What are you reading?

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:57 pm

Golden Buddha by Clive Cussler

Post by **drmoss_ca** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:54 pm

Harold Wilson's "A Prime Minister on Prime Ministers". 12 biographies from Palmerston onwards. I'm learning more about Wilson from it than I am about his subjects. Seems I had underestimated Wilson - good insights, an excellent grasp of the details of parliamentary to and fro, and some lovely tidbits of his own experience.
Up next, two of Patrick Leigh-Fermor's travel books written about his penniless wanderings through pre-war Europe. If you have ever watched 'Ill Met By Moonlight' you'll know he just had to be an extraordinary man (he kidnapped a German general in occupied Crete and spirited him away to Cairo).

Chris

rustyblade · Post by **rustyblade** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:20 pm

Dance, dance, dance - Haruki Murakami

rsp1202 · Post by **rsp1202** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:06 pm

drP wrote:Currently some fine books about mountaineering:

"The white spider" by Heinrich Harrer

"The Eiger obsession" by John Harlin III

"Touching the void" by Joe Simpson

"The beckoning silence" by Joe Simpson

"The mountains of my life" by Walter Bonatti

Accompanied by the matching Blue Ray discs/DVD's

I've been besotted with the legend of Mallory and Irving, but that front's gone quiet lately. Waiting for the library to get in a copy of the PBS special broadcast 11 years ago on Mallory's discovery, and Conrad Anker's personal recollections in print of the same event.

giammi · Post by **giammi** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:20 pm

The Prague Cemetery - Umberto Eco

joe mcclaine · Post by **joe mcclaine** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:08 am

Premiership Psycho - CM Taylor

About a footballer (soccer) who is obsessed with designer labels and spending money buying the best of the best. Strange then that the author didn't do a little more research. He has the main character buying a bottle of Acqua Di Parma Colonia Intensa at Harrods but he also writes about him using 'Pinaud Clubman Vanilla' aftershave . . . hardly Premiership level . . . more like Conference North.

Oh, and he shaves with a King of Shaves Azor after trying it out, side-by-side against the Quattro Titanium.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:50 am

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

reggiano · Post by **reggiano** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:47 pm

Bargepole wrote:
Kyle76 wrote:
Bargepole wrote:He bumped into Dave Stewart (Eurythmics etc) in a luthier's shop in southern France and Stewart told him a really good trick for smuggling a new guitar into the house without the wife finding out. You'd have thought that if there were anyone entitled to buy as many guitars as he wanted, it would be Mr Stewart, but... turns out it's just like SBAD etc.
So, what's the trick? On the guitar forums, it's GAS -- Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. Apparently, with guitars, it's not a disorder.
If I recall correctly... Keep a very old guitar case in the car. Remove very old guitar. Place old guitar under back seat of car. Drive to luthier's. Pay. Place new guitar in very old case. Drive home. Walk into house carrying case and whistling cheerily. When in privacy of own room, decant new guitar from old case and place on remote stand in corner. Rinse and repeat as required.

Moral: Never Trust A Whistling Guitarist.

Thanks for that. Trying to get a Les Paul into the house, and it won't be popular considering the costs of wisdom teeth removal for my 18 yo, the removal of a dying 100 yo norway maple in the backyard, and renovation of our basement all in the works currently.

reggiano · Post by **reggiano** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:49 pm

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Underworld by Don Delillo

Malloy by Samuel Beckett

HAC · Post by **HAC** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:10 am

"How the Reformation Happened" - Hilaire Belloc

Cheers
Harold

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:24 am

The Man of the Forest, by Zane Grey, 1919

firstfloorfront · Post by **firstfloorfront** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 1:06 pm

Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carre

rustyblade · Post by **rustyblade** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 3:34 pm

If On a Winter's Night A Traveller - Italo Calvino

Kyle76 · Post by **Kyle76** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:07 am

firstfloorfront wrote:Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carre

The George Smiley books are outstanding!

jww · Post by **jww** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:37 am

Let's see -- spent the past 2 and a half weeks on a beach and read:

PD James - Unnatural Causes
Colin Dexter - The Remorseful Day
Rosamunde Pilcher - The Shell Seekers (yes, I read Rosamunde Pilcher on occasion - Winter Solstice being an annual November/December read for me)
Gervase Phinn - Other Side of the Dale

I also got part-way through Sea Room by Nickolas Adams -- another great seaside read.

And now, decided to move on to more easy-reading -- Grisham's The Confession.

Sad news about my Kobo -- it ran amok, and got replaced for free, but the replacement doesn't charge -- so waiting for another replacement. Kobo are treating my year-old e-reader like it's brand new -- they say that their policy is to replace defective units regardless of the age. Interesting policy - and one which I very much appreciate.

jww · Post by **jww** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 6:50 am

Finished The Confession early this morning (2am). It only took me a couple of days and I quite enjoyed it. Elements of The Chamber, The Client and The Partner. After quite a few years, finally Grisham produced a book where he may well have ignored the page count tie to his fee to properly finish his story. Take, for example, The Brethren -- a great story with an ending gone bad.

scruffy · Post by **scruffy** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:33 am

I am currently reading the following:

Op Center: Sea of Fire by Tom Clancy
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Send Me Your Guardian Angel by Fr. Alessio Parente O.F.M. CAP.
Several Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:35 am

you gents are on a reading rampage....lots of new additions to my wish lists...many thanks

clive

jww · Post by **jww** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:33 am

Moved back to non-fiction, history. Now reading Bess of Hardwick, First Lady of Chatsworth by Mary Lovell.

Very well written. I am almost 80 pages in, and so far it has been an outstanding commentary on life in England during the 16th century - and especially the changes which occurred around the change in reign from Henry VIII to his daughter Elizabeth I to whom Bess was a close friend and confident. Not to mention that Bess became the wealthiest woman in Tudor England -- and had the top digs in The North at Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth -- nice shacks indeed.

Kyle76 · Post by **Kyle76** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:11 pm

Wendell, is this the same Bess who married Sir Walter Raleigh?