Reply to: CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Automotive Nightmare" by Alistair Aird. From the days when petrol was 50p per gallon and had proper lead in it to stop the pinking. It looks back (from 1972) to the days of 1966 when petrol was 4/6d a gallon and 5* had lots of lead in it.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Atom Harvest" by Leonard Bertin. Another epic from The Scientific Book Club sometime around 1958 judging by the owner's name in the front cover.

1955 apparently. Author worked for the Daily Torygraph.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Skyliners" by Louis L'Amour. Another oater.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Nice easy read.

Next: "Law of the desert born" by Louis L'Amour. A collection of oater short stories.

[Martin@AS Financial]

Just finished London Falling by Patrick Keefe which is a decent read.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Atom Rush: man's quest for radioactive materials" by Harald Steinert. As translated from the original German text & published by The Scientific Book Club.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The Automotive Nightmare" by Alistair Aird. From the days when petrol was 50p per gallon and had proper lead in it to stop the pinking. It looks back (from 1972) to the days of 1966 when petrol was 4/6d a gallon and 5* had lots of lead in it.

Ah, the concentric ring roads of that London, as planned in the 1960s by the GLC.

Oh. there were 4: I thought there were only 3.

Next bright idea by author: restrict maximum speed to 50 or 60 mph. .

Well it was 55 mph during one or other of the 1970s oil crises IIRC. I wonder if I've still got those petrol rationing booklets.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Unfinished Empire: the global expansion of Britain" by John Darwin. Guess wot that's about. Considering it's only been here since 17/1/2015 there's a remarkable collection of dust adhering thereto.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Seemed inneresting in places, but the reading it backwards might be an indicator otherwise.

Next: "The Atom Rush: man's quest for radioactive materials" by Harald Steinert. As translated from the original German text & published by The Scientific Book Club.

If it glows in the dark & it's not fish, then steer clear and don't keep a vial in your waistcoat pocket. .

Coffinite: Uranium silicate: an appropriate name for it.

Covers Uranium, Titanium, Cobalt, Nickel, Thorium, Niobium, Lithium, Zirconium, Hafnium.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The assault on liberty: wot went wrong with rights" by D. Raaaaaab. Purchased (feck nose why) 2nd March 2009.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I "read" it more or less. Glad to see the end of it.

Next: "Unfinished Empire: the global expansion of Britain" by John Darwin. Guess wot that's about. Considering it's only been here since 17/1/2015 there's a remarkable collection of dust adhering thereto.

Looks like this is another one I'll read backwards: the Fall of Empire is more inneresting, along with the delusions afflicting The Great & The Good in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. .

By the 70s it was obvious to all that we were fecked & not in a good way.

Odd how in the mid 60s the septics were suddenly less keen on us pulling out of the far east and getting shot of our Pacific Fleet, what with them being a bit tied up fighting Victor Charlie at the time. .

Ah, the Black Hole of Calcutta and The Massacre at the Well of Cawnpore, this last features, IIRC, in one of the Flashman books where he ends up strapped to the muzzle of a cannon, as, indeed, did a lot of the mutineers, revenge being best served cold.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Sackett Brand" by Louis L'Amour.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Nice easy read.

Next: "The Skyliners" by Louis L'Amour. Another oater.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Elusive Peace: how the Holy Land defeated SepticLand" by Ahron Bregman

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The assault on liberty: wot went wrong with rights" by D. Raaaaaab. Purchased (feck nose why) 2nd March 2009.

Well this is bloodpressure raising. I'd forgotten the saga of the imperial weights & measures prosecutions. FFS.

tulip you really could not make up except under Bliar & his soviet.

Of course it does raise the question of if all these things were so bad why didn't the Tory bastards change them in the 14 years of their glorious misrule?

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Great cases of Scotland Yard Vol 2" by Julian Simmons et al.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Elusive Peace: how the Holy Land defeated SepticLand" by Ahron Bregman: oh look a book that stars BibiTheNazi and various other eminences. Even then they were justifying expending 1.3 million rounds of ammo in an operation. Purchased 11th September 2008 for the princely sum of £1, it being labelled "obsolete".

To be fair, after reading that, it's difficult not to declare "A plague on both their houses". What a fine selection of arseholes on both sides.

And, of course, Bliar had his greasy fingers in the pie too.

I felt quite sorry for Clinton, not so much for Bush.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Moon Tiger" by Penelope Lively.

Currently rereading this.

Done, at last: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: TBD.

[Croesus]

Finally finished Atlas Shrugged (recommended) and now on Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell. This isnthe factual account as opposed to one of the Sharpe novels.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Cosmic Laughter" ed. Joe Haldeman: "SF for the fun of it". Hardback. Owned it for decades, probably since the late 70s early 80s.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Rather good in its way. Quite amusing. Includes "To Serve Man". .

Next: "Gadget" by N. Freeling. A 1977 book about terrorists manufacturing a nuke. Shades of "Take the war to Washington" by Peter van Greenaway.

This one has stalled. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Corpse Candle" by P. C. Doherty. Bought 7/02/2002. Still no dust.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Rather good in its way.

Next: "Cosmic Laughter" ed. Joe Haldeman: "SF for the fun of it". Hardback. Owned it for decades, probably since the late 70s early 80s.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Treason of the Ghosts" by P. C. Doherty. More about the Hammer of the Scots. Purchased, unremaindered, 7th of February 2002. So it's mouldered well on the bookshelf, though there's little evidence of dust.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Corpse Candle" by P. C. Doherty. Bought 7/02/2002. Still no dust.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The devil's hunt" by P. C. Doherty. Back to Edward I in this one: 1303.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Treason of the Ghosts" by P. C. Doherty. More about the Hammer of the Scots. Purchased, unremaindered, 7th of February 2002. So it's mouldered well on the bookshelf, though there's little evidence of dust.