What are you reading ?
- Thread starter MaC
- Start date
ElThomsono
VIP Member
Almost finished Three Men on the Bummel, certainly a good book but not as good as Three Men on a Boat. Again, very relatable despite being ancient.
Funnily enough it got missed, so I bought a copy on the kindle and read it on the flight home. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Saint-Just
Administrator
I re-read this thread (topical, isn't it?
) and realised I had missed that post.I like Simenon
Saint-Just
Administrator
What may or may not be apparent is that this sophisticated library is in the best reading space of the house, the downstairs loo 
ElThomsono
VIP Member
Running out of paper and deciding which book to sacrifice 😅
Saint-Just
Administrator
In Charente Maritime, my friends oyster farmers have pools behind their "cabane" (the small shed where they prepare the shells for packaging, stock what they need to go at sea and do any work that doesn't require being outside. Those pools are emptied just before the incoming tide if the the tidal range is good enough (3 weeks out of 4, roughly). In those pools they keep a few baskets of oysters in their most popular sizes, in case they receive an order from a good client before the next time go to their "claires". They call them "ambulances" because they are for emergencies.
I have a loo roll ambulance in each privy
I have a loo roll ambulance in each privy
ElThomsono
VIP Member
"What time the Black Forest peasant rises in the summer time I am unable to say; to us they appeared to be getting up all night. And the first thing the Black Forester does when he gets up is to put on a pair of stout boots with wooden soles, and take a constitutional round the house. Until he has been three times up and down the stairs, he does not feel he is up. Once fully awake himself, the next thing he does is to go upstairs to the stables, and wake up a horse. (The Black Forest house being built generally on the side of a steep hill, the ground floor is at the top, and the hay-loft at the bottom.) Then the horse, it would seem, must also have its constitutional round the house; and this seen to, the man goes down- stairs into the kitchen and begins to chop wood, and when he has chopped sufficient wood he feels pleased with himself and begins to sing."
If anyone is interested you can get the complete works of Cheyney for 99p on Kindle just now
ElThomsono
VIP Member
Well I sat down to finish my book only to realise there were three pages left, no idea how I didn't notice that last night and just finish it then?
I've started on A Rage in Harlem, as something put me in mind of Chester Himes recently. Seems pretty solid so far.
I've started on A Rage in Harlem, as something put me in mind of Chester Himes recently. Seems pretty solid so far.
Jaggededge
Explorer
Just finished Richard Osmans latest offering. I've read all 4 and must admit I quite enjoyed them. Very easy reading. A bit like Enid Blyton famous 5 but for adults.
MaC
Moderator
Terry Pratchett, "A Stroke of the Pen". It's a compiled volume of his 'lost' stories, written while he wasn't well known and learning his craft on short stories for local newspapers.
It's interesting, it's definitely him, but oh, it's unpolished, it's raw, it's undeveloped somehow.
He is very much one of my favourite authors, and it's been an interesting read.
He himself didn't want to find these older stories, had no interest in seeing them published, etc., but in a way it completes things.
It's interesting, it's definitely him, but oh, it's unpolished, it's raw, it's undeveloped somehow.
He is very much one of my favourite authors, and it's been an interesting read.
He himself didn't want to find these older stories, had no interest in seeing them published, etc., but in a way it completes things.
BorderReiver
Moderator
Jaggededge
Explorer
Still chewing my way through Moby Dick. Fell asleep mid chapter this afternoon, had to go back a couple of pages to get my bearings.
BorderReiver
Moderator
I'm reading, by dint of being present, bits of my wife's latest audible detective story.
ElThomsono
VIP Member
I've finished with Dostoyevsky, needless to say it got a bit dry and heavy for a while but then it really came into its own in the last ⅓, I guess miserable bastards haven't changed much in the last two centuries.
I've moved onto Kurt Vonnegut now, decent:
"Billy looked at the clock on the gas stove. He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backward saw then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers inte the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again."
I've moved onto Kurt Vonnegut now, decent:
"Billy looked at the clock on the gas stove. He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backward saw then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers inte the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again."
Saint-Just
Administrator
We actually met Kurt Vonnegut as a class when we were in NY as our American Literature teacher had us reading your book (Slaughterhouse 5)
It brought a completely new dimension to the book as we were kids (I was not 16) and had never heard of Dresden bombings.
I may have posted in the past (including on BB) rather violent diatribes against Bomber Harris when he was evoked usually by those people who drape themselves in the flag and take the moral high ground. And I seem to remember that Martyn was on the receiving end at least once. My grandpa had already mentioned Harris and all the good he thought of him after dusting himself off the rubbles of Rouen, where he had sought refuge, having been freed from Dunkirk where his brigade and a Scottish one faced the German army during Operation Dynamo. He was captured but was freed and demobilised (he was in his late 40s but had rejoined as war was declared, as he was a former NCO in WW1). I was 11 when died so what he had told me was vivid but censored for my ears. Kurt Vonnegut’s words were not.
It brought a completely new dimension to the book as we were kids (I was not 16) and had never heard of Dresden bombings.
I may have posted in the past (including on BB) rather violent diatribes against Bomber Harris when he was evoked usually by those people who drape themselves in the flag and take the moral high ground. And I seem to remember that Martyn was on the receiving end at least once. My grandpa had already mentioned Harris and all the good he thought of him after dusting himself off the rubbles of Rouen, where he had sought refuge, having been freed from Dunkirk where his brigade and a Scottish one faced the German army during Operation Dynamo. He was captured but was freed and demobilised (he was in his late 40s but had rejoined as war was declared, as he was a former NCO in WW1). I was 11 when died so what he had told me was vivid but censored for my ears. Kurt Vonnegut’s words were not.
Daughter is doing philosophy stuff on a course at uni and keeps asking me questions. So, I just read the introduction to Heidegger's Being and Time. Pretty frustrating experience in all, I have to say. So, I will probably try and read it again. I don't know why.
I thought that I had read it a long time ago, but I think I would have remembered something as purposefully opaque (I get why it is like it is). So, I guess everything I know about the book has come from other people; which is a bit disorienting.
I thought that I had read it a long time ago, but I think I would have remembered something as purposefully opaque (I get why it is like it is). So, I guess everything I know about the book has come from other people; which is a bit disorienting.
Templogin
VIP Member
The Ministry for the Future was too hard going. I had read about a third of it, but life is too short to read a bad book.
I picked up The Ghost by Robert Harris. What a fantastic book. I would certainly recommend it.
I picked up The Ghost by Robert Harris. What a fantastic book. I would certainly recommend it.
Saint-Just
Administrator
I like Robert Harris but haven't read the Ghost. Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel are excellent, if chilling. Pompeii is all you ever want from a time travel in Ancient Rome (well, Pompeii, to be pedantic).
ElThomsono
VIP Member
That's all a bit grim Marc, I think you have a different book in mind. I'm reading a comedy:
Saint-Just
Administrator
It is a comedy mate, and it isn’t. KV was a prisoner of war and was held in Dresden. He wrote the book as an anti war crusade, using Tralfamadore as an escape whenever life became difficult for his hero, a process he had used himself to cope with what wasn’t yet known as PTSD. So the book is easy to read and with a dark humour but while KV was funny and a very pleasant host to the 12-14 of us, I cannot re-read the book without remembering what he said was behind. Maybe he just spoiled it for me.
ElThomsono
VIP Member
Right, that's Slaughterhouse Five done, luckily all that's behind us. Let me just check the statistics:
Ukranian combatants killed: 31,000
Gaza civilians killed: 30,000
Potless Russian lads sent to their death: 180,000
Ah beans, at least it's not us doing it this time.
Ukranian combatants killed: 31,000
Gaza civilians killed: 30,000
Potless Russian lads sent to their death: 180,000
Ah beans, at least it's not us doing it this time.