What are you reading ?
- Thread starter MaC
- Start date
Templogin
VIP Member
I have recently read a book about the psychology of the (US) police interview techniques. Not planning to go to the US in the forseeable future so can't see it coming in useful.
Also read Bravo Three Zero, the team that deployed in Iraq AND didn't get caught. Mostly a total gang-fuck apparently, not in anyway the fault of the team having said that. Poor int as is often the case. Wrong kit, wrong weather, wrong type of terrain, wrong frequencies, crap vehicles.
Then a quick dip into a Seal's survival "manual". Starts with physical and mental motivation then goes through survival situations. I have just read the first one: surviving a disaster at sea.
Then moved onto We Die Alone - David Howarth. The tale of a 4-man sabotage team who sailed from Shetland to Norway in WW2 to train the locals to sabotage the German army occupiers and their infrastructure. An absolutely harrowing tale, which I would definitely recommend.
Now re-reading the series of Sven Hassel books starting with the Legion of the Damned. I think that I last started reading these when I was 18. I will intersperse these with others on the Kobo ereader. So many books, so little time.
Sven Hassel Bibliography
* The Legion of the Damned (1953)
* Wheels of Terror (1958)
* Comrades of War (1960)
* SS-General (1960)
* March Battalion (1962)
* Assignment Gestapo (1963)
* Monte Cassino (1963)
* Liquidate Paris (1967)
* Reign of Hell (1971)
* Blitzfreeze (1973)
* Court Martial (1978)
* O.G.P.U. Prison (1981)
* The Bloody Road to Death (1983)
* The Commissar (1984)
Also read Bravo Three Zero, the team that deployed in Iraq AND didn't get caught. Mostly a total gang-fuck apparently, not in anyway the fault of the team having said that. Poor int as is often the case. Wrong kit, wrong weather, wrong type of terrain, wrong frequencies, crap vehicles.
Then a quick dip into a Seal's survival "manual". Starts with physical and mental motivation then goes through survival situations. I have just read the first one: surviving a disaster at sea.
Then moved onto We Die Alone - David Howarth. The tale of a 4-man sabotage team who sailed from Shetland to Norway in WW2 to train the locals to sabotage the German army occupiers and their infrastructure. An absolutely harrowing tale, which I would definitely recommend.
Now re-reading the series of Sven Hassel books starting with the Legion of the Damned. I think that I last started reading these when I was 18. I will intersperse these with others on the Kobo ereader. So many books, so little time.
Sven Hassel Bibliography
* The Legion of the Damned (1953)
* Wheels of Terror (1958)
* Comrades of War (1960)
* SS-General (1960)
* March Battalion (1962)
* Assignment Gestapo (1963)
* Monte Cassino (1963)
* Liquidate Paris (1967)
* Reign of Hell (1971)
* Blitzfreeze (1973)
* Court Martial (1978)
* O.G.P.U. Prison (1981)
* The Bloody Road to Death (1983)
* The Commissar (1984)
BorderReiver
Moderator
There are a few of them iirc.The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Not sure I like it yet but I'm only halfway through
Love Terry Pratchett but I couldnt get on with these, first book felt like there was a plan, second felt like someone was lost and circling to try and find a landmark to navigate back from. Your mileage may vary etc.
BorderReiver
Moderator
Not a successful collaboration.
I'm currently reading Legends and Lattes.
It falls into a newish category called "cosy fantasy" sort of the oppsite of high fantasy. Low stakes easy reading. Some claim that Terrys Discworld series was part of the first wave of cosy fantasy.
It falls into a newish category called "cosy fantasy" sort of the oppsite of high fantasy. Low stakes easy reading. Some claim that Terrys Discworld series was part of the first wave of cosy fantasy.
Bugger, I bought all five (
Jaggededge
Explorer
I gave up on Moby Dick.
ElThomsono
VIP Member
They find the big fish and it kills everyone except Ishmael, Ahab DGAF.
ElThomsono
VIP Member
How's the
How's Dead Mountain going? Valid theory?
I still think about going back and trying them again, maybe i missed something that made them work.
Templogin
VIP Member
Finished. Valid theory? Who knows!? Got to be military.
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Reading various online manuals for the past few hours. I popped the SIM out of my i13 and put it in the i5 (I have a ton of old iPhones laying around about the place doing various jobs). For its size, I greatly miss the i12mini that I had to give back. And the i5 is great, in that regard of one-hand use.
But getting things to work is a bit of a labour, especially a Bluetooth connection for my Garmin 630. Still not there yet. Everything else is OK, though. Sound quality to the Sony 1000XM4s isn't as good. That's the only significant hiccup, and even for that there may be a solution.
But getting things to work is a bit of a labour, especially a Bluetooth connection for my Garmin 630. Still not there yet. Everything else is OK, though. Sound quality to the Sony 1000XM4s isn't as good. That's the only significant hiccup, and even for that there may be a solution.
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ElThomsono
VIP Member
I'm still reading Kolyma Tales, somehow I've been reading it online and also in hardback, but that's led to two different translations. In Carpenters a couple of prisoners feign being woodworkers to get a couple of days in an indoor workshop, with a stove. The head carpenter cottons on and says:
"Here's my axe, make me a new handle for it." Arnshtrem smiled. "My norm for axe handles is thirty per day," he said."
That's the Donald Rayfield translation, in the earlier John Glad translation it's simply:
"You will need to make 30 a day"
Which has far less mockery, it's not clear if Rayfield is tarting it up or Glad is being more literal, in any case I won't be reading it in the original Russian any time soon.
"Here's my axe, make me a new handle for it." Arnshtrem smiled. "My norm for axe handles is thirty per day," he said."
That's the Donald Rayfield translation, in the earlier John Glad translation it's simply:
"You will need to make 30 a day"
Which has far less mockery, it's not clear if Rayfield is tarting it up or Glad is being more literal, in any case I won't be reading it in the original Russian any time soon.
There was an old prof at my Uni who had translated Heidegger's Being and Time. He must have been in his 80s when he put on a voluntary course. It was quite interesting not just for the Philosophy side of it but also him going through his translation rationale, why he didn't like the existing English translation and so on.
I don't think he ever got permission to publish it.
I don't think he ever got permission to publish it.
Nice65
Explorer
Tried and failed to keep up with reading A Gentleman in Moscow when it was released, but loving the Audible version, it’s such a nice book to have read to you.
Also, a while ago, I mentioned Matthew Roberts as having a bit of a handle on the UAP phenomena, ie, less rockets and flying through space, more dimensions and layers of an onion. As a naval cryptologist who was on US Roosevelt when the famous ‘gimbal’ and ‘go fast’ footage occurred, his accuracy and perceptive skills are not to be taken lightly, so I grabbed his book, Initiated. Not at all what I expected but very relative to Allegory of the Cave, the death of Socrates and human enlightenment.
Also, a while ago, I mentioned Matthew Roberts as having a bit of a handle on the UAP phenomena, ie, less rockets and flying through space, more dimensions and layers of an onion. As a naval cryptologist who was on US Roosevelt when the famous ‘gimbal’ and ‘go fast’ footage occurred, his accuracy and perceptive skills are not to be taken lightly, so I grabbed his book, Initiated. Not at all what I expected but very relative to Allegory of the Cave, the death of Socrates and human enlightenment.
MaC
Moderator
Titbits of Scottish History. I'm clearing out old folders.
Our history is full of strong women, and appalling grief.
Agnes Randolph denied Dunbar Castle to an attacking English force under Salisbury....he resorted to bringing out her brother and threatening to hang him in front of the gates if she did not surrender....there was precedence for this when the son of Alexander and Christian Seton was hung in front of them at Berwick because they refused to surrender to the English, just five years earlier. Don't give in to a terrorist has long roots here.
Black Agnes stood resolved and eventually the siege was broken when Alexander Ramsey of Dalhousie quietly slipped in from the sea with his men and led them and the garrison out of the castle to drive off Montagu/Salisbury's forces.
I look at the photos of my sons on the wall beside my desk, and I feel heartsore for Christian Seton, and in awe of their courage, their staunchness in the face of such cruelty and overwhelming numbers.
I get angry at humanity's inhumanity.
I understand the backgrounds to it, the political manoeuvring, the greed, the righteousness of it; it's the only way I know to seperate the horror and the helplessness from flooding my mind; but knowing that the devastations of war are nothing new, doesn't really help.
We're still doing it, and still old men brag of their 'glories' and drive the young to commit attrocities while they sit pulling strings and poisoning the next generations.
Peace be upon us.
Y'know, we wiped out smallpox. Can we no' wipe out war ?
Our history is full of strong women, and appalling grief.
Agnes Randolph denied Dunbar Castle to an attacking English force under Salisbury....he resorted to bringing out her brother and threatening to hang him in front of the gates if she did not surrender....there was precedence for this when the son of Alexander and Christian Seton was hung in front of them at Berwick because they refused to surrender to the English, just five years earlier. Don't give in to a terrorist has long roots here.
Black Agnes stood resolved and eventually the siege was broken when Alexander Ramsey of Dalhousie quietly slipped in from the sea with his men and led them and the garrison out of the castle to drive off Montagu/Salisbury's forces.
I look at the photos of my sons on the wall beside my desk, and I feel heartsore for Christian Seton, and in awe of their courage, their staunchness in the face of such cruelty and overwhelming numbers.
I get angry at humanity's inhumanity.
I understand the backgrounds to it, the political manoeuvring, the greed, the righteousness of it; it's the only way I know to seperate the horror and the helplessness from flooding my mind; but knowing that the devastations of war are nothing new, doesn't really help.
We're still doing it, and still old men brag of their 'glories' and drive the young to commit attrocities while they sit pulling strings and poisoning the next generations.
Peace be upon us.
Y'know, we wiped out smallpox. Can we no' wipe out war ?
Couldn't find the time or couldn't be-bothered?
MaC
Moderator
