Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[Scepticalscribe]

Excellent, excellent. It was a fun, easy, and very interesting read.

Well, it is sitting on my sofa begging to be read, and I look forward to reading it.

However, it must contend for space with a few others. Last week's reading comprised books on the Amish (four), and Aspergers (also a few), along with Susan Cain on Introversion.

Now, also on the sofa are a few works on medieval stuff: A few books on King John (his life, times, wars, Magna Carta and all that), a beautiful, fat, heavy, solid, exquisitely produced hard-back (full of maps and pictures) called 'Castle - A History Of The Buildings That Shaped Medieval Britain' by Marc Morris, and a lovely book - for children, which I bought in a museum - called 'Knight - The Medieval Warrior's Manual' by Michael Prestwick.

Also seeking my attention are books on counterinsurgency, and a few on the economics of conflict and war (serious, solid, thoughtful heavy books, both physically and mentally), some on actual economics (I have yet to read Thomas Picketty's book though it is attempting to prod my conscience, sitting on the back of the sofa); however, before I read that, I am more likely to slip into the fascinating 'Debt - The First 5,000 Years' written by David Graeber which arrived last week.

Then, there are two on IS - one of which - 'The Rise of Islamic State' is by the serious and informed journalist and excellent writer Patrick Cockburn, while the other, 'Temptations of Power - Islamists And Illiberal Democracy In A New Middle East' is written by Shadi Hamid, and a door-stopper of a book by Richard Sakwa with a publication date of 2015 called, simply, 'Frontline Ukraine'.

But I often seem to be reading a few books simultaneously, frequently on similar or related subjects.

 

[mobilehaathi]

Well, it is sitting on my sofa begging to be read, and I look forward to reading it.

However, it must contend for space with a few others. Last week's reading comprised books on the Amish (four), and Aspergers (also a few), along with Susan Cain on Introversion.

Now, also on the sofa are a few works on medieval stuff: A few books on King John (his life, times, wars, Magna Carta and all that), a beautiful, fat, heavy, solid, exquisitely produced hard-back (full of maps and pictures) called 'Castle - A History Of The Buildings That Shaped Medieval Britain' by Marc Morris, and a lovely book - for children, which I bought in a museum - called 'Knight - The Medieval Warrior's Manual' by Michael Prestwick.

Also seeking my attention are books on counterinsurgency, and a few on the economics of conflict and war (serious, solid, thoughtful heavy books, both physically and mentally), some on actual economics (I have yet to read Thomas Picketty's book though it is attempting to prod my conscience, sitting on the back of the sofa); however, before I read that, I am more likely to slip into the fascinating 'Debt - The First 5,000 Years' written by David Graeber which arrived last week.

Then, there are two on IS - one of which - 'The Rise of Islamic State' is by the serious and informed journalist and excellent writer Patrick Cockburn, while the other, 'Temptations of Power - Islamists And Illiberal Democracy In A New Middle East' is written by Shadi Hamid, and a door-stopper of a book by Richard Sakwa with a publication date of 2015 called, simply, 'Frontline Ukraine'.

But I often seem to be reading a few books simultaneously, frequently on similar or related subjects.

Ahh, now Debt - The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber is something I picked up and looked through while browsing one day. I was sorely tempted to buy it, but I was already laden with other purchases (a trip to the bookstore can be just as dangerous to the wallet as hanging around the espresso thread).

Let me know what you think.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Ahh, now Debt - The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber is something I picked up and looked through while browsing one day. I was sorely tempted to buy it, but I was already laden with other purchases (a trip to the bookstore can be just as dangerous to the wallet as hanging around the espresso thread).

Let me know what you think.

Agreed.

Wallets get mauled in the most unlikely of spots. Espresso threads are only the start of the matter.

Mine was in my hand this very afternoon (though not actually called upon) when I somehow (don't ask me how and why) happened to alight on a website with the inviting name of 'theethiopiancoffeecompany.co.uk…….I shall find it hard not to make a visit of a more personal, and pressing nature, with wallet to hand, naturally.

You are quite right, though. Mine also gets a battering when I visit my wine merchants, (alas, I am on their mailing list, and horribly attractive offers appear most weeks).

This does not even begin to address my book buying habit - every week, parcels arrive……..and their contents are mostly read, and sometimes are actually devoured.

 

[scottyy]

Currently I am reading the Robert Langdon series. I am about half way through the last book(Inferno).

I would highly suggest the series.

 

[Sodner]

"Becoming Steve Jobs"

 

[jeremy h]

and a few on the economics of conflict and war (serious, solid, thoughtful heavy books, both physically and mentally)

Try the Wages of Destruction by Tooze. Really, really interesting. Basically an economic history of the Germany's war effort (WWII). I think it's particularly interesting at the moment - bearing in mind Germany's current economic strength we tend to put our modern assumptions back onto that period.

I've just finished...

Well, what the heck was that all about?

I've loved his previous stuff (my favourite along with Remains of the Day was Never Let me Go which I found profoundly moving) so I rushed out and bought it in hardback the day after it was released. Hmmm...

Anyone on here read it and loved it?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Try the Wages of Destruction by Tooze. Really, really interesting. Basically an economic history of the Germany's war effort (WWII). I think it's particularly interesting at the moment - bearing in mind Germany's current economic strength we tend to put our modern assumptions back onto that period.

I've just finished...

Image

Well, what the heck was that all about?

I've loved his previous stuff (my favourite along with Remains of the Day was Never Let me Go which I found profoundly moving) so I rushed out and bought it in hardback the day after it was released. Hmmm...

Anyone on here read it and loved it?

Re Kazuo Ishiguru, I read 'The Remains of the Day' and really loved it (and also loved the movie, one of the rare examples of a sensitive and superb adaptation faithful in tone, setting and content to the original), a wonderful book, elegiac, subtly disturbing, beautifully written and deeply sad.

However, I haven't read anything else by him.

Adam Tooze? I have heard of him, but haven't read that particular book. At one stage in my life, I read what seemed like an staggering - nay, almost embarrassing - amount of books on Nazi Germany - how many biographies of that man can one have on a book shelf and still claim a grounded connection with the human race? and eventually cried a halt. With Hitler and Stalin, and their respective horrible worlds battling for space on my bookshelves, one has to issue a cease and desist order eventually.

Nevertheless, if you truly recommend this, I will take a look.

Re the German economy, the beginning of the postwar recovery, and the choices made to enable that, over twenty years ago I read a deeply disturbing book called 'Blind Eye To Murder', written by the 'Panorama' journalist Tom Bower.

Re economies and grey areas, along with conflict, legitimate and illegitimate, Misha Glenny (a writer I have long liked a lot) has written an excellent and very disturbing book called 'McMafia'. Well worth a look.

 

[jeremy h]

Re Kazuo Ishiguru, I read 'The Remains of the Day' and really loved it (and also loved the movie, one of the rare examples of a sensitive and superb adaptation faithful in tone, setting and content to the original), a wonderful book, elegiac, subtly disturbing, beautifully written and deeply sad.

However, I haven't read anything else by him.

Adam Tooze? I have heard of him, but haven't read that particular book. At one stage in my life, I read what seemed like an staggering - nay, almost embarrassing - amount of books on Nazi Germany - how many biographies of that man can one have on a book shelf and still claim a grounded connection with the human race? and eventually cried a halt. With Hitler and Stalin, and their respective horrible worlds battling for space on my bookshelves, one has to issue a cease and desist order eventually.

Nevertheless, if you truly recommend this, I will take a look.

Re the German economy, the beginning of the postwar recovery, and the choices made to enable that, over twenty years ago I read a deeply disturbing book called 'Blind Eye To Murder', written by the 'Panorama' journalist Tom Bower.

Re economies and grey areas, along with conflict, legitimate and illegitimate, Misha Glenny (a writer I have long liked a lot) has written an excellent and very disturbing book called 'McMafia'. Well worth a look.

Couple of quick replies - thought the film (Remains of the Day) was great but thought Emma Thompson (great as she is) was miscast - far too attractive to be convincing etc


The Wages of Destruction - I hear what you're saying about becoming unhinged if you read too much of that sort of stuff but do look at the reviews of this one on Amazon. You might be tempted by it! I suspect Tom Bowers book would make me angry. (Don't get me started on Speer...) I'll check out McMafia.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Couple of quick replies - thought the film (Remains of the Day) was great but thought Emma Thompson (great as she is) was miscast - far too attractive to be convincing etc


The Wages of Destruction - I hear what you're saying about becoming unhinged if you read too much of that sort of stuff but do look at the reviews of this one on Amazon. You might be tempted by it! I suspect Tom Bowers book would make me angry. (Don't get me started on Speer...) I'll check out McMafia.

Tom Bower's book was superbly researched, (meticulous, rather than screaming sensationalism), and all the more unsettling for that. I might need to take a fresh look at it myself, as it is decades since I read it, but I thought it excellent.

Having promised myself, over two decades ago, that I would never again buy another biography of Adolf, a decade or so later, when I was teaching Modern European History (specialising in communist, post communist and Tsarist Russia and its various worlds, hence several biographies of Mr Stalin, too, on my shelves) in one of those venerable universities that go back some centuries, one of my colleagues, who taught the history of Weimar Germany, - and who was Jewish, and thus, held understandably strong views on these matters, strongly recommended Ian Kershaw's biographies of Hitler to me.

I explained my position which was that unless this was an absolute 'must-read', - a once per half century masterpiece - (several of the biographies of Hitler are derivative and are utter dross) I never wanted to buy another biography of the man. My colleague assured me that Kershaw's work falls into the 'must read' category, and one or two of my very good students made a similar argument.

Re Albert Speer, did you ever read Gitta Sereny's outstanding, meticulous, exquisitely written and clinically forensic biography, called 'Albert Speer - His Battle With The Truth'?

 

[S.B.G]

Having spent much of the past few days reading 'Quiet - The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking' by Susan Cain - as recommended by at least two of the denizens on these fora - my grateful thanks to you, mobilehaathi, and also, to you, SandboxGeneral, it is a topic I would like to read more about.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

For more reading of a similar theme, check out the blog 'The Introvert's Corner' by Sophia Dembling on the website Psychology Today.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

For more reading of a similar theme, check out the blog 'The Introvert's Corner' by Sophia Dembling on the website Psychology Today.

Thanks you for the recommendation about 'Quiet' - a book I had been meaning to read for quite some time, , and thank you, also, for suggesting further reading on the matter; I shall most certainly take a further and deeper look at this.

 

[zachlegomaniac]

Just finished ::The Book of Strange New Things:: by Michel Faber. It was good, but it was so hyped up to me I was expecting a "masterpiece".

I just started in on the ::Necrinomicon:: by H.P. Lovecraft.

 

[JamesMike]

Just finished 'Midnight in Malmö, the fourth Inspector Anita Sundström mystery series, it was a good read. Also finished 'Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America', a excellent book on James Madison.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Well, it is a dark, wet, windy and stormy night.

A beer - yet to be chosen and poured - beckons and so does a book.

Usually, before sitting down, I know exactly what I want to read.

This varies between the heavy and serious (usually fact based, and mostly history or politics), something lighter but still solid (which can still be a fact based book - i.e. something by Bill Bryson, or Jared Diamond - in other words, the sort of factually based books which are actually a lot of fun to read), or fiction (which - these days - is not that often heavy and serious, but where my taste increasingly runs to fantasy, or escapist faction…..)

Decisions, and dilemmas…..

 

[ucfgrad93]

For those of you who are reading The Game of Thrones series, I just came across this article on USAToday.com

The Game of Thrones author released a chapter Thursday from his very long-awaited sixth volume of the "Song of Fire and Ice" fantasy series, The Winds of Winter. The chapter appears on Martin's web site and is told from the perspective of Sansa Stark, living under the name Alayne Stone. She is played on the HBO adaptation by Sophie Turner.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/...hor-releases-chapter-from-next-book/70838780/

 

[JamesMike]

Started the 5th book in the Harry Bosch series, 'Trunk Music'.

 

[a.guillermo]

Started the 5th book in the Harry Bosch series, 'Trunk Music'.

Love the Bosch series. The amazon tv show was pretty good too. Not amazing, but still pretty good. I intend to read more of Michael Connelly, but just haven't really gotten around to it. Many of you on this thread read so much! I am envious! I hope to one day have enough time to read that much.

 

[JamesMike]

Love the Bosch series. The amazon tv show was pretty good too. Not amazing, but still pretty good. I intend to read more of Michael Connelly, but just haven't really gotten around to it. Many of you on this thread read so much! I am envious! I hope to one day have enough time to read that much.

I like the character a lot, and the TV series did a reasonable job on him also.

 

[TPadden]

I like the character a lot, and the TV series did a reasonable job on him also.

For a somewhat recent sleeper movie (2013) that really follows the book read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas; then watch the movie. Everything imagined or described and the characters in the book were accurately depicted in the movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1767354/

The series is now 8 novels:

Odd Thomas 2003
Forever Odd 2005
Brother Odd 2006
Odd Hours 2008
Odd Interlude 2012
Odd Apocalypse 2012
Deeply Odd 2013
Saint Odd 2015

 

[JamesMike]

For a somewhat recent sleeper movie (2013) that really follows the book read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas; then watch the movie. Everything imagined or described and the characters in the book were accurately depicted in the movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1767354/

The series is now 8 novels:

Odd Thomas 2003
Forever Odd 2005
Brother Odd 2006
Odd Hours 2008
Odd Interlude 2012
Odd Apocalypse 2012
Deeply Odd 2013
Saint Odd 2015

Thanks, I like Dean Koontz's writing. Will check out the movie.

 

[a.guillermo]

For a somewhat recent sleeper movie (2013) that really follows the book read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas; then watch the movie. Everything imagined or described and the characters in the book were accurately depicted in the movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1767354/

The series is now 8 novels:

Odd Thomas 2003
Forever Odd 2005
Brother Odd 2006
Odd Hours 2008
Odd Interlude 2012
Odd Apocalypse 2012
Deeply Odd 2013
Saint Odd 2015

I've not yet read those books, but I have seen the movie, and the movie was interesting. There were some neat editing tricks, but that was about all. The acting was standard, and it felt like a movie designed for 13 year olds. Not horrible, but the demographic was a little younger, I think.

 

[TPadden]

..... Not horrible, but the demographic was a little younger, I think.

A think you would have enjoyed it more if you had read the book first; that said for me easy reading isn't exactly reading the classics; with very different expectations.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Just finished reading Tracy Borman's biography of Thomas Cromwell.

 

[jeremy h]

Just finished reading Tracy Borman's biography of Thomas Cromwell.

I've just finished that one too. Started it after watching the series. I hadn't heard of her before but thought it was really readable. It was interesting to impose the character portrayed in the Mantel series (or am I just thinking he was actually Mark Rylance?) on the one in her book. I liked the Cromwell in the series but I'm not sure I would have liked the one that Borman outlined.

 

[mgguy]

Halfway through Glenn Greenwald's book No Place to Hide. The book reports on Edward Snowden's revelations of data gathering activities of the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the electronic communications of Americans, including emails, phone calls, and internet activity. It is really shocking the extent to which our government pries into our private lives and personal communications. Very well written.