CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Writing Home" by Alan Bennett: contains "The Lady in the Van".

Purchased 2nd hand May 11th 2013 so it's matured well.

Much shorter: only 600 pages..

613 as it happens, with footnotes, index, etc thrown in for good measure.

Off to Oxfam with it for some other poor fool to enjoy. Some of it was reasonably inneresting. WTF some of it was about escapes me.

Next: "Mole Hunt: the full story of the Soviet Spy in MI5" by Nigel West. 1987.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: TBD "Bodyguard of Lies" Anthony Cave Brown. Another 800 page tome.

Been through El Alamein.

Now on to Admiral Canaris. He had a bad end though that's about 600 pages on

Ooo look: a review from the CIA:

https://www.cia.gov/static/c3b3880e5...rd-of-Lies.pdf

Done. 827 pages. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Writing Home" by Alan Bennett: contains "The Lady in the Van".

Purchased 2nd hand May 11th 2013 so it's matured well.

Much shorter: only 600 pages..

[vetran]

oh, Grisham didn't quite catch. I'm on the last excerpt of the Clifton Chronicles, cometh the man. Its the years of my youth so I'm recognising a lot of the references.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: TBD.
Instead: "Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45" by Max Hastings. No computers in this one.

Done. Stone me. 600 pages. I have to start reading shorter tomes.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: TBD. "King Leopold's Ghost: A story of greed terror and heroisms in Colonial Africa" by Adam Hochschild: To sum up: if you thought being colonised by the Brits was bad, then thank your lucky stars it wasn't the Belgians. . Heart of Darkness. etc.

Stone me, I put this down some time in December last when it seemed to lose innerest for some reason. Picked up again yesterday which was just as well since the insomnia returned unbidden & much of the night was spent reading it in bed. 9th April.

[DoctorStrangelove]

*It did eventually though it doesn't appear in the index.

Thank feck that's over. Distinctly nasty in a particularly nasty way. Being 40 years old there was no mention of going on one day trips to view Salisbury Cathedral.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Oh look: an updated edition:

https://jeremypaxman.co.uk/book/a-hi...orm-of-killing

Next: TBD. "The Naked Computer" by Rochester & Gantz: Ancient history from 1983 where the IBM PC was A New Thing and Z80s ruled the roost that wasn't ruled by the 6502.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. I added a little something in pencil to the end of the chapter about IBM and their support of "the government" to the effect that they were pretty good at supporting dear old Adolph too and Watson got a medal for it, as referenced in an earlier tome on this thread "IBM and the Holocaust" by Black.

Next: TBD. I did think to read "Micromania" by Charles Platt and David Langford which dates from 1984 but I think I've had enough of 40 year old computer crap.

Instead: "Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45" by Max Hastings. No computers in this one.

[vetran]

Back to lord brown bag, "In plain sight" is now underway.

and done. Off to John Grisham - Sooleyman

[DoctorStrangelove]

Thank feck that's over. I read most of the words, looked at some of the pictures, enjoyed very little & Oxfam are welcome to it. Happily it cost exactly £1, being remaindered.

I think that was about 50p too much. .

Next: TBD but I hope it'll turn out more inneresting than that turkey, as written by The High Priest of Darwinism, blessings be upon him:

"A Higher Form of Killing" by Robert Harris & Jeremy Paxman.

The history of gas & germ warfare. (1982). Feck me, more lions led by donkeys.

Just as well "We" didn't use CW in WWII considering what the opposition had that we didn't.

It doesn't mention Unit 731 specifically* though some of the guiding lights of that enterprise do get a mention.

*It did eventually though it doesn't appear in the index.

Thank feck that's over. Distinctly nasty in a particularly nasty way. Being 40 years old there was no mention of going on one day trips to view Salisbury Cathedral.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Oh look: an updated edition:

https://jeremypaxman.co.uk/book/a-hi...orm-of-killing

Next: TBD. "The Naked Computer" by Rochester & Gantz: Ancient history from 1983 where the IBM PC was A New Thing and Z80s ruled the roost that wasn't ruled by the 6502.

[vetran]

Back to lord brown bag, "In plain sight" is now underway.

[Gibbon]

My Name is Barbra.

Just starting and its a biggy. Always been fascinated by this diva, The Way We Were with Redford is one of the great movies and still proves you don't need nudity, violence or special effects to tell a great story. The last scene is a killer for anyone who's sold out their soul. Her version Send in The Clowns is in my top ten songs. First autobiography I've bought since Mr Nice.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: TBD "The Ancestor's Tale" by the High Priest of Evolution & Atheism, one Richard Dawkins.

There's 27 pages of bollox before he even gets started.

A mere 600 pages to go. Assuming I'm able to tolerate it.

Since it starts in the present & chapter by chapter goes into the past, maybe reading it in reverse might be an idea.

Stone me, page 427, only another 200 pages to go, we've currently reached half a billion years ago and ancestor: the fruit fly: apparently eye genes are conserved. Or something. It get confusing. I think the selfish gene is somewhere buried in a bookcase. I wonder if I'll survive long enough to read it.

Thank feck that's over. I read most of the words, looked at some of the pictures, enjoyed very little & Oxfam are welcome to it. Happily it cost exactly £1, being remaindered.

I think that was about 50p too much. .

Next: TBD but I hope it'll turn out more inneresting than that turkey, as written by The High Priest of Darwinism, blessings be upon him:

"A Higher Form of Killing" by Robert Harris & Jeremy Paxman.

The history of gas & germ warfare. (1982). Feck me, more lions led by donkeys.

Just as well "We" didn't use CW in WWII considering what the opposition had that we didn't.

It doesn't mention Unit 731 specifically though some of the guiding lights of that enterprise do get a mention.