What are you reading at the moment?

[bovril]

14 minutes ago, izzymuzzet said:

Currently working my way through everything Benjamin Myers has written. He is one of the great British authors of our time imo. His descriptions of landscape are beautful.

 

The Perfect Golden Circle is a good entry to his work if you're not familiar. It's a pretty simple story of two blokes in the late 80s making crop circles in Wiltshire. But weaves in some lovely narratives about male friendship and the unique majesty of the English summer.

Sounds up my street, thanks for the recommendation.

 

I'm about the start the Meaning of Geese which I think contains similarly evocative descriptions of the English landscape and seasons. 

[izzymuzzet]

19 minutes ago, bovril said:

Sounds up my street, thanks for the recommendation.

 

I'm about the start the Meaning of Geese which I think contains similarly evocative descriptions of the English landscape and seasons. 

This sounds great, cheers. Added to my Goodreads list.

[boots60]

1 hour ago, The Bear said:

I only saw it on TV the other day! Porridge. 

Brian Glover, great actor, notable for many comedy & straight roles notably Porridge & Whatever happened to the Likely Lads

[BertFill]

2 hours ago, izzymuzzet said:

Currently working my way through everything Benjamin Myers has written. He is one of the great British authors of our time imo. His descriptions of landscape are beautful.

 

The Perfect Golden Circle is a good entry to his work if you're not familiar. It's a pretty simple story of two blokes in the late 80s making crop circles in Wiltshire. But weaves in some lovely narratives about male friendship and the unique majesty of the English summer.

The Gallows Pole is brilliant. Cuddy is on my to-read list already; I'll add your recommendation to that list!

[Blarmy]

Mike Tyson’s autobiography.  I’m not really into boxing but thought it would be interesting. I really enjoyed the first part about his childhood and his amateur career, but that was about 20% of the book. After that, when he made it, it’s entirely about him shagging loads of women, taking loads of drugs, being sued and suing others.

 

I suppose it’s a slightly worthwhile peek into the life of a person who’s had a very colourful life, but it’s also distasteful to the point I don’t really know if I’m enjoying it. It’s a bit like playing a GTA game - vaguely entertaining but also slightly icky.

 

x/10. 

[SkidsFox]

4 hours ago, boots60 said:

Brian Glover, great actor, notable for many comedy & straight roles notably Porridge & Whatever happened to the Likely Lads

One of the characters in the Slaughtered Lamb, in that great film An American Werewolf in London.

[mohamedb06]

9 hours ago, bovril said:

I want to read more about Africa in general and specifically East Africa so I will give it a go.

If you want to read more about this then I'd recommend Eritrea at a Crossroads. It's also written by a former member of the Eritrean government, but he wrote the book after defecting from the country. The book goes into more detail about Eritrea pre-independence and both the internal and external struggles it's faced after independence and, although I've just started it recently it reads much better than Eritrea My Nation.

[CheeseHead]

42 minutes ago, SkidsFox said:

One of the characters in the Slaughtered Lamb, in that great film An American Werewolf in London.

Yeah, great scene in that pub. He had told a joke and the whole pub was laughing before the American's asked, "What's that star on the wall for?" 

[ozleicester]

very interesting

[izzymuzzet]

16 hours ago, BertFill said:

The Gallows Pole is brilliant. Cuddy is on my to-read list already; I'll add your recommendation to that list!

Currently on The Gallows Pole. Cuddy is quite different to his other stuff in my experience so far. Not quite as accessible but well worth sticking with.

[Unabomber]

23 hours ago, Bordersfox said:

If you like Slow Horses (and haven't already) I recommend McKinty, Sean Duffy series.  Very dark humour.  

 

I've heard that his new stuff is a bit naff, but he needed commercial success which is fair enough (think he ended up driving a taxi or something!).  His older books are great though.  

Love this series 

[Bordersfox]

1 hour ago, Unabomber said:

Love this series 

Brilliant isn't it? Just a shame it was never a commercial success for him.  

[Unabomber]

1 hour ago, Bordersfox said:

Brilliant isn't it? Just a shame it was never a commercial success for him.  

Yeah I read the chain by him a few years ago and that was pretty good but the Sean Duffy books are on another level. Read Falling Glass recently and that’s with a read.

 

Currently reading The Gray Man only just started it but seems very good so far.

[Lillehamring]

On 07/03/2024 at 17:59, bovril said:

Happy World Book Day.

 

What are your favourite books foxestalkers? 

Probably not the ones that used to be.

 

 

[Lillehamring]

Nemesis by Agatha Christie

The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard

[ozleicester]

Cracking book... (Enzo and the team should have a read) Highly recommend

[ozleicester]

Good read if you like his writing style.

[Bellend Sebastian]

There are few things I enjoy more than a factual account of a poorly planned expedition going absolutely tits up.  I'm about a sixth of the way through it and a third of the men are already dead and frankly it's all such a terrifying nightmare I'm quite pleased for them.

 

They were absolutely clueless about a lot of things in the 18th Century, including important things for maritime exploration, like nutrition, foreign people, infection control, navigation and swimming, but the one thing they were really good at was keeping excellent records at a time when most of us would probably be focused on not dying horribly at any moment, and for that I'm thankful

[izzymuzzet]

34 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

There are few things I enjoy more than a factual account of a poorly planned expedition going absolutely tits up.  I'm about a sixth of the way through it and a third of the men are already dead and frankly it's all such a terrifying nightmare I'm quite pleased for them.

 

They were absolutely clueless about a lot of things in the 18th Century, including important things for maritime exploration, like nutrition, foreign people, infection control, navigation and swimming, but the one thing they were really good at was keeping excellent records at a time when most of us would probably be focused on not dying horribly at any moment, and for that I'm thankful

Have you read The Dig Tree by Sarah Murgatroyd? It's about the first attempt to cross Australia in the mid 19th century. Pretty much a total disaster from start to finish. Tragic but also a bit funny. And very well written.

[Bellend Sebastian]

48 minutes ago, izzymuzzet said:

Have you read The Dig Tree by Sarah Murgatroyd? It's about the first attempt to cross Australia in the mid 19th century. Pretty much a total disaster from start to finish. Tragic but also a bit funny. And very well written.

I've not, but I know a tiny bit about the expedition. Isn't that the one where they take lots of essential things like heavy furniture?

 

That's right up my alley, I'll check it out

[izzymuzzet]

2 hours ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I've not, but I know a tiny bit about the expedition. Isn't that the one where they take lots of essential things like heavy furniture?

 

That's right up my alley, I'll check it out

Yep, from memory they brought along huge mahogany dining tables and stuff like that. A real catalogue of errors. It's a great read.

[SkidsFox]

Nothing Like It in the World - Stephen E Ambrose. The story of the building of the railway in the US connecting east and west. To give some perspective, it used to take pioneers six months to travel to California, a journey time cut to six days by rail. An amazing accomplishment. 

[Lillehamring]

Someone gave me a copy of Bill Bryson's - Notes from a small island.

 

An interesting take, but not quite the comedy gold i was expecting.  It's also starting to age badly with some of the satire now lost and the outdated references to homosexuals and women.

[boots60]

1 hour ago, Lillehamring said:

Someone gave me a copy of Bill Bryson's - Notes from a small island.

 

An interesting take, but not quite the comedy gold i was expecting.  It's also starting to age badly with some of the satire now lost and the outdated references to homosexuals and women.

His description of a first encounter of an English B&B & its lengthy list of rules & regulations at Mrs Smegma's in Dover is literary comedy genius.

[Greg2607]

13 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

Someone gave me a copy of Bill Bryson's - Notes from a small island.

 

An interesting take, but not quite the comedy gold i was expecting.  It's also starting to age badly with some of the satire now lost and the outdated references to homosexuals and women.

my favourite ever book is Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything.....   it's a science book, but really readable and lots of great anecdotes about scientific discovery and how things work.  I'd thoroughly recommend it.  I reckon i've read it about 15 times over the years!