Between The Wheels

Prompted by discussion of The Ipcress File, I've been on Amazon and bought a Len Deighton novel for my Kindle, Horse Under Water. I've added the Audible narration for £8 so will listen to it while cycling.

About 20 years ago I read Deighton's XPD, about a coverup of a secret meeting between Churchill and Hitler during the Second World War. Very good and this one seems to be in a similar vein - albeit that one wasn't a Harry Palmer story. Horse Under Water was the sequel to The Ipcress File and does feature Palmer.

I watch the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice a couple of weekends ago and thought it was wrong so I went looking for the book to reread and we don't have it so I have just bought a 1964 folio edition. Looking forward to starting it.

I have also bought in the last week

The Enchanted April Elizabeth Von Arnim
The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey
Birdsong Sebastian Faulkes

The mrs gave me Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club to read .. made a start a few days ago

I tend to buy a couple of books at a time from charity shops. Not a great choice often but now and again a gem turns up.

I got two books for Christmas; the Dave Grohl (sort of) autobiography/journal, and Billy Connolly's autobiography. I haven't started the BC one yet, but devoured the DG one in about a week - a really great read.

just bought 1st edition of Silmarillion, it even has the map in the back. £5 from severn hospice.

Quote from: Hugh on March 19, 2022, 10:50:07 PM

Quote from: Neillwith2Ls on March 09, 2022, 09:40:56 PMI got two books for Christmas; the Dave Grohl (sort of) autobiography/journal, and Billy Connolly's autobiography. I haven't started the BC one yet, but devoured the DG one in about a week - a really great read.

Does DG's book tell the tale of his lost wallet? It would be worth the cover price for that story alone.

It sure does, most amusing!  ;D

Started reading Pride and Prejudice.

I'm about two thirds of the way through a doorstop of a book I bought from a charity shop recently.

The Children Of Ash And Elm - A History Of The Vikings by Neil Price.

Quote from: Fishy on March 08, 2022, 12:23:13 PMThe mrs gave me Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club to read .. made a start a few days ago

Read the first one   onto the second,  seemingly Spielberg has bought the rights to make a film of it.  Osman will be loaded

Quote from: Blastzone on April 22, 2022, 10:40:55 AM

Quote from: Fishy on March 08, 2022, 12:23:13 PMThe mrs gave me Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club to read .. made a start a few days ago

Read the first one   onto the second,  seemingly Spielberg has bought the rights to make a film of it.  Osman will be loaded

He's packing in Pointless to concentrate on his books I think or to count all his money....

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. The movie was loosely based on this. Unlike the film though, the book is very good. It's written by using an interview technique where each interviewee recounts their own story from all over the world. The idea that Israel build a massive wall (as seen in the movie) is also part of the book.

Just received a book on my club - a collection of columns and musing by a fellow Feyenoord fan and writer. Dutch title: "Hoop is uitgestelde teleurstelling". This would translate loosley to:"Hope is extended disappointment". If you know a little on the club you'd know this is a very apt title.

Also have some Dutch literature lying around waiting to be read and "To Paradise" by Hanya Yanigohara. 

Following my hospital visit, the following are due to arrive shortly

Eat your way to Lower Cholesterol

Man Food (the no nonsense guide to improving your health and energy in your 40s and beyond)

The Whole Heart Solution

Just finished the book my daughter bought me for my birthday last month.
The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glamour-Boys-Secret-Rebels-Britain/dp/1526601737/
you can tell he was a journalist and MP. Nice light read through the social history of England's toffs between the wars that they don't teach you at school with a nice anti-appeasement twist

Quote from: pdw1 on April 22, 2022, 10:14:18 PMJust finished the book my daughter bought me for my birthday last month.
The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glamour-Boys-Secret-Rebels-Britain/dp/1526601737/
you can tell he was a journalist and MP. Nice light read through the social history of England's toffs between the wars that they don't teach you at school with a nice anti-appeasement twist

I once read a Captain Underpants book  :)

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on April 23, 2022, 12:07:17 AM

Quote from: pdw1 on April 22, 2022, 10:14:18 PMJust finished the book my daughter bought me for my birthday last month.
The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glamour-Boys-Secret-Rebels-Britain/dp/1526601737/
you can tell he was a journalist and MP. Nice light read through the social history of England's toffs between the wars that they don't teach you at school with a nice anti-appeasement twist

I once read a Captain Underpants book  :)

well done: culture reaches the north at last.

Quote from: pdw1 on April 23, 2022, 08:42:57 AM

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on April 23, 2022, 12:07:17 AM

Quote from: pdw1 on April 22, 2022, 10:14:18 PMJust finished the book my daughter bought me for my birthday last month.
The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glamour-Boys-Secret-Rebels-Britain/dp/1526601737/
you can tell he was a journalist and MP. Nice light read through the social history of England's toffs between the wars that they don't teach you at school with a nice anti-appeasement twist

I once read a Captain Underpants book  :)

well done: culture reaches the north at last.

No. We've not got Yoghurt yet.

I've just finished a book I bought a few months ago, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

It's a mind-bendingly imaginative work, but not very coherent. Difficult to follow because you can never be sure whether the events described are taking place in a hallucination induced by the futuristic drugs taken by the characters. You get the impression that Dick is indulging his own bonkers religious philosophical mindset (he believed that the universe was an unreal projection, and suffered what he believed to be paranormal experiences). The book doesn't really conclude, it just dies.

I would recommend his short stories, though. But in his longer pieces he seems sometimes to be indulging a sort of stream of semi-delusional consciousness and they don't really go anywhere. Even Man in the High Castle, which is admittedly a brilliant book in some ways (and much more coherent than Palmer Eldritch), just sort of peters out at the end.

I finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War last night. I can confidently say it's the first book I've read where I want to read it straight away again. It's well written, but it's the format that makes it so appealing. I will reread it but I've been itching to start Steven Wilson's new book: Limited Edition of One so I've just got through the first chapter of that. Good it is too and I'm impressed that in the first few pages he mentions that the other PT musicians are better players than him.

Radio Life by Derek B Miller
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/radio-life

A really good dystopian story set in the future 400 odd years from now and 300 years after civilisation collapsed. He builds great characters and a strong plot.

Just started the 7th Reacher novel, Persuader. Interestingly the first since the debut novel to be written in the first person.

We join Jack on some sort of close protection operation. And when an attempted kidnapping goes down, he mistakenly takes out a cop as well as the bad guys.

"I'd learned long ago that it was easy enough to shoot a man. But there's absolutely no way to unshoot one".

The War On The West by Douglas Murray.

£10 for the hardcover from Amazon. Bargain.

Quote from: Matt2112 on May 29, 2022, 10:43:50 PMThe War On The West by Douglas Murray.

£10 for the hardcover from Amazon. Bargain.

I've heard about that one - intrigued

Quote from: Matt2112 on May 29, 2022, 10:43:50 PMThe War On The West by Douglas Murray.

£10 for the hardcover from Amazon. Bargain.

I read a few reviews on Amazon last night, they range from "encourages hate crimes and white supremacist terrorism" to "another fantastic work from our most important writer".

I did think about buying the Kindle version last night at £7.99, annoyingly ten hours later it's £9.99. I'll keep an eye on it.

Just bought The Madness Of Crowds by the same author, about the scourge of identity politics. Only £5.89. I identify as tight.

Quote from: Slim on May 30, 2022, 09:17:57 AMI read a few reviews on Amazon last night, they range from "encourages hate crimes and white supremacist terrorism" to "another fantastic work from our most important writer".

Reading through the first chapter, "Race" - unsurprisingly, it confirms to me that first take is simply deranged.

Electric Wizards - JR Moores.
A real tour of heavy music in general, not just heavy metal, with a lot of bands usually not featured prominently.

Ah, I see the subtitle is 'a tapestry of heavy music 1968 to the present'. First chapter starts with how Paul McCartney sort of single handedly invented heavy music by writing Helter Skelter. Not sure about that, but it's a good starting point.

Quote from: Thenop on June 01, 2022, 07:05:11 PMAh, I see the subtitle is 'a tapestry of heavy music 1968 to the present'. First chapter starts with how Paul McCartney sort of single handedly invented heavy music by writing Helter Skelter. Not sure about that, but it's a good starting point.

Hmm, I'm not sure about that either. You Really Got Me by The Kinks pre-dates McCartney's effort by four years!

Finished Steven Wilson's book: Limited Edition of One last night. Quite a good read. The first half was excellent, but the second half became a bit rambling and I could have done without some odd short story at the end. 7/10

Quote from: pxr5 on June 06, 2022, 07:24:08 PMFinished Steven Wilson's book: Limited Edition of One last night. Quite a good read. The first half was excellent, but the second half became a bit rambling and I could have done without some odd short story at the end. 7/10

thanks for reminding me, have it lying around as well. Must get round to reading it.

Starting to store books on the Kindle for holiday reads later this month :-

Andy Weir - Atremis
Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary
Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice

and an actual book in The Blood Road by Stuart McBride

reading- Expendable Man - Dorothy B Hughs

A 1960s book set in Arizona about the disappearance of a girl. Very much a page turner very noir

Finished The War On The West by Douglas Murray.

A typically astute and insightful commentary of our times.

Next: will re-try his The Strange Death Of Europe, which I only partially got through when it came out, but it seems an even more important read now than it did then.

Just began The Moonflower murders by Anthony Horowitz

Michel Houellebecq - Seratonin.

They say he is brilliant, I am really bored. But I have decided to finish it.

A couple of years ago I had a mild resurgence of interest in Genesis, probably prompted - now I think about it - by Steve Hackett's lockdown videos.

I remembered an album called Smallcreep's Day by Mike Rutherford, and did a bit of reading about it. What I didn't know when it came out in 1979 was that it was based on a book of the same name that had been published 14 years earlier. I bought it out of interest, but only got round to reading it this weekend. I'm about 15% of the way through.

Really an extraordinary book. Surreal, bizarre, grotesque. Seems to be a sort of depiction of a man's worst fears about working in a factory, or a grim satire on working life itself.

The Apprentice - Gordon Houghton on which the Frost* song Milliontown is loosely based upon. The author has commented on it in the Frost* forum back in 2011:

http://frostmusic.net/forum/index.php?topic=2726.0

No, but I borrowed one! 'Are we still rolling?' by Phill Brown.

Phill was a studio engineer who began his career in the '60s. Until I started reading it, I had no idea that he got his break in the business from his older brother, Terry Brown! Terry has got lots of mentions in the early chapters. Terry left the UK to set up Toronto Sound and at one point Phill worked over there with Terry for a while.
It's a great read so far but no mention of big brother Terry's stirling work with Toronto's finest.....yet

Started reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

Just bought- The Four Wise Men by Michel Tournier, who is a brilliant French writer

Read Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson.
I watched the TV adaption years ago (I think it is on the iplayer) and the book is equally good.

Stephen King Everything's Eventual

Finally finished The Strange Death Of Europe by Douglas Murray.

As an explainer of the migrant situation in Europe (and beyond) it's an engrossing and enlightening read; however, any optimism about how it might be improved significantly is rather dashed by the end, when Murray simply seems to conclude he's as exasperated with things as everybody else. Which, in fairness, is understandable.

Quote from: David L on July 17, 2022, 07:08:41 PMNo, but I borrowed one! 'Are we still rolling?' by Phill Brown.

Phill was a studio engineer who began his career in the '60s. Until I started reading it, I had no idea that he got his break in the business from his older brother, Terry Brown! Terry has got lots of mentions in the early chapters. Terry left the UK to set up Toronto Sound and at one point Phill worked over there with Terry for a while.
It's a great read so far but no mention of big brother Terry's stirling work with Toronto's finest.....yet

Just finished this tonight. To be honest, I got bored with it so put it to one side for a couple of months. The format is a little repetitive as Phill takes you through his various projects and the recording set ups, mic positioning etc.
Rush did get a mention. On a trip to Canada in 1980, Phill visits Terry at Le Studio "where he was recording another record with Rush. He'd produced six platinum albums with the band". I'm guessing it was MP.
The book has re-awakened a nascent interest in Talk Talk with whom Phill worked on their Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock albums. Mark Hollis and Phill became close but ultimately fell out over a later project.
I listened to what many would consider to be the band's three best works tonight. The Colour Of Spring is the most accessible, Spirit Of Eden is growing on me but Laughing Stock may be an experiment too far....at the moment anyway!

I'd say It's My Life is the most accessible Talk Talk album.

Laughing Stock is a mood record but I think it's a gem. So uncompromising and intense, in an introspective sort of way. I think there's an influence from the later Miles Davis recordings. I only discovered it after Mark Hollis died

Quote from: Slim on September 30, 2022, 12:30:16 PMI'd say It's My Life is the most accessible Talk Talk album.

That may be so but I don't find it to be revered in the same way as the three I mentioned. Perhaps I should have started there and worked gradually towards Laughing Stock

Purchased the Spirit of Talk Talk some 3 years ago. Great book with lots of interviews, insights in their studio work and alternative art.
Lovely companion piece to the tribute of the same name with great artists giving their interpretation of Talk Talks catalogue.

I recommend both (book and CD) if you ever come across them.

I've just finished Stephen King's Danse Macabre - a Non-fiction book about horror fiction in print, TV, radio, film and comics. Some of the books he mentions in it sounded intriguing (though SK's book was written in the 80s so well out of date now), so I'm going to try a few. I've started with Ramsey Campbell's - The Doll Who Ate His Mother from 1976. I've read a lot of books over the years and only 2 I gave up on: one was a Ramsey Campbell novel (can't remember which one) and the other Gorky Park. I do recall the Ramsey Campbell one being dull, but this one I'm reading now seems pretty good after a few chapters.

Just bought the entire works of George Orwell, "Novels, Memoirs, Poetry, Essays, Book Reviews & Articles" as a Kindle edition for 99p. Always fancied reading The Road to Wigan Pier properly. I did read a chunk of it a couple of years ago.

1984 is the only book I've read three times, I probably won't make it a fourth anytime soon. I read Animal Farm at school. And a few years ago I read a short essay called (forgive me) Not Counting Niggers, simply because I was intrigued by the title.

Other than that the rest is all new to me I think.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08VDBR74J

Holiday pool side reading....

Stuart McBride - Now We Are Dead 8/10
Richard Osman - The Thursday Murder Club 7/10
Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice 7.5/10
Vince Flynn - Term Limits 8/10

I just got a couple of audio books in a free Audible trial.

The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub.

I've read the book a few times - definitely one of my favourites but fancied trying an audio version.

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. Narrated by John Lee.

Reynolds returns to "Revelation Space" in a direct sequel to Absolution Gap. I haven't read this one, and am listening to it now. Narrated by John Lee, who I am familiar with from his work on Peter F. Hamilton's incredible Salvation trilogy.

Is there any update on when Geddy's memoir might be released? All I can find online points to Autumn this year.

Quote from: The Picnic Wasp on November 11, 2022, 06:03:16 PMIs there any update on when Geddy's memoir might be released? All I can find online points to Autumn this year.

According to Classic Rock, it is now looking like Spring 2023, although I haven't seen any definitive news on it.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/geddy-lee-on-beer-rush-20-and-his-friendship-with-alex-lifeson (https://www.loudersound.com/features/geddy-lee-on-beer-rush-20-and-his-friendship-with-alex-lifeson)

Not something I've bought recently, but I started reading a graphic novel I was given as a Christmas present in 1988, The Dark Knight Returns.

It's set in a dark and dystopian Gotham City beset by gang warfare and lawlessness. Batman hasn't been seen for ten years. But late one night, after days of oppressive heat, a storm breaks - and Batman returns.

Based on very good TV shows I've watched in the last couple of months: I've just finished reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and now reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.

I received Time Flies: The Story of Porcupine Tree for Christmas  :)

I received James Hoffmann's How To Make The Best Coffee At Home for Christmas ('twas on my wish list), along with another I had wished for: New European Baking by Lauren Kratochvila.

The next mention isn't for purchases as such, but I've just started a Kindle Unlimited free 3 months trial and I have just grabbed Simon Haynes' Hal Spacejock series numbers 4 to 10. I've got the first 3 as an audio book omnibus and they are very entertaining indeed.

Of course with Kindle Unlimited you never own the books, they are on loan. I don't think I will continue after the free 3 months - but it will be handy to try out the features whilst I've got access.

The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller

A story of 2 atrocities commit 22 years apart in Iraq and how they affect 2 western men who were there.
It is a great read but very hard going in places. The author worked in International affairs so knows his stuff about how international aid works in particular in Iraq. The sheer madness of it all places it near Catch 22. It is full of black humour and some how humanity too.

I think his latest dystopian book Radio Life would be right up a lot of people's street.

I've just started The Man With The Golden Gun, one of the Fleming 007 novels of course and a book that I read in my teens. This was the last novel that Fleming wrote before his death in 1964. He only got as far as the first draft.

For a long time I'd thought that Kingsley Amis had finished the book off on behalf of the publishers but more recently I've read that his suggestions were rejected. So as far as I can tell, it's just been edited from the first draft. Wikipedia asserts that "Much of the detail contained in the previous novels was missing" but honestly, I'm not seeing that myself. All the usual information about what particular sort of clothes Bond prefers at any given moment, the obectifying lavish description of the women and their clothing; exactly what he orders for breakfast - it's all here.

This is one of the best 007 novels for me, a massive improvement on the faintly ridiculous You Only Live Twice with a much more down-to-earth and grittily realistic plot. It's also a million miles from the Spy-fi film of the same name. No secret base with henchmen in boiler suits, no solar energy beam weapons. In the book, Scaramanga is a brash and vulgar young assassin, very highly prized for his exceptional skill with a pistol who does contract work for the KGB and the Mafia.

A Perfect Silence by Ben Wardle, the Mark Hollis biography.

Ben Elton - Identity Crisis

Middle aged police inspector trying to make sense of modern norms. Just started but finding it entertaining

Quote from: Slim on January 16, 2023, 02:36:32 PMI've just started The Man With The Golden Gun, one of the Fleming 007 novels of course and a book that I read in my teens. This was the last novel that Fleming wrote before his death in 1964. He only got as far as the first draft.

I finished this in about a week, then I started a Reacher novel which I've just finished today. That must certainly be the only time I've ever read two novels in the space of a month.

I've never been much of a reader of novels. Intervals of several years have often gone by when I haven't read one. But cycling and audiobooks have kindled (pun not intended) a more regular interest in them.

The Tucci Cookbook

Just bought Niall Ferguson's Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00936RSAW).

Haven't started the Ferguson tome yet but I did start the next Reacher novel, The Hard Way. Good one, quite distinctive and more of a detective story than usual. About half-way through, all of it consumed on a Kindle rather than an audiobook. I could only do that while on holiday.

Just finished 'Rock and Roll Gentleman'. The story of  Dr. Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux. Good read

I'm currently reading "How Britain Broke the World" by Arthur Snell

it looks back over the last 25 years of Britain's International Affairs from Kosovo to Iraq, Afganistan, Libya through to Brexit and Ukraine.

He is perhaps giving the UK more importance than it is due but so far its an interesting read

I've just realised how similar the title is to Slim's tome above (bar the verb) - be interesting to compare the conclusions the respective authors deliver

That's very interesting - in all of those various campaigns that you mention save Brexit and possibly Ukraine, Britain has been a junior partner at most - so I see quite a lot of artistic licence in the title.

Rattled through 4 books whilst on holiday in Lanzarote this past week....
William McIlvanney's Laidlaw Trilogy : -
Laidlaw
The Papers of Tony Veitch
Strange Loyalties

and

Blood Feud by Stewart Clyde (UKs answer to Mitch Rapp)

all excellent reads !!

Reading Pete Way's autobiography "A Fast Ride Out of Here".  Highly entertaining. Not much on music composition, plenty on the extracurricular.

He enjoyed his time when UFO toured with Rush and speaks very fondly of "Glee".

He also claims that there was so much dry ice at the end of some of the Rush shows that he and Schenker would finish the set for them invisible to the crowd!. I'm sure that can't be true!

"Their road crew would hand us their guitars and the two of us would bash out the last crescendo of notes from the side of the stage, while Geddy and Alex buggered off back to their dressing room"

Quote from: dom on May 09, 2023, 07:34:54 PMReading Pete Way's autobiography "A Fast Ride Out of Here".  Highly entertaining. Not much on music composition, plenty on the extracurricular.

He enjoyed his time when UFO toured with Rush and speaks very fondly of "Glee".

He also claims that there was so much dry ice at the end of some of the Rush shows that he and Schenker would finish the set for them invisible to the crowd!. I'm sure that can't be true!

"Their road crew would hand us their guitars and the two of us would bash out the last crescendo of notes from the side of the stage, while Geddy and Alex buggered off back to their dressing room"

I read that a number of years ago and can't remember that bit! Seems incredible, doesn't it?   :-\

I went to quite a few Rush gigs in the '70s and early '80s, and I can say for certain that none of them ended with a cloud of dry ice. Actually when the old CO2 was deployed (only during Xanadu I think) it would tend to cling to the stage. At Newcastle City Hall it used to flow off the front of the stage like a waterfall.

Does Pete mention meeting me at Manchester Airport in 2006, or haven't you got that far yet?

He does talk about the dry ice during Xanadu and how they used to crawl around the stage un-noticed. Geddy confirms that once he found a pair of slippers nailed by his bass pedals 😁

Still in the heady days of the 70s at the moment. Can't wait to read about that encounter!

I have decided need to read more English books. I ran across 3 unknown words in the Wordle thread and even though I work at a multinational, read, speak & write English all day, I feel the need to expand my vocabulary.

First one to read (and bought): Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist.

Quote from: Thenop on May 21, 2023, 10:43:29 AMI have decided need to read more English books. I ran across 3 unknown words in the Wordle thread and even though I work at a multinational, read, speak & write English all day, I feel the need to expand my vocabulary.

First one to read (and bought): Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist.

What three words? ;)

Quote from: pdw1 on May 21, 2023, 07:31:04 PM

Quote from: Thenop on May 21, 2023, 10:43:29 AMI have decided need to read more English books. I ran across 3 unknown words in the Wordle thread and even though I work at a multinational, read, speak & write English all day, I feel the need to expand my vocabulary.

First one to read (and bought): Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist.

What three words? ;)

Over the course of the past weeks that is. Today's word for example. I cannot name it of course, I'd be banned for all times...
Just kidding.
As an aside, whenever possible I try to read books in the native language. 90% of the translations, however well intended, take away a lot from the original.

Have got Chris Carter's Robert Hunter books downloaded onto my Kindle for this month holiday reads, The Crucifix Killer from 2009 will be up first.

Quote from: dom on May 09, 2023, 10:33:56 PMHe does talk about the dry ice during Xanadu and how they used to crawl around the stage un-noticed. Geddy confirms that once he found a pair of slippers nailed by his bass pedals 😁

Still in the heady days of the 70s at the moment. Can't wait to read about that encounter!

No mention of your encounter unfortunately Slim.

Quite a sobering read though. He was married 6 times and 2 of his partners died from overdosing. One was an American doctor who used to write prescriptions to ensure they had enough morphine etc to keep them both going.

He wrote the autobiography about 5 years before his death.

He talked about a biographical album he was putting together "Walking on the Edge" - was it ever released does anyone know?

His cause of death was not given as prostrate cancer or cardiac arrest or even overdose, as could easily have been the case, but from a serious accident that occured 2 months before he died. Does anyone know what that was?

Quote from: dom on June 05, 2023, 07:57:22 PM

Quote from: dom on May 09, 2023, 10:33:56 PMHe does talk about the dry ice during Xanadu and how they used to crawl around the stage un-noticed. Geddy confirms that once he found a pair of slippers nailed by his bass pedals 😁

Still in the heady days of the 70s at the moment. Can't wait to read about that encounter!

No mention of your encounter unfortunately Slim.

Quite a sobering read though. He was married 6 times and 2 of his partners died from overdosing. One was an American doctor who used to write prescriptions to ensure they had enough morphine etc to keep them both going.

He wrote the autobiography about 5 years before his death.

He talked about a biographical album he was putting together "Walking on the Edge" - was it ever released does anyone know?

His cause of death was not given as prostrate cancer or cardiac arrest or even overdose, as could easily have been the case, but from a serious accident that occured 2 months before he died. Does anyone know what that was?

I haven't listened to this yet but it's linked from Pete's FB page as "Jenny Way talks about Pete's accident"

https://www.americanheartbreak.com/rnrgeekwp/jenny-way-wife-of-the-late-great-pete-way/

27 min audio recording.

Thanks! Will have a listen

Jenny was the survivor

Pete was a bit like Henry VIII but his time line goes...

Divorced, divorced, died, died, divorced, survived!

Quote from: dom on June 05, 2023, 10:43:46 PMThanks! Will have a listen

Jenny was the survivor

Pete was a bit like Henry VIII but his time line goes...

Divorced, divorced, died, died, divorced, survived!

Loved a bit of wedding cake, did Pete

Listened to it last night Slim - thanks for that.

He fell down the stairs at home, believe it or not.  The drug abuse over the years really must have taken their toll.  He broke all his ribs and couldn't stop bleeding following the fall and his body had to be packed up with gauze etc to stop the flow. Think he had something like 10 transfusions during the 2 months in hospital. Years of needle use almost certainly caused that.

He had recovered somewhat towards the end and there was talk of him returning home but he passed before that happened.

Jenny also mentioned that the album he spoke about in the autobiography was done and dusted.  Not sure why it hasn't been released.

Certainly not a book I bought recently, but last night I idly picked up a paperback I bought in 1990; a collection of Philip K Dick short stories. I picked one at random, Explorers We.

Really quite an unsettling little read, very similar in approach to a Twilight Zone story. Even more unsettling was the thought that I last read it 33 years ago. I did partly remember it.

The collection is titled I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon after one of the longer stories.

(https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/12696364-L.jpg)

Geezer Butlers autobiography...

Quote from: captainkurtz on June 12, 2023, 08:15:49 PMGeezer Butlers autobiography...

any good?
Listened to him on Loose Ends with Clive Anderson. He was a laugh and said his wife and Sharon don't get on and so he never talks to Ozzy.

Quote from: captainkurtz on June 12, 2023, 08:15:49 PMGeezer Butlers autobiography...

Does it include this embarrassing episode?

"The thing with Geezer Butler, I think they were drinking one night and I think Geezer had some knife or something, and he flashed it at Malcolm," he began. He continued: "Malcolm took it off – there's a trick of getting knives away from people, so Malcolm immediately did that and he said, 'What are you gonna do now? - Angus Young
;D

Intrigued by this post by Dom (http://betweenthewheels.net/index.php?topic=41.msg10045#msg10045) I had a look at a few Slow Horses clips on YouTube. Ultimately though I decided to consume it in audiobook form; the original novel of course. I listened to the first couple of hours today while out on a bike.

It's about a department of the Secret Service where failed or disgraced agents go to serve out their careers doing menial work, in a sort of exile. I was reminded of Callan in some ways - it has the same gritty cynicism and wilful lack of glamour. I loved this description of Slough House, where it's based:

The yellows and greys that dominate the colour scheme aren't what they first appear .. the yellow isn't yellow at all, but white exhausted by stale breath and tobacco, by pot-noodle fumes and overcoats left to dry on radiators

I'm currently reading The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson. People may recall the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man which was a great movie for its time (1957). The book however doesn't follow a linear timeline like the movie does. Instead we follow poor Scott from when he starts to shrink and when he is trapped in the cellar at less than an inch tall. It's a tragic story and the book pulls no punches - like when he is nearly abused by a paedophile who thinks he's a small boy and when he first starts staying in the cellar during the day he becomes a voyeur, ogling the frumpy child minder (things that the movie left out). Of course the we now know the science of this was way out and Richard Matheson was going to update the story to account for this. Still a great read though.

Colditz by Ben Macintyre..  holiday reading, which is the only book reading I do now, super interesting account of the escapes and derring do of the inmates and an interesting perspective from the German side.

Quote from: pdw1 on June 12, 2023, 08:55:56 PM

Quote from: captainkurtz on June 12, 2023, 08:15:49 PMGeezer Butlers autobiography...

any good?
Listened to him on Loose Ends with Clive Anderson. He was a laugh and said his wife and Sharon don't get on and so he never talks to Ozzy.

It's a pretty quick run through sabbaths history really...but an enjoyable enough read.

Quote from: David L on June 13, 2023, 12:32:22 AM

Quote from: captainkurtz on June 12, 2023, 08:15:49 PMGeezer Butlers autobiography...

Does it include this :o  embarrassing episode?

"The thing with Geezer Butler, I think they were drinking one night and I think Geezer had some knife or something, and he flashed it at Malcolm," he began. He continued: "Malcolm took it off – there's a trick of getting knives away from people, so Malcolm immediately did that and he said, 'What are you gonna do now? - Angus Young
;D

It was a pocket comb, according to the Geez...

Quote from: captainkurtz on July 16, 2023, 11:52:09 PM

Quote from: David L on June 13, 2023, 12:32:22 AM

Quote from: captainkurtz on June 12, 2023, 08:15:49 PMGeezer Butlers autobiography...

Does it include this :o  embarrassing episode?

"The thing with Geezer Butler, I think they were drinking one night and I think Geezer had some knife or something, and he flashed it at Malcolm," he began. He continued: "Malcolm took it off – there's a trick of getting knives away from people, so Malcolm immediately did that and he said, 'What are you gonna do now? - Angus Young
;D

It was a pocket comb, according to the Geez...

;D

Quote from: Slim on July 01, 2023, 10:47:07 PMIntrigued by this post by Dom (http://betweenthewheels.net/index.php?topic=41.msg10045#msg10045) I had a look at a few Slow Horses clips on YouTube. Ultimately though I decided to consume it in audiobook form; the original novel of course. I listened to the first couple of hours today while out on a bike.

It's about a department of the Secret Service where failed or disgraced agents go to serve out their careers doing menial work, in a sort of exile. I was reminded of Callan in some ways - it has the same gritty cynicism and wilful lack of glamour. I loved this description of Slough House, where it's based:

The yellows and greys that dominate the colour scheme aren't what they first appear .. the yellow isn't yellow at all, but white exhausted by stale breath and tobacco, by pot-noodle fumes and overcoats left to dry on radiators

This was very, very good - gritty, acerbic, cynical, but funny as well. Lots of duplicity and clever twists.

I'll download the next one in the series soon, Dead Lions.

I've just bought The Physics Of Climate Change by Laurence Krauss. I've long been a fan of Krauss for his cosmology writings and lectures (there are a few on YouTube) as well as his rational examination of religious belief. I've bought the audiobook as well as the Kindle edition so I'll start to dig into it on my next bike ride.

Read several books on holiday a few weeks back.......

Stewart Clyde - Black Beach 7/10

Chris Carter's Robert Hunter books :-
The Crucifix Killer 9/10
The Executioner 9/10
The Night Stalker 9/10
The Death Sculptor 9/10
One by One 9/10
An Evil Mind 8/10

and finished the holiday with
Denzil Meyrick - Dark Suits And Sad Songs 9/10

Quote from: Slim on July 18, 2023, 06:27:48 PMI've just bought The Physics Of Climate Change by Laurence Krauss. I've long been a fan of Krauss for his cosmology writings and lectures (there are a few on YouTube) as well as his rational examination of religious belief. I've bought the audiobook as well as the Kindle edition so I'll start to dig into it on my next bike ride.

This was very good indeed. There's only a few hours of it but it's packed full of interesting stuff about how CO2 levels are measured, how we can measure historic levels by analysing bubbles trapped in old ice, how we know what the effects are, experimentally, on temperature etc.

I'm now onto another Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose. Written in the third person, which I prefer. A bit simpler than some of the Reacher novels, so far at least, but I like that. While reading The Enemy a few months ago I was tempted to start taking notes so I could keep track of all the different characters, and maybe even print out a map. This one's a lot tighter and easier to follow.

There's a really brutal, violent fight scene in a bar. The consequences to some of the participants are grim. And no-one does grim quite like Lee Child.

Using some book tokens which we found yesterday and thought we'd spent (but hadn't), I shall be pre-ordering a couple of items. One of them being Geddy's autobiography, and the other being this tome which is due out shortly which I am quite excited about:

Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s

Whilst I won't be purchasing from Amazon as they don't take book tokens, here is the item:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1419748696/ (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1419748696/)

^ That sci-fi art book looks great Reg. Have you heard of Simon Stålenhag? Link (https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Simon-St%C3%A5lenhag/author/B01MRHBS4N?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true) I've been meaning to get Tales From the Loop since watching the incredibly good TV Show from a few years back (I'm hoping they'll do a second series sometime) IMDb Link (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8741290/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_tales%20from%20the%20loop)

Turns out that I have, but without knowing it. I have seen some of the images from some of his books. I didn't know who it was though.

Tales From The Loop is another series I haven't got around to watching but with your recommendation, I really must remedy that.

Cheers  :D

Before we came away I bought Uncommon People - The rise and fall of rock stars by David Hepworth.
It's the third of Hepworth's books I've read, his writing is well-informed and witty. A great read.

I'm now onto my second 'holiday book' which the wife bought and passed over to me a couple of days ago - The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer. A page-turning novel in which Bob inhabits the character of the protagonist, Gary. If you enjoy Bob's surreal world-vision you'll love it. LOL moments aplenty.

I got The Satsuma Complex from my sister for my birthday (along with the RHS Horiticultural bible) and I'm really enjoying it

Quote from: dom on September 19, 2023, 09:22:40 AMI got The Satsuma Complex from my sister for my birthday (along with the RHS Horiticultural bible) and I'm really enjoying it

I'm preserving the remainder, probably finish it tomorrow, on the plane home from Menorca. Don't want it to end

Quote from: David L on September 19, 2023, 08:28:26 AMBefore we came away I bought Uncommon People - The rise and fall of rock stars by David Hepworth.

I like David Hepworth despite certain misgivings. I follow him on Twitter. This is available for £0.99 for the Kindle edition so I bought it. The audiobook add-on is £2.99 so I'll have that as well.

Quote from: Slim on September 19, 2023, 05:03:39 PM

Quote from: David L on September 19, 2023, 08:28:26 AMBefore we came away I bought Uncommon People - The rise and fall of rock stars by David Hepworth.

I like David Hepworth despite certain misgivings. I follow him on Twitter. This is available for £0.99 for the Kindle edition so I bought it. The audiobook add-on is £2.99 so I'll have that as well.

I also had misgivings about him because I always thought he was a bit 'up himself' when presenting music stuff on the telly. He had a sort of....'smarmyness' about him and appeared not very likeable. A good writer on the broad subject of pop and rock though - 'grown up' but also uses humour well when appropriate (such that I've smiled 'knowingly' many times whilst reading his books)

Currently reading the sixth of The Millennium series - The Girl Who Lived Twice. This is the third and last one by David Lagercrantz, the first three were by Stieg Larsson. There is another set of three coming out by yet another author (Karin Smirnoff) and her first one has just been translated to English - The Girl in the Eagle's Talons (Millennium 7). The first 6 have all been superb, but the first 3 will always be the peak.

Reading Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll - a painstaking work on the events leading up to the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in October '84.

It places the event in historical context and then starts in earnest with the assassination of Mountbatten 6 years earlier.

It covers in earnest the terrorists who planned the attacks and the police force who tried to catch them.

I didn't detect any particular partiality to either side and it certainly doesn't hide from the horror and brutality of the attacks from the IRA.

I'm about halfway through and I really can't fault it.

Quote from: dom on September 27, 2023, 03:53:16 PMReading Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll - a painstaking work on the events leading up to the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in October '84.

It places the event in historical context and then starts in earnest with the assassination of Mountbatten 6 years earlier.

It covers in earnest the terrorists who planned the attacks and the police force who tried to catch them.

I didn't detect any particular partiality to either side and it certainly doesn't hide from the horror and brutality of the attacks from the IRA.

I'm about halfway through and I really can't fault it.

A few months ago I listened to an interview with the author on LBC and I was quite intrigued by it. I think the least the reader should expect is a bit of partiality in an account of a terrorist attempt to murder members of a democratically elected government, though.

Quote from: Slim on September 28, 2023, 06:54:03 AM

Quote from: dom on September 27, 2023, 03:53:16 PMReading Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll - a painstaking work on the events leading up to the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in October '84.

It places the event in historical context and then starts in earnest with the assassination of Mountbatten 6 years earlier.

It covers in earnest the terrorists who planned the attacks and the police force who tried to catch them.

I didn't detect any particular partiality to either side and it certainly doesn't hide from the horror and brutality of the attacks from the IRA.

I'm about halfway through and I really can't fault it.

A few months ago I listened to an interview with the author on LBC and I was quite intrigued by it. I think the least the reader should expect is a bit of partiality in an account of a terrorist attempt to murder members of a democratically elected government, though.

Still plenty of apologists around for the murderous cowards

As you well know I'm no fan of Thatcher, but from reading the book I was left in awe by her resolve to not be broken by the attack. Her reaction to it really showed her at her best.

Quote from: Slim on September 28, 2023, 06:54:03 AM

Quote from: dom on September 27, 2023, 03:53:16 PMReading Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll - a painstaking work on the events leading up to the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in October '84.

It places the event in historical context and then starts in earnest with the assassination of Mountbatten 6 years earlier.

It covers in earnest the terrorists who planned the attacks and the police force who tried to catch them.

I didn't detect any particular partiality to either side and it certainly doesn't hide from the horror and brutality of the attacks from the IRA.

I'm about halfway through and I really can't fault it.

A few months ago I listened to an interview with the author on LBC and I was quite intrigued by it. I think the least the reader should expect is a bit of partiality in an account of a terrorist attempt to murder members of a democratically elected government, though.

I think the book's ethos was to provide the facts and the context and let the reader make his/her own judgement

Quote from: Slim on August 21, 2023, 10:24:13 PMI'm now onto another Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose. Written in the third person, which I prefer. A bit simpler than some of the Reacher novels, so far at least, but I like that. While reading The Enemy a few months ago I was tempted to start taking notes so I could keep track of all the different characters, and maybe even print out a map. This one's a lot tighter and easier to follow.

I finished this one a few weeks ago. It turned out to be poor, unfortunately. The villains aren't particularly interesting, some of the plot doesn't make sense and the way it plays out is preposterous.

I did enjoy it I must admit until I realised, near the end, that it wasn't going anywhere sensible.

Still - I shall embark on the next one in a few weeks' time no doubt.

Presently I'm dipping into Michael Palin's Diaries 1969-1979, The Python Years - prompted by my journey through the TV series. I bought it (or someone gave it to me) as a hardback edition about 15 years ago. Nice to have, though I do find physical books impractical.

New novel by Dutch literary writer Tommy Wieringa - Nirwana
Also, I was not aware this was even published: Lee Morgan, his life, music and culture by Thomas Perchard. Looks to be an interesting read.

I'm still catching up with a few books purchased over the last few months, but just got round to reading Time Flies: The Story of Porcupine Tree by Rich Wilson. I'm finding it much better than Wilson's own autobiography.

Quote from: pxr5 on October 09, 2023, 03:07:19 PMI'm still catching up with a few books purchased over the last few months, but just got round to reading Time Flies: The Story of Porcupine Tree by Rich Wilson. I'm finding it much better than Wilson's own autobiography.

Writer any relation to Stevie-o?

Having just come into some National Book Tokens, I have just ordered a couple of non-fiction books.

Design Made Easy With Inkscape (1.3) by Christopher Rogers
Uncommon Grounds (new edition): The History Of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World by Mark Prendergast

Did I mention I was a coffee nerd  8) ?

I bought All Gates Open: The Story of Can. Kindle edition.

I bought my first Can album in 1976, a compilation called Opener. I've always found them very enigmatic and different.

I've just started, in audiobook form, Uncommon People:The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994 by David Hepworth. David's thesis is that the age of the Rock Star dawned in the 1950s and set near the end of the century.

He chooses one day in each year between 1955 and 1994 as a focus for his essays on the life and importance, in context, of a selection of the "uncommon people" who are culturally meaningful and impactful "rock stars".

I found his foreword, in which he explores the myth of the rock star in general, brilliantly observed. Unfortunately, David is not the most natural narrator. His delivery can come across a little bit languid and slurred. Whether this is due to the first stages of Parkinsons, a tendency to have a couple of drinks before recording or just age I don't know but this, coupled with his tendency to ramble, and to use 200 words where 100 would have done, gave me a feeling of standing next to a pub bore who'd had a gin and tonic too many.

Unfortunately I think David is one of those writers who really likes the look of his own prose. Despite that though, this is really interesting stuff. I listened to the piece about Little Richard. Well researched and eye-opening. Next: Elvis Presley.

I was gifted Boy George's autobiography which I thought might be an interesting comparison after MEL. The drop in intellect and awareness of our species is dramatic. Perhaps too dramatic for me to continue. I'll trudge on another twenty pages or so but I fear I've been spoiled by how much of Neil that Geddy absorbed and cultivated.

For the weekend trip to Kerry (stunning scenery, can't believe its taking me over 20 years living in Ireland to visit) we downloaded 'The Marriage Act' by John Marrs, a dystopian story from a World not that far from our own.

The Chapters follow various characters affected by the 'Act'. Well written with plenty of shocking moments to keep your attention. It feels like it was written with the intention of being made into a netflix serial. Not something to tax your mind particularly but it does provide food for thought.

I've just picked this up for a couple of quid from ebay. I'm really looking forward to this one:

One For The Record - The Authorised Biography of Galahad by Andrew Wild

https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Record-Authorised-Biography-Galahad/dp/0957007701

'One for the Record', the official, authorised biography of Galahad, charts the first quarter century of the Dorset-based band's existence: the highs and the lows, the challenges and the achievements, the numerous line-up changes (Yes have nothing on Galahad!)  including six keyboard players and eight bassists, the occasional madness on the road, the writing, recording, rehearsing and gigging.'

Quote from: pxr5 on May 01, 2024, 08:20:27 PMI've just picked this up for a couple of quid from ebay. I'm really looking forward to this one:

One For The Record - The Authorised Biography of Galahad by Andrew Wild

https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Record-Authorised-Biography-Galahad/dp/0957007701

'One for the Record', the official, authorised biography of Galahad, charts the first quarter century of the Dorset-based band's existence: the highs and the lows, the challenges and the achievements, the numerous line-up changes (Yes have nothing on Galahad!)  including six keyboard players and eight bassists, the occasional madness on the road, the writing, recording, rehearsing and gigging.'

They are playing at the 'Prog for Peart' festival at The Northcourt in Abingdon in July (just down the road from me)

Picked up the Bob  Mortimer autobiography at the airport.. a cracking holiday read...

Just started Pete Townshend's autobiography, Who I Am, published in 2012.

It's actually quite similar in tone, and format, at least so far, to My Effin' Life. The same sort of account of a troubled childhood, an eccentric family and a difficult adolescence, and being in a band with like-minded individuals the same age. Except that all that takes place about ten years earlier. Pete mentions that he was born on May 19th 1945, so by coincidence I started the book on his 79th birthday, ie today.

I'm consuming it in audiobook form as usual, and like Geddy he laughs and chuckles from time to time while he's reading the text. Quite endearing.

Quote from: Fishy on May 19, 2024, 03:48:21 PMPicked up the Bob  Mortimer autobiography at the airport.. a cracking holiday read...

And finished.. a cracking read.

Quote from: Fishy on May 19, 2024, 03:48:21 PMPicked up the Bob  Mortimer autobiography at the airport.. a cracking holiday read...

Didn't realise he'd written one. Must order now.

Now moved onto  The Satsuma Complex Bob Mortimer

Reading Johann Hari's Stolen Focus - scary stuff!

Quote from: dom on May 22, 2024, 04:06:33 PMReading Johann Hari's Stolen Focus - scary stuff!

I'd forgotten about him. Do you think it's original, or has he plagiarised it from someone else?

Had a little Google. Knew nothing about that! I only know him from his work on addiction and the "rat park" study. Perhaps that's not his own either.

Think the focus book is original though. He disappeared to Alaska I think, in a bid to detox from social media

Quote from: dom on May 22, 2024, 06:53:00 PMHad a little Google. Knew nothing about that! I only know him from his work on addiction and the "rat park" study. Perhaps that's not his own either.

Think the focus book is original though. He disappeared to Alaska I think, in a bid to detox from social media

He'd become a laughing stock, not only for that but for maliciously sabotaging Wikipedia entries under a false identity. I can well imagine that social media is a bit toxic when you're exposed as a liar and a fraud.

No doubt! The book makes some very interesting points on how distracted we are becoming since the advent of mobile phones. Can only imagine the harm it is doing to children, never mind adults.

Quote from: Fishy on May 22, 2024, 03:22:53 PMNow moved onto  The Satsuma Complex Bob Mortimer

Gave up it was shit..

Quote from: Fishy on May 26, 2024, 08:24:53 PM

Quote from: Fishy on May 22, 2024, 03:22:53 PMNow moved onto  The Satsuma Complex Bob Mortimer

Gave up it was shit..

Really enjoyed that book!

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman  - My wife bought me this a while back and I read it while away on holiday recently. I really don't get why this is so popular; I smiled a few times but the story is pretty weak and not even a very good whodunnit. I see a movie is being made too - I can't see it being any good with this source material. But the chosen cast is so obvious (Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, .Ben Kingsley). More money in Osman's pockets to go with the rest he'll make from the follow on books.

Listened to Breathe by James Nestor. Fascinating stuff. Whenever I remember I close my mouth and take longer slower breaths through my nose. Not easy. He recommends putting a small piece of tape over your mouth at night. Not quite ready for that yet though

Bought three this week. Bob Mortimer and Dave Grohl's autobiographies and Billy Connolly's Rambling Man. Looking forward to them, particularly Bob's. Must try to get into some fiction soon.

Quote from: Slim on May 19, 2024, 10:29:40 PMJust started Pete Townshend's autobiography, Who I Am, published in 2012.

It's actually quite similar in tone, and format, at least so far, to My Effin' Life. The same sort of account of a troubled childhood, an eccentric family and a difficult adolescence, and being in a band with like-minded individuals the same age. Except that all that takes place about ten years earlier. Pete mentions that he was born on May 19th 1945, so by coincidence I started the book on his 79th birthday, ie today.

I'm consuming it in audiobook form as usual, and like Geddy he laughs and chuckles from time to time while he's reading the text. Quite endearing.

I finished this on Sunday. By quite a distance the best autobiography I've ever read or listened to.

For one thing, Pete is a brilliant man. He has had an utterly fascinating life and some of the people around him have been very interesting characters as well - Keith Moon and Kit Lambert especially. He witnessed first hand the emergence of Hendrix, he played at Woodstock; he was pally with the Stones, George Harrison, Eric Clapton for example and some of his personal anecdotes about time spent with these people are eye-opening.

He writes very honestly and openly, and he writes beautifully. Actually he speaks the audiobook very nicely as well, sometimes so naturally that you think he must be ad-libbing.

Pete has often been a very troubled man. No criticism there, except that sometimes it's due to problems of his own making.

But what really struck me about this book is: Pete's judgement. His obsessive behaviour over various women, including making an absolute fool of himself on occasion. Regular philandering. Heavy drinking (he used to drink Remy Martin from a half pint glass). Many thousands spent on drugs (mostly cocaine but heroin as well, later on). Spending (or simply losing) huge sums of money in various ways. I lost count of the number of expensive cars he'd crashed by the end of the book.

And of course - in the late '90s he clicked on a kiddie porn link, something he was investigated for in 2003 and for which he ultimately received a caution. Personally I'd always thought that there was something of a question mark over his character here but I must say that after reading his account in this book I am convinced that his motive was genuine. Nonetheless it was obviously a stupid thing to do.

Most dismaying to me is his belief in a "god". Pete is at least more original than most victims of a higher intelligence delusion in that he doesn't just settle for the local superstition. In Pete's case the focus of his belief is a "spiritual master" called Meher Baba, whom he believes to be "God" in human form (albeit he "dropped his body" in 1969) and to whom he prays occasionally, presumably to this day. No dafter than a Christian for sure but all the same, for someone of Pete's undoubted intellect to fall prey to this .. well I found it really disheartening. No doubt it comes from the same need for a psychological crutch that inspired Pete's alcohol and drug use, and probably his need for validation from beautiful women.  But later in life he appears to have gained a bit of wisdom; in the afterword to the paperback / Kindle edition, written after the first edition was published, he writes:

(https://i.ibb.co/nkGwgCd/peteafterbaba.png)
Pete mentions in the appendix that the book was edited down from 1000 pages to 500 and unfortunately it shows in a few ways - there's barely any account of the recording of The Who By Numbers for example and his heroin use is mentioned in passing without the reader ever knowing how or why it started. But that's really my only criticism of this brilliant book.

I rarely get emotional as my wife can attest to, and I never cry at anything, but reading Alan Davies memoire Just Ignore Him brought a tear to my eye a few times. I've never really cared for him (despite the often excellent Jonathan Creek) and I only picked the book up at at a holiday cottage just for anything to read. It's unlike any book I've ever read before and he writes in an eloquent, matter-of-fact style while revealing some rather horrendous childhood moments. There is little relief with some comic moments but it's generally deeply upsetting. One has to admire him for writing this book, it must have been so difficult to put down his feelings on to paper - beautifully written. Nostalgic too for anyone brought up in the 70s as quite a few things he mentions brought back my own memories of childhood.

Quote from: Slim on August 21, 2023, 10:24:13 PMI'm now onto another Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose. Written in the third person, which I prefer. A bit simpler than some of the Reacher novels, so far at least, but I like that. While reading The Enemy a few months ago I was tempted to start taking notes so I could keep track of all the different characters, and maybe even print out a map. This one's a lot tighter and easier to follow.

Nothing to Lose was poor. Since then I've also listened to Gone Tomorrow, 61 Hours and Worth Dying For, all of which have been pretty good, especially 61 Hours. I've just started The Affair today which is the 16th Reacher novel. It's in the first person and set during Reacher's army days, in 1997. Pretty good so far.

The first book in the 3 Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. I think this is the best sci-fi I've ever read.

Quote from: pxr5 on August 10, 2024, 04:41:26 PMThe first book in the 3 Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. I think this is the best sci-fi I've ever read.

It is very good, hard sci-fi, real well thought out.

I don't know when I will get around to listening to it, but I have just added Adrian Edmonson's autobiography, Berserker, to my Audible library.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Berserker-Audiobook/B0BZ4MQXN2 (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Berserker-Audiobook/B0BZ4MQXN2)

Quote from: R6GYY on August 13, 2024, 07:06:57 PMI don't know when I will get around to listening to it, but I have just added Adrian Edmonson's autobiography, Berserker, to my Audible library.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Berserker-Audiobook/B0BZ4MQXN2 (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Berserker-Audiobook/B0BZ4MQXN2)

Take up cycling, Reg!

For my 3rd free Audible month, I chose Peter F. Hamilton's Exodus: The Archimedes Engine

MONEY - David McWilliams

Just a few chapters in but this is a fantastic read. The research is superb and McWilliams has such a fantastic way of explaining concepts that its a joy to read. Money is the link but this is a book about the progress of civilisation.

Quote from: Thenop on August 10, 2024, 05:35:34 PM

Quote from: pxr5 on August 10, 2024, 04:41:26 PMThe first book in the 3 Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. I think this is the best sci-fi I've ever read.

It is very good, hard sci-fi, real well thought out.

I'm half way through the second book in the series - The Dark Forest - the author, Liu Cixin, has incredible scientific insight and is very believable the way he puts things across. It all just gets better and better. There is a third book of course but then another by a different author. I'll be quite sad once I've finished them all, they really are that good - even better than the likes of Dune or Foundation. Just astonishing.

Quote from: pxr5 on September 29, 2024, 07:32:48 PM

Quote from: Thenop on August 10, 2024, 05:35:34 PM

Quote from: pxr5 on August 10, 2024, 04:41:26 PMThe first book in the 3 Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. I think this is the best sci-fi I've ever read.

It is very good, hard sci-fi, real well thought out.

I'm half way through the second book in the series - The Dark Forest - the author, Liu Cixin, has incredible scientific insight and is very believable the way he puts things across. It all just gets better and better. There is a third book of course but then another by a different author. I'll be quite sad once I've finished them all, they really are that good - even better than the likes of Dune or Foundation. Just astonishing.

The third book, Death's End is also his. Not sure why you'd credit it to someone else. Maybe the translator is different?

Quote from: Slim on July 08, 2024, 09:38:28 PM

Quote from: Slim on August 21, 2023, 10:24:13 PMI'm now onto another Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose. Written in the third person, which I prefer. A bit simpler than some of the Reacher novels, so far at least, but I like that. While reading The Enemy a few months ago I was tempted to start taking notes so I could keep track of all the different characters, and maybe even print out a map. This one's a lot tighter and easier to follow.

Nothing to Lose was poor. Since then I've also listened to Gone Tomorrow, 61 Hours and Worth Dying For, all of which have been pretty good, especially 61 Hours. I've just started The Affair today which is the 16th Reacher novel. It's in the first person and set during Reacher's army days, in 1997. Pretty good so far.

That was a pretty good one, I finished it in twelve days.

After that I started Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I read another of Alastair's novels, Pushing Ice a few years ago and that was pretty good but woefully indisciplined and overlong - he just didn't know when to stop. It seemed he couldn't help throwing new stuff in instead of keeping it tight and winding the story up nicely.

Unfortunately Revelation Space suffers from much the same problem. It's like trying to keep up with three complicated novels at once. No doubt the various strands are ultimately weaved together in some clever way later on but after investing six or seven hours in it (I listened to it in audiobook form) I just gave up on it.

I think that, if I were prepared to make notes and do a bit of revision periodically it could be an interesting project, but I'm not going to do that.

So: I revisited a book I last read in 1984 called Chickenhawk. Published in 1983, it's a Vietnam War memoir written by a man who flew helicopters for the US Army there in 1965 and 1966. It's an eye-opening, brilliant book, just as I remembered. If I do have one criticism it's that, although it has a beginning and an end, there's no real flow in the meat of the book inbetween; it doesn't "unfold" in the way that some memoirs do, or that a novel would. It's really just a series of experiences and events, some of them extraordinary and grim.

Quote from: Thenop on September 29, 2024, 08:30:50 PMThe third book, Death's End is also his. Not sure why you'd credit it to someone else. Maybe the translator is different?

"Then another", ie the fourth book is by someone else :)

Quote from: Thenop on September 29, 2024, 08:30:50 PM

Quote from: pxr5 on September 29, 2024, 07:32:48 PM

Quote from: Thenop on August 10, 2024, 05:35:34 PM

Quote from: pxr5 on August 10, 2024, 04:41:26 PMThe first book in the 3 Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. I think this is the best sci-fi I've ever read.

It is very good, hard sci-fi, real well thought out.

I'm half way through the second book in the series - The Dark Forest - the author, Liu Cixin, has incredible scientific insight and is very believable the way he puts things across. It all just gets better and better. There is a third book of course but then another by a different author. I'll be quite sad once I've finished them all, they really are that good - even better than the likes of Dune or Foundation. Just astonishing.

The third book, Death's End is also his. Not sure why you'd credit it to someone else. Maybe the translator is different?

No, after Death's End is a fourth book The Redemption of Time by Baoshu

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Redemption-Time-Three-Body-Problem-Novel/dp/1800248970/

Quote from: Slim on September 29, 2024, 10:30:34 PMSo: I revisited a book I last read in 1984 called Chickenhawk. Published in 1983, it's a Vietnam War memoir written by a man who flew helicopters for the US Army there in 1965 and 1966. It's an eye-opening, brilliant book, just as I remembered. If I do have one criticism it's that, although it has a beginning and an end, there's no real flow in the meat of the book inbetween; it doesn't "unfold" in the way that some memoirs do, or that a novel would. It's really just a series of experiences and events, some of them extraordinary and grim.

Finished this a while ago, making it one of the few books I've read more than once. The others are Alastair Maclean's Ice Station Zebra, Orwell's 1984 and Stephen Fry's Making History. I think I may have read 1984 three times, the last time about 20 years ago.

Listening to the audiobook of Julian Jackson's "A Certain Idea of France"

Julian Jackson's brilliant biography of Charles De Gaulle. Absolutely fascinating!

Quote from: dom on October 23, 2024, 06:29:51 PMListening to the audiobook of Julian Jackson's "A Certain Idea of France"

Julian Jackson's brilliant biography of Charles De Gaulle. Absolutely fascinating!

That is sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. It is a bit daunting at 890 pages.

Just finished 'The First Enigma Codebreaker' about Marian Rejewski, the Polish mathematician who first broke the Nazi Enigma code back in the 1930s and laid the foundations for Alan Turing's work. A good read and you do not need to be a mathematician to read it.

I'm hoping for some book tokens to be in my Christmas stocking (so to speak). To help fund the following:

https://titanbooks.com/72287-the-fantasy-worlds-of-irwin-allen/ (https://titanbooks.com/72287-the-fantasy-worlds-of-irwin-allen/)

I've nearly finished the 3rd book in the Three Body series - still brilliant. Then it will be The Redemption of Time by Baoshu. I'm so impressed by Cixin Liu I've just bought The Wandering Earth, The Supernova Era and Ball Lightening.

Quote from: R6GYY on December 14, 2024, 10:08:38 PMI'm hoping for some book tokens to be in my Christmas stocking (so to speak). To help fund the following:

https://titanbooks.com/72287-the-fantasy-worlds-of-irwin-allen/ (https://titanbooks.com/72287-the-fantasy-worlds-of-irwin-allen/)

And . . . just ordered  8)

For Christmas Mrs S bought me 1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession by Ned Boulting. Who'da thunk it.

Personally I've recently bought


The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England by Marc Morris

Viking Britain: A History by Thomas Williams
Britain AD A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons by Francis Pryor

Says something about where my head is at.

Thanks to a few more book tokens, I have bagged a couple more science fiction art books (not from Amazon):

Rayguns And Rocketships - Revised Edition: Vintage Science Fiction Book Cover Art (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rayguns-Rocketships-Revised-Vintage-Science/dp/1912740338)

Hardware - The Definitive SF Works Of Chris Foss (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hardware-Definitive-Works-Chris-Foss/dp/1848566980)

I'm all done with the Three Body series. The last, additional, book written by Baoshu is definitely worth reading after the main 3 books. For anyone who's not read it, it goes into detail about what happened (and happens) to Yun Tianming. The last page has a neat little twist too. All in all a fascinating series of hard Sci-fi.

Next book for me to read will be Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

I'm listening to an overview of the conflict in Yugoslavia and the factors leading to it called The Collapse of Yugoslavia, by Alastair Finlan.

I've been there (Montenegro, Croatia and briefly Bosnia) quite a few times now and have had friends from there since the '70s so I've always been fascinated by the war. But because I'm idle, and because it's really very complicated - I've never got round to trying to understand it. So I'm hoping this brief (4 hrs) audiobook will do the job. So far so good, 90 mins in.

Still listening to Boris Johnson's brilliant Unleashed, which has proved to be a masterwork - so engaging, and so endearingly frank and honest. His chapter on the causes of deeper European integration in the '90s following the reunification of Germany - and the tensions that led ultimately to the referendum - is a profoundly scholarly insight. It really should be compulsory reading in our schools.

Earlier in the book, I've never heard a case for equality of opportunity so eloquently and earnestly made. Bravo.

This is quite a good book on the subject by the excellent Tim Marshall.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadowplay-Behind-Lines-Inside-Europes/dp/1783964456

Quote from: Nick on January 25, 2025, 11:35:45 PMThis is quite a good book on the subject by the excellent Tim Marshall.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadowplay-Behind-Lines-Inside-Europes/dp/1783964456

Turns out I've already bought that one! Must be in my Audible library, will have a look.

I've been meaning to get these for ages, but finally got round to it with a good deal on ebay:

Simon Stålenhag - Tales from the Loop

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Loop-Simon-St%C3%A5lenhag/dp/1624650392

Simon Stålenhag - The Electric State

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-State-Simon-St%C3%A5lenhag/dp/1471176088

Blake Crouch - Dark Matter - I finished this some weeks backs. It is exactly the same as the TV show in every way. So it's pretty good, as I did like the screen version. There is to be a second series of the show - which is probably a cash in on the success of the first one as there is no follow on book 7/10

Stephen King - You Like it Darker I generally like Stephen King stories but they can be a bit hit and miss. This one is a bunch of short stories. Older books like this of his I've loved and include some of the greatest stories around (Shawshank, The Mist etc.). But this latest one really isn't good. Out of the dozen or so stories a couple are average at best, the rest are quite poor though. Some of them are great ideas that go nowhere and sometimes just end without any resolution or a decent conclusion. In fact I'd go as far to say that these feel like the scraps that were brushed up from his book writing study. I really can't recommended this book in any way at all 2/10

Another book of short stories: Cixin Liu - Hold Up the Sky which is so, so much better than the Stephen King one.

I've just started Keith Richards - Life. I've never been a fan of the Stones but this is as good as you'd expect it to be given his extraordinary story.

Just started Wool by Hugh Howey - the excellent series Silo is based on these books.

Quote from: Slim on September 29, 2024, 10:30:34 PM

Quote from: Slim on July 08, 2024, 09:38:28 PM

Quote from: Slim on August 21, 2023, 10:24:13 PMI'm now onto another Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose. Written in the third person, which I prefer. A bit simpler than some of the Reacher novels, so far at least, but I like that. While reading The Enemy a few months ago I was tempted to start taking notes so I could keep track of all the different characters, and maybe even print out a map. This one's a lot tighter and easier to follow.

Nothing to Lose was poor. Since then I've also listened to Gone Tomorrow, 61 Hours and Worth Dying For, all of which have been pretty good, especially 61 Hours. I've just started The Affair today which is the 16th Reacher novel. It's in the first person and set during Reacher's army days, in 1997. Pretty good so far.

That was a pretty good one, I finished it in twelve days.

Since I typed this I've also read Reacher #17, A Wanted Man - not great. There are two Reacher novels that don't come up to snuff, and that's one of them.

I've now started Never Go Back which the second Cruise film was based on - pretty loosely, it seems. So far so good.

I only ever read (as opposed to listen to) books on holiday when there's not much better to do, and I added The Striker Portfolio to my Kindle before jetting off to Malta and Greece earlier this month.

This is the third of the series by Adam Hall (a pseudonym for the writer Elleston Trevor, although that wasn't his real name either) concerning a "shadow executive" (spy) codenamed 'Quiller'. There are 19 of them! This one was published in 1968. I only wish they were available as audiobooks. I'd only read The Tango Briefing (1973) before. That was pretty good, although I had misgivings about it.

I had misgivings about this one as well. For one thing, the plot is over-elaborate. For another there's too much detail. Like the other Quiller novels it's written in the first person and there's hours of self-indulgent narration about his expertise in the craft of spying. It's all impressive stuff though. Led me to wonder whether Hall (or Trevor) had a background in intelligence field work. He didn't. Must have had a fascination with it.

What I do like about it is there's a bit of anti-glamour in it. Stuff about Quiller's expenses being scrutinised. Comments about people he doesn't like to work with. A bit of anti-authoritarianism. He's quite different from James Bond, who's obviously the benchmark for this sort of thing. Quiller doesn't always know the complete picture, only what his handlers want him to know at any given time. And in this one, he's more or less tricked into accepting the mission by his boss. He has some idiosyncracies - he prefers to work alone, and never carries a gun. It's a bit more Le Carre than Fleming.

Hall (or Trevor) has an annoying habit of jumping forward in the plot, then only telling you how he got there later. I suppose it's supposed to keep the reader on their toes. He sometimes leaves you with a cliffhanger, then you find out that he's got out of it but you only find out how a few pages later. I just found it self-indulgent and irritating.

Still - this was a good read, based on a clever idea about Luftwaffe fighters manufactured by an British aerospace company failing unexpectedly and killing their pilots. I actually very nearly finished it in a week on holiday.

I don't think it's nearly as good as The Tango Briefing though, which perhaps suggests that they get better over time.

I wrote about The Tango Briefing here: http://www.jamesgibbon.com/tango-briefing/

The Fireman - Joe Hill (Stephen King's son - well one of them anyway). Looking forward to reading it.

With some book tokens I had, I have expanded my Science Fiction / Film & TV library with this tome (not from Amazon):

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Bqw9f-o6L._SY466_.jpg)

Read a couple of excellent Irish based books. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray that follows a wealthy family in rural Ireland dealing with the financial crash and it's aftermath. The crescendo leading up to the end is quite brilliantly done. I hope the TV show that is being planned does it justice

The Bee Sting was nominated for the Booker but the other novel I read The Prophet Song by Paul Lynch won it. A dystopian novel about an authoritarian Government taking over in Ireland is pretty horrific. He keeps the book at the level of the family having to deal with the extreme regime and doesn't stray into the wider political arena, only indirectly. It does though provide clear parallels with the situation in Syria and provides real food for thought

Bought The End of the World as We Know It - New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand. A collection of short stories by various authors based on Stephen King's The Stand. Some of them tangents, some of them preludes or sequal-like. King approved, he wrote the foreword.

Was meaning to read it over my holidays, nice 800 pages :-)

Quote from: Thenop on September 03, 2025, 07:11:13 AMBought The End of the World as We Know It - New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand. A collection of short stories by various authors based on Stephen King's The Stand. Some of them tangents, some of them preludes or sequal-like. King approved, he wrote the foreword.

Was meaning to read it over my holidays, nice 800 pages :-)

Oh nice one - I knew about this but didn't realise it was out. I'll add to my 'to read' list.

Since I last contributed to this thread I've listened to HG Wells' The First Men In The Moon which even for its time (1901) is very far-fetched. But an incredibly imaginative work.

I got it as part of a free HG Wells collection from Audible - some notable actors narrate the various works and this one is really well done - the guy who reads it gives a proper performance, laden with emotion and drama.

Also got through the 19th Reacher novel, Personal. Not bad at all but not one of the best ones. I prefer the third person ones, this is a first person novel.

Also listened to Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip by Simon Hart. It's mostly good, but much of the earlier material is drawn from his diaries at the time when he was Secretary of State for Wales, and not that interesting. I suspect most readers would get on better with an edited version, though it would be short.

In 2023 I wrote to Simon asking him, as a constituent and a party member, to consider withdrawing the whip from Andrew Bridgen and he did so a few days later. It was a faint hope but I thought he might have mentioned correspondence with one of Bridgen's constituents, but he didn't. I like to think that I played some small part in this, but perhaps not.
(https://i.ibb.co/391Tp6Q4/bridgen-creep.jpg)

I've just finished the Silo series by Hugh Howey (Wool, Shift, Dust). A great read if a little anti-climactic. I'm really interested to see how the TV show follows the books now.

A couple I forgot - I also listened to a collection of three Judge Dredd novellas entitled Year One, set during Dredd's first year as a full-eagle Judge. Really very good, plenty of dark humour.

And Kevin Armstong's memoir Absolute Beginner. Kevin is possibly best known as being Bowie's guitar player at Live Aid and on several of his albums, but he's had a long and distinguished career playing with Iggy Pop, Sinead O'Connor, Thomas Dolby and others. Just a beautiful book, eloquent, fascinating and funny. Sorry to say that in one of a collection of essays tacked onto the book he has a few negative words to say about Neil Peart as a drummer, but it's not personal.

I've been more bookish than I thought! Or more auiobookish.

Currently reading Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Cixin Liu about the rise of intelligent life in the The Cretaceous Past. It's so well written and a delight to see how both the ants and dinosaurs interact in a developing society. Superb sci-fi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Ants_and_Dinosaurs

^ I finished Of Ants and Dinosaurs last night; now on to Donate by Emma Ellis - the first in The Eyes Forward series:

For every new baby born, a life must be sacrificed.

Mae finds herself pregnant in a world where the global population has hit twenty billion, and governments decree no child may be born without a life being sacrificed in return.

As Mae grapples with this new reality, the world becomes increasingly hostile as fertile women are seen as a nuisance, and all children are deemed a burden.

With her pregnancy progressing and so harder to conceal, Mae must make a choice: convince someone to donate their life to save her unborn child, or find a way to keep her baby a secret. But in this world, secrets are difficult to keep. Spies are everywhere.

When the stakes are so high, how far would you go to save your family?

Almost finished the audio book of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Really good sci-fi about a one way mission to rescue Earth.

Half way through I found out it was being turned into a film due for release next year starring Ryan Reynolds. It put me off a little as I'm not a huge fan. The book cover actually changed to feature Ken in astronaut garb.

It is a great story though and I do recommend the book at least.

Project Mary is another on my to-read list, along with The Martian. Thanks for the positive take.

Just finished reading Giant Steps: My incredible Journey from Stage Lights to Executive Heights by Derk Shulman.

It was OK, covers his youth and Simon Dupree, then Gentle Giant then his Music Executive career. I found it a bit hard going because it's written in American English, also a couple of errors on things. No tales of excess apart from what he relates of others in the business.

He also seems proud of inflicting Bon Jovi and Nickleback on the world.

Bought the Infinite Dreams Iron Maiden book. It a labour of love from Steve Harris, nice pictures, good stories. And all in a hardbound coffeetable book.
Worth shipping around though, got mine for 46 EUR only. Elsewhere mostly 65..

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on November 10, 2025, 11:33:04 AMJust finished reading Giant Steps: My incredible Journey from Stage Lights to Executive Heights by Derk Shulman.

It was OK, covers his youth and Simon Dupree, then Gentle Giant then his Music Executive career. I found it a bit hard going because it's written in American English, also a couple of errors on things. No tales of excess apart from what he relates of others in the business.

He also seems proud of inflicting Bon Jovi and Nickleback on the world.

Yes the worst excesses they did was a curry and a pint i think

Prompted by one of those youtube "Best Science Fiction Books" videos which I occasionally watch, I have purchased a book which caught my attention and sounds right up my street.

I purchased the omnibus edition which is called Firefall and contains both books in the series; Blindsight and Echopraxia. Bizarrely, the Kindle omnibus edition was about half the price of either individual book in the series. Go figure.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81GQkOjta5L._SY466_.jpg)

Quote from: Fishy on November 10, 2025, 12:27:55 PM

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on November 10, 2025, 11:33:04 AMJust finished reading Giant Steps: My incredible Journey from Stage Lights to Executive Heights by Derk Shulman.

It was OK, covers his youth and Simon Dupree, then Gentle Giant then his Music Executive career. I found it a bit hard going because it's written in American English, also a couple of errors on things. No tales of excess apart from what he relates of others in the business.

He also seems proud of inflicting Bon Jovi and Nickleback on the world.

Yes the worst excesses they did was a curry and a pint i think

Somebody once spiked his drink with LSD and he spent 6 hours clinging to a lamppost.

Quote from: R6GYY on November 10, 2025, 01:25:35 PMPrompted by one of those youtube "Best Science Fiction Books" videos which I occasionally watch, I have purchased a book which caught my attention and sounds right up my street.

I purchased the omnibus edition which is called Firefall and contains both books in the series; Blindsight and Echopraxia. Bizarrely, the Kindle omnibus edition was about half the price of either individual book in the series. Go figure.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81GQkOjta5L._SY466_.jpg)

Thanks Reg. Looks right up my street too. I looked it up and not sure if you are aware but there is a mid book too (Firefall 1.5) called The Colonel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22572511-the-colonel

I've nearly finished Rebel, the 3rd in the Eyes Forward series by Emma Ellis. I've got a lot to pick from, but I fancy a good horror next - probably Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica.

Quote from: pxr5 on November 10, 2025, 10:01:02 PMThanks Reg. Looks right up my street too. I looked it up and not sure if you are aware but there is a mid book too (Firefall 1.5) called The Colonel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22572511-the-colonel

Ah yes, thanks. I was vaguely aware of it, but have looked into it now. Not essential reading from what I gather, sort of a taster for the 2nd book. A shame they didn't include it in the omnibus edition. Whether of not I fork out for it as a standalone depends if I become a fanboi or not  :) .

Stephen King You Like It Darker

Finished A View From the Stars (articles and short stories by Cixin Liu) and now on to the latest Hunger Games book - Sunrise on the Reaping. This one is the 50th games and follows the year when Katniss' mentor Haymitch Abernathy took part and of course, won.

Just finished the latest Hunger Games book - Sunrise on the Reaping. It was more brutal this one and some horrible outcomes. Adamant to read a horror next I have gone with Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. I'm only 2 chapters in and hooked already. I love his style of writing too:

"In an attempt to make sense of his own mysterious and unsettling childhood memories, a man begins to reconstruct his past.

As the games and adventures of his youth become engulfed by a larger story, he finds that it forms a tapestry of unbelievable horror that he never could have expected. Each chapter completes a different piece of the puzzle for both you and the narrator, and by the end of it all, you will wish that you could forget what he never knew."

Finished Penpal. As a horror it's very subtle, and because of that it feels more unsettling as much is left to the imagination. Very good though.

Next I read Tender is the Flesh - set in an alternative world where a virus in nature causes all animal flesh to become toxic to humans. So of course we turn to eating human flesh. It follows a manager a meat processing plant. Oddly the book is always in the first person which gives it an weird feel and the ending is a sudden unexpected twist. A decent read but not really horror as I would see it.

Enough of horror for now, I've moved to sci-fi with the first book of the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I'm loving this so far - lots to get through though with 2 more books in the series.

I finished the Callan novel Death and Bright Water. Quite an involved plot involving wealthy Greek expats, the Greek military dictatorship and a communist resistance. In the short stories, which are also very good, we don't really see the trademark Callan anti-authoritarian streak, the cynical aspect of his character. But here, it's present in spades. Hunter, the implacable head of The Section, even has him beaten up to coerce him into returning to the section to accept a dangerous job.

I thought the Greek politics element of the plot was a bit overcooked, a bit over-indulged. But it's a cracking yarn overall. I listened to the audiobook and although the narrator's voice doesn't sound like Edward Woodward's, he gets the mannerisms and the personality spot-on. His malodorous sidekick Lonely is beautifully done as well. Cockney criminal underclass done to a T.

I've finished Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (the first in what I thought was a trilogy, but there is a 4th book coming soon). I've almost completed the 2nd one - Children of Ruin and then I'll go straight to the 3rd. I love the detail expressed in his writing and as he's a strong interest in flora and fauna he uses this knowledge in his books; Children of Time is spiders and Children if Ruin is octopuses. Great sci-fi.

Finished Children of Ruin and moved on to the next - Children of Memory.

I hve tried reading it more than once in English, and even though I am quite well equipped to read English literature (and do so regularly), this book was too challenging even for me to really have it sink in:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

Some months ago I heard it would finally be translated into Dutch for its 30th anniversary, done by a small publisher (which explains the 50EUR pricetag), so I pre-ordered and it was delivered today.
1168 pages lie ahead (of which over a 100 are just footnotes - if you know anything about DFW you better not skip those or you'll miss half the story.

It's one of those books I always wanted to read and fully grasp, now I can. 

I've just finished the 3rd in Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Memory. Thankfully, the next book - Children of Strife - comes out later this month.

Back to a bit of horror next - Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven. It's a great idea for a story this one; and it's told in interview style, much like the very good World War Z:

"FantasticLand has been the theme park where "Fun Is Guaranteed!" for nearly forty years. After the hurricane, detectives and others who make it to the survivors more than a month later discover a scene out of a nightmare. Evidence of grisly murders are all over the park. Yet the only ones who could have committed these savage and horrible acts were the college-aged employees. What drove them to such violence?"

Just finished reading Gironimo - Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy by Tim Moore

In which our middle aged hero rides the route of the 1914 Giro on a period bike with wooden rimmed wheels, corks for brake blocks and two gears, which you change by turning the wheel over.

In 1914 80 odd riders started and 8 finished. Unlike them he takes four days over each 400km stage which the riders started at midnight. Like them he suffers horribly. I'll spoil the ending by saying he ends up inadvertently at the workshop of a bloke who used to build bike frames for Fausto Coppi and Eddie Merckx.

Now started The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton in which he spills the beans on his career as someone who tolerates pain - rode the Giro with a broken shoulder, grinding 11 teeth down to stumps and a Tour de France with a broken collarbone - and who also was a serial doper.

Written in 2012 when Lance had been outed but was still denying everything.

Finished Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven last night. It would make a great movie and there is a slight possibility this might happen. I thought there maybe a sequel too as there is a lot more to explore in those few weeks. There isn't but the author has written another, similar novel called Come Knocking. This time it's based in an immersive theatre experience in LA:

"In a ground-breaking theatrical experience gone horribly wrong, a deadly night reveals the dark consequences of blurring the lines between performance and reality.
When Come Knocking came to Los Angeles, the interactive theater production that took over six floors of an abandoned building was met with raves, lines for tickets, and reviews calling it the "must-see experience of a generation". After dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured during one bloody night of chaos during the show's run, the nation was captured by one inescapable question: How could this happen?
As the dust settles, investigative reporter Adam Jakes is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the massacre. Through a series of gripping interviews with survivors, cast members, and witnesses, Jakes pieces together the chilling reality behind what was supposed to be the ultimate theatrical experience."

It's done in interview style too. I enjoyed Fantasticland so I grabbed this to read next.

I've just grabbed a copy of Derek Shulman's Giant Steps book. I'll be reading that after Come Knocking.

Not bought exactly, but my Amazon Prime membership allows me to listen to 1 audible title, and you can change the selection once a month. Unlike an audible subscription though you don't get to keep access to the book if your Prime nembership ends.

Anyhoo - I have just changed my current selection to Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary.

Finished Come Knocking - good but not as good as Fantasticland. Just started Derek Shulman's Giant Steps last night but the 4th in The Children of Time series (Children of Strife) was released today, so I either bomb through Giant Steps first or bin it for now and start on the next Children of Time book. Hmm, not sure yet.

Couple of very good and searing critiques of neo-liberalism.

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine

George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison's The Invisible Doctrine. 

Fascinating reading (well listening)

I finished off Derek Shulman's Giant Steps: My Improbable Journey From Stage Lights To Executive Heights, last night. I did enjoy parts of the book - the early years were enlightening with the build up to Simon Dupree and the change in style to Gentle Giant. But it skimmed over the albums and didn't give enough detail about the songs themselves or even much on the band members of both Simon Dupree and Gentle Giant. The latter albums when GG went more mainstream were barely mentioned with some odd excuses as to why they didn't catch on. The rest of the book is about Derek's work with corporate record labels, which, while somewhat interesting, didn't pull me in as much as the Gentle Giant parts. Let's face it Gentle Giant were never a massive band but did inspire a cult following that continues to this day. If you didn't know much about GG beforehand, you'd think from this book that they were on a par with Genesis or Black Sabbath and duly he comes across as a bit too conceited, singing his own praises quite a lot; the more he states that the band were not pretentious, to me it smacks a bit of desperation.

I think a decent biography would make a better read, but with death of Ray Shulman potential information from the band members is diminishing. But I love the first 8 Gentle Giant albums and reading about them first hand from a band member really is a treat.

Just Started the 4th book in The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Strife. More animal antics abound.

I've started Fighter, Len Deighton's history of the Battle of Britain, first published in 1977. Deighton is best known as a writer of thrillers but this is immaculately researched and detailed.

He goes into the background and personal histories of the aircraft manufacturers, for example. And there's an explanation of the development of the monoplane, and the developments in the technologies that were needed to make it work - higher octane fuel, lighter alloys, new engine designs and so on.

Loads of detail on the various aircraft and how they came to be designed, right down to the guns they used. The Oerlikon cannon that fired through the nose of a Bf 109 was a modified Swiss anti-aircraft gun. Fascinating stuff.

Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Strife, my favourite of the series so far. 

Now on to David J Haskins'  - Who Killed Mister Moonlight? : Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction. Bauhaus have been one of my favourite bands from when I first started to listen to music seriously. My 3 main friends as a teen had such different tastes - one was into Genesis/Rush and that rubbed off on me, but the other 2 were mainly into punk/goth so their influences added to my listening too, particularly Killing Joke and Bauhaus. I've not really listened to much 'Love and Rockets' or 'Tones on Tail' either so that's something to look forward to.

Northampton's finest! I used to see Daniel Ash occasionally in the pubs in Northampton when he was in Tones on Tail.

Working my way (midway through no.3 at the moment) through the (so far!) 8 volumes of Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl books on Kindle.

Reading Kings's Some Like it Darker.. short stories.. bit hit n miss.. so far

Last night I finished David J Haskins'  - Who Killed Mister Moonlight? : Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction. The band insight was fascinating, not so much David's dabbling in the occult and magick (which is a big chunk of the middle of the book), but I did learn quite a bit about it all. I always felt they could have been a massive band had they continued on in the 80s but egos certainly seemed to get in the way.

Just started Cixin Liu's Ball Lightning.

Completed Cixin Liu's Ball Lightning. It may be my favourite of his so far. The ideas he comes up with are amazing and this one has some brilliant sci-fi content.

Next was Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism. Loosely linked short horror stories that's just a bit too weird for my tastes - some neat ideas though, just very odd.

Now I'm reading Cixin Liu's The Supernova Era - more great sci-fi here so far.

Quote from: pxr5 on May 28, 2026, 04:24:59 PMCompleted Cixin Liu's Ball Lightning. It may be my favourite of his so far. The ideas he comes up with are amazing and this one has some brilliant sci-fi content.

Next was Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism. Loosely linked short horror stories that's just a bit too weird for my tastes - some neat ideas though, just very odd.

Now I'm reading Cixin Liu's The Supernova Era - more great sci-fi here so far.

Should we start calling it Chi-Fi? Then again, that is used for Chinese produced hi-fi... Hmm..

I've been reading Matt Goodwin's Values, Voice and Virtue while on holiday. Matt is the former professor of politics who stood for Reform at Denton and Gorton.

This is a very well researched book which uses real data to explain the rise of the populist right in the West, and to show that the roots and causes of this go back quite some time before the 2016 referendum.

There's a faint rustle of tin foil when he discusses globalisation. He repeats himself a bit, and he uses American English spellings for some words, but not for others. Annoying. But overall it's very good.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Values-Voice-Virtue-British-Politics/dp/0141999098

Finished Cixin Liu's The Supernova Era. Not his best in my opinion. I got the feeling he became bogged down with a story he couldn't foresee how to finish. An interesting story for sure and some of the ideas posed are very thought-provoking but for me he got it completely wrong with how kids would react in such a situation.

Anyway, now reading Project Hail Mary after just seeing the movie. The film was excellent, but this book is better - lots more science and maths which makes more sense of the story. I suppose the movie was limited by time but it's nice to slow down and absorb the vision and ideas.

'Hunger' by Grace Dent has been stashed in the motorhome 'library' for some time. The wife bought it ages ago and started it but hasn't yet finished it. She said it was a good yarn, so yesterday I made a start on it myself. Finished it this afternoon.

An engrossing, human story told in a very amusing fashion. I've never been much of a fan of Grace but I have warmed to her quirky style presenting BBC's Masterchef. I like her even more now I've become familiar with her journey from rather humble beginnings to becoming a recognisable TV personality.

A very good read.

Always Moving: the Strange Multiverse of Voïvod by Jeff Wagner.

Wagner is both journalist and superfan. He uses the oral history format and fills the gaps himself. Need to start, it arrived yesterday.

It'll make a nice companion piece to Worlds Away: Voīvod and the art of Michel Lange in by Martin Popoff.

Just finished the audio book of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

Excellent - multiple storylines are uncovered as the main narrator and her fellow correspondents send letters and occasional emails to each other

Audio books properly done are made for books like this where each letter writer has higher own voice.

The only slight complaint is the "previous pages unsent" device. Apparently this is clearly indicated in the book itself but with the audio version you're not aware until the end of the letter which leaves you second guessing all the time.

Wuthering Heights. About time I read another classic.
Actually the idea came from a reading 'challenge' the paper I read published (read 10 books this summer). Fun idea (sort of) really:
1. a (rediscovered) classic - so that's Wuthering Heights then
2. a book out of your comfortzone - I chose Oroppa by Safae el Khannoussi
3. a book about summer love (which I made into a book that takes place in summer) - a Dutch classic Nooit meer Slapen (Beyond Sleep), by WF Hermans, another classic. I read some of his other work, not this one yet.
4. 2 books on 1 theme. Interpreted this very widely Ossenkop (Oxhead) by Manik Sarkar and Chita by Lafcadio Hearn. Both books are about isolation.
5. a book that was graded 5 stars in the newspaper (NRC) - Tandenjager (tooth hunter) - Auke Hulst (dutch literary again)
6. a book with polarising opinions - To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
7. a book that's been in the cupboard for years - Joe Speedboat - Tommy Wieringa
8. a book translated from a language you have not read before. Challenging, but I chose Italo Calvinho's - If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Translated from Italian.
9. A book under 150 opages - I chose the parting work of Dutch poet and writer Lieke Marsman, she passed some weeks ago sadly, much too young, from cancer. This is a fun read, inspired by Dante's Inferno describing the current political climate and state of the world.

So let's see how far I get. 6 of them I have as hard copy, 4 of them I read through my Kobo plus account.

Quote from: Thenop on July 24, 2026, 06:50:45 AMWuthering Heights. About time I read another classic.
Actually the idea came from a reading 'challenge' the paper I read published (read 10 books this summer). Fun idea (sort of) really:
1. a (rediscovered) classic - so that's Wuthering Heights then
2. a book out of your comfortzone - I chose Oroppa by Safae el Khannoussi
3. a book about summer love (which I made into a book that takes place in summer) - a Dutch classic Nooit meer Slapen (Beyond Sleep), by WF Hermans, another classic. I read some of his other work, not this one yet.
4. 2 books on 1 theme. Interpreted this very widely Ossenkop (Oxhead) by Manik Sarkar and Chita by Lafcadio Hearn. Both books are about isolation.
5. a book that was graded 5 stars in the newspaper (NRC) - Tandenjager (tooth hunter) - Auke Hulst (dutch literary again)
6. a book with polarising opinions - To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
7. a book that's been in the cupboard for years - Joe Speedboat - Tommy Wieringa
8. a book translated from a language you have not read before. Challenging, but I chose Italo Calvinho's - If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Translated from Italian.
9. A book under 150 opages - I chose the parting work of Dutch poet and writer Lieke Marsman, she passed some weeks ago sadly, much too young, from cancer. This is a fun read, inspired by Dante's Inferno describing the current political climate and state of the world.

So let's see how far I get. 6 of them I have as hard copy, 4 of them I read through my Kobo plus account.

Surprised you went for Tooth Hunter. 😁

Finished Project Hail Mary. Even if you've seen the excellent movie, this book is still worth a go.

Now back to Cixin Liu - a book of short stories called The Wandering Earth; it's as good as all his other stuff. There are actually 2 Chinese movies called The Wandering Earth (1 and 2) which I've got to watch. The book's version is very short and I think the film makers have taken the basic idea and forced it over 2 long movies somehow. Reading the synopsis of both the second film is more closely based on the book story:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7605074/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13539646/

Quote from: pxr5 on July 25, 2026, 09:54:41 PMFinished Project Hail Mary. Even if you've seen the excellent movie, this book is still worth a go.

Now back to Cixin Liu - a book of short stories called The Wandering Earth; it's as good as all his other stuff. There are actually 2 Chinese movies called The Wandering Earth (1 and 2) which I've got to watch. The book's version is very short and I think the film makers have taken the basic idea and forced it over 2 long movies somehow. Reading the synopsis of both the second film is more closely based on the book story:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7605074/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13539646/

The story is good, the movie on Netflix feels very long, but is well made and actually quite entertaining.