CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

"Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey" by Nicholas Schaeffner

No idea when I bought it but it was written in 1991, published 1992.

This is the fourth book in the currently reading liist.

Some of them are proving to be quite a sloooooow read.

The Stonehenge book is amazingly successful at sending me to sleep, there being a limit to the innerest one is able to show in dolerite, rhyolite, and sarsens, Q and R stones, and Aubrey holes. .

Oooooo, almost getting to the sarsens after a mere 100 200 or so pages. . The excitement is palpable.

[woohoo]

I know this is thread is for books but how about Audio books.

I can recommend the following, pretty funny, great for walks or the gym.

We are Legion (We are Bob) - appeals to the software developer side of me, but the narration makes this book entertaining.
Carl's Doomsday Scenario - give it a chance the first 10 mins are like this is pathetic but turns into a fantastic listen.
Project Hail Mary - similar style to we are legion, entertaining and funny.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Donkeys" by that Alan Clark chap, celebrating the genius of Kitchener, French, and, of course, dear old Dougie "Butcher" Haig.

Next: "Code Breaker in the Far East" by Alan Stripp. Put out in a bit of a rush in 1989 when The Demented Margaret was still upset about Spy Catcher & wanted to stop anyone who had worked in the field from writing about it by changing the Official Secrets Act.

[Dark Black]

Been reading quite a few biographies recently.

Currently, "Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off ..." by Michael Deeley

Makes for a good read about the life of the producer of a number of cult movies over the years.

Amusing fact:

The Black Daimler used to pick up Michael Caine's character from prison near the start of the film, where he picks up a flag from the glove box and exclaims "This car belongs to the Pakistani Ambassador!".... was actually the Pakistani Ambassador's car. It was regularly serviced by the garage that had been tasked with supplying many of the cars for the movie and was quietly lent to the film crew without the owner's knowledge. The line was written in to the film as a result.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"The illustrated history of Gadget Warfare: The Vietnam War" by F. Clifton Berry Jnr.* 82nd Airborne.

All that materiel, all those crazy weapons, Puff the Magic Dragon, Agent Orange, Daisy Cutters, CBU-55 FAE.

And they still lost to little men with AK47s and bicycles.

If there's something to be grateful to Harold Wilson for, it's keeping us out of that mess.

*That's the late F. Cliffton Berry Jnr.

https://www.airforcemag.com/f-clifto...-jr-1931-2020/

Done. I have no idea why it's taken 30 years to get a round tuit.

Next: "The Donkeys" by that Alan Clark chap, celebrating the genius of Kitchener, French, and, of course, dear old Dougie "Butcher" Haig.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"The illustrated history of Gadget Warfare: The Vietnam War" by F. Clifton Berry Jnr.* 82nd Airborne.

All that materiel, all those crazy weapons, Puff the Magic Dragon, Agent Orange, Daisy Cutters, CBU-55 FAE.

And they still lost to little men with AK47s and bicycles.

If there's something to be grateful to Harold Wilson for, it's keeping us out of that mess.

*That's the late F. Cliffton Berry Jnr.

https://www.airforcemag.com/f-clifto...-jr-1931-2020/

[eazy]

Just Bought : Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities - Bettany Hughes
Reread & recycled : Battle Circle - Piers Anthony (found it in the loft)

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "AD500" by Simon Young: a fictionalised journey through the dark age British Isles by a Byzantine "embassy".

Can't say it's a brilliant read but it's a good deal easier going than the aforementnioned.

Done. Amusing enough. One can see why the Sais were so loved.

Next: TBD. There's so little choice. .

A book extracted from a bookshelf upstairs:

"A brief history of Stonehenge" by the recently late Aubrey Burl (1926 - 2020). Mostly Sais free I'd have thunk since they didn't start turning up until about 400 AD and it would appear that those who built it buggered off before the Celts turned up.

Ancient Alien Researchers are of the opinion that the Aliens from the Pleiades abducted them.

[DoctorStrangelove]

A bit of a change: "Garry Halliday and the disappearing diamonds".

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garry-Halli.../dp/B0000CKQWV

You really have to be an to remember these epics.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162080...m_flmg_act_134

as watched on a 12" 9" b&w Pye console TV back in the mysts of time of 1960.

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-Pye-CV306.JPG

Done. One had forgotten how dumb Bill Dodds was, played by the late Terrence Alexander rather before he became Jim Bergerac's father in law.

Next: TBD.

[sadkingbilly]

rereading the jean le flambeur series by Hannu Rajaniemi.
my brain hurts ;-)