CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[Gibbon]

My Name is Barbra.

Just starting and its a biggy. Always been fascinated by this diva, The Way We Were with Redford is one of the great movies and still proves you don't need nudity, violence or special effects to tell a great story. The last scene is a killer for anyone who's sold out their soul. Her version Send in The Clowns is in my top ten songs. First autobiography I've bought since Mr Nice.

[vetran]

Back to lord brown bag, "In plain sight" is now underway.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Thank feck that's over. I read most of the words, looked at some of the pictures, enjoyed very little & Oxfam are welcome to it. Happily it cost exactly £1, being remaindered.

I think that was about 50p too much. .

Next: TBD but I hope it'll turn out more inneresting than that turkey, as written by The High Priest of Darwinism, blessings be upon him:

"A Higher Form of Killing" by Robert Harris & Jeremy Paxman.

The history of gas & germ warfare. (1982). Feck me, more lions led by donkeys.

Just as well "We" didn't use CW in WWII considering what the opposition had that we didn't.

It doesn't mention Unit 731 specifically* though some of the guiding lights of that enterprise do get a mention.

*It did eventually though it doesn't appear in the index.

Thank feck that's over. Distinctly nasty in a particularly nasty way. Being 40 years old there was no mention of going on one day trips to view Salisbury Cathedral.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Oh look: an updated edition:

https://jeremypaxman.co.uk/book/a-hi...orm-of-killing

Next: TBD. "The Naked Computer" by Rochester & Gantz: Ancient history from 1983 where the IBM PC was A New Thing and Z80s ruled the roost that wasn't ruled by the 6502.

[vetran]

Back to lord brown bag, "In plain sight" is now underway.

and done. Off to John Grisham - Sooleyman

[DoctorStrangelove]

*It did eventually though it doesn't appear in the index.

Thank feck that's over. Distinctly nasty in a particularly nasty way. Being 40 years old there was no mention of going on one day trips to view Salisbury Cathedral.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Oh look: an updated edition:

https://jeremypaxman.co.uk/book/a-hi...orm-of-killing

Next: TBD. "The Naked Computer" by Rochester & Gantz: Ancient history from 1983 where the IBM PC was A New Thing and Z80s ruled the roost that wasn't ruled by the 6502.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. I added a little something in pencil to the end of the chapter about IBM and their support of "the government" to the effect that they were pretty good at supporting dear old Adolph too and Watson got a medal for it, as referenced in an earlier tome on this thread "IBM and the Holocaust" by Black.

Next: TBD. I did think to read "Micromania" by Charles Platt and David Langford which dates from 1984 but I think I've had enough of 40 year old computer crap.

Instead: "Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45" by Max Hastings. No computers in this one.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: TBD.
Instead: "Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45" by Max Hastings. No computers in this one.

Done. Stone me. 600 pages. I have to start reading shorter tomes.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: TBD. "King Leopold's Ghost: A story of greed terror and heroisms in Colonial Africa" by Adam Hochschild: To sum up: if you thought being colonised by the Brits was bad, then thank your lucky stars it wasn't the Belgians. . Heart of Darkness. etc.

Stone me, I put this down some time in December last when it seemed to lose innerest for some reason. Picked up again yesterday which was just as well since the insomnia returned unbidden & much of the night was spent reading it in bed. 9th April.

[vetran]

oh, Grisham didn't quite catch. I'm on the last excerpt of the Clifton Chronicles, cometh the man. Its the years of my youth so I'm recognising a lot of the references.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: TBD "Bodyguard of Lies" Anthony Cave Brown. Another 800 page tome.

Been through El Alamein.

Now on to Admiral Canaris. He had a bad end though that's about 600 pages on

Ooo look: a review from the CIA:

https://www.cia.gov/static/c3b3880e5...rd-of-Lies.pdf

Done. 827 pages. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Writing Home" by Alan Bennett: contains "The Lady in the Van".

Purchased 2nd hand May 11th 2013 so it's matured well.

Much shorter: only 600 pages..

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Writing Home" by Alan Bennett: contains "The Lady in the Van".

Purchased 2nd hand May 11th 2013 so it's matured well.

Much shorter: only 600 pages..

613 as it happens, with footnotes, index, etc thrown in for good measure.

Off to Oxfam with it for some other poor fool to enjoy. Some of it was reasonably inneresting. WTF some of it was about escapes me.

Next: "Mole Hunt: the full story of the Soviet Spy in MI5" by Nigel West. 1987.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Mole Hunt: the full story of the Soviet Spy in MI5" by Nigel West. 1987.

Done. Mildly amusing in its way. Off to Oxfam with it.

It goes into some detail on Peter Wright, "Spycatcher", Wright's input to "Their trade is Treachery", Chapman Pincher, etc. etc. etc. No mention, however, of "The Thing". .

Reminded me that "One Girl's War" by Joan Miller that resides in a pile, another book that Thatcher tried to ban. .

Next: "The changing anatomy of Britain (revised & updated post election edition)" by Anthony Sampson.

The election in question being the 1979 that brought in someone who managed to destroy entire swathes of British Industry.

The Reds didn't need Harold Wilson, they did just as well with that bitch. Now there's a rumour: Thatcher the Soviet Spy.

Review of the New New Anatomy (i.e. a post millennial one rather than a 1980s one):

https://www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/anat...nthony-sampson

Gosh there's a lot of anatomy that's changed out of all recognition.

Who remembers Central Television, Thames TV, LWT, Channel, or Harlech? All gone as if they'd never been.

Oh the alphabet soup of the quangocracy:

NEB: National Enterprise Board. Beam me up.

NRDC: National Research and Development Corporation.

BTG: the combination of the above into the British Technology Group, this last now, after privatisation was bought by Boston Scientific Corporation, incorporated in Delaware, always a good sign. .

IRC: The Industrial Reorganisation Corporation: a Wilson invented quango. Never heard of it.