives a vivid portrayal of Mr Howard's double horror, not only of the hideous violence of the moment, but of the need to protect the children without allowing them to be traumatised by realisation of what exactly is really happening.

Ronnie said clearly and with interest: ''Are those dead people Mr Howard?''

He steered them over to the other side of the road. ''Yes'', he said quietly. ''You must be very sorry for them.''

''May I go and see?''

''No'', he said. ''You mustn't go and look at people when they're dead. They want to be left alone.''

This is typical of Shute's storytelling technique, where he allows the words of the characters and the plain facts to tell their own tale with no more use of his own narrative voice than is strictly necessary. Very soon afterwards, Howard and the three children reach the first part of the refugee column which was bombed and strafed and find a car most bloodily crushed by a direct hit: there is a little boy stood silently next to it, uninjured but severely traumatised, grey-faced and silent. In the simple-hearted Mr Howard, there is never any question of passing by on the other side: he now has a fourth charge to care for.

By the time he reaches Chartres, he is guardian to five kids: the good news is that the shell-shocked boy has started to talk again, coaxed by the other children in a feat no adult could have accomplished. At Chartres, he is helped by a French family he knew before the war: the daughter joins him to help look after the children, and presently it emerges that she and Howard's dead aviator son were an item. Her actions have symbolic significance. She has been demoralised by the defeat: France has surrendered by now. She felt that les Anglais had sold France down the river and by extension has doubted the honour and sincerity of Howard's son. Was he only trifling with the innocence of a young woman? Howard himself, by endangering his own escape to protect a band of helpless children, has revived her faith: she remembers this courage, unselfishness and generosity in her dead lover, Howard's son. And with her reawakened belief there reawakens her will to stand up for France. Having briefly accepted the surrender, she repudiates it and her first act as a De Gaulliste is to help Mr Howard and the children to get away.

The sixth child is a Jewish boy from Poland, who has no chance unless he can escape: he wants to grow up as soon as ever he can so he can learn to stab German soldiers in the dark. Mr Howard takes him on for a variety of reasons, but not least to take him somewhere where these revenge fantasies can be exorcised from the poor kid's tormented mind. Then the party is captured by the Gestapo and it seems all over: except that Mr Howard and his party are a last chance to the Gestapo man in St Malo, who is hiding his niece, who had a Jewish mother, from his own men...

This is a heartening story of simple bravery and humanity in a desperate situation, showing what can be achieved by those who do not despair, but also the price which must be paid. The characters are well drawn except for the Germans, who are mostly pantomime villains. Ironically the best German character-portrait is the worst German villain, the Gestapo man, a fanatical Nazi who would be entirely inhuman, except that he will not give up his niece, half Jewish though she is, not even if he is shot for it or worse. Pathetically, his worst fear is that Howard will do something bad to little Anna when she is out of her uncle's protection: he keeps Nicole Rougeron, who could have been Howard's daughter-in-law had fate been kinder, in France as a hostage for Anna's safety, and only finally is satisfied and finally respects Howard when Howard spells out that he will hunt him and kill him like a dog if anything bad happens to Nicole. It is on these terms that Englishman and German fully understand one another and will each stick to the bargain, a Faustian bargain for both of them.

I am not really being a spoiler because in this book the true interest is not so much what happens next as the manner of it happening, the human significance of the story, and incidentally this is only part of the skeleton of the story anyway. Pied Piper is a tough and grim but encouraging and heartening tale of little people doing their bit, a classic propaganda novel made extremely effective by the skills of a really first class writer. It's back in print for the first time in 10 years. If you want to read it, don't hang around because it will sell out soon enough.

[rad2927]

Has anyone started The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown?Really looking forward to it, but I'm 3/4 through fellowship of the Ring, and I don't want to break up reading the set.I wish I knew it was being released-I would have waited.

I finished it last night-I enjoyed it but it was a little too long.It will probaly upset a lot of people but I have always thought that its central idea was a good starting point for understanding. Have to say that Angels and Demons is still my favorite and I really don't see the movie version of this book without MANY changes.

[GoldisMoney]

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

[tabler]

I am re-reading all my collection of Tim Moore books, starting with Frost On MY Moustache. If you have never heard of Tim Moore I recommend you look him up. He is 'labelled' as the 'new Bill Bryson' but is actually much funnier.

[tmee2000]

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
I had a copy of The Fountainhead with Joanne Latham on the cover. It would have been no later than 1979. The book was- OK I guess. Best part of it was definitely Joanne. Lent it to someone- never seen again. What have I done?!?

[jch48]

I finished it last night-I enjoyed it but it was a little too long.It will probaly upset a lot of people but I have always thought that its central idea was a good starting point for understanding. Have to say that Angels and Demons is still my favorite and I really don't see the movie version of this book without MANY changes.
I'm going to set the cat amongst the pigeons here.I don't see the great attraction of Dan Brown's novels,lets face it the Da Vinci Code was a murder mystery with pseudo-science and mysticism lifted from a book I read 20 years ago called The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail,how Dan Brown got away with the plagiarism astonishes me.However he's the guy coining in the big bucks,so who's having the last laugh.The whole phenomena of the Da Vinci Code reminds me of the hysteria surrounding Erich Von Daniken and The Chariots of The Gods in the early seventies,anybody remember that nonsense?

[scoundrel]

The whole phenomena of the Da Vinci Code reminds me of the hysteria surrounding Erich Von Daniken and The Chariots of The Gods in the early seventies,anybody remember that nonsense?I seem to remember this. Wasn't there a related book with the oh so thought-provoking title Was God an Astronaut? Douglas Adams picked up on this silliness in The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy in his side references to the philosophical works of Oolon Colluphid, such as Where God Went Wrong.

[Wendigo]

starting a Guy N Smith readathon - including
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[Leprechaun]

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[uncutfreddy]

"The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris - read the chapter entitled "Sex" - there's a great paragraph or two on pornography and why we use it - really thought provoking - page 62 in my copy.

[tamsmith]

The Complaints by Ian Rankin

[scoundrel]

The Complaints by Ian RankinRankin has retired Inspector Rebus: what's your opinion of the new protagonist tamsmith? Any good?

[Futuro]

Eric Williams: The Wooden Horse
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I read this first at the age of eleven, it had a strong impact on me, since then I have always loved all kinds of escape-literature; Colditz, Papillon etc... All those books have strong message about trust, friendship, sacrifice, individualism and of course the good vs. bad. And happy enough endings!

[tamsmith]

Rankin has retired Inspector Rebus: what's your opinion of the new protagonist tamsmith? Any good?

Just started the book but so far so good. When I read the reviews I was not sure if I would enjoy this one but, as usual, Rankin had me gripped after a few pages. I have not read many of his but the ones I have I have enjoyed.

[scoundrel]

After more than a month my order of Nevil Shute's novels, The Far Country and Beyond The Black Stump have finally arrived at Waterstones, assuming they haven't cocked it up and ordered in two Dan Brownes instead. I'm just off to pick them up. I'll let you know what I think after I have re-read them: its been a while.

[Luc_Orient]

The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks (reading the Shannara adventure again :o)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/Elfstones_Cover.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elfstones_Cover.gif)

[Mal Hombre]

http://img185.imagevenue.com/loc158/th_18213_images_122_158lo.jpg (http://img185.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=th_18213_images_122_158lo.jpg)White Trash by Gordon Rennie and the sadly lamented Martin Emond.sex violence and rock n' roll.

[jch48]

Highland Wilderness-Colin Prior
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A superb collection of Landscape pictures taken on a Panoramic camera.If you only had the choice in owning one book on Scottish Landscapes,acquire this.It is obvious that Prior is in love with his craft,and as a landscape photographer myself,I can only admire the time and patience which has went into getting some of the shots which are in the book.

[scoundrel]

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Obtaining this book was like pulling teeth but it was worth the effort. The cover I show here is from an early paperback edition. The Vintage Classics edition, when I finally got it, was brick red with no cover illustration and quite closely printed, only 240 pages long in fairly small and dense characters. No expenses spared.:rolleyes: However it has a strong spine for a paperback and should last a while.

I've heard of the American Dream, but not of a parallel Australian Dream: nevertheless, this novel is a celebration of the Australian Dream, with a contrast on post war austerity Britain reflecting withering scorn, not just for its tired socialist dogmas at the fag end of the played out Attlee government, but for the place itself, in the middle of a decline in power and prestige which lasted most of the 20th Century. You get an unmistakeable impression that this place is utterly finished and anyone with youth and spirit absolutely must escape from it.

The heroine discovers that her genteel grandmother, who should have been living on a civil service pension as the widow of an important colonial official, is destitute because the government (all legal and above board) have robbed her of her entitlement. Rather than appeal for help, even to her children and grandchild, Jennifer Morton, she has literally starved, carefully keeping up a front whenever her family visit her. Jennifer only finds out too late, when grannie has collapsed from starvation and is now dying alone in a dark and unheated house, with not a morsel of food and with the electric cut off. The scene when she confronts the manager of the local office of the electric company (nationalised of course) who had grannie's juice cut off is a gem of pure vitriol. Jennifer is eaten up with guilt because she didn't realise how desperate her grannie's situation has become, and furiously angry at all the faceless bureaucrats who ganged up on a defenceless old lady. The jobsworth manager accepts the truth of her story but refuses to do anything to reconnect a dying woman until the bill has been paid. Thems the rules.

''Can't you do it today?
''I'm afraid the account will have to be settled first.''
Jennifer said desperately, ''she's really terribly ill, and we can't even warm up hot milk in the house, or get hot water for her water bottles. We must have electricity tonight.''

He got to his feet; this was too unpleasant and he had no power to act. ''I'm sorry Miss Morton'', he said. ''It sounds as though she would be better in the hospital - have you considered that?'' [bad move: Jennifer has tried desperately to get grannie into hospital but they claim they have no beds. In reality, they are worried in case grannie doesn't die quickly enough and starts blocking a bed] ''Perhaps the relieving officer would be the man to see'' Have you tried social services?: another mistake.]''He's at the Town Hall.''

The red haired girl flared into sudden anger. ''God blast you, and God blast the relieving officer too. I only hope this happens to you one day, that you're old and sick and dying of starvation, and you can't get anyone to help you. And it will, too.''.

This is the Britain against which, by comparison, the 1950 Australia in the middle of a boom in wool and meat prices seems like a paradise. Here the potential ex pat Jennifer has an entre because her uncle and aunt own a sheep station in Victoria and have become people of some wealth and influence due to the wool boom, though with a touching humility born from years of desperate struggle in the depression. There is a far better life for Jennifer here, with ready made social connections. Here as well there is the man she has been waiting for, without even realising it.

The character of Carl Zlinter is a really clever creation which picks up superbly on the social tensions of an Allied country so soon after the Second World War. He is an emigrant refugee who has to work two years in a lumber camp (for fair pay and in not terrible conditions admittedly) in return for free passage and the right to live in Australia. He is sober and hardworking, so he isn't absolutely penniless, but he is poor and his prospects seem unpromising, because he cannot be a doctor in Australia unless he resits 3 years of medical school and pays for the privelege out of his own pocket. He's also an ex Army doctor from the Wehrmacht: a bad CV in 1950 Australia.

However, the local community, though tough and uncompromising, quietly approves of Zlinter: there is a dire shortage of doctors and Zlinter has helped out several times without asking for anything in return. Where many of the lumbermen are antisocial drunks and worse, Zlinter drinks very moderately by Australian standards and goes fishing, something intelligent and civilised which also a mans thing to do.

Then a really nasty industrial accident at the lumber camp forces Zlinter to perform an amputation and a trephine (brain surgery, literally). Jennifer and her uncle, Jack Dorman, are at the accident scene just after it happened and Jack's flattop truck is pressed into service as an ambulance, while Jennifer is the only one with clean hands and has to act as theatre nurse, though she is no nurse, to help a doctor who is no doctor. The operations were a success but one of the patients dies from drinking a whole bottle of whiskey afterwards when no-one was looking. So having been thrown together by the accident, Zlinter and Jennifer are in trouble with the police. Jennifer could weasel out and the police even encourage her to tacitly drop Zlinter deeper in it, but she knows right from wrong, really admired Zlinter's professionalism (years of battlefield surgery taught him a lot) and fights tooth and claw to defend her new friend. The community are quietly impressed by Zlinter's performance and side with him and Jennifer against the police. Jennifer's aunt and uncle see the love affair developing long before either Jennifer or Zlinter realise it themselves and are not really displeased: Zlinter is not nearly as poor a catch for Jennifer as he seems. Australians tend to look at the man, and his potential, not at whether he is rich now, or went to the right school etc: Zlinter passes the character test so Jack and his wife Jane quietly encourage the relationship.

Its not all sweetness and light. Some of Shute's social attitudes are dated, yet his observations of class and community conflict are accurate and sometimes bleakly funny. This happens when Zlinter has his breakfast in a cafe at Woods Point:
When he paid his bill, he said to the girl who had served him: ''Do you know a family called Shulkin? They are New Australian. the man works on the railway.''
She looked at him blankly; she came of a family of Australians who had been casual labourers generation after generation...She and her family were bitterly hostile to all immigrants, especially the European ones who worked too hard and were guilty of the social crime of saving money, thereby threatening the Australian Way Of Life. ''Never heard of them,'' she said scornfully.
He looked at her with clinical interest as he paid his bill, wondering if she were tubercular; in spite of his decision to abandon medicine, he could not rid himself of interest in symptoms. A Wasserman test would be interesting and probably positive. He smiled at her and went out... I relish the cold-blooded and calm revenge of Zlinter, encompassed in a single merciless thought. Which of these two is really the snake in paradise?

This books is a real page-turner, packed with human interest, shrewd understanding of characters and situations, and it is a fascinating, very convincing social portrait of Australia and England at a key moment in both countries' histories. Its one hell of a good book.

[jch48]

After the disappointment on reading Blood Canticle,I decided to give Anne Rice a second chance,and went back to the beginning of the Vampire Chronicles.Glad to say that Interview with The Vampire is completely different and also throws into context, whilst reading this novel how Tom Cruise was completely miscast as Lestat in the film version(yet to see this guy doing justice to any film role).The image given of 18th century New Orleans is extremely vivid,providing the reader with a sense of the sultry,dank atmosphere of the location.The start of the book deals with the battle of personalities between Louis,the vampire with a conscience,and dare I say it humanity and Lestat, the vampire who originally turned Louis into a vampire who enjoys the bloodlust and seems to have a sadistic manner in his killing of his victims,the sub-text seems to be the homo-erotic desire of Lestat for Louis,and Louis hatred of his situation.The third part of the vampire family is made up of the child Claudia,who has been orphaned and Louis decides to take her life when he discovers the child crying beside its dead mother,and decides to put her out of her misery,horrifically realises she is still alive after he has drained her blood and the child is subsequently turned into a vampire by Lestat,who attempts to achieve a hold on Louis by doing this,however we find the child has a mind developing as an adult and eventually puts them into danger,as her indiscriminate killing places all of them at suspicion.At this point Claudia's hatred of Lestat manifests in her drugging and killing him,and she and Loius dispose of his body in the swamps.
The second part of the story covers Louis and Claudia's trip to Europe to discover their roots as vampires,eventually leading to Paris and their meeting with Armand and the Theatre des Vampires,where they witness the death of an innocent girl on stage,in front of an audience,a classic scene in the film,this action releases Louis latent blood-lust,and a re-discovery of his love for another vampire,Armand in this instance.However suspicion falls on Louis and Claudia as they discover that to kill the master who has made them is punishable by death.Louis tries to protect Claudia,firstly by making another vampire for her,Madelaine as her companion and then when they are captured as Lestat re-appears to take blame,however this is in vain and he is imprisoned in his coffin and Madelaine and Claudia are exposed to daylight,resulting in their death.Through Armands help Louis wreaks revenge on the Theatre des Vampires,burning down the building during daylight.
After this Louis and Armand roam the Earth,discovering Art and Literature of the world and eventually returning to New Orleans,where Louis meets Lestat,who is a shadow of his former self creating pity in Louis.Armand hopes this would have brought Louis back to life(vampire life admittedly)hoping for revenge instead of pity and created a reason again for their companionship.
Finally we have the journalist who has recorded the interview begging Lestat to turn him into a vampire,creating frustation in Louis,who wants to highlight the thing he has missed most of all, life itself rather than the soulless existence he has.
I enjoyed this book and Anne Rice has a talent to set time and place,however as an outright horror story,it doesn't have that edge of seat expectation which I would want.

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[squigg58]

Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II by Herbert A. Werner.

A graphic and chilling account of submarine warfare by one of the few U-Boat commanders who survived the war. It's not about "sides" or good and evil ... it's just the most amazing account of what "ordinary" men have to endure when nations go to war.

When Werner described how he had to keep the U-Boat on the sea-bed, in silence, with air running out, and depth charges raining down for hour after hour after hour, I kept having to remind myself that Werner had survived. It didn't seem possible.

A "must read" for anyone interested in military history.

[tabler]

Courtesy of scoundrel who lent it to me I have just started The Riddle Of The Sands by Erskine Childers.

[gapedhok]

I am considering picking up "Level 26" from the bookstore. It's a digi-novel from the man who wrote or produced CSI. Forgot the name of the author. Is anyone familiar with the book?

[John C. Holmes]

Billy Ball: Infamous Yankee manager Billy Martin's second autobiography. Excellent read and if gives you a whole new perspective on the man and his philosophies on baseball and life in general. (Not even close to as bad a guy as he was made out to be in the papers.)

[Satiros]

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. Very tasty, indeed.

[thinlizzy]

Just finished "The Wicker Man" which is the novel based on the famous 1973 Film.It's written by the film's director and he adapts it faithfully and to my mind the novel delves deeper into the story,it's well worth the read. http://img181.imagevenue.com/loc546/th_05914_41V4VQPRPSL__SS500__122_546lo.jpg (http://img181.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=05914_41V4VQPRPSL__SS500__122_546lo. jpg) I've also started to re read "Something Wicked this way comes" by Ray Bradbury... http://img265.imagevenue.com/loc457/th_03563_41c5s03oieL__SS500__122_457lo.jpg (http://img265.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=03563_41c5s03oieL__SS500__122_457lo. jpg) I read it about 20 years ago and enjoyed it then but now reading it with an older view point it captivates me more.Great writing almost poetical at times.I might track down Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man" for my next read,has anybody on the forum read it and can recommend it?

[gapedhok]

Thin Lizzy (btw wasn't the bass player/lead singer named Snowy White?) I own The Illustrated Man, it now comes as a book with that story and several others. I can't recommend it personally, but if you find it at a used bookstore for a good price go ahead. The Illustrated Man has a unique ending, one that if you read it at the time of the first printing would have a greater impact than if you read it today.
If you and jch48 are in the fantasy/horror mood, may I suggest Richard Matheson -
I am Legend, Seven Steps To Midnight, etc. Matheson, as you may already know, wrote several episodes of the Twilight Zone, as well as books, most notably The Incredible Shrinking Man.

[jch48]

If you and jch48 are in the fantasy/horror mood, may I suggest Richard Matheson -
I am Legend, Seven Steps To Midnight, etc. Matheson, as you may already know, wrote several episodes of the Twilight Zone, as well as books, most notably The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Thanks,I've read I am Legend on a couple of occasions,thoroughly enjoyed the book.Although its a short read,the story brings out the sense of isolation on being alone in the world,and his grasp of trying to hold on to a sense of belonging when the dog appears is a poignant moment.You also have the twist in the story at the end where he is the feared character "The Legend",rather than the vampires because he brings death is a powerful thought.

[rotrex]

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Ulysses, by James Joyce...
I've wanted to read this for, well, decades, and I finally decided recently to suck it up and get it done.
I won't bore everyone with the gory details, but I will opine that it is absolutely worth reading, and I regard it as the indelible reading experience of my life. The final chapter, where a lady named Molly Bloom broods magnificently late one night, is incredible; you can learn more about women there than you can from practically anywhere else.
Yes, it is difficult, but as a literary performance, it is unsurpassed ( and unequalled) in my experience, and parts of it are incredibly funny.
And I'm not too proud to admit that I had The Bloomsday Book, by Harry Blamire, nearby to help me over the rough patches.
(Meanwhile, Joyce's next book, Finnegan's Wake, is sitting on my bookshelf; I think it's silently taunting me...)

[jch48]

Different from the Irvine Welsh books like Trainspotting and Filth which I've read previously.Get away from the Jilly Cooper cover and you get a series of short stories,basically dealing with one persons perspective on their relationships with others.First of all you get the college "jock",who is on a drug trip with another couple who gets lost in the desert and are eventually found by a crazy Mexican boy,who forces the jock to have oral sex with the other guy.The second story deals with a Cockney bar-owner who is getting his end away with his BBW bar-maid,and the various antics around their relationship.The third deals with an uptight Chicago girl who has lost her Papillon and suspects the Korean chef upstairs of using it as a side order in his next meal.Couple of other short stories within the book,should'nt take too long to finish.Final story Kingdom of Fife is Welsh at his best,written in the vernacular of the East Coast(I'm Scottish,and I can't fathom out some of the prose,so god help you English:))Its the tale of two characters,Jason a seven stone runt,an ex-jockey who is the Fife table football champion,who has a series of adventures in local hostelrys within Cowdenbeath.The other character Jenni is a stuck up girl who has aspirations of grandeur through her horse riding interests,their paths cross at various junctures,Jason hopes to get into her jodhpurs at some point .Probably not up to Welsh's usual standard,fortunately did'nt buy it,so nothing to worry about.
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[FlyStrat]

The Lost Symbol

Nice, so far (10%)