Do you read?

[chrisp65]

America’s War For The Greater Middle East, by Andrew J Bacevich

Some jolly festive reading, mapping out the U.S. policy in the region starting from their original idea to overthrow the democratic elected government of Iran in the 1950’s and install a monarchist dictatorship in the Shah. Then to give him nuclear technology and reactors.

No spoilers please, I’ll be interested to see how this pans out. Sounds like a good policy so far.

 

[useless]

Last year read...

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Good Mornnig, Midnight - Jean Rhys
The Complete Short Stories - Andrei Bely
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Heart is a Loneley Hunter - Carson McCullers
A Journey Around My Room - Xavier de Maistre
Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
Bartleby, the Scrivener - Herman Melville
Petty Demon - Fyodor Sologub

Edited January 5, 2021 by useless

[A'Villan]

This is on the way in the post. Can't wait to re-read it.

[A'Villan]

Started this a few weeks back:

[SuperTed]

Currently reading Yemen in Crisis by Helen Lackner. Such a complex part of the world which Britain are making worse with its continued sale of arms to the Saudis. 
 

[rjw63]

I don't like Mike Love much, so I waited til his book "Good Vibrations, My Life As  Beach Boy" was two quid.

It's actually a decent read considering he is all about himself. It explained a lot of stuff we as fans knew about in more detail. 

What I was pleased about is that it confirmed his brothers Steve and Stan as a pair of words removed, and Rocky Pamplin as the scab on those words removed.

[Seat68]

7 hours ago, rjw63 said:

I don't like Mike Love much, so I waited til his book "Good Vibrations, My Life As  Beach Boy" was two quid.

It's actually a decent read considering he is all about himself. It explained a lot of stuff we as fans knew about in more detail. 

What I was pleased about is that it confirmed his brothers Steve and Stan as a pair of words removed, and Rocky Pamplin as the scab on those words removed.

Mike Love is a word removed, but its one that I will read at some point as I would like to hear more about the very early days, Pendletones etc. My guess is his memory might be better than Wilsons.  

[Big Salad]

After reading it off and on, struggling with some parts of it, and just frankly almost giving up...Today I finished Tolstoy's 'War and Peace.'  Overall, I can see why it is a classic and still amazes me to think he wrote a book that big with the old way of dipping a pen in ink; I would have went half blind doing that!

Edited January 15, 2021 by Big Salad

[knoppy1987]

On 26/12/2020 at 10:28, Big Salad said:

Best crime fiction series I have ever read are the Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham and the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly.

Reading Billingham's newest 'Cry Baby' right now.Great so far.

I started reading the Tom Thorne series having been without a book travelling in Italy in 2008. I bought Death Message (eventually went back to the first book Sleepyhead as I was out of book order) from the book shop that was on a mezzanine floor in Termini station. I am a few books behind now but they will be read. 

Currently reading The Spotted Sphinx by Joy Adamson. Highly recommended particularly for those attached to animals and wildlife. 

[rjw63]

2 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Mike Love is a word removed, but its one that I will read at some point as I would like to hear more about the very early days, Pendletones etc. My guess is his memory might be better than Wilsons.  

His memory seems absolutely perfect, says a lot for Transcendental Meditation to be fair. The bastard is 80 this year and still doing 150 gigs per annum.

[mjmooney]

2 hours ago, Big Salad said:

After reading it off and on, struggling with some parts of it, and just frankly almost giving up...Today I finished Tolstoy's 'War and Peace.'  Overall, I can see why it is a classic and still amazes me to think he wrote a book that big with the old way of dipping a pen in ink; I would have went half blind doing that!

Been many years since I read it, but I remember enjoying it a lot. It's certainly not as daunting as people often think. I believe it was originally published in serial form, hence it has mostly short chapters, which always makes a long book easier to read. I am considering re-reading it. 

[A'Villan]

On 26/12/2020 at 20:06, mjmooney said:

The Hobbit was always intended as a kids' book. 

I was the other way round. Back in the late 60s/early 70s, LOTR was a real cult read among the counterculture, and I was constantly being urged to read it by friends and 'trendy' schoolteachers. This had the inevitable result that I resisted going near it for years. When I finally gave in and decided to give it a go, I insisted on reading The Hobbit first, as I knew that was the correct 'chronological' sequence. It was OK, but I didn't love it - and it very nearly put me off carrying on with the 'big book'. But I did, and I absolutely loved it. I later read it as a serialised bedtime story to my kids - started with the Hobbit and went straight on to the trilogy. Took months, and they loved it (they read it again themselves when they were older). 

As for the huuuuge fantasy fiction industry that it spawned - nah, not interested in the least. 

The Hobbit was the first proper book I read on my own. I remember being so absorbed in it that I cried at certain stages of the story. Never read LOTR.

[Follyfoot]

On 04/01/2021 at 21:21, A'Villan said:

This is on the way in the post. Can't wait to re-read it.

You do know the bloke who does the foreward’s possible brother killed Pepe don’t you? 
 

Be amazed if anyone gets this

Edited January 15, 2021 by Follyfoot

[tonyh29]

On 26/12/2020 at 00:11, Xela said:

The Hobbit? 

Found it much better to read as opposed to LOTR, which i struggled with for some reason. 

I tried LOTR on my commute to work many years back ... couldn't get into it and gave up ... The fantasy genre just  isn't really my bag rather than a damning indictment of Tolkien ,  though I did complete the Hobbit on my ZX Spectrum 48 

[A'Villan]

2 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

You do know the bloke who does the foreward’s possible brother killed Pepe don’t you? 
 

Be amazed if anyone gets this

Well, as long as you're amused I suppose 

[Follyfoot]

4 minutes ago, A'Villan said:

Well, as long as you're amused I suppose 

fiver to anyone who gets it right 

[A'Villan]

14 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

fiver to anyone who gets it right 

Is this going with the LOTR/Hobbit theme where Bilbo or Frodo (I'm a bit shocked I can't recall which) has a riddle contest with Gollum?

[Follyfoot]

1 minute ago, A'Villan said:

Is this going with the LOTR/Hobbit theme where Bilbo or Frodo (I'm a bit shocked I can't recall which) has a riddle contest with Gollum?

No mate, more oily muscled men in leotards 

[A'Villan]

39 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

No mate, more oily muscled men in leotards 

Well, I think I might leave you to that one and be on my way. 

The only even slightly associated thing I can think of to oily men in leotards is Arnold Schwarzenegger was responsible for laying down the death penalty for Tookie. 

[useless]

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Thomas De Quincey

"I know not whether my reader is aware that many children, perhaps most, have a power of painting, as it were upon the darkness, all sorts of phantoms.  In some that power is simply a mechanical affection of the eye; others have a voluntary or semi-voluntary power to dismiss or to summon them; or, as a child once said to me when I questioned him on this matter, “I can tell them to go, and they go ---, but sometimes they come when I don’t tell them to come.”  Whereupon I told him that he had almost as unlimited a command over apparitions as a Roman centurion over his soldiers"

Edited January 19, 2021 by useless