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A jolly good read?

Harrowing. The thing that struck me most was how big Birkenau is. It's absolutely vast - miles bigger than I thought. And I cant imagine what it must have been like at its busiest.

The tour was very good and very well organised, I'm pleased I went because I think it's something you have to do if you're in the area.
 
I thought the birkinau Bit of the tour was a lot better,not as rushed,and like you say massive,you see YouTube videos,or documentaries,hear the numbers but means nothing until you visit and it's like shit! This is huge,and the tiny railway cart they got 100 or so people in,and the shiver up the spine at the literal end of the line.
Then you go into auschwitz town centre and it's a gorgeous little town,completely at odds with what you think you know about the place
 
Didn’t even realise I had access to Prime Reading through my Amazon subscription, found out a couple of weeks ago. Think I’ve burned through about twelve books since finding out. I’ve always been one to like holding a book, there’s something magic about them, and always swore I could never read digital, but the Kindle app on my phone makes it so easy. I’m converted.

The pickings are obviously slim as the choice is pretty narrow, and while I haven’t unearthed any gems yet there have been some semi decent reads. A couple of stinkers thrown in as well but it’s only to be expected for ‘free’.
 
I much prefer a dead tree, but for lighter packing to go on holiday a kindle is a Godsend.
 
There's first reads too - free early released books for pirme members.
 
Just spent nearly 2 hours in possibly the betst second bookshop I have ever seen - just stupid amounts of brilliant books. Managed to escape having only bought 4 books. .
 
Started reading the exorcist last night. I've not seen the film...
 
William Blatty wrote a superb book there. It's tremendous.

Watch the film afterwards. It is also tremendous.
 
I finally got round to reading NOS4R2 by Joe Hill and thank goodness I did. I've read some of his other stuff and thought it was good but this was the first book of his I've read that puts him up there with his Dad IMO.

I followed it up by reading Bird Box. I haven't seen the film so thankfully didn't know what was going to happen and I couldn't put it down. I read it in 2 days which is something I never do with books. I loved it from start to finish.

They are probably the best two books I have read all year so I have ended the year on a high!
 
Having a tidy up of the books read this year (list to follow...) and noticed the unread shelf is a little empty.

Has anyone read any of Stephen Kings dark Tower series? I seem to have books 2 and 5, so was debating looking to pick up at least book 1 to see how the series goes.
 
Having a tidy up of the books read this year (list to follow...) and noticed the unread shelf is a little empty.

Has anyone read any of Stephen Kings dark Tower series? I seem to have books 2 and 5, so was debating looking to pick up at least book 1 to see how the series goes.

I've read 1,2 & 3 (and mayeb 4 I think). Very good, but tails off a little bit.
 
I love Stephen King but found the Dark Tower books dull. I gave up towards the end of book 2 as I couldn't take any more.
 
And look who's back by timur vemes? Adolf hitler wakes up outside his bunker in modern day Germany,ends up becoming a media superstar because they think he's an impersonator pretending to be confused about modern life,very funny take and was massive in germany
I started reading this a couple of days ago. Last night I finished the chapter where he's been put into the hotel and discovered modern tv. I properly lost my shit with the giggles. Very funny! Looking forward to reading the rest of the book, so many thanks for the recommendation mate!
 
I don't know whether I class them as a "good read" as it is more of a study than a read (although you can read them for enjoyment if your mind is that way inclined!) but I have had some excellent additions to my chess library in recent weeks.

If you play to a reasonably decent standard anything by the publisher Quality Chess is absolutely superb. Brilliantly detailed opening monologues on the absolute main lines that can be used by anyone from strong club players to the elite Super-GMs but written in such a way that they are accessible to anybody with a decent level of skill. All are top for correspondence and slow-play internet players where one is allowed access to the library but not a chess computer. If you are trying to memorise all of the stuff for tournament play without the books to refer to then I think you sort of need to be elite level to do it without melting your brain!

I have five volumes on the King's Indian defence by Kotronias that are so in-depth and high quality it is breath-taking, but unless your name is Garry Kasparov or Magnus Carlsen there is no way you are going to memorise all of it. Just taken delivery on a new opening monologue on the Najdorf Sicilian which I can't wait to dive into. My favourite opening of all time that I simply had to mothball because you have to know too much theory these days or you get blown away in over-the-board competition, but I fully intend to revive it for internet play. The book makes the most complex opening on the planet seem accessible to me again which is great news for me.

They also do some brilliant works on tactics and combination play to help improve your play that I can't recommend highly enough.

If you have a reasonable level of competence at the game, Quality Chess is the publisher where you simply cannot go wrong. I must own about forty books by them in my library, and I am yet to find a bad one. Even with the older publishers of my choice like Gambit over the last twenty years there would be the odd book that was just not up to standard. Never found that with Quality Chess.

(I appreciate this all will induce sleep in non-players)
 
Tidied up the bookshelves. Clearly had too much time on my hands since april. This also explains my lack of activity on the beer thread, or the gogglebox thread. Anyhow, I've read the following since thelast update:

The diary of jack the ripper - shirley harrison - a re-read of this, but it was a first edition, so I wanted to get a feel of the initial feeling of this "discovery"
The howard marks book of dope stories - ed howard marks - not a patch on mr nice
gardening on a shoestring - alex mitchell - some ideas for stuff to do if you're green fingered, or aspire to be. up-cycling being a theme.
chocolate wars - deborah cadbury - really interesting look at how cadburys was established. loved it.
the curious gardeners almanac - neill edworthy - more garden bits and bobs
the flags of nada - michael barrett - throwaway old novel I've had for years. Think I read it more because a micheael barrett (not the same one) "found" the "ripper diary"
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - read it after going to see the play. The story isn't great. The play is pretty good though.
The full facts of cold reading - ian rowland - another re-read. First tinme I didn't understand it. this time, i did, but didn't feel it taught me anything.
the human brain - susan greenfield - I like reading stuff about brains and consciousness (and chatting with Johnny about it!) Saw susan greenfield speak when i was a student. Her books are a lot drier than he is in real life.
cell - stephen king - made me want to re-read dead lines by greg bear, which i didn't favour when i first read it.
the jack the ripper whitechapel murders - kevin o'donnell - an author puts the research of 2 descendants of one of the victims into book form.
moab is my washpot - stephen fry - autobiography part 1 (birth to 18th birthday-ish)
adventures in a tv nation - michael moore - interesting take on subversive tv
zodiac - robert graysmith - graysmith was targeted by the zodiac for various correspondence. this book was written during the crimes and in the immediate aftermath. This was followed by:
zodiac unmasked - also by graysmith - 20+ years after the events, like an update, only with a lot of additional info alleging that leigh harvey allen was zodiac. I'm unconvinced.
up til now - william shatner- read as i loved "shatner rules". Autobiographical. Nowhere near as funny as "...rules". Lacked detail for me.
Love all the people - bill hicks - variations on his routines. You can see how he developed his skits and k=jokes. Often I could hear him in my head. I remain gutted I never saw him live.
danny, champion of the world - roald dahl - had never read a dahl book til last year. Am remedying that 9see also later)
the qi book of general ignorance - cos it's my fave tv show
the wombles - elisabeth beresford - loved it!
mr majestyk - elmore leonard - had read mr blue before (which is brilliant btw). Decided i needed to read one of his novels. shorter than i expected, but a good read with good characters.
why do penguins feet freeze? - new scientist - brilliant trivia book based on new scientist column the last word
the house of thunder - dean kootz - havuing read False memory last year, which was super, decided to read another kootz book. this one disappointed.
the ripper file - jones & lloyd - esteemed detectives barlow and watt create an incident room to do a 1970's investigation. fun.
how many socks make a pair - robert eastway - eastway has a number of books on his love of maths, and why you should love it too. short, and accessible, though not as good as why doe buses come in 3's.
darwins radio - greag bear
darwins children - greg bear
- read in succession. really liked radio, hence going straight onto children, which didn't have the same momentum.
selling hitler - robert harris - the tale of the so called hitler diaries. really well told.
boy - roald dahl - superb! kind of auto biographical stuff, reminisces of life and his thoughts. loved it.
sleeping beauties - stephen king with owen king - kinda fantasy from king & one of his offspring, with an element of the battle of the sexes. Like many king books, great for 600 pages, with a bit of a confused ending.
mythos - stephen fry - retelling of the classic greek myths (or some of them). really accessible.
jack the ripper - terence sharkey - a 1987 attempt to cash in on the centenary.
vulgar favours - maureen orth - a biography of the guy who killed versace. apparently turned into a tv series. unsure why, not a great book at all.
the hundred year old man who climbed out a window and disappeared - jonas jonasson - quite a funny trip through some surreal stuff that a pleasant old fella can get up to. I liked how it shows us there is so much more to a person than what we perceive.
Hereos - stephen fry - follow up to mythos, building on it. both books are really good.
jack the ripper and the london press - l perry curtis jnr - quite an academic work on how the crimes were presented in the media. Hard going, but covers a lot of social, political, gender based and cultural historical views of the crimes.
the secret barrister - potentially a terrifying read. Having worked under legal services commission contracts, I really appreciated and related to some of what was said here. Very relate-able.
intensity - dean koontz - better than house of thunder above.
how does it feel - mark kermode - i really like kermode. he's a top fella, and the good, the bad and the multiplex is essential reading for film fans. This is more autobiographical, and covers many musical scrapes he's gotten into. really enjoyable.
the olivetti chronicles - john peel - collection of various articles from numerous different publications. some haven't dated so well. some very funny.
the man who hunted jack the ripper - connell & evans - biography of edmund reid, who was probably the main detective on the ground in 1888 whitechapel
the fry chronicles - stephen fry - following on from "moab..." read earlier.
how to take a penalty - rob eastway - the impact of maths in sport. fun, as well as interesting.
star trek memories - william shatner - possibly a bit brief, but almost worth reading for the chapter where shatner thinks it's all done, and nichelle nicholls says "oh no, now I need to tell you why I hate you" and shatner reaction to learning numerous other star trek cast couldn't stand him, and how he was oblivious to this for so many years.
the exorcist - william peter blatty - really enjoyed this. I'm unsure as to what differences this (the 40th anniversary edition) has from the original, but blatty states a character is new with a small speech to make the ending a little more obvious.
dark heart - nick davies - an old book, a little dated, but davies is a really good investigative journalist.
how we believe- michael shermer - shermer has written some really fascinating books on how we come to form our belief systems. This is another great one that develops his themes.
jack the ripper suspects - c j morley - very disappointing - reads like a huge word doc
joyland - stephen king - really loved this. fast paced, straightforward characters. sussed out whodunnit.
thus spoke zarathustra - f neitzsche - lets be fucking clear about this. neitzsche is absolute fucking garbage. utter guff of the highest order. cannot fathom why people sing his praises. Perhaps explains why I've always struggled with the manics. shite.
jack the ripper - stephen james - reminded me why i don't read jtr fiction. boring.
more fool me - stephen fry. third installment in his autobiographies. whilst moab was my initial favourite, more fool me is a fascinating insight into functioning addicts. taking all 3, they're a good read.
77 shadow strret - dean kootz - better! slightly cereberal, but interesting take on fantasy/horror, with links to nano-tech.
the autobiography of sergeant william lawrence - Sgt Lawrence left an oral history of his life when in his 60's. Though illiterate, he served under wellington through 1806, til just after waterloo. I have quite an interest in the napoleonic wars, and wanted to read this for a while. It's a stellar first hand account of much army life in the early 19thC. I highly recommend this, especially to paddy. I know he'd love it!
 
I might have to dig out that Lawrence book. Loves me a bit of Napoleonic stuff!

Got an excellent three volume work on the 1809 War between France and Austria called Thunder on the Danube. Deals with Wagram and that sort of stuff. Hugely in depth and detailed.
 
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