| A book recommendation for our times... 17:13 - Jul 30 with 2672 views | Lohengrin |
I romped through this in a day and can’t recommend it highly enough.
“The Ministry of Truth is the best book I have read in a long time. Fizzing with ideas yet superbly readable, it takes us though Orwell’s life and the development of twentieth-century utopias and dystopias, to the long afterlife of Orwell’s greatest work, read and misread during the Cold War as simple anti-communist propaganda, then in the 1980s as a failed prophecy, before finally and frighteningly showing it as a warning for our own age. When today 1984 is scrubbed from the internet in China, Russia weaponises lies on social media, and in the West a Trump adviser talks of “alternative facts” on his Inauguration Day, Lynskey's book is both a warning and an exhortation for us all to be stubborn as Orwell was with facts, and like Winston Smith to cling to the belief that 2+2=4.”
C J Sansom. |  |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 18:31 - Jul 30 with 2168 views | lifelong |
Reading Moby Dick at the moment...enjoying it.  |  | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 19:01 - Jul 30 with 2134 views | Gowerjack |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 18:31 - Jul 30 by lifelong |
Reading Moby Dick at the moment...enjoying it. |
Best book I've ever read . |  |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 19:03 - Jul 30 with 2131 views | Pegojack |
Sounds a bit heavy, Loh.
Just finished two war books, both highly recommended.
The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, the first major account of D Day, and which will be very familiar to those who saw the film. In fact, there appeared to be more in the film than the book, the Free French storming of the casino at Ouistreham for example.
The second book was the novel Das Boot by Lothar Gunther Buchheim, which of course was turned into film and TV versions. A fantastic insight into life on a U boat in the second world war. |  | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 19:37 - Jul 30 with 2097 views | Professor |
The view out of my lab window as a young technician in 90/91 |  | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 20:05 - Jul 30 with 2067 views | DafyddHuw |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 19:03 - Jul 30 by Pegojack |
Sounds a bit heavy, Loh.
Just finished two war books, both highly recommended.
The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, the first major account of D Day, and which will be very familiar to those who saw the film. In fact, there appeared to be more in the film than the book, the Free French storming of the casino at Ouistreham for example.
The second book was the novel Das Boot by Lothar Gunther Buchheim, which of course was turned into film and TV versions. A fantastic insight into life on a U boat in the second world war. |
Dispatches by Michael Herr.
Best book about war you'll ever read. |  | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:13 - Jul 30 with 1999 views | FieryJack |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 20:05 - Jul 30 by DafyddHuw |
Dispatches by Michael Herr.
Best book about war you'll ever read. |
Second that.
Read it a good few years ago, and I'll be getting it back down from the shelf, dusting it off and re-reading it - especially as I'm currently bogged down in Pepys's Diary - all that bloke ever seemed to do was get drunk, stuff his face and letch after pretty girls - him and his pals are worthy fore-runners of the Bullingdon Club. |  | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:23 - Jul 30 with 1981 views | BrynCartwright |
Am currently on David Mitchell's Back Story which is amusing but not as good as Robert Webb's How Not to Be a Boy, shortly to followed by a re-reading of...
Loved it 25 years ago, but I also used to smoke a lot of weed at the time so I expect to be disappointed. |  |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 09:45 - Jul 31 with 1876 views | Ebo |
That looks interesting Loh, will add that to my list once I have gone through the saga that is The Neil Young bio 'Shakey'.
The author has another book that may be of interest "33 Revolutions per minute"
"Why 33? Partly because that's the number of rotations performed by a vinyl album in one minute, and partly because it takes a lot of songs to tell a story which spans seven decades and five continents - to capture the colour and variety of this shape-shifting genre. This is not a list book, rather each of the 33 songs offers a way into a subject, an artist, an era or an idea. The book feels vital, in both senses of the word: necessary and alive. It captures some of the energy that is generated when musicians take risks, and even when they fail, those endeavours leave the popular culture a little richer and more challenging. Contrary to the frequently voiced idea that pop and politics are awkward bedfellows, it argues that protest music is pop, in all its blazing, cussed glory."
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 17:31 - Jul 31 with 1808 views | FieryJack |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:23 - Jul 30 by BrynCartwright |
Am currently on David Mitchell's Back Story which is amusing but not as good as Robert Webb's How Not to Be a Boy, shortly to followed by a re-reading of...
Loved it 25 years ago, but I also used to smoke a lot of weed at the time so I expect to be disappointed. |
This is really 2 books squeezed into one: a chapter of travelogue followed by a chapter of philosophical stuff.
I'd recommend - for a more enjoyable & digestible read - ignoring the heavy philosophical stuff and concentrating on the chapters on biking across the states. | | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:03 - Aug 1 with 1696 views | monmouth |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 17:31 - Jul 31 by FieryJack |
This is really 2 books squeezed into one: a chapter of travelogue followed by a chapter of philosophical stuff.
I'd recommend - for a more enjoyable & digestible read - ignoring the heavy philosophical stuff and concentrating on the chapters on biking across the states. |
The philosophical stuff is fantastic. “And what is good Phaedrus and what is not good...”. The bit where he minces up the know all professor is mint. Sadly his son in the book was killed some years later. The second book ‘Lila’, I really struggled with, but Pirsig was fonder of it apparently. |  |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:54 - Aug 1 with 1663 views | Libertarian |
This is an amazing read
The Forgotten Highlander - Alistair Urquhart
“Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders captured by the Japanese in Singapore. He not only survived working on the notorious Bridge on the River Kwai , but he was subsequently taken on one of the Japanese 'hellships' which was torpedoed. Nearly everyone else on board died and Urquhart spent 5 days alone on a raft in the South China Sea before being rescued by a whaling ship. He was taken to Japan and then forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later a nuclear bomb dropped just ten miles away” |  | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 14:11 - Aug 5 with 1438 views | Lohengrin |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:13 - Jul 30 by FieryJack |
Second that.
Read it a good few years ago, and I'll be getting it back down from the shelf, dusting it off and re-reading it - especially as I'm currently bogged down in Pepys's Diary - all that bloke ever seemed to do was get drunk, stuff his face and letch after pretty girls - him and his pals are worthy fore-runners of the Bullingdon Club. |
If you and Daf are interested in clever writing with the Vietnam War at its core then you’ll both get something from this:
Incidentally the venue for much of Pepsy’s carousing and one of the haunts of my distant youth is still there. Ye olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street is worth popping your head into the next time you’re down London way.
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| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 21:43 - Aug 5 with 1357 views | FieryJack |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 14:11 - Aug 5 by Lohengrin |
If you and Daf are interested in clever writing with the Vietnam War at its core then you’ll both get something from this:
Incidentally the venue for much of Pepsy’s carousing and one of the haunts of my distant youth is still there. Ye olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street is worth popping your head into the next time you’re down London way.
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I've had it in mind to visit that pub for some time.
It's a Samuel Smiths pub. Yorkshire-based brewery, but with about 35 pubs in London.
http://www.samsmithschallenge.co.uk/map.php
The brewery owner, Humphrey Smith (worth googling), who lives in a North Yorkshire mansion, and practically owns the town of Tadcaster, has achieved notoriety over the years for being eccentric, cantankerous, and totally unreasonable.
He is, reputedly, brutally unsentimental with pub staff eg. turning up at one of his pubs unannounced, sometimes incognito, posing as a customer, and then summarily sacking a loyal and long-standing landlord for some absurd pettiness such as not wiping down the beer stains on the bar top quickly enough.
His pubs are brilliant, though: Dark, gloomy Victorian affairs full of snug corners, stained glass, old paintings, table lamps, ceramic tiles and such like. If you're in London I'd strongly recommend either the Anchor Tap (in the shadow of Tower Bridge) or the unbeatable Princess Louise in Holborn.
Also, it's hard not to admire him for his determination to exclude all modern distractions from his pubs: there is a complete ban on juke boxes, piped music, pool tables, gaming machines, televisions and radios, and last year he made the broadsheets after pronouncing that swearing will not be tolerated in any of his premises, with offenders receiving immediate banning orders.
The bar prices are also laughably, ludicrously cheap: only last saturday night I paid a princely £1.43 for a pint of light mild in the Shoulder of Mutton, Bradford.
But then I got caught out: half way through this pint I texted my girlfriend to make arrangements to meet her in the city centre, and the barmaid came over and, with an apologetic smile, pointed to a sign on the wall above my head. I turned around to read a new notice banning the use of mobile phones for making or receiving phone calls, or sending or receiving text messages, or playing of music or browsing the net or using social media!
The bloke's a nutter or hero or both. | | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 21:53 - Aug 5 with 1350 views | Lohengrin |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 21:43 - Aug 5 by FieryJack |
I've had it in mind to visit that pub for some time.
It's a Samuel Smiths pub. Yorkshire-based brewery, but with about 35 pubs in London.
http://www.samsmithschallenge.co.uk/map.php
The brewery owner, Humphrey Smith (worth googling), who lives in a North Yorkshire mansion, and practically owns the town of Tadcaster, has achieved notoriety over the years for being eccentric, cantankerous, and totally unreasonable.
He is, reputedly, brutally unsentimental with pub staff eg. turning up at one of his pubs unannounced, sometimes incognito, posing as a customer, and then summarily sacking a loyal and long-standing landlord for some absurd pettiness such as not wiping down the beer stains on the bar top quickly enough.
His pubs are brilliant, though: Dark, gloomy Victorian affairs full of snug corners, stained glass, old paintings, table lamps, ceramic tiles and such like. If you're in London I'd strongly recommend either the Anchor Tap (in the shadow of Tower Bridge) or the unbeatable Princess Louise in Holborn.
Also, it's hard not to admire him for his determination to exclude all modern distractions from his pubs: there is a complete ban on juke boxes, piped music, pool tables, gaming machines, televisions and radios, and last year he made the broadsheets after pronouncing that swearing will not be tolerated in any of his premises, with offenders receiving immediate banning orders.
The bar prices are also laughably, ludicrously cheap: only last saturday night I paid a princely £1.43 for a pint of light mild in the Shoulder of Mutton, Bradford.
But then I got caught out: half way through this pint I texted my girlfriend to make arrangements to meet her in the city centre, and the barmaid came over and, with an apologetic smile, pointed to a sign on the wall above my head. I turned around to read a new notice banning the use of mobile phones for making or receiving phone calls, or sending or receiving text messages, or playing of music or browsing the net or using social media!
The bloke's a nutter or hero or both. |
Ha! I was in the Princess Louise about six weeks ago. It’s everything you’d want from a pub if you were to imagine an Ideal.  | |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 22:07 - Aug 5 with 1340 views | FieryJack |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 21:53 - Aug 5 by Lohengrin |
Ha! I was in the Princess Louise about six weeks ago. It’s everything you’d want from a pub if you were to imagine an Ideal. |
Glad you liked it! | | | |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 23:54 - Aug 5 with 1287 views | theloneranger |
"The true story of a SAS member's journey into madness and his attempts to find his way out again"
A great read, but a very sad story.
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| Everyday above ground ... Is a good day! 😎 |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 12:19 - Aug 6 with 1155 views | Lohengrin |
Posting images is easy, Jack. Just click, copy and then paste into your post on here.
Just like this... 
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| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 12:59 - Aug 6 with 1132 views | Neath_Jack |
| A book recommendation for our times... on 23:54 - Aug 5 by theloneranger |
"The true story of a SAS member's journey into madness and his attempts to find his way out again"
A great read, but a very sad story.
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I bought this book following a recommendation on here a few years back.
Didn't think much of it at all. |  |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 13:15 - Aug 6 with 1118 views | union_jack |
Just read one book and currently in the process of treading another - The Tatooist of Auschwitz and The Librarian of Auschwitz. They are autobiographical and quite harrowing, especially the latter.
That book also references another book within the ‘library’ - The Citadel by A J Cronin which will probably be my next read. |  |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 23:11 - Aug 8 with 981 views | theloneranger |
4 friends in the Paras aged just 17 when they were sent to war in the Falklands ...
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| Everyday above ground ... Is a good day! 😎 |
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| A book recommendation for our times... on 23:14 - Aug 8 with 976 views | theloneranger |
The true story of the most decorated British Army patrol since Bravo Two Zero ...
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| Everyday above ground ... Is a good day! 😎 |
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