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CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: "Eurekaaargh: a spectacular collection of inventions that nearly worked" by Adam Hart Davis.
    Done. Off to Oxfam with it. A nice easy read for a change with no fecking poetry.

    Next: "The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the 21st century" by James Howard Kunstler.

    There's no poetry in this one either. But it's a lot longer & rather denser than the above.

    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 23 February 2024, 09:11.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: "The Transit of Venus" by Peter Aughton, being the biography of Jeremiah Horrocks, the first chap to see said transit.
    Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Less than gripping. I could have done without the poetry. In fact I did by not reading it.

    Next: "Eurekaaargh: a spectacular collection of inventions that nearly worked" by Adam Hart Davis.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: "The Strangest Star" by John Gribbin, being a 45 year old tome about Sol. There'll be no That Bloody Woman in this, fingers crossed.
    Done. Gratifyingly free of The Great She Elephant.

    Off to Oxfam with it.

    Next: "The Transit of Venus" by Peter Aughton, being the biography of Jeremiah Horrocks, the first chap to see said transit.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Then looked at "Floating Voter" by Julian Critchley but it's a novel so "A bag of Boiled Sweets" by said gentlemen, being his autobiography, was substituted.


    "The tile-hung pretty houses covered with wisteria, in every gravelled driveway a Triumph Sodomite". .

    I do like his turn of phrase.
    That really make I larf.

    Done. Off to Oxfam with it.

    Rather sad how his youthful polio came back to bite him in later life.

    Even sadder to think that the swivel eyed YCs of yore are now in power.

    Next: "The Strangest Star" by John Gribbin, being a 45 year old tome about Sol. There'll be no That Bloody Woman in this, fingers crossed.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 11 February 2024, 10:17.

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  • Zigenare
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post

    Pity some of the others elsewhere haven't remember how to make propshafts.

    On the other hand there's nothing much to fly off the white elephants anyway.

    How are the mighty fallen.

    It's managed decline & no mistake.
    <cough>Tempest</cough>

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by Zigenare View Post

    Given the number of trained engineers employed and the current expansion down in Yeovil, yep.
    Pity some of the others elsewhere haven't remember how to make propshafts.

    On the other hand there's nothing much to fly off the white elephants anyway.

    How are the mighty fallen.

    It's managed decline & no mistake.

    Oh, look, the other one hasn't sailed either.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 12 February 2024, 09:26.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Picked up "The Newtonian Casino" again but decided to read "Palace of Varieties" by Julian Critchley instead. It's shorter.

    A chap who was not a fan of That Bloody Woman who he so memorably referred to as "A label on a can of worms"..
    Done. Very good. Off to Oxfam with it.

    Then looked at "Floating Voter" by Julian Critchley but it's a novel so "A bag of Boiled Sweets" by said gentlemen, being his autobiography, was substituted.


    "The tile-hung pretty houses covered with wisteria, in every gravelled driveway a Triumph Sodomite". .

    I do like his turn of phrase.

    The Great She Elephant
    describing Thatcher to a t.

    He termed the advent of Tebbit et al and the election of The Great She Elephant as leader as "The Peasants Revolt". .

    Again, this and "Floating Voter" were complimentary copies sent by Critchely to someone by the name of Greening.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 27 February 2024, 20:33.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: TBD "Silicon Snake Oil" by Clifford Stoll, mostly because it's shorter than "The Newtonian Casino" by Thomas A. Bass.
    Done. Off to Oxfam with it. A few good points but much of it is rendered irrelevant by nearly 30 years of "progress".

    Picked up "The Newtonian Casino" again but decided to read "Palace of Varieties" by Julian Critchley instead. It's shorter.

    A chap who was not a fan of That Bloody Woman who he so memorably referred to as "A label on a can of worms"..

    The Conservative Party can boast of being the most successful democratic political party in the world.

    It is certainly the longest lived.

    It used to be the party of the upper class, which, while taking care to recruit into its ranks the brighter members of the middle, relied on the votes of the deferential working class,

    Until recently it was not an ideological party*, although in the past it had torn itself apart in disputes over free trade versus protectionism, and over rearmament before Hitler's War.

    It has a tradition of relative tolerance.

    Dissent even now is not punished by expulsion or even by a conspiracy to bring about deselection within the constituency;** dissent is regarded as a luxury which is paid for in the coin of neglect

    In a party in which the great majority of its MPs are thirsting for office, failure to win promotion is punishment enough.

    Thus the Tory party remains, as is Labour, a broad coalition, the "broad church" to which political commentators so often refer.***

    Its span can stretch as far as Critchley on the left and Terry Dicks on the right.
    *That was then.

    **How things have changed.

    ***Not so broad now after Bunter & co, in the footsteps of That Bloody Woman.

    The book was written slightly before the Downfall of The Glorious Leader, which I remember hearing of whilst in my bath. It made my day.

    Curiously it was sent by the author to someone around here, the letter from Critchley being glued inside the cover.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 27 February 2024, 20:31.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: TBD "The Age of Automation" by Leon Bagrit, being the 1964 Reith Lectures.

    It's short. 92 pages including the Epilogue.
    Done: Off to Oxfam with it.

    Goodness me, 1964 is a looooooong time ago.

    He foresees, quite presciently, portable computers, networking, much of the technofix.

    Mentions Project MAC.

    He foresees retiring age decreasing from 65 to 60 to 55 or even earlier. .

    He foresees only requiring one income to support a family. .

    He thinks the Welfare State will improve & improve as GDP increases. .

    He foresees increasing leisure. .

    He thinks GDP will increase 4%/year. .

    He didn't foresee That Bloody Woman & her malignant effects, or the monetarists or endless austerity or the rich 1% getting ever richer while the rest go to the wall.

    He thinks that Russia will turn into a supplier of goods & services but doesn't foresee the rise of China. Then again, who did? I blame Tricky Dicky & fecking ping pong.

    Next: TBD "Silicon Snake Oil" by Clifford Stoll, mostly because it's shorter than "The Newtonian Casino" by Thomas A. Bass.

    And turns out not to be "The Cuckoo's Egg" which is what I thought it was. .

    Well he's got a downer on the interweb: I suppose all there was was ascii pron. .
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 30 January 2024, 23:15.

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  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    Next: "Would you believe it? Odd tales from around the world" by Philip Mason.

    This one won't take long. .

    Oh there's some lovely things in this tome including stuff it's hard to forget, Auburn, Maine 1984 being one of them.

    Compared with that the nutters keeping their dead relatives close pales into insignificance.
    There, it didn't take long. Done. Off to Oxfam with it.

    Next: TBD "The Age of Automation" by Leon Bagrit, being the 1964 Reith Lectures.

    It's short. 92 pages including the Epilogue.
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 29 January 2024, 15:01.

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