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What are you reading?

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 Tall Clare 02 Oct 2013
You know the routine by now...

Me, I'm reading 'Swim' by Lynn Sherr, which is a very enjoyable history of swimming combined with her tackling the Hellespont swim.

I've got The Sea Inside by Phillip Hoare and A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride lined up for my imminent holiday.

You?
Douglas Griffin 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Gavin Maxwell's 'Harpoon at a Venture', as per:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=564530

Next up: Lesley Riddoch's 'Blossom'.
 Motown 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Touching the Void - more to get it done than a must read.

BUT recently read Birdsong - amazing.
 tony 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Neil Gunn's 'Silver Darlings' - a Scottish classic I've never read before.

Before that it was Nil Gunn's 'The Drinking Well', and next will be Bob Stanley's 'Yeah Yeah Yeah', the story of British pop music.
 PeterM 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Alan Warner's 'The Deadman's Pedal'..finally after many months I've started it..
 BStar 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Andy Kirkpatrick - Psychovertical at the moment, quite an interesting read, very easy reading too.

Next up, I have a couple on my shelf that I havent read, either Andy KP's Cold Wars, Jon Krakauer - Eiger Dreams
 Baron Weasel 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Harold McGee On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

It's good!
 Blue Straggler 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

"What's Going On" by Mark Steel. It is all over the place, needs some brutal editing. Bits of it are clearly lifted from his stand-up routines. It's a bit annoying.

Also starting a rather heavy-going tome about the Hollywood sea-change that occured in the mid-late 1960s. INCREDIBLY detailed - arguably too much so.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/books/review/Shepard-t.html?_r=0
 yorkshireman 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

In Defence of Dogs: Why Dogs Need Our Understanding by John Bradshaw.

Interesting take on why traditional dog training methods are wrong, based as they are on observations of wolves in captivity. The argument being that wolves in the wild live peaceful, family lives, not combative hierarchical packs where dominance is key. It's only when wolves are placed in captivity that they behave that way (being potentially unrelated, not naturally grouped) and therefore the observations derived, and applied to dogs are fundamentally flawed.

Its not a training manual, but instead gives a good historical, biological and cultural background of dogs.

 Only a hill 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
I'm still reading Led Miserables after several months of dipping in and out. When it's good, it's incredible, but bloody hell M. Hugo waffles on and on! At least the sections of barefaced exposition are interesting (of you're interested in the revolutionary history of 1830s France, that is...)

Also just finished reading Auto by David Wailing. It's brilliant and perceptive science fiction exploring the future of social media and the web.
 Only a hill 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
LES Miserables, not Led. Damn you, autocorrect.
 Fredt 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Fantastic. Where's it been all my 60+ years life?
 psaunders 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Fredt: Awesome book, I read it last month and it just flew by. A very entertaining book, even 1200 pages long I almost wished it was longer!
 psaunders 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

- Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon
Undoubtedly the most 'difficult' book I've ever read. Harder than Joyce, Woolf or Faulkner. Not sure if nonsense or genius yet, and I've still got 550 pages left!

- One-Dimensional Man by Marcuse
Very interesting radical philosophy. Although a lot of it seems cliched in a modern context it's still interesting and I'm disappointed there is so little similar, passionate writing published these days.

ccmm 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: The Hunt For Rob Roy - David Stevenson. Well referenced and gets it right up the folk who idolise all things MacGregor. He was a complex individual who lived through interesting times.

I've got The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond lined up next.
Jim C 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: The Age of Wonder-Richard Holmes

 TobyA 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Out-loud (to my son), just finished the last of the Harry Potter books. Now we've just started Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. In my head, by the time I get in bed, I normally manage a couple of articles in the Economist before falling asleep!
 jonnie3430 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Mountaineers Companion by Michael Ward, which is not a patch on "Games Climbers Play," and Flashman and the Tiger, as excellent as the rest of the series.
 The Potato 02 Oct 2013
Under the dome and born to run
andymac 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Englebert Strauss -Colour Worlds 2013.


Sounds quite impressive ? Yes?


It's a workwear catalogue.

It's got pictures in it ,so it's easy to read.
 Mick Ward 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Fredt:

> 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Fantastic.

It's the dog's whatsits, isn't it? The abbe's reading of Dantes' situation, the escape from the Chateau d'If... how could it be better?

I always felt that the real treasure was the turning of Dantes' soul, courtesy of the abbe, that even if he hadn't found the treasure, he would have still got there anyway.

A pity about Mercedes... perhaps an allegory of what happens to young love.

Mick
 hokkyokusei 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

I just finished:

'Scrambles amongst The Alps' by Edward Whymper which was a bit of an eye opener.

'The Martian' by Andy Weir, and author I;d never heard of until recently. I believe it's his first novel and is great, realistic SF.

Currently reading:

'Homeland' by Cory Doctorow, which is the sequel to 'Little Brother', which was OK. I'm mainly reading it because one of my teenage boys is reading and it's good to be able to talk about _something_ with him!

'Starship Century: Toward the Grandest Horizon' edited by James & Gregory Benford. It's a collection of short article and SF stories about how far away we are from actually being able to travel interstellar distances. It's sort of the proceedings from an ad hoc conference organised by DARPA to investigate what needs to happen if humanity needed to build a starship within a one hundred year timescale. You may well ask why DARPA think humanity needs to travel to another star in a hundred years time!

Next up:

'The Death of Grass' by John Christopher
'Antarctica' by Gabrielle Walker
 Mick Ward 02 Oct 2013
In reply to jonnie3430:
>
> Mountaineers Companion by Michael Ward, which is not a patch on "Games Climbers Play,"

In defence of my namesake, a different time, a different place. 'Games' was felicitous; Dicky Swindon told Wilson about 'Mirror Mirror' and the rest is history.

Wilf Noyce did a much better book than Ward, about the same time. The last piece by a (then) young author, Martyn Berry(?) 'The Last Climb'(?) particularly poignant - your first route on Cloggy as an atomic bomb hits Liverpool, breaking the barrier then fatalistically trudging to the summit of Snowdon as the grey ash inexorably drifts towards you. Superb. I read just one other piece from him decades later. What became of his prodigious talent?

And (in Noyce) two then rare female accounts of crashing a then huge barrier (don't laugh; facing death, it was a huge barrier) VS - one real, Gwen Moffat, one fictional, 'whining Cathy from Birkenhead' from Elizabeth Coxhead's iconic 'One Green Bottle'.

At a very young age, I fell in love with 'whining Cathy from Birkenhead'. I wasn't the only one. Part of me is still in love with her.

Mick
 mattrm 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Still on War and Peace. Quite a long way through it this time round.
 wilkie14c 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
not long finished FIVA! by our own Gordon Stainforth, very enjoyable and nostelgic.
halfway through Tick Tock Man <Terence Strong> fiction about bomb disposal / IRA
next up then new Stephan King.
I'm a busy boy
Squarf 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: City by the grey north sea, Fenton Wyness
 wilkie14c 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Only a hill:

> Also just finished reading Auto by David Wailing. It's brilliant and perceptive science fiction exploring the future of social media and the web.

That has tickled my tasebuds, will have to search that out. The wife and I enjoyed one of Ben Eltons novels of the same theme a while back - Blind Faith
 Andrew Wilson 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
Life of PI. Never saw the film, quite enjoying the book. It tickles me how the lethal Bengal tiger He shares a boat with is called Richard Parker and is always referred to as such in full.
In reply to mattrm:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
> Still on War and Peace. Quite a long way through it this time round.

Ha - same here.
 Rubbishy 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

It's All About the Bike by Sean Yates. Very good for a bike book.

I read the Rob Hayles one which was ok.

i tried starting the hugh Dennis Britty Britty Bang Bang but it is utterly turgid. He is such a self regarding tw*t. The factual stuff is interesting, but he comes across like a dad at a teenage party. No, you're not funny Hugh, you're another wanker from Radio 4 comedy (if ever there was an oxymoron).

Stuart Maconie writes much better and still get the facts across.

oh, and the usual stuff about the middle east, Islam and I try a page a day of some random Chomsky i can't quite recall the name of but I am ether too thick to understand it or he really does write like 1980's hifi instructions.

I suspect it's me being thick
 Blue Straggler 02 Oct 2013
In reply to John Rushby:
> another wanker from Radio 4 comedy (if ever there was an oxymoron).
>

Oxymoron, or tautology?
 Yanis Nayu 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Brothers Karamazov, which I've temporarily ditched while in On holiday for Donna Tartt's The Little Friend (after reading The Secret History on your recommendation)
 Blue Straggler 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Submit to Gravity:
> Donna Tartt's The Little Friend

That's a well acknowledged opinion-divider! It's the Marmite of second novels!
OP Tall Clare 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Submit to Gravity

I couldn't get on with the Little Friend but I'm very much looking forward to her new book, The Goldfinch, which comes out later this month.
Douglas Griffin 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Submit to Gravity:

Have you read 'Life and Fate' by Vassily Grossman? Reckon a fellow Russophile such as yourself might enjoy it.
 Mike C 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
After The Secret History (a best ever read) I think I gave up inside two chapters some years ago on The Little Friend, would be keen to hear your impressions of her latest.
To answer your op, currently reading World War Z, not my normal read but finding it quite fascinating.
Off thread, congrats from me & L on your upcoming event!
M.
 Rubbishy 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Blue Straggler:
> (In reply to John Rushby)
> [...]
>
> Oxymoron, or tautology?

Depends on your use and application of tautology
 redpointillist 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: just finished Two People, AA Milne's adult novel - lovely delicate little period piece about a man trying not to fall out of love with his wife.
Gave up on Lionel Shriver's The New Republic - great idea but turgid execution.
Just off to start some Evelyn Waugh to keep my son company with his A level English
Where's the holiday?
 Padraig 02 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

It's my time by Brad Wiggins &
Who killed my son by Christine lord. This book is about a guy who died from CJD (How spooky is that? ) Mrs P said I needed to read it and it's an awesome read! The cover-up of CJD is FRIGHTENING!
 Strachan 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
The Climb - Anatoli Boukreev. Very different from into thin air. And really sad knowing he died in 1997, but interesting.
Removed User 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Just finished "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed which was a little beter than you might at first think.

Now on 419 but not sure yet if its any good.
 Siward 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Removed User:

Birdsong- really very good despite my reservations about it being 'just another' WW1 book.

The Hydrogen Sonata- half way through. Another Iain M. Banks Culture novel (his last?). IP to the usual standard.

The return of John McNab- Andrew Greig, which is a good Scottish yarn.

And do you ever find that whilst one has read a book or books recently one has major trouble remembering what on earth they were!?

paulcarey 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

The shining - Stephen King

Wasn't expecting to enjoy half as much as i am.!
In reply to Tall Clare: Sovereign, it's crap, I don't think I'll finish it. After two years of fictional ecstasy I put down the final book in the Aubrey/Martin series by Patrick O'Brian recently. Now every book seems crap... My life feels empty
 soularch 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Andy Cave - Learning to Breathe. Good Bio.
 graeme jackson 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
Nearly finished Stephen Donaldson's 'Fatal revenant', Book 2 in the 'final' chronicles of thomas covenant the unbeliever. Then it'll be on to 'Against all things ending' which I should be finished just in time for the final book 'The last Dark' which is due to be delivered on 22nd October.
 ripper 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Recently finished 1974 by David Peace and just a couple of pages into 1977. Certainly an antidote to the rose-tinted view of the 70s presented by Life On Mars...
andic 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Daily mail
 Phil1919 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: The Arab Uprisings by Jeremy Bowen. Finally getting to understand a bit more about this part of the world which I knew as a youngster was unstable but didn't know why.
 dr_botnik 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: I'm partway through Bukowski's Post Office, a book about an alcoholic working a shit job to get me through my own occasional binges; and my shit job.
 mchardski 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

recently finished Anna Karenina; dull as 8ck and long, and lacking any likeable characters. Startling good when it comes to capturing the disagreements and misunderstandings that occur between a man and a woman though.

Recently finished Pompeii by Richard Harris : Ace page turner thriller set in the 4 days around the eruption. Wicked visualization of the eruption.

Reading: Challenged by Carbon by Prof Bryan Lovell. V. Interesting so far.

next on List: Huckleberry Finn (read Tom Sawyer and loved it a few weeks ago), Planet Ponzi, and Let my people go surfing (Yvon Choinard), and maybe some more Hemingway cos I enjoyed 'For whom the bell tolls'.

Thanks for the tip on The Count of Monte Christo, I had been considering it but was scared of getting into another really long boring slog!
OP Tall Clare 03 Oct 2013
In reply to ripper:

1974 was *brutal*!
 dougyt26 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Heinrich Harrers the White Spider for the first time I am half way throw.
OP Tall Clare 03 Oct 2013
In reply to paulcarey:

I think that's an underrated book - it's one of the two Stephen Kings I hung onto when I cleared out the rest. (The other is Carrie.)
OP Tall Clare 03 Oct 2013
In reply to redpointillist:

> Where's the holiday?

A week in Torridon. Very much looking forward to it.

 jonnie3430 03 Oct 2013
In reply to mchardski:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
> Thanks for the tip on The Count of Monte Christo, I had been considering it but was scared of getting into another really long boring slog!

If you haven't tried Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding, I suggest you have a look as it was great to see how the sense of humour in the 1750s was similar to today. I also read Vanity Fair recently and was surprised to see that it was a quite amusing piss take, expecting it to be more serious along the Austen or Hardy line.
 Motown 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Fredt: Brilliant value for book.
Tim Chappell 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:


Dante Alighieri: Il Paradiso, Canto XXII--a masterpiece

Rudyard Kipling: The Man Who Would Be King--a ripping yarn

Robert Service: Trotsky--though I am flagging with this: I've got a little bored, because I've just read Service's Lenin and Stalin books, and there's a lot of overlap; these murderous commie fanatics get a bit samey in the end

Oh, and the other day I nipped through John Bayley's memoir of Iris Murdoch. What a strange pair they were.
 Dr.S at work 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
The little grey men
By BB
 ripper 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: 1977 has already started well - the protagonist is the 'good' cop from '74. Good in this sense is relative, of course - he's still not averse to a bit of casual violence, racism and exploitation of local prostitutes...
 goose299 03 Oct 2013
In reply to owena:
> Under the dome

Same. Just out of interest, have you started it because of the series?

 Rubbishy 03 Oct 2013
In reply to Phil1919:
> (In reply to Tall Clare) The Arab Uprisings by Jeremy Bowen. Finally getting to understand a bit more about this part of the world which I knew as a youngster was unstable but didn't know why.

I found it a very readable and interesting book, in fact, it's sitting on my desk as I type as a colleague wants to read it.

Have you read his book onthe Six Day War - it's excellent, not just in the Tom Clancy style battle itself, but the history and what led up to it, especailly the proxy influence of the US and USSR, Arab policy and the disc0onnect between Egypt and it's allies.
 graeme jackson 03 Oct 2013
In reply to mchardski:
>
> next on List: Huckleberry Finn (read Tom Sawyer and loved it a few weeks ago),

exactly a year ago (oct 3rd) I was in Mark twain's house in Hartford CT. pretty impressive building. Also pretty impressive was the tale of how he pissed away his fortune on the wrong printing press.
Removed User 04 Oct 2013
In reply to mchardski:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
>
> next on List: Huckleberry Finn (read Tom Sawyer and loved it a few weeks ago),

Huckleberry Finn is a better book imho, it deals with more serious issues and is more "adult" in feel.
Removed User 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Siward:
> (In reply to Minneconjou Sioux)
>
> Birdsong- really very good despite my reservations about it being 'just another' WW1 book.

Excellent book which has an exceptionally graphic sex scene in it which still stands out in my mind as slightly out of place.

> > The return of John McNab- Andrew Greig, which is a good Scottish yarn.
>

Another good 'un. I like Greig as an author of some quite intriguing work.
 Dave Garnett 04 Oct 2013
In reply to TobyA:
> (In reply to Tall Clare) Out-loud (to my son), just finished the last of the Harry Potter books. Now we've just started Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. In my head, by the time I get in bed, I normally manage a couple of articles in the Economist before falling asleep!

It's a rite of parenthood! You have to do the voices, obviously. When you've finished His Dark Materials, the Artemis Fowl books are light relief, as long as your Irish accents are up to it.
 Dave Garnett 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Siward:
> (In reply to Minneconjou Sioux)
>
> Birdsong- really very good despite my reservations about it being 'just another' WW1 book.
>
> The Hydrogen Sonata- half way through. Another Iain M. Banks Culture novel (his last?). IP to the usual standard.
>

I'm just taking my time with The Quarry, knowing that there are no more where that came from. I really liked Stonemouth too, which I'd saved until recently.
 Kimono 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Dave Garnett:
Just finished both the Quarry and Stonemouth and im afraid that i found the Quarry a bit of a disappointment. Not that SM was his finest moment but at least had deeper characters and a bit more of a story.
That said, even a 'bad' Iain Banks is still very readable...i shall miss him.

Was etting going with Marina Lewyska's new book but seem to have ground to a halt...just seems a bit silly and uninteresting.

Heading to the library now to reload
 Dave Garnett 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Kimono:

I guess I'd choose The Steep Approach to Garbadale and (inevitably) The Crow Road as his best of his 'straight' fiction (although I like Complicity too). For the scifi, I liked Hydrogen Sonata but my absolute favourite is Surface Detail - great characters, huge story, very clever but believable technology.

 Kimono 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Dave Garnett:
Yeah, i enjoyed the Steep Approach though it was a bit panned by other readers, one even memorably renaming it: The Steep Descent into Garbage!

Espedair St also a fave of mine
 waterbaby 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

I'm about to start World war Z. I read all my son's Hunger games books,whilst
on holiday. Nice easy reading and good books.
 StuMsg 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Great Expectations, what a book!
tototv 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Fantastic reading even if you don't know much about scuba diving and world war 2 U-boat history!

 dunc56 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: The Daily Mail !!!!!
 Bulls Crack 04 Oct 2013
In reply to StuMsg:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
> Great Expectations, what a book!

It certainly is - I've never been so suprised by an ending
In reply to Tall Clare:

I'm half way through Infinite Jest, so for a little light relief I'm just whizzing through the 2nd Game of Thrones book, which is compelling, but certainly no literary masterpiece.
 Fredt 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Mick Ward:
> (In reply to Fredt)
>
> [...]
>
> It's the dog's whatsits, isn't it? The abbe's reading of Dantes' situation, the escape from the Chateau d'If... how could it be better?
>
> I always felt that the real treasure was the turning of Dantes' soul, courtesy of the abbe, that even if he hadn't found the treasure, he would have still got there anyway.
>
> A pity about Mercedes... perhaps an allegory of what happens to young love.
>
> Mick


Please!!! No spoilers!!!!

 Flinticus 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
Reading, to varying degrees of activity:

Life and Limb by Jamie Andrew: got the final chapters to read
Fevre Dream by Geore RR Martin (GoT author): last chapter to read
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster: bought at Pitlochry train station book shop for £1 while waiting for the train to Glasgow last Sunday: great captivating read. In my head, that is where I am.
 Fraser 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

In order of completeness:

'Down and Out in Paris and London' - George Orwell
'The Haunted Hotel' - Wilkie Collins
'Phantom' - Jo Nesbo
 wercat 04 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Just catching up on something I somehow missed for decades. The Father Brown stories.
 steveriley 04 Oct 2013
Just finished the Johnny Dawes bio, after bumping into him in a little quarry and him selling me a copy! Back on the Wallander Scandi-thriller again tonight.
mgco3 05 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Bought myself a kindle over a year ago. And with the ability to download thousands of free books from T'interweb I have read more books this year than I have in all the previous 50 or so years of reading. Check out the Gutenberg Project if you have an e book reader of any sort.

Last books worthy worthy of note :-

James Michener - The Source
Billy Crystal - 700 Sundays
James Patterson -- Any of the Alex Cross Series Books

Lots of stuff from NASA available too. In depth stuff about the Space Race
 pneame 05 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

William Manchester's biography of Churchill "The Last Lion" (3 LARGE volumes).
A riveting history of the UK from prior to cars and aeroplanes to the time of atomic war. I'm nearly finished - reads like a thriller even though you know how it is going to turn out
 Yanis Nayu 12 Oct 2013
In reply to Douglas Griffin:
> (In reply to Submit to Gravity)
>
> Have you read 'Life and Fate' by Vassily Grossman? Reckon a fellow Russophile such as yourself might enjoy it.

Just bought it - thanks)
 JamButty 12 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: I've been on a roll the last few months. Got both 7 Deadly Sins and The Secret Race (TdFrance doping stuff). Only took one on hols so started on the wifes Kindle with Frankenstein and Dracula, both of which I've never read, and were excellent particularly Frank which surprised me.
Recently finished off with the 7 Deadlys, so had a great few months reading.

 Mikkel 12 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: the up coming Enders Game movie got me reading Speaker of the dead
 Jonny2vests 12 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

John Derbyshire's Prime Obsession. Its about the Riemanm Hypothesis, the biggest unsolved mystery in mathematics.
 Dr.S at work 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
OS landranger 42
 frost 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson and Is There Anything Good About Men by Roy Baumeister.
 Chambers 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: The latest Lee Child offering. Just like the last one.

Harlan Coben's 'Caught'.

'The Rock Warrior's Way'. For the umpteenth time. Still don't get it!

'Das Kapital'. Always.

Will Self's 'Umbrella'. Impenetrable.

'Cataclysmic Variable Stars' No Comment, as yet.

'Fomenting a global revolution from the inner reaches of the number eleven bus route' by DaMightyGuruYoghourt. (I should mention that I'm not so much reading that as writing it.)



 dale1968 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: The Age of Athelstan, Paul Hill
In reply to Tall Clare: Electric Brae by Andrew Grieg (superb Scottish fiction with a climbing link); Waterlog: a swimmer's journey through Britain (wonderful nature/travel writing); A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin (an epic yarn).
 ben b 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare: Just finished 2 books involving long distance walking, by chance.

Firstly "Wild", by Cheryl Strayed. Kind of enjoyed it but I wanted to hear more about the trail and less about her libido, which makes me irritated with myself for being a prude; and by contrast Simon Armitage's "Walking Home", which made me want to go on a multi-day walk far more than "Wild" ever did, plus he has a just beautiful way of expressing the mundane. Maybe I just relate to the Pennine landscape more than the PCT. As a pair they contrast "English" and "American" a little too much - sex, drugs & rock'n'roll vs poetry readings at Youth Hostels.

Just starting a master's thesis on biomarkers of pulmonary arterial hypertension (worthy but dull) and a guilty side helping of Richard Askwith's "The Lost Village" for when it gets too technical and I can face no more. Mrs B is ploughing through Bill Bryson's new one as light relief from the worthy literature she usually consumes, but Lawrence Norfolk's "John Saturnall's Feast", Emily Perkins' "The Forrests", and Alice Munro's "View from Castle Rock" seemed to get lapped up pretty fast.

Enjoy Torridon! Would love to get back up that way again one day. Magnificent walking and climbing, and many happy memories.

b
 Al Evans 13 Oct 2013
In reply to tony:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
', and next will be Bob Stanley's 'Yeah Yeah Yeah', the story of British pop music.

Interestingly he was interviewed about this on TRE the ex pats station in Spain yesterday
 Al Evans 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Chambers:
> (In reply to Tall Clare) The latest Lee Child offering. Just like the last one.

I used to work with Lee Child (not his real name), in fact I was deputy shop steward when he was shop steward, but his last book I got hold of out here was 61 Hours, which never really finished, has he done a follow up?
 Bulls Crack 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

rather belatedly: Amsterdam Ian McEwan
 Tom Valentine 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tim Chappell:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
>
>
>
> Rudyard Kipling: The Man Who Would Be King--a ripping yarn
>

I'm always surprised that they were able to make such a magnificent film from such a slight story.
Glad that they did, though - it doesn't get much better.

 BelleVedere 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

No Idea - because i'm intrigued by the common weal, and it's written by a guy involved with that.
House of Holes - yes it's smut
Northern Highlands North - mostly the caithness chapter.
The Heart Broke in by James Meek. - But only in the first pages


 Blizzard 13 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

The Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England, an unexpectly enjoyable voyage by Ian Mortimer. I'm not into history but would recommend this one..
Removed User 13 Oct 2013
In reply to BelleVedere:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
> > Northern Highlands North - mostly the caithness chapter.
>


I think for the most part it is out of date now. I know that there were a considerable number of routes put up after the NHN was published unless there has been an update.
 Rubbishy 14 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

I am reading a really esoteric novel involving Byzantine lesbian poetry that make me feel smug and intelektuewall


and also the washing instructions on your underwear.


you need to lock your door more often.
 mikehike 14 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

ENDURANCE The Greatest Adventure Story Ever Told by Alfred Lansing

An epic survival against the odds, im now going to be telling fellows to get a copy.

 Blue Straggler 14 Oct 2013
In reply to paulcarey:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
> The shining - Stephen King
>


He's just done a sequel, with Danny as a troubled adult using his abilities to help solve crimes or something. I read a begrudgingly positive review of it.
 Bobling 14 Oct 2013
In reply to shaun l:
> (In reply to Tall Clare) After two years of fictional ecstasy I put down the final book in the Aubrey/Martin series by Patrick O'Brian recently. Now every book seems crap... My life feels empty

Don't despair! It is better the second time around. Also check out the Golden Ocean and the other one that is O'Brian but not Aubrey/Maturin as they provide a similar hit.

At the moment I am reading:
Salem's Lot - Stephen King, enjoying it and am almost at the end of a long series of Stephen Kinds inspired by a previous thread and by also having them all on kindle from a friend. I'm a bit over New England, small town America, Micmac Indians and booze though.

The Burgess Book of Lies - good but have run out of steam, somehow.

Salvation's Reach - Dan Abnett. 40k pulp fiction, also this series the second time around.

Chalky - author forgotten and it is not at hand. An off-beat 70s fictionalisation of an orphan who joins the army set in mid 1800s. Interesting and distressing so far with a very 70s lack of political correctness.

Rock Climbing - Steve Ashton, reading this one before the club library moves on to someone else. Good fun if a little dated.

Next up on kindle is the Count of Monte Cristo which I am looking forward to immensely - it gets referenced so much (though I can't now remember where)

Hmmm, maybe I should go to bed and try and finish one of them so I can get the list down!
 JMarkW 15 Oct 2013
In reply to Bobling:
> (In reply to shaun l)
> [...]
> > Next up on kindle is the Count of Monte Cristo which I am looking forward to immensely - it gets referenced so much (though I can't now remember where)

Probably the best book I have ever read.
enjoy

cheers
mark
 Yanis Nayu 25 Oct 2013
In reply to Douglas Griffin:
> (In reply to Submit to Gravity)
>
> Have you read 'Life and Fate' by Vassily Grossman? Reckon a fellow Russophile such as yourself might enjoy it.

I am! Cheers!
drmarten 25 Oct 2013
'Edith Sitwell : Avant garde poet, English genius' by Richard Greene. I'm nearing the end and will then change style slightly by reading 'Nineteen Seventy Four' by David Peace or 'Spend, Spend, Spend' by Vivian Nicholson.
 ripper 25 Oct 2013
In reply to drmarten: I've recently finished 1974 and 1977. prepare for the darkness...
drmarten 25 Oct 2013
In reply to ripper:
I've read a similar comment upthread, I'm intrigued and looking forward to it.
 Mooncat 25 Oct 2013
In reply to ripper:

Read the first 3 in the last couple of months, trying to pluck up the courage to read 1983 now. Not what I'd call happy little tales and not very likeable characters.
 coinneach 25 Oct 2013
In reply to Mooncat:

Just finished a Michael Connolly.......................

my 12 year old has just gone to bed ( of his own accord ) with Fellowship Of The Ring on his kindle!
 pneame 25 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:
As a result of the fabulous UKC "what are you reading" threads or similar - Fatal Passage by Ken McGoogan - John Rae's biography. Really makes you admire these explorers. Astonishing
Great book. Thanks to whoever recommended it
 The New NickB 25 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

I've not been doing very well with my pile of works this year, just started Gordon's Fiva, I've only had it 11 months. The prizes and excellent reviews seem deserved so far.
 The New NickB 25 Oct 2013
In reply to The New NickB:

Just finished "The Secret Race" by Tyler Hamilton. A very good, but quite disturbing read.
 lowersharpnose 25 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Confessions of a Philosopher: A Journey Through Western Philosophy
Bryan Magee

I started off liking this a lot and after five hundred pages want it to stop. Magee comes over as a smug, name-dropping Kant. And he really goes for Kant, rating his philosophical insights way above anyone else for the last millennium or two (science included as well as science).

I think he is telling me that Kant's great insight is that there is more to reality than we can ever know because we are limited by our sensory apparatus (I think he included our brains here) and there *is* more to reality than that.

I don't get at all why he is so hung up on this.
 Rubbishy 26 Oct 2013
In reply to Tall Clare:

Three on the go

Simon Garfield's On The Map, a present from the Hobbits. A really low key and absorbing book. Some fascinating history and he writes very well.

Just started Catastrophe by Max Hastings. So far it is proving readable but he has a view. That said, it is yet another book to do bunk the liberal Blackadder Oh What A Lovely War rubbish. It's stands up well to Fischer,Strachan and Gary Sheffield in actually doing the research not relying on lazily accepted folklore.

And finally,A Higher Call, awritten in a slightly pulp fashion but very well researched about a German fighter pilot and US bomber pilot in WW2, who in course meet as the German saves the wrecked bomber by escorting it home. It works well as a story of humanity but also presents a real first person account of the airwar.
 pneame 26 Oct 2013
In reply to John Rushby:
> (In reply to Tall Clare)
>
> Just started Catastrophe by Max Hastings. So far it is proving readable but he has a view. That said, it is yet another book to do bunk the liberal Blackadder Oh What A Lovely War rubbish. It's stands up well to Fischer,Strachan and Gary Sheffield in actually doing the research not relying on lazily accepted folklore.

May have to add that to my list - I'm currently slowly working my way through Mud, Blood and Poppycock which (perhaps you?) recommended on here as an antidote for the "lions led by donkeys". One would like to think all that couldn't happen again, but that's what they thought at the end of it. It does have a sort of morbid fascination

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