MakemineVanilla Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Honourable Schoolboy could have been such a great miniseries if they'd had the budget (would have required far east location shooting). The BBC's Radio 4 version of this, a few years ago, was outstanding, as was the whole series, with Simon Russell Beale as Smiley. Wonderfully dry portrayal of Smiley and the chilling atmosphere surrounding 'the circus'; the far east locations were very convincing, I seem to recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted September 11, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 11, 2014 Currently reading Albion's Seed, which is a comprehensive look at both British and American folkways and the connections between them.There's a good book by one Matthew Alper called "The 'God' Part of the Brain", that speculates on why the USA is so religious (bucking the trend that affluent and well-educated countries tend not to be). His theory is that some individuals are genetically predisposed to (for want of a better word) 'spirituality'. In most populations this minority is dispersed, but large numbers of them were driven out of Europe by religious persecution, and settled in America. This unusually high concentration of the 'god gene' in an initially small population could account for its long term survival. Interesting theory, anyway. The complicating factor for that line of thought is that of the populations for whom religion was the motivating factor and who had any real lasting cultural impact on Anglo North America, which is to say the Puritans, the Quakers, and various German Pietists (who allied with the Quakers), none of those groups is more religious in any traditional sense than Western Europe. There's an argument that Puritanism turned into "secular Puritanism" but that's generally mildly atheistic. Where you see religiosity is largely in the South, where the culturally significant migrations were economically motivated. I think it's more likely that an absence of dominant establishment churches in the more religious parts of the US forced an evangelist mindset which required a clergy which could be convincing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I started reading 'The Bridge' by Iain Banks. The first few pages may give VT's resident parenthesis lover a heart attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted September 23, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 23, 2014 25% of the way through Perfidia and loving it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Worth getting, then? I'll wait a few weeks before buying it, when the 30% off stickers get slapped on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar by same author Just spent £2.81 on this. It better be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar by same author Just spent £2.81 on this. It better be good. It is a pretty decent read but it is very much a catalogue of evils committed by Stalin from page one, which can be a bit wearing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar by same author Just spent £2.81 on this. It better be good. It is a pretty decent read but it is very much a catalogue of evils committed by Stalin from page one, which can be a bit wearing. I don't know why I read topics like this as it weakens my already fragile faith in humanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Anyone signing up for Kindle Unlimited? Essentially Netflix for books, but it's a limited range of Kindle titles not the whole catalogue. Nothing in my list of books I was going to buy next is on there, I guess it's too much to expect very new titles to be available, but there's a 30 day trial so I'll give it a go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar by same author Just spent £2.81 on this. It better be good. It is a pretty decent read but it is very much a catalogue of evils committed by Stalin from page one, which can be a bit wearing. I don't know why I read topics like this as it weakens my already fragile faith in humanity. When it comes to evil genocidal dictators Stalin generally gets underrated in favour of more popular candidates. Books like this and Robert Harris's Archangel provide the evidence that when it came to personally motivated cold-blooded killings and torture, Stalin was the daddy. Always, nice to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 (edited) I don't care if y'all like poetry cus y'all need to go away and read/listen to Kei Miller. He's so **** good. Mr Pints especially, if you haven't already, discover him. Edited October 12, 2014 by CarewsEyebrowDesigner 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Anyone signing up for Kindle Unlimited? Essentially Netflix for books, but it's a limited range of Kindle titles not the whole catalogue. Nothing in my list of books I was going to buy next is on there, I guess it's too much to expect very new titles to be available, but there's a 30 day trial so I'll give it a go. How did you find it? Worth signing up for permanently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 (edited) Just finished 'The Martian' by Andy Weir, it's incredibly good. http://youtu.be/7kTblf1Y9y8 ooh, Audiobook is up on the YouTubes. Give it an hour, buy the book. Seriously though, it's utterly brilliant. Edited October 13, 2014 by The_Rev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 The other week I drunk ordered a load of books and had completely forgot about them until they started arriving, I've just finished the last book that I was reading and now I've gotta make a start on these new ones, I'm going to get wired on coffee and sit up until the early hours reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 currently around a 1/3 of the way through I Am Pilgrim - don't really know what to make of it so far.... totally undecided whether I'm enjoying it or not. Read Gone Girl the other week - quite enjoyed it so looking forward to seeing the film (which I hear is also good!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted October 24, 2014 Moderator Share Posted October 24, 2014 The other week I drunk ordered a load of books and had completely forgot about them until they started arriving, I've just finished the last book that I was reading and now I've gotta make a start on these new ones, I'm going to get wired on coffee and sit up until the early hours reading You know porn mags aren't technically books right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 The other week I drunk ordered a load of books and had completely forgot about them until they started arriving, I've just finished the last book that I was reading and now I've gotta make a start on these new ones, I'm going to get wired on coffee and sit up until the early hours reading You know porn mags aren't technically books right? Bitch please, I have a laptop and the internet, I ain't looked at a porn mag for years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMac Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is a superb book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 currently around a 1/3 of the way through I Am Pilgrim - don't really know what to make of it so far.... totally undecided whether I'm enjoying it or not. Read Gone Girl the other week - quite enjoyed it so looking forward to seeing the film (which I hear is also good!) I really enjoyed I am pilgrim, thought it was a real page turner. Gone girl was great but the film is exactly the same as the book so I was a bit bored when watching it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 currently around a 1/3 of the way through I Am Pilgrim - don't really know what to make of it so far.... totally undecided whether I'm enjoying it or not. Read Gone Girl the other week - quite enjoyed it so looking forward to seeing the film (which I hear is also good!) I really enjoyed I am pilgrim, thought it was a real page turner. Gone girl was great but the film is exactly the same as the book so I was a bit bored when watching it. Now get very into I Am Pilgrim - almost finished and totally agree with you - it is a page turner!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts