CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Still finishing "Willing Slaves": 40 pages to go.

Now reading "Never Had it So Good" by Dominic Sandbrook, purchased on Starwars Day 2013, being "A history of Britain from Suez to The Beatles".

Another 800 page tome.

The one good thing about CV is that I can't buy any more tomes.

<hiatus>

Well it must be said that it's rather a good read all in all.

<hiatus>

Now we'ver progressed to the Profumo affair, Christine Keeler, and Mandy Rice-Davies.

And on to MacMillan's resignation and his prostate op.

<hiatus>

The Beatles.

And with that, it's done with. 738 pages. Not counting the 150 pages of notes, bilbliography, and index.

Which I didn't read.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Lying in State" by Tim Slessor, being a collection of the finest lies emitted by the Establishment, starting with The Dodgy Dossier and the Hutton Report.

<hiatus>

And wending its weary way through the Chinook disaster, Diego Garcia, and other fine examples of Establishment lies.

Finally finished.

[BR14]

Salvation Lost

Peter F. Hamilton
nice thick book <for a nice thick poster*>

I do like escapist stuff.
sci-fi all the way for me





*pre-emptive twat baffler

[BlueSharp]

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles. Decent read can see it being turned into a movie in the Grand Budapest Hotel genre.

Sid Meier's MEMOIR! decent and entertaining read for those interested in computer games.

Final instalment of the Last Kingdom series, War Lord by Bernard Cornwell. An excellent conclusion to an excellent series.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"The former Miss Merthyr Tydfil and other stories" by Alun Richards (1976).

Not finding some of this particular book overly gripping.

Got through it in the end, some stories rather better than others and all very reminiscent of the valleys back in the 40s, 50s, & 60s.


"Wild Wales" by George Borrow, a victorian nutjob who walked all over the place, thinking nothing of walking 20 miles a day, and upsetting the natives whilst he was doing it.

I've only read the bits about the locality, which is about 50 pages or so of the 500 pages of small print. <= hard going

Here's the epic itself:

Wild Wales, by George Borrow

“Dear me! Ah, I see your honour knows all about Durham city. And now let me ask one question. How came your honour to Durham, city and county? I don’t think your honour is a Durham man either of town or field.”

“I am not; but when I was a little boy I passed through Durham county with my mother and brother to a place called Scotland.”

“Scotland! a queer country that, your honour!”

“So it is,” said I; “a queerer country I never saw in all my life.”

“And a queer set of people, your honour.”

“So they are,” said I; “a queerer set of people than the Scotch you would scarcely see in a summer’s day.”

“The Durham folks, neither of town or field, have much reason to speak well of the Scotch, your honour.”

“I dare say not,” said I; “very few people have.”

“And yet the Durham folks, your honour, generally contrived to give them as good as they brought.”

“That they did,” said I; “a pretty licking the Durham folks once gave the Scots under the walls of Durham city, after the scamps had been plundering the country for three weeks—a precious licking they gave them, slaying I don’t know how many thousands, and taking their king prisoner.”

“So they did, your honour, and under the command of a woman too.”

“Very true,” said I; “Queen Philippa.”

They speak of this:

Battle of Neville's Cross - Wikipedia


Finished on 25th Feb, oddly I read the book from back to front for no readily discernible reason.

Finally found out the story of the ecclesiastical cat in chapter 3 or 4.

It must be said that Borrow was not overly impressed with the parts of south Wales that he visited, such as Swansea, Neath, Merthyr, etc. being very industrialised compared with the north.

[Scoobos]

Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley.

Perhaps it's only of interest to beekeepers, but it's still an engrossing and amazing read.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Time Patrol" Poul Andersen.

It's a Baen paperback, so cheap & nasty.

Purchased on 22 April 2006.

Well there's a thing.

And I've very probably read all the stories before.

<hiatus>

Don't recall the novellas though.

<hiatus>

Took a while to get through the novella "Star of the Sea", it not being a short story.

Once I've read "The Year of the Ransom" that's Time Patrol done & dusted apart from the one story in a different book.

Finished due to insomnia.

[jainnode]

The Doors of Eden
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
this is entertaining IMHO

[NotAllThere]

Just finished Obama's autobiography. Fascinating account of recent history. Of course not entirely objective.

Now reading David Mitchell's. How shall I put this - quite funny and worth every penny!

[ladymuck]

Just started re-reading The Night Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko.

I read the original trilogy years ago and the fourth one that came along. I then picked up the fifth and sixth books but never read them (my Mum did at the time and she rather enjoyed them). Whilst I'm sure I don't really need to refamiliarise myself with the back story to appreciate books five and six, I felt I'd get more out of it if I did.

Just getting to the end of The Last Watch and then I'll finally be ready to read the last two books that I haven't previously read.