CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Donkeys" by that Alan Clark chap, celebrating the genius of Kitchener, French, and, of course, dear old Dougie "Butcher" Haig.

Next: "Code Breaker in the Far East" by Alan Stripp. Put out in a bit of a rush in 1989 when The Demented Margaret aka "The Great She Elephant" aka "Attila the Hen" was still upset about Spy Catcher & wanted to stop anyone who had worked in the field from writing about it by changing the Official Secrets Act.

[woohoo]

I know this is thread is for books but how about Audio books.

I can recommend the following, pretty funny, great for walks or the gym.

We are Legion (We are Bob) - appeals to the software developer side of me, but the narration makes this book entertaining.
Carl's Doomsday Scenario - give it a chance the first 10 mins are like this is pathetic but turns into a fantastic listen.
Project Hail Mary - similar style to we are legion, entertaining and funny.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey" by Nicholas Schaeffner

No idea when I bought it but it was written in 1991, published 1992.

This is the fourth book in the currently reading liist.

Some of them are proving to be quite a sloooooow read.

The Stonehenge book is amazingly successful at sending me to sleep, there being a limit to the innerest one is able to show in dolerite, rhyolite, and sarsens, Q and R stones, and Aubrey holes. .

Oooooo, almost getting to the sarsens after a mere 100 200 or so pages. . The excitement is palpable.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Code Breaker in the Far East" by Alan Stripp. Put out in a bit of a rush in 1989 when The Demented Margaret was still upset about Spy Catcher & wanted to stop anyone who had worked in the field from writing about it by changing the Official Secrets Act.

Done. An odd sort of book, begins with the personal history of his conscription, selection, training, then delves into some description of the many different Japanese codes, followed by some discussion of the results of the work in terms of action etc.

Next: finishing some of the others that are ongoing before finding sommat else.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"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. .

"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.

[DoctorStrangelove]

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.

For unknown reasons I had two copies of this: both went to Oxfam.

[Lost It]

Just started on my Terry Pratchett collection again..... Sadly missed genius.

[DoctorStrangelove]

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.

[DoctorStrangelove]

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.

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.

[DoctorStrangelove]

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.

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. .