Books you are reading

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Georgee Paris
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Georgee Paris »

My latest children’s picture book is out now (perhaps) if you want to buy something for a small person maybe for Christmas. Written and illustrated by me - you can also download a free app that brings the pictures to life (animated augmented reality) it’s a bit of fun…(not Chaucer)

Book 2 (The Amazing Adventures of Wicked Willy & Fearless Steve) https://amzn.eu/d/gq6IqTX
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Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Spammy The Vee wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 12:04 am One of his best !
Coincidentally, I just started The End Of The Affair, the first time I've read GG.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Spammy The Vee »

Korea Hammer wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:47 am Coincidentally, I just started The End Of The Affair, the first time I've read GG.
I've read nearly everything, just a few minor works left and for the record, I do not consider his "entertainments" to be minor works - "Brighton Rock" is my all time favourite work of fiction."
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Billy Hunt
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Billy Hunt »

Spammy The Vee wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 1:52 pm I've read nearly everything, just a few minor works left and for the record, I do not consider his "entertainments" to be minor works - "Brighton Rock" is my all time favourite work of fiction."
Brighton Rock is a wonderful book - read it at school many, many years ago and read it again 10 years or so back.

I do not think I have read any of his other works - not that I am a great reader of books other than on an aeroplane or a sunbed - but I really should
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Plashet Grove Pete »

Korea Hammer wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 8:50 pm William Golding - Rites Of Passage

My eighth Golding in the last few years, and another unique and memorable book.
I'm half way through and finding it incredibly hard going. Much prefer Patrick O'Brian's description of life on board ship.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Tenbury »

I like GG too. 'Brighton Rock' my favourite book, 'The Third Man' an excellent book but even better screenplay for one of the greatest films of all.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Plashet Grove Pete wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 3:38 pm I'm half way through and finding it incredibly hard going. Much prefer Patrick O'Brian's description of life on board ship.
I totally get that Pete. I definitely enjoyed the second half more but it might not be for everyone. First part of a trilogy too :shock:
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Tenbury »

Takes a lot to excite me these days, but tomorrow sees the arrival of' The Passenger', the latest CMcC.......
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Tenbury wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 4:59 pm Takes a lot to excite me these days, but tomorrow sees the arrival of' The Passenger', the latest CMcC.......
I saw it my local bookshop a week ago Tenners, but I didn't pick it up because I have a thing about not buying hardbacks. I'll be interested to hear a details-free verdict from you after you've read it. I would say at this stage, he's earned the right to write whatever he likes though really.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Tenbury »

Korea, mate, I'd wax lyrical if I read his shopping list!
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Spammy The Vee »

Tenbury wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 11:35 pm 'The Third Man' an excellent book but even better screenplay for one of the greatest films of all.
Tenbury, I'm no expert, but it is my understanding that Greene wrote a book version of "The Third Man" so that he would have something ( a story) to refer to when "going over the script " !
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by PF. »

Presently working my way through the Stoic classics and about two thirds through Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus.

I’m not academic so have to regroup a few times to ensure I’m not getting lost and reading for the sake of it. I find the entire philosophy fascinating.

I’ve read Marcus Aurelius and several modern-day thinkers, and will all being well, move on to Seneca in time for Christmas.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Odessa »

Johan Cruyff Always on the attack

A biography by Auke Kok.

It seemed appropriate to read this while the World Cup is on.

Only into the first few chapters and ‘Jopie’ has that stroppy attitude that greatness forgives.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Tenbury »

Tenbury wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 4:59 pm Takes a lot to excite me these days, but tomorrow sees the arrival of' The Passenger', the latest CMcC.......
OK, So I may be a not be all that objective here...

It's brilliant.
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WHU Independent
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by WHU Independent »

Well I hate to be THAT man but I read Blood Meridian and thought it was bloody awful. When i read he wrote No Country for Old Men, one of the films in my worst ever top ten list, it clicked - this author is deffo not one for me.

On a less highbrow list, I've jus finished The 13th Legion:Penal Brigade a Warhammer 40K novel by Gav Thorpe. Basically it's a good pulp read.

I've just started The Inquisitors another 40K book, with 11 different short stories by 11 different authors. The first story was very interesting, with a unique plot, and is a lifetime away from the "DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA " of other space marine books.

I've also started Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle Blowers which I picked up in a 2nd hand shop for £1.00 - had to be done. Now I enjoy a bit of conspiracy theory as much as the next person, but Mary Bennett and David Percy are fully paid up members of the conspiracy mob. The don't believe that we have landed on the moon. Period.

The first chaper is all about photography and despite having helpful "Techspeak" sections I found it bewildering. I got the feeling that this photographical section would be better suited to Dyers Leg or TOMOS who would probably both enjoy the technical aspects of it. That said I like the way the book is laid out - flowing text around pics of the moon landings and blocked of sections with the relevant points. It reads like a decent A level submission - fun and informative even if their factual conclusions are spurious at best. A fun read though.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Misko »

The World Cup made me think of two books I really enjoyed.

The first one is directly related to the competition. Thirty-one nil by James Montague relates the journalist's travels around the world to follow the qualifiers for the 2014 edition. Easy reading, but still covering the harsh reality in Haiti, Eritrea or Palestine. Funny anecdotes and scary moments. He covered the clashes between Hungary and Romania and also between Serbia and Croatia. I personally know a bit about them, and I can say Montague did a proper work about it.

The second one came to mind when colonization was mentioned in the thread about Tunisia vs France. The Colonizer and the Colonized was written by Albert Memmi shortly before Tunisia took its independence. It is a short essay about the intrinsically ill-fated nature of both characters. Short but brilliant, imvho. I read it during the yellow vests movement in France, and I couldn't help drawing some parallel with the situation of the educated elites in the cities and the rural and suburban middle class nowadays. I would also be very curious to see whether it can echo to what happened in British colonies or not, which of course I can't judge.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Shabu »

Reading Equator by Thurston Clarke.

Last read it about 15 years ago and it's even better than I remember.

Basically the bloke wants to visit as many places on the equator as he can but it's not a easy as you might think. He starts in South America then over to Africa and carries on. Written in 1988.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by WHU Independent »

The Inquisitors: A Warhammer 40K book, with 11 different short stories by 11 different authors.

This was somewhat disappointing tbh, especially Dan Abnett, who I am a big fan of. Abnett has tried to write some pseudo inter genre c;aptrap and it fails - badly. He's tried to intermingal HP Lovecraft genre horror with 40K fantasy and it falls flat on it's face. Advertised under an "Eisenhorn" story ( a very famous 40K Inquistor) it is in fact about a supporting Eisenthorn cast member, who gets trapped in a interdimentional bookshop that is full of moths. Did I mention the lead character has a phobic fear of moths? Well for a womann that is phobic she takes it very much in her stride. My mother has a phobia of wasps and once, on the White Cliffs of dover one landed on her. She was gonna jump off rather than be stung, but she was saved by my father. This is a real phobia. The charaxcter in the book gets them in her hair and ecen in her mouth and she frets a bit. Even by referencing The King in yellow by Cambers, he fails to mingle both genres.

The other stories are ok and are worth reading but overall the whole book was a bit meh!
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Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Jeremy Cooper - Ash Before Oak

A fairly sombre and reflective piece of autofiction, and the diary of a former art collector who retreats to the countryside of Somerset in an attempt to reconnect with the world.
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Re: Books you are reading

Post by thamesideiron »

Finished a week or so ago..

The Moth and the Mountain...Ed Ceaser.
Loved it..heres the Preface.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/508 ... e-mountain

Love true adventure stories like this.
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