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CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: TBD "All our Todays": 40 years of the Today programme by Paul Donovan. Really up to the moment stuff. written in 1997. .
    Done. It became quite tedious towards the end.

    Lots of vaguely remembered names. 1997 being a long time ago, like. . I have no recollection whatever of Anna Ford being a presenter on Today.

    Next: TBD. "Dirty Words" by Mark Morton. Dunno how this one will go, it being about etymology.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 16 January 2023, 10:21.

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  • vetran
    replied
    Originally posted by Lost It View Post
    Just started on my Terry Pratchett collection again..... Sadly missed genius.
    I have converted them to audiobooks and when I have a long drive I can enjoy them.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: Lions donkeys & dinosaurs by Lewis Page: the impressive story of the MOD & their endless wasting of money.
    Done. He's really unimpressed with BAE & who can blame him? Equally unimpressed with the MOD.

    And quite why the armed forces are so top heavy is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma.

    Next: TBD. "Things can only get better" by John o'Farrell being a memoir of the glories of the Ditch the Bitch era.

    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 12 January 2023, 09:06.

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  • sadkingbilly
    replied
    rereading* the 'zones of thought' trilogy by Vernor Vinge.
    should keep me going for a while

    *cos I can't find any decent new Science Fiction. it all seems to be rehashes of old ideas. even the steampunk genre's become a sausage machine
    Last edited by sadkingbilly; 31 December 2022, 15:43.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post

    Done. Quite inneresting in its way, lots of places I've never heard of & dunno where they are.

    Next: "Drugs of Hallucination" by Sidney Cohen.

    Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
    Stone me that took a while to get through.

    Next: Lions donkeys & dinosaurs by Lewis Page: the impressive story of the MOD & their endless wasting of money.

    Buying Apache helicopters: instead of buying them at $11M each, build a production line in this countery & spend 4 times as much for each instead. You really couldn't make it up. Aparently it would have been a £1B cheaper to buy them off the septics & give the 750 Brits in the factory a £1M each in redundancy.

    Bit like the fatuous Chinook debacle.

    And the glories of the SA80. The M16 debacle had nothing on this turkey.

    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: TBD. "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre: read it before, once it's finished it'll be off to Oxfam.
    Got through that one quite quickly. .

    Next: TBD "All our Todays": 40 years of the Today programme by Paul Donovan. Really up to the moment stuff. written in 1997. .
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 13 December 2022, 10:36.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: "The Americans" by Alistair Cooke being a collection of Letters from America from 1969 to 1979.
    Done. For want of anything else that appealed, the Henry Kuttner "Ahead of Time" sufficed for the two remaining stories.

    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post

    Followed by "Ahead of Time" by Henry Kuttner, being an anthology. Amusing enough in parts, though in essence it's Golden Age type SF.
    Took an unexpectedly long time to finish: then again it's Golden Age (1940s/50s) and not one of my favourite authors.

    Apparently Neil Gaiman has had the collected stories of the Hogbens published as one volume.

    I think I'll give it a miss.

    Next: TBD. "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre: read it before, once it's finished it'll be off to Oxfam.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 4 November 2022, 14:55.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    For want of anything to watch on the idiot lantern this was plucked from its position on a bookshelf:

    "Redbeard" by Michael (Mike) Resnick, being the tale of a post apocalyptic post nuclear war New England populated by assorted mutants and "Normans".

    Amusing enough.

    1969. An early epic of his. I read and enjoyed "The Dark Lady" about 20 years (or more, probly a lot more) ago, whilst "Ivory" sits on a shelf somewhere awaiting attention.

    An easy read compared with some of the crap I read.

    Which didn't take long to finish.

    Followed by "Ahead of Time" by Henry Kuttner, being an anthology. Amusing enough in parts, though in essence it's Golden Age type SF.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 9 October 2022, 22:19.

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  • Lost It
    replied
    Just started on my Terry Pratchett collection again..... Sadly missed genius.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post

    Next: "Secret Britain: Unearthing our mysterious past" by Mary-Anne Ochota. Somewhat lighter in tone but heavier in weight than the Stonehenge tome.
    Done. What a lot of stones. And bones.

    Next: "The Americans" by Alistair Cooke being a collection of Letters from America from 1969 to 1979.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    "Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey" by Nicholas Schaeffner

    No idea when I bought it but it was written in 1991, published 1992.
    Done. Mildly inneresting in its way. Our Rog & Our Dave really didn't like each other much back then. .

    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    "A brief history of Stonehenge" by the recently late Aubrey Burl (1926 - 2020). Mostly Sais free I'd have thunk since they didn't start turning up until about 400 AD and it would appear that those who built it buggered off before the Celts turned up.
    Done. Took a while but got there in the end, though there're still a few pages of notes that I probably won't bother with.

    Another tome that'll be off to the Oxfam bookshop in due course.

    Next: "Secret Britain: Unearthing our mysterious past" by Mary-Anne Ochota. Somewhat lighter in tone but heavier in weight than the Stonehenge tome.

    From appearances it would seem to be a present of some description.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 18 September 2022, 14:13.

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