A jolly good read?

[b3h]

Only one I've read is 11/22/63 and loved it, seems I picked the right one as I'm a big wuss and don't like horrors

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Very different and very good book.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

But "I have read the Dark Tower and not Salem's Lot It and The Stand" is a reading equivalent of

I like Metallica. Re-load is good. Never heard Puppets, Lightning or Justice though

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I love King but the Dark Tower books just bore me. I don’t think I made it past the 2nd book.

Joyland is one of his lesser known books that I’d recommend.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Stephen King favourites (books not films):

The Shining
Misery
Lisey's Story
Different Seasons
Billy Summers
Dolores Claibourne
Mr Mercedes
The Institute

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I have picked up a couple of books for my (ridiculously large) chess library. Fantastic book by Kasparov about his first two matches v Karpov in the mid-eighties. Plus also a really great thing about the previous brief Champion Vassily Smyslov. A fairly defensive style of player so not what I normally read about as I like Tal, Fischer, Kasparov style fireworks. It's superb though. An insight into the man, and the games are actually a lot more interesting than I expected.

I get what chess is about, but it's a real stretch for me to believe it's exciting!

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I've read a few of Jones Bo (Jo Nesbo) translated from Norwegian, all of them featuring Harry Hole. (An unfortunate choice of name, even if the correct pronunciation is Harry Holle), but I've just finished reading The Kingdom. and what a cracking book it was! Highly recommend it. Nothing is clear, it's all a little unexpected. No Harry Hole, just two brothers with a plan to build a Hotel in the mountains.
One brother cool as ice, always looked after his younger more gregarious brother, who turns out to be more than just a bit of a chancer.... A cracking book.

 

[The Bear]

I get what chess is about, but it's a real stretch for me to believe it's exciting!

Traditional over the board chess is agonisingly long.

Nowadays online chess is much more exciting. Blitz and Bullet (3 and 1 min time limits) are very entertaining to watch. Especially the frenetic and chaotic (to the casual observer) endgames.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I get what chess is about, but it's a real stretch for me to believe it's exciting!

I don't believe I said that in my post.

 

[nimrod]

I don't believe I said that in my post

i find the best chess games pretty exciting on playback but maybe i'm a weirdo. i haven't really played chess since i left school by which time i'd realised i was pretty crap despite making the school team. at the time i had a great book by irving chernev called the chess companion which had a load of great games, bit of history and some weird chess stories in. i also had a brief phase of buying some of the past championship games - i can recall the '74 candidates, capablanca's WC games and alekhine/polugaevsky.

it's a lot easier these days with everything online and periodically i'll check in on agadmator's YT channel as i've found he's one of the best at explaining the players ideas.

Tal's are generally my favourite games to play though you can't knock the standard of the modern players, computer assisted in all their prep of course. you prob have seen some games by nezhmetdinov, who wasn't as consistently good as Tal but had similar attack minded madness at heart. he also had a + record v Tal. one of his games was used in the queen's gambit tv series though they i think they may have changed the ending to make it a little more spectacular.

 

[lemonjelly]

Tidying up the bookcase again. Since the last update I have mostly been reading;

Stephen King – The Dark Tower Series ( The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, The Dark Tower) – Have to say (bearing in mind it was a while ago) I recall enjoying and being quite engaged in these. There are a lot of references to Kings other works, and there are also some odd changes in focus, especially after his accident. The first 2-3 books are a bit slow/rambling, but are ok. There is a definite picking up of the pace across books 4-8, and they are a lot ore “standard” King. The ending however, kinda pissed me off.
Stephen Senise – Jack the Ripper, False Flag
Lenny Henry – Who Am I again? – really enjoyed this. Picked it up 2nd hand (and it is an autographed copy!) and I will definitely get the follow up book recently released. Really interesting culturally.
D Monoghan & N Cawthorne – Jack the Rippers Secret Confession
Alain de Botton – The School of Life – Anything the school of life and/or alain de botton do is worth reading/engaging in imo. Really enjoyed this phenomenally useful book.
Richard Osman – The Thursday Murder Book Club – it’s ok as a novel, fairly entertaining.
Neil Gaiman – American Gods – really enjoyed this. Fair few twists and turns in it, and elements of the book do keep you guessing for a long time.
James O’Brien – How to be right
James O’Brien – How not to be wrong – If I am honest, disappointing, a bit brief, and a bit too much ego. In places thought provoking.
Irvine Welsh – A Decent Ride – recommended by @Newbridge Wolf . Funny as fuck!
Martin Lindstrom – Buyology
Robin Odell – Jack the Ripper in fact and fiction
Mark Watson – Contacts – I really enjoyed this from comedian Mark Watson. Really good premise. I am not 100% about the ending, but I am very critical of many books endings!
James Sharpe – remember remember the fifth November
Nick Hornby – High Fidelity – OK. Can’t help but feel Hornby got better with practise.
Elizabeth Day – How to Fail
Ben Aaronovitch – Rivers of London series (Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho, Whispers Under Ground, Broken Homes, Foxglove Summer, The Hanging Tree, The Furthest Station, Lies Sleeping, The October Man, False Value, Amongst our Weapons) – I really really have been enjoying these. I have a novella and collection of short stories also to read relating to this series. I am very unsure how the proposed tv series will work out though.
Fred Hoyle & John Elliott – The Andromeda Anthology
Truman Capote – Summer Crossing
Bernard Cornwell – Waterloo
Mark Twain – Tom Sawyer
Hector macDonald – Truth
Naomi Klein – On Fire – I wish Klein would write something as stimulating and engaging as No Logo or The Shock Doctrine. I get this is her passion now, but it doesn’t hit the same heights.
Justified Ancients of Mu Mu – 2023 – batshit mental, as you would expect!
James Shapiro – Contested Will – did Shakespeare write Shakespeare (of course he fucking did!)
Robert Clack – Jack the Ripper Scenes of Crime
Lawrence Krauss – A Universe From Nothing – Not 100% I understood everything in this book…
Daniel Kalder – Dictator Literature – as recommended by @SLA funny, and interesting.
Major Arthur Griffiths – Victorian Murders – Mysteries of Police and Crime
James Suroweicki – The Wisdom of Crowds
David Lodge – The Campus trilogy (Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work) Set around my place of work (loosely allegedly). Quite enjoyable, but also a bit throwaway.

Am digging out several longer books to read over the winter months. Including finally getting around to reading The Stand by Stephen King amongst others. Also desperate for the next Book of Dust episode to be released as previously mentioned.

 

[lemonjelly]

@Newbridge Wolf have you read crime? apparently it's a follow up to filth, and there's a 3rd book due for release fairly imminently?

 

[sycophantia]

This could be in one of the music threads...but it's a book!
I've read quite a few rock biographys/autobiography, most are ok, some are decent, many are meh, just a story of sex, drugs and rocknroll excess
Just finished 'The Lives of Brian', Brian Johnson,
Probably the best one I've read, stonking good read, covers the years from his childhood to the recording of Back in Black.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

The Big Green Bookshop does Buy A Stranger a Book Day (#buyastrangerabook) on Twitter every Wednesday.

Basically, people offer to buy a book for someone else up to a set amount and if you want a book you just reply to the message. It's a really nice idea. I know it works as I got a book out of it the other week! I will have to return the favour some time and offer to buy somebody else a book.

 

[lemonjelly]

Currently reading, and really enjoying The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. Have previously read Fahrenheit 451, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, and liked them both. Anyone have other suggestions of his writing, as seems he has written a lot! Are his collections of short stories good, or his novels better?

 

[Alan]

Realized I've been unknowingly paying for Audible for the last year, so have a dozen "credits" to spend on anything. Picked up a book about Operation Paperclip (called, creatively, Operation Paperclip, by Annie Jacobsen). Stellar so far, a very good account of the actions during the war of the Nazi officers and scientists who would go on to be hired by the US Military and other arms of the US government.

 

[Keef]

man who never was- even montagu is well worth a read, if it was a film you’d say it was unbelievable in a bad way, was coded as operation mincemeat, and there’s books about that.

The greatest raid of all is worth hunting down as well, again unbelievable, good documentary on YouTube about it, where they interview survivors from it

That’s if you like war stories

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Damien Boyd. Used to be a solicitor and worked for the Crown Prosecution Service. Wrote his first book which was pretty good, but its good for introducing you to the main characters. He's written 13 books and the latest one comes out next month. I've bought all 12 and the stories get better, plots get thicker and they move along at a good pace. It's rare for me to finish one, two or even three on the run without going to something different. But he's a great read and highly recommend him.
His character is based around Burnham on Sea and the South West.
There are no surplus bits of dialogue, no padding, no sex, no gratuitous details, no philosophising from the author, just good stories really well written with a really likeable chief character.
Interestingly you'll find him on Amazon; 2 days from ordering them to getting them and they're pitched around £6 quid. They're printed by Amazon mostly in the States, but if you like cops and cop stories give these a try.

 

[Tredman]

Just finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. First of her books I’ve enjoyed for a good while but it’s excellent. Loosely based on David Copperfield.

 

[BillyDee]

Sounds magic...