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CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

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    Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The fact it is non-fiction just adds to the enjoyment.
    “The period of the disintegration of the European Union has begun. And the first vessel to have departed is Britain”

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      Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
      "...The Heavens and the Earth: A political history of the Space Age" by Walter A. McDougall.
      It may have won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize but it took a lot of effort to read that, thank feck it's over with.

      Off to the Oxfam bookshop with it to bore some other daft sod rigid.

      Stick with the "Red Moon Rising", a far more inneresting read.

      Next: "On Britain" by Ralf Dahrendorf (later Lord Dahrendorf apparently).

      It's the book of some BBC programmes from 1982.
      When the fun stops, STOP.

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        "Homo Britannicus" by Chris Stringer.

        "The Incredible story of Human Life in Britain"

        Bones, bones, more bones, hand axes, flint flakes, ice ages, interglacials, all good clean fun.

        Or it was until we got to the global warming bit.
        Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 15 May 2021, 17:11.
        When the fun stops, STOP.

        Comment


          "Neighbours from Hell" by Mike Parker, being the curious relationship between two neighbouring countries who don't like each other much.
          When the fun stops, STOP.

          Comment


            Following which is "The Wild Rover" by Mike Parker, being the story of the UK footpath network.
            When the fun stops, STOP.

            Comment


              Will shortly be reading The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England, by Marc Morris when it is published tomorrow. For once, I'll actually be buying a book!

              The Dark Ages aren't considered all that murky these days, apart from a fairly short period from c 420 AD to 520 AD when Gildas wrote his history, and Saxon history is becoming quite fashionable.

              Needless to say, for the current young generation the Dark Ages ended only with the Russian Revolution in 1917, because that's what Marxist teachers are most obsessed about and I gather is practically all they teach their charges!
              Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

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                Goddamn Saes immigrants!
                When the fun stops, STOP.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
                  Next: "On Britain" by Ralf Dahrendorf (later Lord Dahrendorf apparently).
                  It hasn't aged well.

                  Though it taught me some new words, which I've immediately forgotten.

                  One of which was "heteronomous".

                  Next: "Lion time in Timbuctoo" by Robert Silverberg.

                  I'm halfway through the novella length first story.

                  It's not altogether gripping, being an alternative history wherein the Black Death killed 90% of Europeans rather than the 40 to 50% that it did, therefore no European colonisation since the Ottomans did the colonisation the othe way round, only South America is developed & there are No Septics at all, just the First Nations.

                  Purchased, remaindered, in 2006, so it's matured well in the pile.

                  <hiatus>

                  It's not proving to be a very inneresting read, I managed the first story, the rest are pretty meh.

                  As it transpired I had the mandatory two copies of "Lion Time", one of which has already met the Oxfam bookshop, the other of which has sat unregarded & mostly unread on a bookshelf since I finished the novella.
                  Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 29 July 2022, 10:12.
                  When the fun stops, STOP.

                  Comment


                    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
                    Goddamn Saes immigrants!
                    Watched a Channel 4 mini-series a few years ago, 1066: The Battle for Middle Earth (2009), which as it's title suggests makes out the Saxons to be harmless inoffensive hobbits beset by ghastly Norman orcs!

                    In fact around 30% of people in Saxon society were slaves (whereas William the Conqueror abolished slavery), their punishments of ciminals were harsh beyond belief (way worse than the Normans' ), and blood feuds and assassinations were rife especially among the nobility and the royal court.
                    Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

                    Comment


                      Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
                      Following which is "The Wild Rover" by Mike Parker, being the story of the UK footpath network.
                      Duly finished.

                      Next up: "Map Addict" by Mike Parker.
                      When the fun stops, STOP.

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