Last Book Read

rick_chasey

You a fan of Kershaw?

Was a lecturer for me, so I’m biased.

finchy

First book of his that I've read. It's very, very good IMO. I might read something else by him at a later date, but I've got a pile of books the size of Ben Nevis to wade through first.

What was he like as a lecturer?

rick_chasey

finchy wrote:

First book of his that I've read. It's very, very good IMO. I might read something else by him at a later date, but I've got a pile of books the size of Ben Nevis to wade through first.

What was he like as a lecturer?

So he made his name with a theory about “working towards the Furhrer” which is about how the structure of deliberately set up competing, combined with a cult of personality set the party up to come up with more and more radical solutions in their attempts to get his attention.

He then wrote the mother of all biographies of Hitler in the ‘00s and cemented himself as the English speaking expert on Hitler.


He’s a walking encyclopaedia of Hitler & the Nazis. He’s quite essayist in his style - The End is basically one long essay answering the question he poses at the start - which I quite like.

Seminars would just end up with all of us firing questions at him and him answering. Not the most effective to elicit our own thoughts but fascinating nonetheless.

crumbschief

Rick Chasey wrote:

finchy wrote:

First book of his that I've read. It's very, very good IMO. I might read something else by him at a later date, but I've got a pile of books the size of Ben Nevis to wade through first.

What was he like as a lecturer?

So he made his name with a theory about “working towards the Furhrer” which is about how the structure of deliberately set up competing, combined with a cult of personality set the party up to come up with more and more radical solutions in their attempts to get his attention.

He then wrote the mother of all biographies of Hitler in the ‘00s and cemented himself as the English speaking expert on Hitler.


He’s a walking encyclopaedia of Hitler & the Nazis. He’s quite essayist in his style - The End is basically one long essay answering the question he poses at the start - which I quite like.

Seminars would just end up with all of us firing questions at him and him answering. Not the most effective to elicit our own thoughts but fascinating nonetheless.

Well he sounds awake,The end my beautiful friend.

BelgianBeerGeek

Ahoy, philistine friends...
Whilst civilisation declines, best resurrect this thread. Some of the people coming here may read and not just dip into movies. Some might take a few hours to read...
Recently enjoyed “London Belongs to Me” by Norman Collins. Bit like a soap opera, a tale set in and onwards 1938. Terrific stuff.
Thread resurrected. Hopefully.

meursault

Great author.

In the wake of Trump’s victory, he says, “I feel utterly astonished that we could have come to this. I find his election the most appalling thing I’ve seen in politics in my life.”

mrfpb

Re-read "The City and The City" by China Mieville in order to get memories of the TV adaptation out of my head.

I know the book is pretty much unfilmable, but the adaptation just seemed to run off in the wrong direction altogether from the first scene.

ayjaycee

Just finished 'Places In The Darkness' by Chris Brookmyre. Initially it's a murder mystery set on a space station orbiting earth a couple of hundred years into the future but some clever twists takes it in a whole new direction. I was slow to get started on it but it was well worth the persistence.

Brookmyre is one of my favourite modern British writers and I've found almost all of his books to be brilliant. I say almost all because the only one that I never managed to get along with was his only other venture into science fiction. His books tend to have a dark and sometimes very gory side but always retain a sense of humour which I personally find very refreshing.

pottssteve

Post Office by Charles Buckowski - again.

Fantastic if you have ever been stuck in a dead-end job that you needed to survive.

meursault

pottssteve wrote:

Post Office by Charles Buckowski - again.

Fantastic if you have ever been stuck in a dead-end job that you needed to survive.

Bukowski is awesome.

robert88

In the same vein as The End..



Taking the reader into the mindset of a population degraded and perverted by fascism.

A contemporary personal account of divided Berlin after defeat was written by Lt Col Byford Jones, a writer who was on General Montgomery's staff. It's readable, extremely rare and expensive but can be downloaded for free here:

Berlin Twilight(1947)

crispybug2

Back to work tomorrow (unless that massive lottery win turns up!!)

So I've been getting through the books I got as Christmas presents

The Fox - Frederick Forsyth Usual well researched somewhat right wing thriller that he nearly always produces

The Tour According To G - Geraint Thomas A bit meh but G's a nice bloke isn't he?

Icons - Bradley Wiggins I know the Lance Armstrong chapter attracted controversy but it's a well thought out piece in a book of well thought out pieces

Ben6899

crispybug2 wrote:

Icons - Bradley Wiggins I know the Lance Armstrong chapter attracted controversy but it's a well thought out piece in a book of well thought out pieces

Really impressed with this book. Strange that the Lance Armstrong chapter caused the stir that it did - anyone who really appreciates cycling as a professional sport will want to read how LA shaped it for better or worse, and the impact he had on other up and coming Tour contenders.

I've picked up Dune (book 2) again and also have Ventoux for the commute.

rick_chasey

Robert88 wrote:

In the same vein as The End..



Taking the reader into the mindset of a population degraded and perverted by fascism.

Yes good shout.

Small criticism is, in comparison to Kershaw since it was mentioned, is Stargardt doesn’t always join the dots and give you *the* coherent argument.

Else that book’d be absolutely ground-breaking.

Tashman

The "Roy of the Rovers" Autobiography. Picked it up just before Christmas and as an avid consumer of the comic as a kid I'm thoroughly enjoying it even if Roy was a footballing elder statesman when I was reading as a kid. At times it gets a little repetetive but I guess the stories were probably regurgitated frequently anyway.
I've always credited those comics with fostering a love of reading in me initially. Happy memories

ayjaycee

Tashman wrote:

.........At times it gets a little repetetive but I guess the stories were probably regurgitated frequently anyway.........

Back in the day, Tiger comic also featured the racing driver Skid Solo - I can remember several different (but exactly the same) stories where he drove a prototype car and the front end started lifting as speed increased. The solution was always to pile some bags of cement on the bonnet to weigh it down. The bags always wound up splitting and slowly losing their contents but just enough managed to remain to let him win the race, generally with the front wheels starting to lift again as he took the chequered flag. Maybe we need another thread in The Cake Stop on comic books and characters that you remember as a kid!

pottssteve

Just finished Flashman on the March.




A tremendous antidote to modern times.

pottssteve

Also recently read Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss:



The basic premise is that as a hostage negotiator, Mr Voss wasn't in the same position as many business people when it came to making deals. Many deals aim to split the difference so both parties walk away somewhat happy, but he couldn't do this as it would end up along the lines of, "OK, only kill half of the hostages."

Some interesting ideas that can be used in everyday situations, possibly, even if you don't save people from the Sandanistas for a living.

pottssteve

Also recently read the Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer, which was foul-mouthed, frank and quite funny.

Back to work next week, so the rest of my stack of books will have to wait...

lemonenema

Last book was Pilgrimage to Earth (sci fi short stories), really enjoyed
Almost finished reading - Rendezvous with Rama, quite enjoyable so far.

mr_goo

Tombland - CJ Sansom
The 7th and latest installment in the Shardlake series. If you're a fan then you'll not be disappointed.
A Tudor murder mystery set in 1549 Norwich, the peasant rebellions and subsequent battle of Dussindale.
880 pages of great story telling expertly thread into true events and real characters from history.
I don't think there is a better author than Sansom of historical novels of this era.

bonk_king

I heard of Charles Bukowski some time ago but never got round to reading any of his stuff. He was brought up again earlier in this thread so I read "post office". At first i thought how the hell can anyone write a book about the mundane job of a letter sorter at a post office without the reader falling asleep. I was hooked from page one. When I finished post office I downloaded "pulp" and read that in no time too. I'm totally hooked on this guy. He's brilliant.

briantrumpet

'French: from dialect to standard' by R. Anthony Lodge. A history of how modern French came about. Actually quite an interesting romp through language and how it's tied up with history, and also about how if you try to tie language down, pesky people go off and start mucking about with it.

pottssteve

bonk king wrote:

I heard of Charles Bukowski some time ago but never got round to reading any of his stuff. He was brought up again earlier in this thread so I read "post office". At first i thought how the hell can anyone write a book about the mundane job of a letter sorter at a post office without the reader falling asleep. I was hooked from page one. When I finished post office I downloaded "pulp" and read that in no time too. I'm totally hooked on this guy. He's brilliant.

I enjoyed Pulp as well. I can also recommend "Factotum" and "Ham on Rye". I can't read his poetry though, it gives me a headache..

Currently on "High Rise" by JG Ballard - weird but enjoyable.

bonk_king

pottssteve wrote:

bonk king wrote:

I heard of Charles Bukowski some time ago but never got round to reading any of his stuff. He was brought up again earlier in this thread so I read "post office". At first i thought how the hell can anyone write a book about the mundane job of a letter sorter at a post office without the reader falling asleep. I was hooked from page one. When I finished post office I downloaded "pulp" and read that in no time too. I'm totally hooked on this guy. He's brilliant.

I enjoyed Pulp as well. I can also recommend "Factotum" and "Ham on Rye". I can't read his poetry though, it gives me a headache..

Currently on "High Rise" by JG Ballard - weird but enjoyable.

Yeah, i'm not really a poetry type guy but looking through his work he has wrote a lot of poetry. I think he's wrote about half a dozen novels as well so i'm definitely going to read those, "ham on rye" is next up.

FatTed

Milk of Paradise A history of opium. Very interesting

mr_goo

The Spy & The Traitor - Ben Macintyre
The true story of cold war espionage. KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky's biography and how his double agent activities influenced and changed the politacal landscape.
The end of the book which recounts how his cover was blown and his exfiltration from the Soviet Union is totally gripping and worthy of a film.

Excellent book if you're into the Cold War.

crispybug2

Mr Goo wrote:

The Spy & The Traitor - Ben Macintyre
The true story of cold war espionage. KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky's biography and how his double agent activities influenced and changed the politacal landscape.
The end of the book which recounts how his cover was blown and his exfiltration from the Soviet Union is totally gripping and worthy of a film.

Excellent book if you're into the Cold War.

Thanks for the heads up

I've read all of Frederick Forsyth's books and Gordievsky features quite heavily, so it'll be interesting to read into his life and activities in greater detail

mr_goo

crispybug2 wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

The Spy & The Traitor - Ben Macintyre
The true story of cold war espionage. KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky's biography and how his double agent activities influenced and changed the politacal landscape.
The end of the book which recounts how his cover was blown and his exfiltration from the Soviet Union is totally gripping and worthy of a film.

Excellent book if you're into the Cold War.

Thanks for the heads up

I've read all of Frederick Forsyth's books and Gordievsky features quite heavily, so it'll be interesting to read into his life and activities in greater detail

Even if you're not into the cold war and espionage it is such a good book. I have read Next Stop Execution which is Gordievsky's first hand account. But this is far better as it threads together the anecdotes and stories of spies from different agencies on either side of the wall. Plus gives insight into the mindset of soviet citizens. Even comes right upto date with the attempted assasination of Skripal in Salisbury.

It really should be made into a film.

EalingEagle

Graham Hurley. 3 books in a loose trilogy. Estocado, Aurora, Finisterre. Not come across this author before. Spy/Thriller they are marketed as. Wow. So much more. Very considered way of building a story. Read one and dived out for other two. Very happy to make this aquaintance.