What are you reading tonight?

[TANGODANCER]

After a spell of archeological and Masonic jiggery-pokery, I needed a bit of light relief. "One Shot", in which Lee Child's central character is a walking talking one-man army. Improbable but still enjoyable enough for me to have read all but his latest offering, just out. I'll no doubt buy it.

[Prufrock]

Well I've had my fill of 'light reading for the midnight hours' and am a little over half way through The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (edited by non other than Richard Dawkins) - ISBN 978-0-19-921680-2.

I have read bits and pieces about Dawkins, some which applaud him and others that do not, but have not read any of his writings (not that I can remember anyway) and was therefore unsure what to expect from this extensive collection selected and introduced by him. The book is a compilation of snippets from a host of authors chosen by Dawkins using his subjective view of what is well written rather than the content (although the two are not mutually exclusive).

I have reservations regarding his opinion of what is 'well written' as I sometimes wonder as I read whether that is a euphemism for 'that with which I agree'. I suspect that I am incorrect in that assumption as it is not always the case.

Scepticism aside this is a book well worth the effort to source and one in which there are references galore to publications of which one might otherwise be ignorant.

*****

Sounds like Mr D. Love him and what he does to bits, but he doesn't have anything if not belief that he is right. About everything.

[hisroyalgingerness]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

[BWFC_Insane]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

[hisroyalgingerness]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

[Puskas]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

I was just disturbed by the number of ex-Wanderers managers he signed.

Loads of 'em. And our current manager didn't even get a mention.

It seemed even more pronounced in the film. I kept expecting a scene with Sam Longson bursting into a training session, screaming, "What's this, Clough? You've gone behind my back again, to spend 200,000 on Stan Anderson and George Mulhall?"

But he didn't.

[thebish]

this week I am mostly reading "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre

cracking good read.....

[Prufrock]

this week I am mostly reading "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre

cracking good read.....

On my list of things to read? I take it you recommend?

[Puskas]

this week I am mostly reading "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre

cracking good read.....

On my list of things to read? I take it you recommend?

I would. Definitely.

Should be a must in schools, in a critical thinking course. Along with Martin Gardner's "Science: Good, Bad and Bogus", Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" and Francis Wheen's "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World".

Get them all.

[Dujon]

Thanks, Puskas and Prufrock, you make it so easy.

I've just done an on-line library reservation for two of your recommendations (Wheen's and Goldacre's) and, as they don't hold the Sagan referenced by you, I've added another of his publications.

Oh, happy days.

[enfieldwhite]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

I was just disturbed by the number of ex-Wanderers managers he signed.

Loads of 'em. And our current manager didn't even get a mention.

It seemed even more pronounced in the film. I kept expecting a scene with Sam Longson bursting into a training session, screaming, "What's this, Clough? You've gone behind my back again, to spend 200,000 on Stan Anderson and George Mulhall?"

But he didn't.

Finished the Damned United last week. A bit of light reading after the Cellist of Sarajevo before plunging into the Tale of Mr Y . Like a bitter Sorbet between courses.

[hisroyalgingerness]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

I was just disturbed by the number of ex-Wanderers managers he signed.

Loads of 'em. And our current manager didn't even get a mention.

It seemed even more pronounced in the film. I kept expecting a scene with Sam Longson bursting into a training session, screaming, "What's this, Clough? You've gone behind my back again, to spend 200,000 on Stan Anderson and George Mulhall?"

But he didn't.

Finished the Damned United last week. A bit of light reading after the Cellist of Sarajevo before plunging into the Tale of Mr Y . Like a bitter Sorbet between courses.

Similarly it's sandwiching my Stalingrad outing with a book - "forgotten voices of the great war"

[BWFC_Insane]

Just polishing off The Damned United now. Cracking read, if total bollocks

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

I was just disturbed by the number of ex-Wanderers managers he signed.

Loads of 'em. And our current manager didn't even get a mention.

It seemed even more pronounced in the film. I kept expecting a scene with Sam Longson bursting into a training session, screaming, "What's this, Clough? You've gone behind my back again, to spend 200,000 on Stan Anderson and George Mulhall?"

But he didn't.

Finished the Damned United last week. A bit of light reading after the Cellist of Sarajevo before plunging into the Tale of Mr Y . Like a bitter Sorbet between courses.

Dya mean the end of mr y?

If so a good book, if not slightly long-winded!

[enfieldwhite]

Whilst I think the author clearly has created a work of fiction and blurred the lines between fact and fiction, I think there is certainly a thread of truth that runs through the book.

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

I was just disturbed by the number of ex-Wanderers managers he signed.

Loads of 'em. And our current manager didn't even get a mention.

It seemed even more pronounced in the film. I kept expecting a scene with Sam Longson bursting into a training session, screaming, "What's this, Clough? You've gone behind my back again, to spend 200,000 on Stan Anderson and George Mulhall?"

But he didn't.

Finished the Damned United last week. A bit of light reading after the Cellist of Sarajevo before plunging into the Tale of Mr Y . Like a bitter Sorbet between courses.

Dya mean the end of mr y?

If so a good book, if not slightly long-winded!

That's the kiddie. Lot of psycho-babble at the start is like wading through treacle. Hope it picks up. The precis sold it to me.

[BWFC_Insane]

Ok, sorry. Cracking read, if based on partially truth exaggerated muchly

There, that rolls off the tongue

I was just disturbed by the number of ex-Wanderers managers he signed.

Loads of 'em. And our current manager didn't even get a mention.

It seemed even more pronounced in the film. I kept expecting a scene with Sam Longson bursting into a training session, screaming, "What's this, Clough? You've gone behind my back again, to spend 200,000 on Stan Anderson and George Mulhall?"

But he didn't.

Finished the Damned United last week. A bit of light reading after the Cellist of Sarajevo before plunging into the Tale of Mr Y . Like a bitter Sorbet between courses.

Dya mean the end of mr y?

If so a good book, if not slightly long-winded!

That's the kiddie. Lot of psycho-babble at the start is like wading through treacle. Hope it picks up. The precis sold it to me.

I found the psycho-babble a bit wearying hence my earlier comments. However, it is one of those books where you have to try and buy into the pysch stuff and the blurring of science and mystery to really have the psycho-scientific debate the author is trying to prompt you to!

[Raven]

Just finished The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (those templars seem in interesting lot!), fictional book based in modern times, 4 horsemen dressed as Templars raid on a New York museum holding a viewing of various artifacts from the Vatican, one being a decoding machine far ahead of its time. Then teh search/race start to find out just what the templars found in Solomans Temple and where it was located. All good fun and I will certainly look out for other books by the same author and any on the Templars too.

About to finish Roots by Arthur Hailey, a book I have been wanting to read for some time and I have not been disappointed, it really is very very good.

[Little Green Man]

Viz and in particular Jack Black and the Goodwin Mansion Mystery. Very funny.

[TANGODANCER]

Just finished The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (those templars seem in interesting lot!), .

There are lots of Templar novels about. Look out for Robin Young and Jack Whyte for the best ones that stick with historical fact as a background. A non fiction book, "The Second Messiah" by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas is also very good as is "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail" (the book that Dan Brown was accused of plaguerising for his novel "The Da Vinci Code".

[Puskas]

Just finished The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (those templars seem in interesting lot!), .

There are lots of Templar novels about. Look out for Robin Young and Jack Whyte for the best ones that stick with historical fact as a background. A non fiction book, "The Second Messiah" by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas is also very good as is "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail" (the book that Dan Brown was accused of plaguerising for his novel "The Da Vinci Code".

Each to his own, I suppose, but I thought that was rather poor.

Considering it claims to be a history, as opposed to fiction, it's full of "And just suppose that....", "And could it be that....?"

Hmm, well, it _could_ be, but it doesn't seem very likely, so let's assume not, eh?

Worse than that, though, it was just boring. I bought it because I thought it would be amusing - its hypothesis was sufficiently silly. Unfortunately it wasn't - I gave up before I even got halfway.

Should you want a good conspiracy-theory novel, I'd recommend Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" - all the good ones are in there - Templars, the Illuminati, Rennes-le-chateau, the Comte de Saint-Germain. And it's immeasurably better written than Dan Brown.

[TANGODANCER]

[
Should you want a good conspiracy-theory novel, I'd recommend Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" - all the good ones are in there - Templars, the Illuminati, Rennes-le-chateau, the Comte de Saint-Germain. And it's immeasurably better written than Dan Brown.

Yes, I've read it (still got it somewhere). The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is not based on anything except mainly assumptions and thus can be accepted or rejected as seen fit. End of day, nothing is certain or indeed provable as to their conclusions. I like to keep an open mind about it all. I've read many such books and also a great deal of history of the times of the Templars. What I like most is how it all is supposed to be done in God's name and his will when actually God has nothing to do with any of it. Power, greed and wealth are at the root of it all. The Crusades were nothing more than a way concocted by a penniless King and an unscrupulous and weak Pope to keep the army occupied to avoid paying them for sitting around, and to line the pockets of the deadly duo at the same time. The Templars were destroyed for the same reason, to steal their wealth and power by accusations of every crime known to man and citing God as judge. Hypocracy on the grand scale.

I think the ending of the film "Kingdom of Heaven might have touched on the truth when the central character asks Sala-ud-Din: "What does Jerusalem mean to you?"and his conqueror replies "Nothing, nothing at all". A fine way for millions to die for the same reason. True religion is based on belief without proof, whatever man may think or claim to the contrary.

The good Bard, in King Richard III quoteth:

And thus, I clothe my naked villainy
With odds and ends stolen out of Holy Writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

Amen.