The books and reading thread

[dtaai-maai]

Thanks lomu, downloading now. Happy, happy - I loved this series 30 years ago and I'm really looking forward to reading it again.

I often use kickass, but for some reason my usual search engine (Torrentz) didn't pick this up. I've bookmarked the site and will check it directly in future.

[handdrummer]

currently I'm reading:
When China Rules the World, Martin Jacques. a well documented treatise.
Thich Nhat Hahn, Anger
Hunter S. Thompson, Letters

[dozer]

Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.

The man who transformed London.

A millionaire, financier, notorious businessman and ex-convict. A very interesting book telling of the story of a self-made man.

http://www.economist.com/news/christmas ... fmetroland

[Dannie Boy]

Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.

The man who transformed London.

A millionaire, financier, notorious businessman and ex-convict. A very interesting book telling of the story of a self-made man.

http://www.economist.com/news/christmas ... fmetroland

What a fascinating character and one that I and I'm sure most Brits have never heard of!!

[dozer]

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free



If you were like me, one of the millions glued to the news reports and wondering, will they make it, then with this book you will learn how they did.

[Allenby]

The refuge of one who uses inappropriate and semantically loaded words is to say it's just word games while denying he is doing the same.

I second that.

- Al

[Allenby]

.
A recommendation for Thailand historical fiction:

Four Reigns by M.R. Kukrit Pramoj

ISBN 978-974-7100-66-2

A classic of modern Thai literature. Paints a moving picture of changes in Thai life and culture, among the upper class, from the end of the 19th century to just after World War II. For those of us living here, the book offers a glimpse “behind the curtain” of Thai culture at a class level most expats will never see.

(Warning: A big-budget musical stage show of the same name was presented in Bangkok last year and may appear again. AVOID! I went to see it. Terrible in many ways from a cloying obsession with the monarch's daily life, to overbearing, pounding music, to homosexual undertones. Don’t confuse the excellent book with the awful musical.)

- Al

[dundrillin]

Recently finished a brilliant book - Shantaram - a true story about an Australian who escaped from prison and ended up working for a mafia in Mumbai.

I would go so far as to say it is the best book I have read.


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I finally got round to reading this book and I'm very glad I did. Some very heavy passages but very well written. Some interesting facts thrown in for good measure such as the origin of the phrase " Bobs your uncle", hadn't heard that before. Hopefully a sequal will follow soon.

[Frank La Rue]

Oh, did I mention The Red Gambit by Collin Gee?

Russia attacks in Germany in June 1945 to drive to the Atlantic.

I have no vested interests, truly, just want to spread the the good word, the West in the end wins by gathering former Waffer SS soldiers under French command (Gerard - take a bow, unless you are appalled associating with them)

This is fiction mirroring fact as the British re-armed Japanese soldiers after their surrender in '45 and deployed them against guerrillas in Malaysia . Strange but true.

Book 5 in THE RED GAMBIT Series is now out - It's called Sacrifice. I had pre-ordered my copy on amazon.co.uk, its going to keep me going through February in wintry Norway. I'll report back when I am done.

[STEVE G]

I admit that this won't be for everyone but I downloaded it on a whim as it was on offer the other day and if you were brought up in the UK surrounded by fifties and sixties housing developments, system built schools and concrete shopping precincts, this book does an excellent job of explaining how it all came about:

Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Post War Britain. John Grindrod

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concretopia-Jou ... 9VTRNRZ25E

It's very readable, it's not a text book for architects!

[dtaai-maai]

Taking a break from a biograhy of Churchill by reading Notes from a Small Country by Bill Bryson.

I read this years ago, but thought it was time to revisit Bryson. I like the way he writes, particularly when he's writing about the British from the perspective of an affectionate outsider. His language is amusing, but quite clever.

Let me give you a couple of recent examples that had me chuckling. On taking a job at a mental hospital in the 70s he writes:

It is an interesting experience to become acquainted with a country through the eyes of the insane, and, if I may say so, a particularly useful grounding for life in Britain.

and around the same time:

... then called in at a pub called the Trottesworth, where I found the ambience so agreeable and the alternative forms of amusement so non-existent that I drank, I confess, an intemperate amount of beer and returned to my new quarters by way of several shrubs and one memorably unyielding lamppost.

[lomuamart]

Funnily enough, I read that for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Had me in stitches in places.

[caller]

I was once an avid reader of Bill Bryson and loved his book on Blighty. A colder approach was taken by Paul Theroux in his trek around Britain's shores. I'm a huge fan of Theroux's travel books and equally of Brysons whimsy. I think I'll revisit both books in the near future.

[pharvey]

^ Big fan of Bill Bryson, but can't say I've ever heard of Theroux - any recommendations?

[caller]

^ Big fan of Bill Bryson, but can't say I've ever heard of Theroux - any recommendations?

So many!

The one I talk of in the above post - The Kingdom By The Sea, then there's The Great Railway Bazaar, Riding The Iron Rooster and more latterly, I particularly enjoyed Dark Star Safari and Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.

More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Theroux