READING MATERIAL...
Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 10:20AM I am always reading several books at once. It's one of life's great pleasures for me and so I thought I might share with you what is on my book table at the moment and enquire of you what is on your reading list.. (Apart from "Unionism Decayed", - the perfect Xmas gift - that is!)
I'v
e been a life long fan of horror maestro Stephen King and have just started reading his new collection of short stories called "Just After Sunset". I think he's produced some great works over the years and I always look forward to his latest. I do like a good spine-tingling horror story and think that King has produced some cracking tales over the years. I think he went off the boil for a few years but is back in form and worth a read. Oddly enough I don't care for horror movies but then again the mind is more scary than anything captured on celluloid!
Another book which I am going through is Iain Murray's detailed evisceration of seven environm
ental catastrophes liberals created but don't like us to talk about. Great stuff, detailed, and a superb exposure of eco-wackery. The book tackles issues such as the impact that estrogen from birth control pills has had on our environment, the CO2 emissions from Live Earth day (LOL) and of course the devastation Malaria has had in Africa.
Finally, I am also reading Rebecca Fraser's excellent "A People's history of Britain" - it's always good to re-familiarise yourself with the fascinating history of Britain! It saddens me how our schools do not seem to teach the amazing history of this nation, no doubt to the delight of the philistine educationalists. So I like to ensure that my own kids have a good grasp of British history and that means having material like this around the house so we can always chat about the amazing history of our land.
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Reader Comments (30)
Only one at a time for me. I've just finished Orwell's "Collected Essays", next it's one of thirty or forty I have waiting.
I love browsing bookshops and buy'em faster than I can read'em.
Probably next will be either Undaunted Courage by Stephen E Ambrose - the story of Lewis and Clark's 1803 - 06 exploration of the American West, or Bernard Cornwell's trilogy set in Saxon England, the name of which escapes me now.
When I bury my head in something more serious it'll be a biography of General Bill Slim, the scandalously under-appreciated commander of the Forgotten Army. He was described as "perhaps the Greatest Commander of the 20th Century" by a fellow General. It's about time I found out why.
Currently reading The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr. Insightful stuff.
Im like Pete as well, buy em faster than I read em. When we go into town, she heads for the clothes shops and she knows she can locate me in Waterstones or Harry Halls place.
Next up is either Owen mcGee's 'IRB' or David Levering Lewis’ 'God's Crucible'.
I am a fan of King, but his work did suffer after his near death experience. He rushed the last three books in his dark tower series, and most since have been fairly poor. Will undoubtedly still buy his books, so good to see a positive review.
I enjoy King, he's actually quite good in the non-Horror format but doesn't do that as often.
Pete Moore's gets my eternal thanks for the Flashman series. Reading Flashman's Lady at the moment.
I too am a sucker for buying more books than I can cope with . The good thing is they are not like fresh cream cakes . You can leave them on the shelf gathering dust for years as I do and read them 10 years after you buy them (as I did with a couple of books recently) . Currently reading Bill Bryson's 'A short history of nearly everything' a nice light potted history of various sciences , and just finished one of the 'Hidden voices' series of books based around people's wartime (WW2) diaries.
Reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia at the minute. Very interesting.
Colm - souds interesting. I finished the second of three books by Rick Atkinson on WWII (he hasn't finished the third one yet) called The Day of Battle - The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 and his work is fascinating.
Mahons
I don't know if you are familiar with the writer Bill Bryson (an Anglophile American very popular here in the UK ) but his style of writing and sense of humour is very similar to yours.
The Walk in The Woods dude? I read that book on your recommendation. Enjoyed it.
Colm - I read Bryson's Downunder. The guy is a talented writer undoubtedly but I found him a bit of a wimp as a traveller. I prefer travel writers who go out and get their hands dirty rather than Bryon who stayed in his air-conditioned car rather than getting out in the heat to see Uluru.
Still reading the Federalist Papers. Last night was #51 by Madison on the House of Reps, as well as a book on genetics.
Petr/Mahons
I read 'Walk in the woods' but not 'Down Under'. The point about Bryson is that he is not a serious travel writer with a professional interest in full on native explorations, he is a somewhat typical papmered suburban man who travels gingerly and humourously notes his experiences. He's not an arctic explorer.
Yeah I know that Colm. I think at the time the book just disappointed me, despite being excellently written.
I was travelling in India when I read it and just could not relate to somebody who was such a pansy; crying about snakes and spiders etc. And whilst I wasn't expecting an arctic explorer I thought he might have gotten out of his bloody car to see Uluru after travelling thousands of miles to get there!
By the way his chapter on the Aboriginees is absolutely excellent.
'A short history of nearly everything'
Enjoyed this too, amazing amount of info in a small book, well put across.
Don’t really go in for fiction apart from the honourable exceptions of Twain’s ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’ and anything byi Tom Sharpe, [ Riotous Assembly is the funniest book I’ve ever read. I couldn’t see the words for the tears of laughter running down my face].
My idea of heaven is browsing for hours in book shops and, like you David, I read a number of books at the same time I have just finished Dennis O’Hearn’s Bobby Sands biography ‘Nothing But An Unfinished Song’. Currently reading Richard Brennan’s ‘The Irish Who Fought For Spain” & George Berger’s biography of the 70’s / 80’s anarcho punk band ‘The Story of Crass’.
Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’ is a good account of the factionalism & in-fighting which existed within civil war Spain’s Republican alliance Pete. Loache’s movie ‘Land & Freedom’ was based on it but, IMHO, the definitive account of the Spanish Civil War is Ronald Frazier’s ‘Blood of Spain’
Bill Bryson - fabulous. He's also the Chairman of the Council for the Protection of Rural England. A very civilised choice.
From 'Down Under', which I read in Oz a couple of years ago, I discovered that the funnel web spider's preferred habitat is a lawn. They lie in wait in a web-covered hole, ready to pounce on any poor thing passing by.
I read that passage while sitting in my brother's garden, barefeet resting on the lawn. Well, I was out of there like Flashy when trouble calls. Speaking of which ...
Mahons -
Glad you're enjoying them. On my second reading of the series I got into the habit of googling some of the characters Flashman comes across (needless to say, not by his design). Lo and behold, they were real. What a bunch of lunatics existed then.
the definitive account of the Spanish Civil War is Ronald Frazier’s ‘Blood of Spain’
Noted, Paul.
SMCGIFF
I bought it about 3 years ago on the basis of some extracts in the Sunday Times, and have only just started it. It really works as a great way of imparting many otherwise complex facts to simple minded folk like me. I am just reading the chapter about the guy who went to India to observe a once every 8 years astronomical event involving Venus and everything disastrous that could possibly occur did so. Hilarious.
PETE
You know what you need to do if confronted by a funnel web spider... Wave your Irish passport at it :)
I just finished 'A Place Apart' by Dervla Muphy.
A fascinating account of her travel through-out the wee lanes, towns and trouble- hotspots of Northern Ireland in the 1970s It is an old(er) book, that I never even knew existed, but I am glad I discovered it. It is an absolutely brilliant insight into the minds of the people, the sectarianism, the paranoia- and after reading it, you almost understand why the bloody troubles went the way they did.
She is a travel writer, but combines her travel with politics, and she does ALL her travelling, by BICYCLE.
( She also wrote a book about her travels by bicycle from Afghanitsan to India).
Colm - yeah, I don't need some guy hacking his way through the jungle to find the best ants to eat, and who can amputate his own leg with a penknife while singing "Yes, We Have No Bananas". I want the hilarity of a guy whose more human.
But best journey book here in the States still has to be William Least Heat Moon's Blue Highways.
Pete - I don't think I've seen a better laugh per line in a series since PJ Wodehouse. I haven't been disappointed with any of them yet. When you are that funny as Fraser you can be that un-p.c. I want to read his autobiography some day.
She also wrote a book about her travels by bicycle from Afghanitsan to India
Now that is a travel writer.
Bill Bryson is excellent, I've read most of his. Once on holiday, went in search of the 2200 year old Roman Villa he described in Notes from a small Island when I noticed 'roman villa' marked on the map and I also recognised various other places nearby from his books. (A couple of hours later we were up to our knees in brambles and no closer to any villa, and I realised that we were in Dorset and the villa he found was in Gloucestershire.)
Bryson is excellent and I have read all his stuff, including the books on language. My only gripe is that his most recent tome on Shakspear is just hopeless.
David, what surprises me most about the above post is your replacement of our Lord Jesus Christ with an 'x'.
Shame on you man!
...on the subject of books I was surprised to learn only recently that King wrote The Shawshank Redemption which is brilliant. I thought he had only written horror which I detest I have to say.
Sure didn't he write the short story for the movie Stand by Me?
I don't like Bryson. His travel books look like they were written for someone with the travel experience of Sarah Palin. They are full of prejudices about the places he "visits" and he leaves few cliches out. Basically they say far too little new. This would be bearable if written amusingly, but I also dont like his style or his jokes.
mahons infinitely better IMO :)
His book on Shakespeare is also totally superficial and adds nothing new. His attempted refutation of the "Shakespeare myth" was so weak it made me almost believe in it for the first type.
Noel
I think Bryson recalls many of the cliches and prejudices in his books without believing in them. I don't think I will read his shakespeare book though. It holds little interest for me.
Lurgan Man,
Laziness on my part! But the substance never changes.