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MC Prussian

What are you reading at the moment?

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...."the earth is a medium-sized planet orbiting around an average sized star in the outer suburbs of an ordinary spiral galaxy, which is itself only one of about a million million galaxies in the observable universe" ......

 

A lovely distraction in these troubling times. Trying to get an understanding of the science & principles Hawkings outlines has offered a kind of reverie. And I've also really enjoyed leafing through this well presented book and looking at all the neat diagrams.

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Buy Citizen Clem Book at Easons

 

I'm really not keen on the constant wartime comparisons/fetishisation we're seeing at the minute, but I keep finding myself comparing plenty of incidents mentioned in this book (particularly from the from the WW2 coalition) to so much stuff going on today. The story of Churchill and Attlee's relationship before, during and after the war is absolutely fascinating.

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I am enjoying all this spare time meaning that I can do a lot more reading across many mediums. The problem is, I prefer to buy a new one when I've finished one rather than having them piled up ready to go (I end up having loads on the go if I do that) but that requires future planning that I'm not capable of now because Prime doesn't mean next day anymore.

 

I prefer to have physical books for decoration as much as anything so why can't I get a free Kindle copy when I buy a physical book so in this period I can still be reading whilst I wait to have the physical copy of the book?

 

Anyway, a couple that I've enjoyed recently are:

 

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As I wait for an emergency delivery of books to get through, I've been rummaging through the bookshelf for fresh reading material.

 

Now some would say this is a bit dated. I find it delightful however, it's been like opening a time capsule. 

 

As a fan of Koestler, I'd heartily recommend his novel 'Darkness at Noon. Also any of his autobiographical writings. A Hungarian Jew, educated in Austria. He embraced Zionism at university and travelled to Palestine in the 1920's. The 1930's saw him moving to Wiemar Berlin where he joined the communist party.

 

His story then crisscrosses Europe and includes being sentenced to death by Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War. The outbreak of WWII sees him escape mainland Europe and eventually find himself a home here in Britain. 

 

An outspoken critic of Stalinist Russia, the 1950's found him writing articles & essays, some of which are included within this book.

 

I bought it years ago from a second-hand bookshop. Many of the essays & articles detail Europe's political situation. They discuss the liberal west's response to totalitarianism, European political & economic integration, British isolationism and the British Labour party's refusal to accept any supranational authority dominated by non-Socialist governments.

 

Historically very interesting, but like I say, all very dated!? :blink:

 

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Edited by swanlee
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  • 2 weeks later...

Long shot but I’m wondering if anyone can help me find a book I started reading years ago but never finished. Not helped by the fact I can’t remember a great deal to go on. It was a big book, well over a thousand pages, probably more, and the front cover was split into two vertical halves one grey the other black (I think).

 

It starts at a baseball game, the narrator has come to the realisation that he’s fell out of love for the game/his team. Frank Sinatra is also at the game and is involved in the story at this point. 
 

Not a lot but anyone have any ideas lol 

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30 minutes ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Long shot but I’m wondering if anyone can help me find a book I started reading years ago but never finished. Not helped by the fact I can’t remember a great deal to go on. It was a big book, well over a thousand pages, probably more, and the front cover was split into two vertical halves one grey the other black (I think).

 

It starts at a baseball game, the narrator has come to the realisation that he’s fell out of love for the game/his team. Frank Sinatra is also at the game and is involved in the story at this point. 
 

Not a lot but anyone have any ideas lol 

It’s been a few years since I read it but it might be ‘Underworld’ by Don DeLillo? 

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23 minutes ago, oakman said:

It’s been a few years since I read it but it might be ‘Underworld’ by Don DeLillo? 

Yes, yes, that’s it. Thanks, I really didn’t think anyone would know it given my brief description. 
 

Next question, is it worth getting again?

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8 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Yes, yes, that’s it. Thanks, I really didn’t think anyone would know it given my brief description. 
 

Next question, is it worth getting again?

It was the Baseball beginning that rang a bell for me - not one of those books that has stayed with me over the years, remember it being quite hard work.

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3 hours ago, oakman said:

It was the Baseball beginning that rang a bell for me - not one of those books that has stayed with me over the years, remember it being quite hard work.

It could be why I never finished it, I really liked the start, the baseball beginning, but didn’t get too much further despite a couple of attempts at reading it. I was young at the time though and put it down to that. 

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Read this over the last couple of weeks, comfortably my favourite thing that I've read in a long time. It's an ethnography with fishermen in Newlyn, Cornwall. They were also featured on This Fishing Life on the BBC recently. Incredibly well written and researched, covers an all too forgotten section of people/the country. I think this is the authors first book but with her ethnographic talent I'm looking forward to more. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

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Now there was The Beano & Victor as a kid. And I was a massive Viz fan as an adolescent. This though is only the third ever graphic novel I've read and I have to say it is the best so far. 

 

Weirdly you read as a Japanese book, in that you start from the back and read it right to left! It's Manga and based on a classic Japanese existentialist novel of the same name by author Osamu Dazai. Some of the drawing / graphics in this adaptation are first rate.

 

(Warning: Does contain themes of adult content, including graphic violence, nudity and scenes of a sexual nature :-)

 

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........ a complete contrast. But I'd been wanting to read it for an age and I've got, at the mo, plenty of time on my hands.

 

It is long & wordy though, and also very sticky in places. At times it seems like a chore but it is very rewarding.

 

Arendt examines the intellectual, political & economic trends across Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

 

She's definitely no libtard snowflake. Well researched & detailed, of its time, sometimes some of her arguments are a little challenging.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Secret Footballer What The Physio Saw- only read couple of chapters so far but it is one of the most insightful and illumanting football books I have ever read.    Just ignore the first ego-driven first chapter though.   

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20 hours ago, Otis said:

Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay

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That is the latest one ain't it?   Always have rated his books expect for Promise Falls Trilogy which was quite good but bit too out there.  

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