Reading matter

[HarperPR]

A quarter of Brits apparently have not read a book in the past year and nearly half admit to lying about their reading to appear more intelligent (shocking!).

So what literary tomes are we all delving into? My last was Eric Clapton's autobiog just before Xmas.

[critch]

A quarter of Brits apparently have not read a book in the past year and nearly half admit to lying about their reading to appear more intelligent (shocking!).

So what literary tomes are we all delving into? My last was Eric Clapton's autobiog just before Xmas.

Currently reading "Reinforced Concrete Design to Eurocode 2". Excellent read, informative and compelling. NOT!

I've read recently, "Storms of Silence" - Joe Simpson, "The Gun Seller" - Hugh Laurie, and I'm just in the middle of "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know" - Ranulph Fiennes.

[pd]

I've just finished the latest (and possibly last) Ian Rankin "Rebus" novel "Exit Music". I'm starting the second of Jim Butchers "Dresden Files" novels, then it's on to "The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski, translated into English (Polish author) which might sound highbrow but it's actually a magic/fantasy book I want to read as I'm playing the PC game based on the same works, "The Witcher".

In between times I dip into the Silmarillion from time to time (can't read it in one go) and also have the "Do Ants Have Arseholes" book that I was bought for xmas for reading in the bath/toilet...

[dave w]

I recently read "Keep it together" a history of the Deviants & Pink Fairies.
Not a bad read - a few errors let it down for me (i.e. the Bickershaw festival was in Lincolnshire - I don't think so).
Also read the Russell Brand book, to see what the fuss was about.
before xmas I got through a couple of collections of Phil K Dick short stories - I'd recommend them highly (Turning wheel was one of them)

White Bicylces by Joe Boyd is very readable as is Dazzling Stranger (about Bert Jansch but spanning most of the early 60s folk era) - there's quite a few interviews with that Roy Harper in there.

[Shane]

my reading went out the window a couple of years ago when i got broadband. i dont have regular access anymore though (outside work) and so im hoping to read a lot more this year.

Currently reading Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks, the neurologist. Its his autobiography. i've read a load of brian aldiss books over the last year or so, i can't get enough of his books. Luckily he has dozens of them.

[aspwatterson]

Can't beat for intellectual brainstorming across the whole spectrum of science / religion , everything :

What's your dangerous idea?
John Brockman
<edge.org>
Afterword by D Hawkins

aw

[SteveT]

Saul Bellow's The Victim at the moment. Soon to be followed by Earth Abides by George R Stewart. A friend has just passed this to me with his recommendation. Normally I would run a mile from anything that hints at being Science Fiction so if anyone knows anything about this bloke/book I'd be interested to hear it.

[Travellerman]

I am sad to say that I hardly have time to read at all these days (actually loads of, but used in other ways). That said the last was 'Typee' by Melville (Taipivai is about an hours drive from me now). Before that, it was Pamela Stephensons book about sailing to Samoa, not the best book, but as I was heading there too....

I guess 90% of what I read is travel related (surprisingly enough!) , sad to read of Eric Newby's death last year, I really liked his books.

[SHAUN I]

I agree with the findings I too dont read half as much as I should/would due to extended computer sit ins, however I have managed to read a few books in the last few weeks mainly due to a 3 week break over Xmas.
I recently aquired "The Real Frank Zappa Book" by frank Zappa and Peter occhiogrosso, which I have duly mentioned in the off topic forum recently, an excellent read if you are among the initiated Zappa persuasion, also Zappa related I have recently finished Academy Zappa by Ben Watson a feted journey into conceptual continuity and everything you wanted to know about poodle matters.

Finally a must for all html lovers - html, xhtml and css 6th edition no less, by Elizabeth Castro, for all you webpage worshippers an absolute steal at £21.99...

[scotpaulabear]

Finished "The Time Traveler's Wife" not that long ago and adored it - love the way it plays fast and loose with the notions of passing time and soulmates...

Just now, reading "Of Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North" by the mighty Stuart Maconie, I love it but need more time to enjoy it!

Next up, probably the study of My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" album I bought Big D for Christmas cos he's done with it. :biggrin:

[Kenny_Wisdom]

A quarter of Brits apparently have not read a book in the past year and nearly half admit to lying

It was "Hound Dog; The Elvis Story".

Well, that was just a lie. :biggrin:

Last book proper was "A Star Called Henry" by Roddy Doyle - absolutely adored it. It reads in one turn like complete blarney and in the next you suddenly feel that you are reading something of the same magnitude as Homer! It's an incredible piece of writing. I haven't read the sequel yet - this just left me too exhausted and in awe. It's set against the back drop of early twentieth century Ireland.

Have only picked up text books since.

[pete c]

I've read the sequel, Oh Play that Thing. It's set in America and features Louis Armstrong quite heavily, theres a lot of good stuff about racial attitudes. The Henry Smart stuff is meant to be a trilogy isn't it? Those books are great, it's time I read A Star Called Henry again.

My last book was Probably Mark Billingham, The Burning Girl. Read a few Rankins recently, John Peel's biography & the Nick Drake book by that bald bloke.

Stuart Maconie is ace too. I've read Cider with Roadies, not got round to "Pies" yet, though I'll obviously identify with it, it's set in my back yard. :-)

My memory is getting really bad.....

[fickle_Witch]

paula, loved loved loved time travellers wife!! i cried!

i have david copperfield, mind over mood and reinventing your life work books (that i am avoiding) something about keeping brackish fish, secrets of tantra, buddhist mother, 365 tao daily meditations (this one is expected to take a year ;) ), harry potter and chamber of secrets (with kids, i've read it before) and awakening to the tao.
i read 2 books a week at the moment, sometimes i might read more, sometimes less, but i aim for 4 books a month.
oh the joys of mania! lol

amor mundi

hatty :)

[scotpaulabear]

paula, loved loved loved time travellers wife!! i cried!

Hiya Hatt! It's been too long :seeya:
And I haven't read a book that got to me that much in AGES! What an amazing work...

[Marcie]

I'm not much of a reader, but the last book I really enjoyed was "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. That is an extraordinary book and as an animal lover, I especially appreciated it.

I'm trying to get into Stephen King's "It" right now.. not having much luck due to a heavy work schedule and also getting ready for my other half's arrival this Sunday, from the UK.

[fickle_Witch]

Hiya Hatt! It's been too long :seeya:
And I haven't read a book that got to me that much in AGES! What an amazing work...

it was! i had started writing something when i read that and never went back to it, how could i compare!! lol have you read stephenie meyers books? quite brilliant for teenfic, espeshly if you like vampires!
hope you are well my lovely, any chance of seeing you back down this way? i make a mean curry :p
started reading the latest brian lumley one, the touch, last night as i couldnt find davy (that i since found this morning :angry: ) and tho i love brians work, found it a bit hard to get into.
back to davy!!

amor mundi

hatty :)

[fickle_Witch]

I'm not much of a reader, but the last book I really enjoyed was "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. That is an extraordinary book and as an animal lover, I especially appreciated it.

I'm trying to get into Stephen King's "It" right now.. not having much luck due to a heavy work schedule and also getting ready for my other half's arrival this Sunday, from the UK.

i read It and it took me longer than any other king novel! i dont think he could improve on salems lot tho for fear, i've never been so scared since reading that, alone in my flat, aged 17. i remember the door bell going and not being able to answer it as i was too scared to go into the hall!
(why did i just admit to that?? :rofl:)
his best book has to be running man, a book that didnt detract from the film or the other way around!

amor mundi

hatty :)

[HarperPR]

I tried The TT's Wife when it first came out as the theme appealed, but couldn't get it to it.

I'm interested in one I've seen called The Shakespeare Secret, but doubt I'll be reading anything bar online forums, press releases and file copy for the next few months!

[HarperPR]

Above should have read 'couldn't get into it'.

[aspwatterson]

A quarter of Brits apparently have not read a book in the past year and nearly half admit to lying about their reading to appear more intelligent (shocking!).

So what literary tomes are we all delving into? My last was Eric Clapton's autobiog just before Xmas.


Advertised recently, looks good...will try and precis the review when got more time

Sex, Science & Profits
How people evolved to make money
By Terence Kealey
Heinemann £20 pp445

[aspwatterson]

Advertised recently, looks good...will try and precis the review when got more time

Sex, Science & Profits
How people evolved to make money
By Terence Kealey
Heinemann £20 pp445


"What does marijuana tell us about the government funding of science? Well, a vast amount of taxpayers' money around the world is spent on agricultural research to improve yields. Yet, according to Terence Kealey, pot-growers manage nicely without that aid and have developed ever stronger and ever more disease resistant strains of mind-blowing potency.

The case of the Cannabis cultivators is charactersitic of the irrevaerance and eclecticism that make Sex, Science & profits such an absorbing read. The author who is a clinical biochemist at the University of Buckingham, seeks to demolish the myth that the advancement of scientific learning depends in any way on government intervention.

Four centuries ago, Francis Bacon wrote that the benefits inventors confer extend to the whole human race. Economists deem science to be what they call a public good, that is, a good of general benefit for which it is impossible to caharge. What the market can't charge for, say the economists, the market won't provide. They go on to claim that scientintific and technological progress will be arrested unless the government provides funds for pure research and companies are rewarded with patents for innovations in applied science. It is also often suggested that government funding of science drives technology which, in turn generates economic growth.

Kealey disagrees. Rather than science driving technology, the opposite is true. The great inventors in Britain's industrial revolution including the steam-engine pioneers Thomas Newcomen and Richard Trevithick were not fellows of the Royal Society. They were barely literate artisans who found intuitive solutions to practical problems [in Newcomen's case, how to remove water from Cornish tin mines]. Technological breakthroughs often science. At the moment of its invention, the steam engine designed by James Watt disobeyed the laws of contemporary physics.

Where property rights are protected and markets are allowed to thrive, technology and science advance together. Merchants invented writing and mathematics in Babylonian times in order to keep their accounts. Science stagnated through the anti-commercial Middle Ages but re-emerged in in renaissance Italy, along with commercial inventions, such as double-entry book-keeping, bille of exchange and banking. Kealey identifies the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which guaranteed property rights and the rule of parliament, as the key moment in Britain's scientific and industrial revolutions. Free markets and competition spur technological innovation and economic progress. Patents are not necessary to drive research and development. Companies, says Kealey will innovate in order to differentiate their products and boost profits even without patent protection. Philips, one of th e largest electronics concerns, was founded in Holland in the 19th century at a time when the Dutch had dispensed with patent laws. During the same period Swiss chocolatiers innovated successfully despite the absence of domestic patent protection. Many of the great technological advances wern't made for the love of money but spurred by joy of invention. Today, computer sciencetists around the world provide their expertise without charge to develop open-source computer programs, such as Linux opearting system.

Technology and science advance by copying. Yet patents hinder copying, prevent competition and therby reduce innovation. That leads to slower economic growth. James Watt's fierce enforcement of his patents held backthe development of steam technology for 25 years, says Kealey. During the first world war the American government decided to suspend the aeronautical patents held by the Wright Brothers in order to promote aircraft innovation. From 1917 to 1975 American aircraft companies collectively pooled their patents. That didn't stop Boeing from becoming the leading aircraft manufacturer in the world. Kealey also maintains that the motor industry took off only after Henry Ford breached the patents held by an automobile consortium. A key feature of Apple's iPOd, which has revolutionised the world of digital music, was taken from a competitor's product.

What about the government's funding of pure science? That's also unjustified, says Kealey. For a start, the distinction betweenpure and applied science is artificial. Scientists at Bell Labs, the research institute of the telephone giant AT&T discovered the science of radioastronomy and developed the first semiconductors. In America, IBM boasts the second largest output of published academic papers after Havard University. Furthermore, there is some evidence that government funding of science leads to less private research. In the 1980's Mrs Thatcher was attacked for cutting the British government's science grants. Yet private companies stepped into the breach. As a result, spending on research and development in the UK actually increased.

Scientists have long claimed that science was suffering from the lack of public funds. In 1830, Charles Babbage, the supposed father of the computer, published The Decline of Science in Britian. But the following year, as Kealey points out, Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction and Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle. The great advances of Victorian science occurred without government support.

Sex, Science & Profits is a glorious idiosyncratic work. In developing his argument, Kealey discusses among other matters, the banking system of Ptolemaic Egypt, game theory, 12th century windmills, the mating of hump-backed whales, and the functioning of ball-valve flushing lavatories. His intellectual enthusiasm is infectious - one is half persuaded when he writes that it is impossible to read WH Long's article The Low Yields Of Corn in Medieval England withou astonishment. His approach is polemical, witty and fearless. Only once does he wobble, when admitting that drug research is now so expensive and time-consuming that patent protection may be justified.

In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith claimed that the public interest was best served when the government ceased attempting to direct the economy.
Kealey has brilliantly extended his hero Smith's argument to the worl of science, which like that of commerce, involves much truck, barter and exchange. The wtin trends of globilisation and digitalisation have enormously benefited certain holders on intellectual property rights, such a Bill Gates's Microsoft. We need an informed debate on the extent to which those windfall gains are deserved. Sex, Science & Profits provides an excellent start"


timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article671701.ece


aw

[HarperPR]

Half way through this. Rather in a similar vein to The Da Vinci Code. It's theme is who really wrote the Shakespeare plays, and anyone who likes a good thriller/mystery coupled with historical fact in a contemporary setting will probably enjoy.

[fickle_Witch]

i saw this in tescos the other day and i fought buying it as a) i have a shelf full of stuff unread b) am reading so much at the mo anyways and c) i have been told if i want to move in a year we need to save £20,000 in that time and every £ counts :angry:

library it is!

[HarperPR]

Libraries are good! That's where I got mine as I have so often bought books and then found I didn't like it when I got a chapter or two in.

[fickle_Witch]

yeah, until the memory of when it has to be returned/renewed by falls out of my head and i end up with a large fine! :blushing:

[aspwatterson]

[QUOTE=HarperPR;1832]Libraries are good! That's where I got mine as I have so often bought books

'I hear voices' written by a scizophrenic for shizophrenics.
If you can read past the first few pages and your mind doen't start swimming and feeling wierd then you are definitely diagnosed as being a potential schizophrenic. It's true, believe me!!


chrs
andipandikissedthegirlsandmadethemcry

[aspwatterson]

Quite heavy going, probably because of translation where sometimes you think they've used slightly the wrong word in the context. Dark forboding of European wars on the horizon...Germany invading Chezchslovakia and the Spanish problem. Insightful character sketchs though but quite morose. Might have to read something happy next to restore my positivity again?

andi

[aspwatterson]

It was "Hound Dog; The Elvis Story".

Well, that was just a lie. :biggrin:

Last book proper was "A Star Called Henry" by Roddy Doyle - absolutely adored it. It reads in one turn like complete blarney and in the next you suddenly feel that you are reading something of the same magnitude as Homer! It's an incredible piece of writing. I haven't read the sequel yet - this just left me too exhausted and in awe. It's set against the back drop of early twentieth century Ireland.

Have only picked up text books since.


Picked this up from the library on your recommendation and , yes, it is compulsive reading that I'll have to forget the rest of other boring business for the rest of the day!

aw :banghead::52::3:

[aspwatterson]

Do you ever get that feeling when reading a good book that you can't wait to get to the end and are tempted to read the ending first? Also when you've finished the book having been immersed in it for days with your outside life on hold it's quite sad when the experience comes to an end. A certain sort of finality like getting on a plane and hoping it don't crash as you say goodbye to your loved ones.


andy

[aspwatterson]

Have read this book now and would thoroughly recommend it to any of you-hoo! Have been told to go and read The Commitments by him now by another friend....

Coincidentally on Page 222 [in the hardback edition] the transcript reads :

" -Name those birds making a racket
-That's a lark, the contrary one. And there are robins right on top of us.
-There's an owl at his dinner;I can hear him gulping on the fur.
-Missel thrushes
-There's a fecker in there I don't know
-It's a stormcock; there he goes. "

andi :drool5::8:

[HarperPR]

Any good reads going on, guys? I want to stock up for Christmas, being as how I'm usually bored rigid by Xmas night! I am looking for either an easy bit of chick-lit in the vein of Sophie Kinsella, an interesting biog or something that I can learn from.

Have just read Peter Ackroyd's biog of Edgar Allan Poe (Poe: A Life Cut Short. Short book too - read in two sittings.:D). Am half way through Philip Norman's Lennon biog, and same with Michael Bond's Paddington: Here And Now (okay...okay! But it's nice to go back to childhood occasionally!:blushing:)

[wobbly bob]

i go through phases of reading quite a bit, then i can go for years without reading a book. i mainly used to read if i wanted to learn something new-'how to' books, and the like.
i very occasionally buy a local paper, but that too can be years from buying one to buying the next.

i am currently in a bit of a reading phase. irvine welsh, if you're interested. i also like (auto)biographies, and detective thrillers, such as Ed McBain's books. pretty low-brow for the most part, i'm sure you'll agree, but it's not meant to be a pissing contest, is it...?

[HarperPR]

Yes, I like a bit of the detective-mystery-thriller stuff. Love Peter James. He used to do a good line in the supernatural genre, then switched to crime. He sets them in Brighton and it's fun being able to identify the landmarks. I'm sure the Levellers are going to crop up one day!:D I like Mary Higgins Clark too.

Never got into Ed McBain but did read some of his works writing as Evan Hunter.

[Travellerman]

Laurie Lee - I Can't Stay Long, a nice collection of essays from his travels around Europe.

I'm amazed by his constant use of metaphor and simile. It makes me feel like a hungry man gorging on red wine and chocolate; a rich, sensual and evocative read.

:D

[wobbly bob]

i quite like books (or telly versions, thereof) set in places i know. hence the irvine welsh stuff, and also rebus! i just love it when one of the characters walks into a boozer i know... sad, but true!

[Shane]

I reading "another country" by james baldwin at the moment. Its really boring and a drag to read but i hate giving up on books. it'll probably take me another week to get through the last 60 pages. Yesterday i picked up the four volumes of Gene Wolfe's "Book of the new sun" series and i cant wait to get started on that.

Reading highlights of the year for me were all old books:

Michael Moorcock - his Pyat series, great stuff
Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
Marcus Goodrich - Delilah
Gene Wolfe - Peace

[NoCelebrity]

Roy mentioned some authors in his Taiwan newspaper interview.

If you like murder mysteries also, I'll re-recommend sci-fi author Isaac Asimov's "ROBOT" series. EARTH Cop/detective Lije Baley teams up with SPACER robot Daneel Olivaw to solve a murder and ease tensions between Earth (who banned Robots) and Spacers (who rely on Robots). It's old but a classic.

I hate almost all biographies because that used to be the most common gift I got from my siblings. Why would I want to read about someone they admire when they don't have time to spend with me when I'm done? I'm not interested in modeling my life after a stranger, either.

I love science books, mystery, humor, and classic sci-fi (Zelazny is my other favorite, the A to Z of sci-fi. Asimov's fiction derives from hard science, Zelazny blends in a lot of dark Fantasy).

[wobbly bob]

there's a guy i work with who forces himself to read 'classics'. he struggles to get through them, and doesn't enjoy them, but he puts himself through it because he thinks it'll make him smarter, (which it might) and appear smarter and more cultured to others (it doesn't)... shame....

[HarperPR]

Whilst I was in WH Smith the other day (looking for a good book!) at Brent X, I almost fell over Maureen Lipman doing a book signing. I took a sharp swing round an aisle and came upon her at a little table. Business didn't seem too brisk - she only had 2 people there! I didn't buy either. Just got Darryn Lyons (the head pap from Big Pictures) biog - looking for tips! :D

[wobbly bob]

i'd have gone for the lipman book, and got it signed. she's a talented and funny actress, (and was, maybe still is for all i know, kind of hot) and paparazzi are parasitic filth... !

[HarperPR]

Mmm, yes, she is a good actress but book didn't appeal. I did read both of Sheila Hancock's, and the first in particular about her life with John Thaw was terribly moving.

Darryn Lyons is as wild as his name! A big Aussie with a shock of pink Mohican! (I said biog, it is in fact an auto one!) What you have to bear in mind that a fair proportion of papped shots are set up with the subject in advance. Often with their taking a cut, or at least having some control over when and where snapped in order to best suit them.

[wobbly bob]

Mmm, yes, she is a good actress but book didn't appeal. I did read both of Sheila Hancock's, and the first in particular about her life with John Thaw was terribly moving.

Darryn Lyons is as wild as his name! A big Aussie with a shock of pink Mohican! (I said biog, it is in fact an auto one!) What you have to bear in mind that a fair proportion of papped shots are set up with the subject in advance. Often with their taking a cut, or at least having some control over when and where snapped in order to best suit them.

yeah, i once saw a programme on telly with sheila hancock talking about her life with john thaw (possibly a plug for the book)-i would like to read that, too!

i think i've seen the guy with the mohican on tv... i'm kind of down on the whole fake celeb/pap thing altogether. i don't even know who most of these 'celebs' are, never mind what, if anything, they do to justify their 'celebrity' status. i just find the whole thing rather naff..and really, really sad! but there you go...that's just me, i guess..

[HarperPR]

Didn't think I'd have time for reading, but have got engrossed in Franny Moyle's Desperate Romantics, which is an account of the lives of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and been propping my eyes open at 3am to dip into it. Intriguing stuff. Have loved that art form for many many years.

[Travellerman]

The last book I read was my friends :biggrin: (he even aknowledged me in the intro', a nice gesture).

Tales from the road, and of internal paradigm shifts as a result of an experience at a Peruvian shamanic ceremony (or was he now simply seeing the world for how it really was...?)

http://www.lulu.com/content/4260227

[SHAUN I]

Tales from the road, and of internal paradigm shifts as a result of an experience at a Peruvian shamanic ceremony (or was he now simply seeing the world for how it really was...?)

Just a little light reading then Steve! :biggrin:

[Travellerman]

I thought it was :biggrin:

[pete c]

Robert Newman "The Fountain at the Centre of the world"

Our Hidden Lives - The Diaries of Post War Britain"

both very good indded.

[wobbly bob]

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Have loved that art form for many many years.

i prefer them paintings of chubby redheads, myself!

i've just started jools holland's autobiography... so far, so good! that's not the title, btw...

[HarperPR]

i prefer them paintings of chubby redheads, myself!

Well, the PRB were noted for their red-haired 'stunners'!

This book was a JGR (Jolly Good Read). One amusing anecdote in it was that when they set up a studio together and put 'PRB' on the doorbell, they said that the initiated would know what it stood for while those who didn't thought it would simply be ' Please Ring Bell'. Later, a friend of Walter Deverell, one of the artists and a bit of a sex-god, commented that for him PRB stood for 'Penis Rather Better'!

:biggrin:

Have now gone onto 'The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy Of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey'.

[wobbly bob]

many laughs in it?

[SHAUN I]

I'm currently reading a book a friend gave me called Academy Zappa, Proceedings of the First International Conference of Esemplastic Zappology! Quite a good read so far.. :conehead: :sifone:

[Travellerman]

Just a little light reading then Shaun! :biggrin: :wink:

[bigchris]

Well I haven't bought the Sports news paper for years ( It does really have some good sports pages !! ) .... in fact I haven't bought ANY newspaper for yonks ... but today I wanted to buy a copy of something to see if anyone could make their write-up of Barnsley's boring match on Saturday any way interesting ! I could have picked any newspaper ... but something drew me to the Sunday Sport ...

[ NOTE : Do NOT read this, if you are easily offended !!!! ]

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ypT7OaNHvKlR1pKEWe2XtA?feat=directlink

[scotpaulabear]

No comment :D

[Travellerman]

Aha... my current reading material and a gift from a cousin "What color is your parachute?"

[SHAUN I]

Just a little light reading then Shaun! :biggrin: :wink:
It's pretty amazing Steve, I'm on a chapter called "Xenoarrangements or Insane Hard-Core Fanatic Not Inclined To Come Out Of his Own Monomaniacal World" Discussing the musical techniques of Zappa, Xenochrony, but this time with guitar solo's and not drum rythm's :biggrin: No wonder some people think I'm on another planet when I say I'm into Roy Harper & Frank Zappa!

Normal People Worry Me...:sifone:

[HarperPR]

many laughs in it?

It's real life, mate...ain't a lot of laughs in history...plenty of sex and intrigue though!:biggrin:

[Travellerman]

It's real life, mate...plenty of sex and intrigue though!:biggrin:

Wish my 'real life' was like that :D

[wobbly bob]

plenty of sex would be good. i'll pass on the intrigue, though...

[wobbly bob]

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ypT7OaNHvKlR1pKEWe2XtA?feat=directlink

i never but a newspaper, apart from the occasional chronicle, but that 'newspaper' is just genius! i sometimes see it at work. i think the wife would kill me if i brought it into the house, mind you...

[HarperPR]

A book for cat lovers - and especially owners!

http://www.tom-cox.com/

And click on his Blogs and read The Little Cat Diaries.

[aspwatterson]

A very well behaved cat died and God said that because he had been so good on Earth he could have a wish come true in Heaven. The cat asked for a nice big fluffy pillow and it duly arrived.

Six mice were similarly pious throughout their life spans living humbly under the floorboards of a monastery and when they died God asked them if they had any wishes to reward them.

They all asked for rollerskates to have fun in Heaven.

God some time later went back to the cat and asked if he was enjoying the big fluffy pillow. He said " The pillow was amazing and was really pleased with the recent supply of delicious meals on wheels as a bonus".

c/a:biggrin:

[pete c]

cats are evil.

[HarperPR]

Anyone read Mark Everett's book Things The Grandchildren Should Know?

Any good? Has been recommended to me so may hunt it down. It sounds daaarrk!

[Travellerman]

Current reading: A ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia - Frederick Gustavus Burnaby

[Shane]

does anyone else use goodreads (http://goodreads.com)? I dont use it for social networking so much as keeping a nerdish list of all the books im reading.

[aspwatterson]

Probably on The Times on line by now, don't know haven't checked...
article in the Saturday Review supplement The 100 best books of the decade featured/listed.


c/a

[HarperPR]

And I bet there's not one piece of chick lit in that list!:biggrin: Sometimes you just want an easy read, not all highbrow stuff. That said, currently reading (at 3am and beyond) Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista by Amy Silver.

[wobbly bob]

Anyone read Mark Everett's book Things The Grandchildren Should Know?

Any good? Has been recommended to me so may hunt it down. It sounds daaarrk!

yes, and yes! brilliant book. read it in 2 goes, which is a record for me, as i'm not a big reader. in fact, if i hadn't started reading it late in the day, i reckon i'd have done it in one go!

[pete c]

Anyone read Mark Everett's book Things The Grandchildren Should Know?

Any good? Has been recommended to me so may hunt it down. It sounds daaarrk!

I'm reading it now. As a longtime EELS fan I already knew E's family history, and dark it is indeed. But all that is lightened by his eternal determination to, and I paraphrase, do what he loves or die. The full story of how he got, and lost, record deals, and some of the characters involved makes a great read. I didn't know that hearing Portishead for the first time steered him towards his "new sound" which resulted in Novocaine, Susan's House etc. I remember hearing "Novocaine" when it came out and thinking just how different it sounded at the time.

Sad but great.

[HarperPR]

I started it on the weekend too! Let's have a book club.:D My friend told me there was 'lots of deaths' and darkness in it and when you read the opening paragraphs - phew! But there's lightness too and Everett puts it together well.

[pete c]

Just finished it. It's not the biggest book in the world but it really drew me in. Fair play to the guy, it's a great read & really touching.

Guess I don't need to send you my copy then as I was going to, if you've got your own...

[SHAUN I]

Cheers for the recommendations, I will try to track it down too!

I'm currently reading a book called HEAT by Bill Buford (Not Bruford): "An amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta maker and apprentice to a butcher in Tuscany" Great reading, no darkness in this one as yet though! :biggrin:

[Shane]

I read Bill Bruford's Autobiography last week, its excellent, one of the better music books ive read. As well as entertaining anecdotes about various musicians he has worked with it has interesting insights in to the music business, life on the road, technology and stuff. Theres also an amusing paragraph about roy harper.

[HarperPR]

My next read:

http://www.lep.co.uk/bookreviews/Coming-Home--Melanie-Rose.5965528.jp

But over Xmas, and in a completely different vein, read Tracy Borman's Elizabeth's Women about the women surrounding the Virgin Queen. A good read.

I did wonder whether her secretary might be an ancestor of someone here! She locked him in the Tower for issuing the death warrant for Mary Queen of Scots before allegedly having given the order. His name? William Davison.

[pete c]

Read loads of good books lately, thanks to my lovely sister and equally lovely charity shops...

some of them:

Romanitas / Rome Burning by Sophia McDougall: Imagine if the Roman Empire were still the superforce, these are the first two books in a trilogy, reviews on amazon are mixed but I really enjoyed these big books.

White Bicycles by William Boyd : This man has lived! Starting with the jazz era and first Newport festivals, through some intriguing memories of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport & Incredible String Band. Rightly regarded as a classic music book.

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith : The author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series writing about life in and around a tenement block in Edinburgh. Four books so far with a fifth to follow, made up of stories previously printed in daily instalments in The Scotsman. A host of characters, all with their own endearing (or otherwise) foibles and personality traits, laced through with McCall Smith's intense intelligence and wisdom. Just finished the 4th book and I'm missing them already.

All highly recommended. Maybe I should get out more.....

Love
Pete

[aspwatterson]

Someone recommended I read The end of Mr Y? Anyone else read it?

andi

[SteveT]

I've just finished Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked. It got me wondering who the "Duncan Thomson" of Stormcock is.

:wink: :D

[HarperPR]

I'm reading it now. As a longtime EELS fan I already knew E's family history, and dark it is indeed. But all that is lightened by his eternal determination to, and I paraphrase, do what he loves or die. The full story of how he got, and lost, record deals, and some of the characters involved makes a great read. I didn't know that hearing Portishead for the first time steered him towards his "new sound" which resulted in Novocaine, Susan's House etc. I remember hearing "Novocaine" when it came out and thinking just how different it sounded at the time.

Sad but great.

Anyone not watching Cameroon v Netherlands next Thursday 24, may be interested in BBC4 9pm where they are showing Mark Everett's Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives again. Well worth a view.

[HarperPR]

Nick would have made a good subject for this - especially as the author is the wife of Dylan Howe!
http://bit.ly/9Nif85

[HarperPR]

Going through a book called Richard by Ben Myers, which is a fictionalised account of the life of the Manics' Richey Edwards.

His disappearance has always been of interest to me, along with the 'sightings' that crop up every so often like with the Lucan case, and I was keen to see how Myers would go about it. What he has done is mix a first person narrative with a third person viewpoint of events. As he is also a poet, the writing style takes a more visionary stance so you can read it as a work of literature without being a Manics fan necessarily.

One funny paragraph, which may not please Levellers fans, has Nicky Wire having a pop at Edwards when seeing him having a spliff:
"He shakes his head.
- If it was smack I wouldn't mind. At least some great songs were written about smack. But weed? It'll rot your brain. Turn you into a Levellers fan."

[Barry]

Just started reading James Lee Burke, Cadillac Jukebox I really enjoyed.

[aspwatterson]

Remember reading this non-stop a few years ago :

http://www.amazon.com/Chymical-Wedding-Lindsay-Clarke/dp/0449001180

Andi the Green Man [mental alchemist]

[aspwatterson]

Good to revisit old un's again for a bit of an uplift. If you can't do it anymore then why not get a buzz just by reading about it?

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

Andi

[aspwatterson]

My two favourite books with pics of all time! What's yours?

[SHAUN I]

I have two books on the go at the moment, the first is Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa, by Pauline Butcher, the second is a signed copy of Beefheart Through the Eyes of Magic, written by ex-Beefheart drummer John "Drumbo" French, both are actually very hard to put down.

http://a3.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/113/7fe3f2ded46b4d0d913d62005077269e/m.jpg

The Magic Band are playing at The Continental next month, in my home town of Preston, last time I was there was to see Nick. Drumbo sings the Captain's vocals these days, and I must say, he does a brilliant job!

JxON-4ekqW4

[Uriel]

Last novel I've read is Incompetence by Rob Grant. I can't remember laughing so much and so regularly at a book.