CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[sasguru]

Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece by Patrick Leigh Fermor

I read his trilogy (A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, The Broken Road) which cover him walking from Holland to Istanbul as an 18 year old in 1933. If you have never read anything by him try A Time of Gifts. His writing is incredible.

Yes I have those in my collection. Read twice. Although his biographers claim he made some of it up, it's serious literature, nevertheless.
Passages from the first one in particualr linger in the memory

[BR14]

Is it worth starting on the series? I looked at the amazon reviews for the first book and mixed between awful and great.

well you won't know if it's for you until you try.
do you only want to read stuff that's popular / trendy ?
why bother?

[sasguru]

To be followed by "Dark Sun" by Richard Rhodes, being a tale of how the super got made when Teller's ideas didn't work.

Funnily enough that's why I'm re-reading TMOTAB, to get the background (which I'd forgotten) to get on to this one, which I haven't read

"A Bright Shining Lie" being a history of the Vietnam War and how the Septics fecked it up.

Read this 25 years ago. One of the best disections of the Vietnam War. But bought Max Hastings' "Vietnam" and have that lined up. That may be better. Pater got from Tesco for £4 and sent in to me a few months ago (I miss cheap books).

As we seem to share a taste in books, you may like (on a different theme) Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine".

[DoctorStrangelove]

As we seem to share a taste in books, you may like (on a different theme) Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine".

Read that about 15 years ago, it's on a shelf in here somewhere.

The craziness of that sort of design and development organisation is quite graphic.

No wonder people get burned out.

[NickFitz]

Currently re-reading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 as a reminder of a time when American politics was… well, according to Thompson, just as foul and corrupt and full of deranged sociopathic chancers as it is now

I must re-read The Making of the Atomic Bomb soon so I can go on to Dark Sun, which I've got but haven't read yet.

I read Soul of a New Machine for the fourth or fifth time maybe five years ago. Excellent book. I recently read G. Pascal Zachary's Showstopper! about the creation of Windows NT in the early 1990s, which tries for the same feel; it doesn't quite manage it, but it's an interesting look at how Microsoft made the transition to a modern operating system through the hard work of a comparatively small team of industry veterans.

[woohoo]

well you won't know if it's for you until you try.
do you only want to read stuff that's popular / trendy ?
why bother?

Limited time and so many books, so appreciate honest reviews. Amazon reviews ranged from best book ever to dont waste your time, at least for the first book.

So after another opinion.

[Halo Jones]

Is it worth starting on the series? I looked at the amazon reviews for the first book and mixed between awful and great.

Its a slow burner of a series, if you fast resolution in each book don't bother. Its JRR Tolkin crossed with the dune series pace of story telling

[NotAllThere]

The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman. Victoriana/fantasy/magic/adventure. The hero is a woman who spies for the Library, but generally would rather read a good book.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Recently read "Austerity Britain 1945 - 1951", "Family Britain 1951 - 1957", and "Modernity Britain 1957 - 1962" all by David Kynaston, being some 2000 or so pages of post war history.

Inneresting enough if you've got the time.

I even paid £15 for the Modernity one, the previous two being remaindered at £3 or so.

Since I retired I've read about two feet of books.

[James Tiberius Kirk]

Since I retired I've read about two feet of books.

State only or + private pension?