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

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman!: adventures of a curious character" by R. P. Feynman.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "SOE's Secret Weapons Centre STATION 12" by Des Turner, which is made up of interviews with people who worked there back in the 40s. A reread from 2021.

A paperback that once again has a spine breaking at the photographs.

Some remarkable stories in that. Who knew that FANYs got up to so much. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "A northern wind: Britain 1962 - 1965" by David Kynaston. Set exactly midway between Clement Atlee and Margaret "The Great She Elephantine Milksnatching Bitch" Thatcher. One who created the NHS and assorted atomic bombs and the other who sold off everything that wasn't nailed down to make her friends richer.
.

Done: off back to Oxfam with it. He writes a good book it must be said: just don't drop them on your foot.. So that's "Austerity (45-51)", "Family (51-57) ", "Modernity (57-62)" and "Northern Wind (62-65)" done & dusted. Must be a good foot of books in that selection.

Next: "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman!: adventures of a curious character" by R. P. Feynman.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation 1945-2016 by Rodric Brathwaite.

I love the smell of fallout in the morning, it smells of... victory. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Taming the Infinite:the story of maths from the first numbers to chaos theory" by Ian Stewart. Remaindered at £2.99 reduced to £1.49.

Well there's a thing: completely forgotten how to get the roots of a quadratic, and every trig identity has vanished without trace, not that there's been much call for them over the last half century other than two technical tests at Sony, one about 45 years ago, the other about 35 years ago, neither of which came to anything, the third attempt came to something after I'd started contracting elsewhere, so working for them for half the amount of money held few attractions really.

This will either take a very long time to get through or, more likely by far, will be off to Oxfam unread once I take the remainder stickers off it.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Robots and Empire" by I. Asimov. This one was 508 pages & £2.95. . The return of the lovely Gladia, R. Daneel Olivaw, and Giskard, the mind reading robot, wherein The Evil Spacers come up with a Cunning Plan to destroy the Earth. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it. It seemed loooong. Dunno why.

Next: "The Currents of Space" by I. Asimov (1952). Part of the non existent "Galactic Empire" trilogy which are early 50s standalone novels. 205 pages and 35p: printed 1973.

47% of posts in this thread are down to one poster. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Geometry of the Sun god" by Keith Squires. A nicely obscure epic about Stonehenge & assorted circles. Remaindered at £3. The interweb knows very little about it.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it: Supposed to be vol 1 of 2: the 2nd was never written. Lots of geometry which I didn't bother figuring out and square roots of 2, 3, and 5. . The Stonehenge bit was more inneresting than the Egyptian Pyramids bit. I'd never heard of "The Sanctuary" before: it's a grubbed out stone circle destroyed as a source of stone (the way Stonehenge nearly was).

Next: Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation 1945-2016 by Rodric Brathwaite.

I love the smell of fallout in the morning, it smells of... victory. .

Nice mention of Richard Feynman borrowing Klaus Fuchs' car so he could visit his dying wife, only to have 3 flat tyres (or tires) on the way & having to hitchhike to the hospital to arrive shortly before his wife died. And then having yet another flat tyre (or tire) on the way back to Los Alamos. See: the septics had shortages too: very few new tyres (or tires) during WWII (or the bit where they were actually involved from 7th December 1941).

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Mercator: the man who mapped the planet (and made the Orange Moron think Greenland is bigger than Africa)" by Nicholas Crane.

Stone me, this is as dry as the Atacama desert.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I very much doubt any of that will remain in my memory, though "rhumb lines"* and "loxodromes" might, assuming I could understand them. Shoulders of Giants.

Next: "The Geometry of the Sun god" by Keith Squires. A nicely obscure epic about Stonehenge & assorted circles. Remaindered at £3. The interweb knows very little about it.

*The path taken by a ship for a constant compass bearing. A bit like a spiral towards the magnetic pole.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Nodding Dogs & Vinyl Roofs: the weird world of quirky car accessories" by Stephen Vokins. I paid 29p for this one, remaindered remaindered and remaindered again: last price label was a right bugger to peel off & there's still some glue left after 3 or 4 different solvents.

Our multiply banned ex colleague Churchill appears. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Why girls can't throw... and other questions you always wanted answered" by Mitchell Symonds.

Filled a need for something rather lighter than Mercator. No idea where or when I bought it and there's no remainder sticker . Must have been feeling flush or something. It has, however, judging by the dust, matured well on the bookshelf.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The worst cars ever sold in Britain" by Giles Chapman. Purchased (remaindered) 23/12/2005, so it's mouldered well on the bookshelf as evidenced by the pages being stuck together. A WHS book.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Mildly inneresting in its way: The Stimson Scorcher: a fine suicide machine and The Triumph Mayflower: a car so remarkably hideous that I recall that a chap down the road, the late Douglas Thomas, had one about 60 years ago IIRC. Not a patch on the Triumph Sodomite though. .

Next: "Nodding Dogs & Vinyl Roofs: the weird world of quirky car accessories" by Stephen Vokins. I paid 29p for this one, remaindered remaindered and remaindered again: last price label was a right bugger to peel off & there's still some glue left after 3 or 4 different solvents.

Our multiply banned ex colleague Churchill appears. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Bomb: A History of Hell on Earth" by Gerard DeGroot.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. Sadly no mention of Cobalt Thorium G, but these small deficiencies might be excused.

Next: "Mercator: the man who mapped the planet (and made the Orange Moron think Greenland is bigger than Africa)" by Nicholas Crane.

Stone me, this is as dry as the Atacama desert.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Dark Side of the Moon: the making of the PF masterpiece" by John Harris. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Or something.

It's all dark: Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The worst cars ever sold in Britain" by Giles Chapman. Purchased (remaindered) 23/12/2005, so it's mouldered well on the bookshelf as evidenced by the pages being stuck together. A WHS book.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Longitude" by Dava Sobel. Tick Tock.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The Dark Side of the Moon: the making of the PF masterpiece" by John Harris. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Or something.

[NotAllThere]

That Hideous Strength - C.S.Lewis

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "City of Woods and Fields" by Stephen Butler: one man's journey across the country in alphabetical order starting at A in Scotland and ending with Z in Cornwall. All undertaken in a 1969 1970 Morris 1000 van for some odd reason.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it, though I may read it again before that happens.

Next: "The Bomb: A History of Hell on Earth" by Gerard DeGroot.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Station X: The codebreakers of Bletchley Park" by Michael Smith, 2000, C4 book.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Longitude" by Dava Sobel. Tick Tock.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "At home: a short history of private life" by Bill Bryson. Not particularly short at 500 pages but there you go.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "A northern wind: Britain 1962 - 1965" by David Kynaston. Set exactly midway between Clement Atlee and Margaret "The Great She Elephantine Milksnatching Bitch" Thatcher. One who created the NHS and assorted atomic bombs and the other who sold off everything that wasn't nailed down to make her friends richer.

Gosh. Car factories in Scotland. And Wales. Stephen Ward as the patsy in the Profumo Affair: fitted up like a good 'un: was actually working for MI6 in their attempt to turn Ivanov the KGB chap. Frank Cousins. Ray Gosling. T. Dan Smith. John Poulson. Knocking everything down and building flats (many of said flats now knocked down or blown up in turn). Dear dead days beyond recall. .

Gosh. I knew about CATs (college of advanced technology) but had not previously encountered SISTERS "Special Institutions for Scientific and Technical Education and Research". . Loooogabarooo was an ex CAT when I went there. And bits of that have been demolished too. . I'm sure the library used to be across the way from the EHB.

Whilst I knew about Rolls Razor and John Bloom, I was unaware of John Bloom's affair with a chap's wife which duly led to the said chap offing said wife with with his revolver and then serving 3 years for manslaughter due to provocation. Bloom eventually went bust. You can fool some of the people etc. .

Nice mention of "7 up!", the documentary that will reach 70 this year.

Oh, and dear old Mary Whitehouse made her ineffable appearance. .

Gosh. The Boots the Chemist and WH Smiths circulating libraries.

An Australian name Donald Balfour found that St. John's church in Smith Square Westminster was still a bombed out ruin after 20 years, since then it's been restored as a concert hall.

The Moors Murderers made their despicable appearance.

Victor Value supermarket with King Korn stamps. VV taken over by Tesco.

Ken Morrison starts Wm Morrison, the supermarket. I wonder what he'd think of the current owners. .

The 1964 typhoid outbreak in Aberdeen caused by a single defective 6lb can of Argentinian corned beef (rather than the rumour of it being caused by 13 year old tins of bully beef rotated out of government civil defence stocks).

The Great Train Robbery. 30 year sentences. Jimmy Savile on TOTP and other programmes: the audience seems to have sussed how dodgy the bastard was judging by comments made to audience research.

The new beat combos included The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Animals. And far too much of the beatles. .

Julia Briggs/Gold/Ballam: first female student not to be expelled from Oxford for being pregnant.

Ah, "the White Heat of the Technological Revolution" from a speech by dear old Harold Wilson. Them were the days when we made stuff.

Chap doing 183 mph quite legally on the M1 in an AC Cobra.

Labour elected with a majority of 4.

Poor old Julian Critchley lost his seat. Never mind, once the Triumph Sodomites were available he was back in somewhere else. . Oh, and The Great She Elephant retained her seat.

Goodness me: Colin Jordan: a chap so far to the right that he split from the BNP to found a British Nazi Party aka The British Movement aka The National Socialist Movement. . Never heard of this clown before.

Hanging abolished. Just in time for another Moors Murder, this one on tape FFS.

The funeral of WSC.