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

[DoctorStrangelove]

"The Dam Busters" by Paul Brickhill (1952, revised 1983).

So the film covers the first dams op, the book goes on to cover many more ops.

From bouncing bombs they went on to precision bombing with Tallboy and eventually Grand Slam bombs which Wallace had suggested in 1939 but The Powers That Be said that 500lb bombs were perfectly adequate and 12,000lb and 22,000lb bombs were a figment of his imagination.

The rate of attrition was dreadful.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Reach for the sky: biog of Douglas Bader" by Paul Brickhill. This one is a 1950 hardback.

[Uncle Albert]

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie. I like a bit of Rushdie from time to time.

[DoctorStrangelove]

And a delusion it proved so to be: found in the bookcase behind this very chair, accompanied by a paperback copy of "Smiley's People", so:

Next: "A Murder of Quality" by John Le Carre (1962).

Done. Very good. I like short books. .

Next: "The spy who came in from the cold" by John Le Carre. Once I've found a copy.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Rather hard going with small print and even smaller print in the footnotes.

Next: "Call for the dead", John leCarre.

Still haven't found "A murder of quality" despite the illusion* of having seen it somewhere in the garage on Monday. Ho hum.


*More like a delusion but there you go: certainly seems to have been some sort of mirage.

And a delusion it proved so to be: found in the bookcase behind this very chair, accompanied by a paperback copy of "Smiley's People" (this last particularly gratifying since I spent a whole £1 on a hardback bookclub edition a fortnight ago), so:

Next: "A Murder of Quality" by John Le Carre (1962).

[BlueSharp]

Just finished reading the Three body problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. First sci-fi book I have read for a while and really enjoyed it. Much better than what's been released on Netflix.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Call for the dead", John leCarre.

Still haven't found "A murder of quality" despite the illusion* of having seen it somewhere in the garage on Monday. Ho hum.


*More like a delusion but there you go.

Done.

Next: "A History of Wales" by John Davies being a translation of "Hanes Cymru" into Saesneg for the monoglot.

[Uncle Albert]

The Lower River by Paul Theroux. It's been a while since I read any of his books and I'm enjoying it.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Smear: Wilson and the Secret Service" by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay.

He may have been paranoid but they really were out to get him.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Rather hard going with small print and even smaller print in the footnotes.

Next: "Call for the dead", John leCarre.

Still haven't found "A murder of quality" despite the illusion* of having seen it somewhere in the garage on Monday. Ho hum.


*More like a delusion but there you go: certainly seems to have been some sort of mirage.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it. The ending was a bit odd but there you go, and the timeline is equally difficult to figure out.

Next: "Jungle Capitalists: a story of greed globalisation and revolution" by Peter Chapman.

The story of United Fruit, s and republics.

Done. The triumph of the Monroe Doctrine & the wonders of The American Century.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Smear: Wilson and the Secret Service" by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay.

He may have been paranoid but they really were out to get him.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"A legacy of spies" by John leCarre

Done: off to Oxfam with it. The ending was a bit odd but there you go, and the timeline is equally difficult to figure out.

Next: "Jungle Capitalists: a story of greed globalisation and revolution" by Peter Chapman.

The story of United Fruit, s and republics.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Eleven Minutes Late: A train journey to the edge of madness soul of Britain" by Matthew Engel.

A rather funny epic journey using a fortnight rover ticket that cost £860.

Excellent read: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: Fiction:"A legacy of spies" by John leCarre

And the print is a lot bigger than in the usual tomes I read.
Well there's a thing.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility" by Charles Berlitz and William Moore.

More bollox suitable only for the Blaze channel.

Done: very Blaze channel: the fright haired Greek American on Ancient Astronauts must have been in nappies when this was written back in 1978: a book with zero reliable information content: off to Oxfam with it. I didn't buy it, someone gave it to me..

Next: "Eleven Minutes Late: A train journey to the edge of madness soul of Britain" by Matthew Engel.

A rather funny epic journey using a fortnight rover ticket that cost £860.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin. Another 600 page epic.

Thankfully an easier read than Hennessy's epic. Turns out it's 2nd hand & preloved. No idea when it was bought but the dust suggests that it was a while ago. Purchased 22nd of December 2010 so it has been there a while.

Inneresting book. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility" by Charles Berlitz and William Moore.

More bollox suitable only for the Blaze channel.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Curious how things were worse after the war than they were during it.

Next: "Never Again" by Peter Hennessy. Same old same old 1945 - 1951. Dunno when I bought this, it came from a different bookshelf, so may have been there decades.

Despite the 1945 - 1951 bit it actually starts in 1938, to get us up to speed, like.

Inneresting in parts, not very in other parts. Off to Oxfam with it.

There's another two in the series, I don't think I'll bother, I found the David Kynaston books much more readable.

Next: "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin. Another 600 page epic.

Thankfully an easier read than Hennessy's epic. Turns out it's 2nd hand & preloved. No idea when it was bought but the dust suggests that it was a while ago. Purchased 22nd of December 2010 so it has been there a while.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Our Hidden Lives" by Simon Garfield: Mass Observation Diaries from May 1945 to July 1948. There's a cat lady: "Maggie Joy Blunt" who owned a small bookshop after the war that specialised in stuff about cats. She died in 1986.

Done. Off to Oxfam with it. Rather enjoyed that one.

Curious how things were worse after the war than they were during it.

Next: "Never Again" by Peter Hennessy. Same old same old 1945 - 1951. Dunno when I bought this, it came from a different bookshelf, so may have been there decades.

Despite the 1945 - 1951 bit it actually starts in 1938, to get us up to speed, like.