CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Red Moon Rising" by Matthew Brzezinski, being the story of Sputnik, dear old Wernher, Mr Khrushchev and The Chief Designer Korolev.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. Interesting to recall how the Septics were so keen on Operation Paperclip, then turned on the incumbents once they'd successfully got them to the Moon first.

Next: "Area 51" by Annie Jacobsen. No alien nutjobbery until the final chapter which doesn't need reading.

Suggests an even more off the wall explanation of The Roswell Crash: a Horton flying disk despatched by Joseph Stalin and crewed with genetically altered "small people" created by Joseph Mengele.

Just when you think the bollox couldn't get even more bolloxy that it was already.

Other than that it's quite inneresting in its exploration of the creation of Area 51, its location just over the hill from the Nevada nuclear test site (what could possibly go wrong when you set off a 71kt device hanging from a balloon or do a "safety test" even closer to the site that spread powdered Pu every fecking where?).

Covers the U2, the Oxcart, the SR71, and the politics behind the demise of Oxcart (CIA sponsored) and the rise of the SR71 (Air Force & McNamara the ear counter) sponsored.

Funny bunch the Septics, their armed forces seem to spend more time fighting each other than fighting the enemy.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Excursion Train" by Edward Marston. The dust was thick on this one, so feck nose how long it's been there. One or other should have a receipt in there somewhere.

Done: quite enjoyable, off to Oxfam with it. Next: "The Railway Viaduct" by Edward Marston. I note that I paid £1.33 each for these back in the dim & distant past.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Railway Viaduct" by Edward Marston. I note that I paid £1.33 each for these back in the dim & distant past.

Done: off to Oxfam with it: Next: "The Iron Horse" by Edward Marston. They don't appear to stall in the middle in the way the later Le Carre seems to.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it: Next: "The Iron Horse" by Edward Marston. They don't appear to stall in the middle in the way the later Le Carre seems to.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I must say I'm finding these quite enjoyable: easy to read & the stories are reasonably good.

Next: "Gene Roddenberry: the myth and the man behind Star Trek (tm)" by Joel Engel.

This one's not the earlier David Alexander hagiography but seems to tell rather more of the truth about the unpleasant chap Roddenberry really was.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Gene Roddenberry: the myth and the man behind Star Trek (tm)" by Joel Engel.

This one's not the earlier David Alexander hagiography but seems to tell rather more of the truth about the unpleasant chap Roddenberry really was.

What a scumbag. WTF "The Nine" was about is a mystery. A grabber of other people's credits. No one who worked with the bastard trusted him. Nearly destroyed the first season of Next Gen.

Done: Off to Oxfam someone on here who wanted it.

Next: "Murder on the Brighton Express" by Edward Marston.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. Interesting to recall how the Septics were so keen on Operation Paperclip, then turned on the incumbents once they'd successfully got them to the Moon first.

Next: "Area 51" by Annie Jacobsen. No alien nutjobbery until the final chapter which doesn't need reading.

Suggests an even more off the wall explanation of The Roswell Crash: a Horton flying disk despatched by Joseph Stalin and crewed with genetically altered "small people" created by Joseph Mengele.

Just when you think the bollox couldn't get even more bolloxy that it was already.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I wonder who fed her the bollox about Roswell, allegedly some inmate of EG&G nutjobs.

Next: "Moondust" by Andrew Smith: interviews with the 9 men who walked on the moon, Pete Conrad having just fallen off his motorbike & died.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Murder on the Brighton Express" by Edward Marston.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Next: "The Silver Locomotive" by Edward Marston. Gosh these are easier to read than some of the previous tosh.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Next: "The Silver Locomotive" by Edward Marston. Gosh these are easier to read than some of the previous tosh.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Didn't find it as enjoyable as some of the earlier epics.

Next: "Spies" by Michael Frayn. WWII juvenile shenanigans that turn serious. Purchased 4th of September 2004, so it's matured well.

"papi papi ich hab angst vor dem dunkelm"

[Gibbon]

Randomly picked up What in Me Is Dark

Brilliant, got me reading avidly again, now just received Milton's Paradise Lost and Goethe's Faust.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Moondust" by Andrew Smith: interviews with the 9 men who walked on the moon, Pete Conrad having just fallen off his motorbike & died.

He mentions Andrew Chaikin's book "A man on the Moon" which I'm innerested to note that I, NF, and jaberwocky have read at one time or another, 2006, 2010, and 2024.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Next: "The Railway Navvies" by Terry Coleman. The men who built the railway system (after having built the canal system).

The lady taking today's donation at Oxfam seemed surprised that they were this month's reading matter (apart from the "Silverview" duplicate that I hadn't bothered reading".