What book(s) are you reading currently?

[Sir Honkers]

Rereading all the Watch themed Discworld novels. Along with Grannies Weatherwax and Ogg and Rincewind and the wizards, Vimes and co were Pratchett's best creations.

[73north]

For me, the 1980s was a great time and I am so glad I
bought War Machine, the 25-page themed magazine from Orbis Publishers and it was only 80 pence.


My collection now only stands at around 25 or so, but they are very, very useful ‘starts’ in terms of research. I can often dip into one and find something which will provide an odd, unusual weapon,
There is plenty of useful information in Number 41
‘Cruisers of World War 2 ' -
I like the detail on the French , Italian , German, British and American Cruisers - sadly it doesn't cover all the types that fought in the War .
( It could have done to have had the Allied and Axis Cruisers in two separate magazines - but that's life )

[loplop]

Pan Am: History, Design & Identity by M. C. Huhne - a recent book that looks at the entire history of the airline from it's days as a mail carrier through the glory days of the Clippers and the Jet Age to it's decline and fall in 1991. I've always been fascinated by Pan Am, it's history and it's aircraft since I took took my first flight when I was 6 years old on a Boeing 747.

[moogfooger]

'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami

'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' also by Haruki Murakami

[rosestone]

Originally Posted by moogfooger

'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami

That's a great book.

More pop-science for me, 'Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking' by Malcolm Gladwell.



I've been meaning to read it for about 10 years, t's pretty interesting, if you've ever wondered why most people instinctively like Tom Hanks, or why the Pepsi challenge was misleading, it's a good read.

[scoundrel]

Ulrich Steinhilper wrote this book with the assistance of Peter Osborne for the English, although he was well educated in the German state system in the 1920s and 1930s and had good enough English to escape from British POW camps in Canada several times, once making it to New York before being recaptured.

So far I have only read the prologue, which describes in strong and evocative detail his last mission, when he was forced down over Kent on 27 October 1940, and the section dealing with his childhood in pre-Nazi and early Nazi Germany, and the selection process in which he was chosen for pilot training by the rapidly expanding Luftwaffe in 1936.

Of course, autobiographies are not usually "warts and all" frank about the dark side of the writer; but I find this one rather gripping stuff, both for the insightful comments of the adult about some of the underlying reasons why he was not always popular as a child; and from just a few chapters written from first hand knowledge by a man who lived as a child through the times, I feel I know something more about what went on in Germany in the early NASDP years.

Steinhilper did not like the Hitler Youth organisation and stayed out of it until joining was compulsory, one of the reasons he was bullied. One of his friends (he did have some) had a Jewish girlfriend and Steinhilper was, even at that stage, rather offended by the way he and she were being treated: he stopped attending dances held by the Hitler Youth for this reason and kept his participation down to the minimum needed to avoid sanctions. He wanted to join the military partly to get away from civilian politics; being an officer in uniform would mean that the NASDP brownshirts and the Hitler Youths would have to back off and he could give them orders if necessary iinstead of taking orders from them.

Ironically, Steinhilper's father was a teacher who came from humble working class rural roots and had improved himself through hard work and education, to become what would now be called a Deputy Headmaster at the local secondary school. But the town was very snobbish and conservative and Steinhilper's father joined the NASDP quite early on, partly because being in the Party enabled him to face down the local mayor and other minor dignatories who had it in for him and were trying to get him sacked. As Ulrich Steinhilper points out, the worst was still a long way in the future and very few people realised the full implications of what was happening.

Steinhilper was rejected for officer training by Infantry Regiment 13, his local regiment; he clearly suspected it was the influence of his father's enemies and comments darkly that he was lucky, though he did not know it then. Infantry Regiment 13 fought in Poland, France and Russia, where it converted to a Panzer Regiment, and the survival rate was very low for those who were in it when the war began. Not that being a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe was so very safe either. In fact [though he did not see it this way at the time] the RAF did Oberleutnant Steinhilper a serious favour by shooting him down so early in the war, with nothing worse to show than a broken left leg which the British were kind enough to mend for him.

The end of the prologue deals with this. Steilhilper landed on the grass towpath of a canal, luckily not in the water, and a man wearing an armband and brandishing a shotgun was standing on the opposite side of the canal. When he was ordered to stand up and raise his hands, he had enough English to say that his leg was broken and he could not stand. It must have been visible to the LDV/Homeguard, who spoke in a totally different voice when he realised the position, saying "It's alright, I'll come to you." Steinhilper was out of the war and though he tried to escape, he could not succeed; out of the war he stayed. On the whole, this was a good thing, and indeed he worked for IBM afterwards and is credited by many as the inventor of the electronic word processor.

More to read.

[73north]

This is a FANZINE - I am really enjoying Dogbreath -
which is about the 2000ad universe ( and originally transferred from the Short-lived Starlord )
about the Strontium Dog / Johnny Alpha world -

the fanzine should be rubbish , but the art is really nice - and above
all the stories are the equal of anything written in 2000ad -
also Dan Cornwell made his debut here - before being asked by John Wagner to draw Rok of the Reds - and Judge Dredd lately

[ultimatewarlord]

I finally took the plunge and bought Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology. From all accounts it's the best book by a former scientologist. Very good so far. I'm hoping it covers his wife's escape because that's a fascinating story on it's own. I've listened to her talk about it three times so far on the Surviving Scientology podcast.

[73north]

Shredded: Inside RBS, the Bank That Broke Britain

I came across this book in the local WH Smith last week -
This is not a happy story. It is about the wrong doings of a greedy and irresponsible bunch who played with other people's money to feed their egos and fill their pockets.
The first half of the book focuses on the Goodwin era and its many mistakes, which culminated with the catastrophic hostile take-over of ABN AMRO and ultimately with the forced rescue of both banks by their respective governments, at the tax-payer's expense.

The second half of the book depicts many of the bank's alleged predatory practices of the Hester era, which have resulted in numerous legal suits against RBS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBkKnLpites
This is Part 1 of a talk on his book by the author on his book




Reading this book provokes in me anger, sadness, and indignation over how a once-respectable institution could have brought financial ruin to thousands of people in the U.K. and around the world.
I have been a customer of Royal Bank of Scotland since a child , and when I used to go to my local branch , there were 10-12 working there -
now you are lucky if there are 4 .. and in a busy Scottish Borders Town
that has the highest population -

Perhaps the main achievement of this book is to document and leave for posterity a very credible account of one of the worst chapters in business history (which unfortunately is still unfolding).

I spotted things had changed on a personal level , when everytime I sold something on ebay and got a cheque - when I came to bank it , the staff were desperate to sell me some financial service - that I didn't want

[MaxJoker]

Particularly enjoyed those concerning the parson`s nose