CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[vetran]

Heads you lose - Jeffery "give us an" Archer - pretty standard fare rehashed dreams of being a world statesman and a billionaire businessman - easy holiday read.

Now on Simon Scarrow "the honour of Rome".

Simon Scarrow the Eagles series now to be a regular feature not quite Robert Harris but a decent read.

Next Connelly the Lincoln lawyer series the 5th witness. is it up to Grisham?

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The spy who came in from the cold" by John Le Carre. Once I've found a copy.

Found one in Waterstones once I'd figured out they shelved it under C rather than L. .

Done. Quite grim in its way. It didn't moulder for long having been purchased on the 18th of June.

Next: "The Looking Glass War" by J. Le Carre.

[DoctorStrangelove]

For some reason I awoke at 05:55 on Thursday morning thinking of "A Candle in a Cosmic Wind".

Which has led me to:

https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf

"The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Tree Collector: the life and explorations of David Douglas" by Ann Lindsay and Syd House.

Another unwelcome 5:55 awakening, thusly:

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Now there was a chap who achieved things, including falling into a bull pit on Hawaii, which didn't end well due to there being a bull in there already.

Next: IgNobel Prizes 2. Liked the one grading experienced pain during execution, though I noted that cruel & unusual methods such as breaking on a wheel weren't included. Just proves how soft we've all become. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: IgNobel Prizes 2. Liked the one grading experienced pain during execution, though I noted that cruel & unusual methods such as breaking on a wheel weren't included. Just proves how soft we've all become. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Trains and Buttered Toast" by John Betjeman. Appears to be a collection of radio talks. Looks like I started reading this yonks ago, then stopped, laying it down to mature nicely by accumulating a layer of dust.

Turns out it's a collection of wireless talks he gave between 1932 and the 1950s with 1975 thrown in for good measure. Mildly inneresting. Sad about him accidentally breaking his nanny's Xmas present.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Looking Glass War" by J. Le Carre.

Done: if TSWCIFTC was grim, TLGW was even grimmer.

Next (since I don't have "A small town in Germany")*: "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" wherein George Smiley is forever Alec Guinness.


*I found it in a charity emporium in that Swansea in a collection of the first five of his novels. An M&S collection so it's obviously superior.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: if TSWCIFTC was grim, TLGW was even grimmer.

Next (since I don't have "A small town in Germany"): "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" wherein George Smiley is forever Alec Guinness.

Done.

Next: "The Honourable Schoolboy" by J. LeCarre. This one's rather longer at 543 pages: must be the advent of word processing or something.

The Beeb passed on making a series of this due to the complexity of the plotting and the expense of the locations.

It must be 35 years or more since I read it last.

Stone me, it's fairly hard going in parts: the Smiley bits are ok, some of the Hong Kong bits less so.

In fact it seemed endless.

[Uncle Albert]

Started On Chesil Beech on Tuesday and finished on Thursday. I hadn't realised it was so short.

Seeing as I've been given the entire Sherlock Holmes collection I suppose I'll start on that next.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Does anything eat Wasps? and 101 other questions": from the New Scientist Last Word feature.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Does anything eat Wasps? and 101 other questions": from the New Scientist Last Word feature.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Why don't penguins feet freeze?" another NS Last Word book.