What are you reading tonight?
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
^ and another, suited to my former activities:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=spoof ... hlc-ttM%3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=spoof ... hlc-ttM%3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: What are you reading tonight?
clapton is god wrote:^ and another, suited to my former activities:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=spoof ... hlc-ttM%3A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
aye - love that one! there are several spoofs - it seems they've decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" - do official spoofs!
Re: What are you reading tonight?
Finished Moby Dick on holiday. It's not really what I expected although Ishmael is a v interesting character. At parts it's almost an 18th-century scientific treatment of whales; at times it's part philosophy; and at others, it's raging action book. Loved it though, and he totally knew what he was doing keep writing about "sperm" all the time. he description of them getting it all out of the whale's head is piss funny!
Then read "What's Left" by Nick Cohen. Fantastic book, must read for anybody interested in politics, whether lefty or otherwise. Brilliant history of the rise of relativism, great treatment of Theory and an excoriating attack on the moral bankruptcy of the modern left that now, having lost the economic war and won the social one, can't accept the former and so jeapordises the latter by getting in bed with any crank, nutjob or tyrant who opposes America and liberal democracy, no matter how they treat their own people. A must read even if you don't agree with that^ because it sets the case against so compellingly.
Big fan of Cohen's: he's not quite Hitchens as some would have it, but then nobody is, and he's as close as I'm aware of at the moment.
Then read "What's Left" by Nick Cohen. Fantastic book, must read for anybody interested in politics, whether lefty or otherwise. Brilliant history of the rise of relativism, great treatment of Theory and an excoriating attack on the moral bankruptcy of the modern left that now, having lost the economic war and won the social one, can't accept the former and so jeapordises the latter by getting in bed with any crank, nutjob or tyrant who opposes America and liberal democracy, no matter how they treat their own people. A must read even if you don't agree with that^ because it sets the case against so compellingly.
Big fan of Cohen's: he's not quite Hitchens as some would have it, but then nobody is, and he's as close as I'm aware of at the moment.
In a world that has decided
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Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind.
That it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
This morning I finished reading Go Set a Watchman. When I look back on it now as an overall piece it is very, very good indeed. After a light first half of, chiefly, Scout's reminiscences (which I now understand are needed to create the contrast) the second half gets darker and angrier as it goes along.
I'm now 60 pages into The Perfect Crime by Tom Parry. It's the story (and possible explanations) relating to the murders in a remote part of the French Alps two years ago. Horrible stuff.
I'm now 60 pages into The Perfect Crime by Tom Parry. It's the story (and possible explanations) relating to the murders in a remote part of the French Alps two years ago. Horrible stuff.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
I'm currently a good way into 'The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared." Very enjoyable so far, lots of humorous moments in it and a fair few laugh out loud ones. And it really is about what it says in the title.
- Worthy4England
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Half way through the book? At the age of 100, surely, he's only just got his slippers on! It'll take him till 3/4 to reach the bloody window.clapton is god wrote:I'm currently a good way into 'The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared." Very enjoyable so far, lots of humorous moments in it and a fair few laugh out loud ones. And it really is about what it says in the title.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
I'm currently reading The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. Not at all what I was expecting in terms of plot, but I do enjoy his style with its amusing similes and metaphors.
"If you cannot answer a man's argument, all it not lost; you can still call him vile names. " Elbert Hubbard.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Going with the easy pleasers: latest Grisham, 'Rogue Lawyer'.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Getting stuck into big Sam...
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Today i finished Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men.. Booker nominee of 2006 - the unread are slowly diminishing. It is written by a Libyan writer who has spent much of his life outside Libya, and is set in Qadaffi's tyrannical society, with its personality cult, secret police, torture and live executions of opponents on television.
Its narrator is a nine year old boy, who is the son of an opposition activist whose underground organisation is being chased down by the secret police. Our narrator, in the innocence of childhood, is responsible for unintentional betrayal - his father and his father's friends (one of them the father of his best friend at school) are arrested with terrible consequences.
This is a tough book - but very good, moving, tense.
Its narrator is a nine year old boy, who is the son of an opposition activist whose underground organisation is being chased down by the secret police. Our narrator, in the innocence of childhood, is responsible for unintentional betrayal - his father and his father's friends (one of them the father of his best friend at school) are arrested with terrible consequences.
This is a tough book - but very good, moving, tense.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Quintin Jardine's Hour of Darkness The latest (I think) Skinner novel. Pretty sure I've read the lot now.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
enjoyed Big Sam's book. didnt learn a great deal but was nice to reminisce. no startling revelations but didnt know about the Akin Bulent and Bernard Mendy fight! his heart scare was a lot worse than he let on too... id have liked a few more anecdotes from his playing days on the piss rather than all the stats and figures, and a bit less 'long ball' denial too. decent enough steady read, cant imagine fans of other clubs would find it very interesting tho. (just read some of the 'ammers fans reviews on amazon!)
Last edited by General Mannerheim on Tue Nov 03, 2015 7:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
- Bruce Rioja
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Tango - Listening to the R4 Book programme this morning, they featured a book about Charlotte Bronte. Thought I'd bring it to your attention. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/o ... -biography" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
The Bulent v Mendy fight? What happened there then?General Mannerheim wrote:enjoyed Big Sam's book. didnt learn a great deal but was nice to reminisce. no startling revelations but didnt know about the Akin Bulent and Bernard Mendy fight! his heart scare was a lot worse than he let on too... id have liked a few more anecdotes from his playing days on the piss rather than all the stats and figures, and a bit less 'long ball' denial too. decent enough steady read, cant imagine fans of other clubs would find it very interesting tho.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
Cheers Bruce, I'll have a look at that.Bruce Rioja wrote:Tango - Listening to the R4 Book programme this morning, they featured a book about Charlotte Bronte. Thought I'd bring it to your attention. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/o ... -biography" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
Re: What are you reading tonight?
When I read his Booker-prize short-listed "J" last year, and saw him do a few interviews around it, I was quite annoyed by Howard Jacobson; he wound me up for some reason, and came across as extremely pleased with himself.
His prose still has that smug air, but there are two or three columns of his I've read over the past year that have really hit the nail on the head, none more so than this: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/we- ... 15601.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
His prose still has that smug air, but there are two or three columns of his I've read over the past year that have really hit the nail on the head, none more so than this: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/we- ... 15601.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In a world that has decided
That it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind.
That it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
they just fkin hated each other apparently. a punch up started after a 50/50 tackle in training. they got separated and Mendy was sent to the office. next thing Bulent smashes the door down flies into him again! BSA said it was the most violent fight he saw in his career.Harry Genshaw wrote:The Bulent v Mendy fight? What happened there then?General Mannerheim wrote:enjoyed Big Sam's book. didnt learn a great deal but was nice to reminisce. no startling revelations but didnt know about the Akin Bulent and Bernard Mendy fight! his heart scare was a lot worse than he let on too... id have liked a few more anecdotes from his playing days on the piss rather than all the stats and figures, and a bit less 'long ball' denial too. decent enough steady read, cant imagine fans of other clubs would find it very interesting tho.
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
^^^ missing out the point that it was reported that Bulent pulled a knife in this fight. Which sort of raises it a notch.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
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"I understand you are a very good footballer" ... "I try".
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Re: What are you reading tonight?
I've just completed '1606' - subtitled 'William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear' by James Shapiro. This is his sequel to his multiple award-winning '1599' which tells the story of the building and opening of the Globe.
1606 was the year that Shakespeare completed three major tragedies - Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra and, most famously, King Lear. You're on a mighty talented roll as a writer to throw together three masterpieces in just over 12 months!!!
Shapiro writes very well; his work is a mix of political, social and literary history and insightful analysis of the plays he considers. Inevitably much of it is speculative but he makes his arguments well. And, above all, his work is interesting!.
It isn't as good as 1599. But it is very good.
1606 was the year that Shakespeare completed three major tragedies - Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra and, most famously, King Lear. You're on a mighty talented roll as a writer to throw together three masterpieces in just over 12 months!!!
Shapiro writes very well; his work is a mix of political, social and literary history and insightful analysis of the plays he considers. Inevitably much of it is speculative but he makes his arguments well. And, above all, his work is interesting!.
It isn't as good as 1599. But it is very good.
Re: What are you reading tonight?
aye - everyone in 1606 said that the olden days of 1599 were much better!
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