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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2013 14:46:13 GMT
With the new year I thought I would restart a thread from the old EF.
I just finished two books, If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley and Just Play Ball, by Joe Garagiola. The Worsley book was excellent, similar in concept to Bill Bryson's At Home, but done by a real historian with a lot more details and almost as much humor. The Garagiola book was fairly poor. He kept promising to tell the reader about funny experiences playing baseball but somehow never told any. He even managed to make that genius of spoken English, Yogi Berra, sound dull!
For books I'm just starting, on breaks at work I'm reading London:The Biography by Peter Ackroyd while at home it's How Carrots Won the Trojan War by Rebecca Rupp, a micro-history of the most common vegetables eaten in the West.
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Post by whollygoats on Jan 1, 2013 15:06:05 GMT
Right now, I'm in the middle of three Terry Pratchett titles. Eric, Hogfather, and Jingo. Why three? Because I tend to misplace one (or more) so I start a new one. The first is a Rincewind tale, the second a Death tale, and the last a Sam Vimes tome, dealing with demonology, holiday customs, and 'diplomacy', respectively. These are carried with me in my backpack for reading whilst in transit, in restaurants, at work, and at home.
I've also two of William Green's volumes of the War Planes of the Second World War set, volume 5 on Flying Boats and volume 6 on Floatplanes. They are small reference volumes I've borrowed through my wokplace library. They stay next to the bed.
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Post by charliebrown on Jan 1, 2013 15:07:19 GMT
I am reading collected poems by Roger McGough and by Tomas Tranströmer; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; some mysteries by Agatha Christie (on my kindle and ipad) and a book on piano playing.
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Post by Kye on Jan 1, 2013 15:41:48 GMT
I just finished "The Age of Miracles" --a book about an 11 year old girl coming of age in a world where the earth's rotation has slowed. I found it strangely compelling. I couldn't put it down.
Now I'm rereading Augustine of Hippo's "Confessions". I'm at the place he talks about the nature of time. Fascinating stuff!
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Post by Miisa on Jan 1, 2013 17:00:43 GMT
Just finished a (these days) rare excursion into fiction with Fever Dream and just started Why Are You Atheists So Angry by Greta Christina.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2013 19:49:08 GMT
I'm reading "Slam" by Nick Hornby. A lot of my pupils had to read it, so I got interested in reading it.
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Post by Karen on Jan 1, 2013 20:24:21 GMT
Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan's latest. It takes place in the UK in the 1970s, and is about a young woman who goes to work for MI5. Very well written, but not his best. (However, second-rate McEwan is better than most first-rate other writers.)
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jan 1, 2013 21:09:47 GMT
I also started the Why are you atheists so angry? 99 things that piss of the godless by Greta Christina - I was really pissed off by about number 29 and almost couldn't continue. I'm also reading the second book (or third depending on how you count them) book in the Riftwar saga by Raymond E Feist. I had read the Magician years and years ago and somebody suggested i give it another go. I also took Catch 22 with me to Rome and have re-read about half that as it all takes place in Italy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2013 22:20:33 GMT
I read Catch 22 last year. It was quite good, but I doubt I'll read it again.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2013 22:44:43 GMT
Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan's latest. It takes place in the UK in the 1970s, and is about a young woman who goes to work for MI5. Very well written, but not his best. (However, second-rate McEwan is better than most first-rate other writers.) She read that recently. She suggested that if you liked it, you might like Stella Remington's books.
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Post by Karen on Jan 2, 2013 14:46:17 GMT
Tell her thanks. I read about Rimington the other day on Wikipedia, since she's the obvious model for one of the minor characters in the book.
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Post by juju on Jan 2, 2013 23:18:28 GMT
I'm reading The Slap by Christos Tsiolkis, which I found in a pile of books at my mother in law's (she's an avid reader). Seeing me flick through it, she said I could take it as she hadn't enjoyed it. Turns out it's full of unlikeable characters indulging in lots of drugs and sex, so I'm slightly and irrationally uncomfortable by the fact she read it first. Anyway, it's not badly written and quite compelling. I believe it was made into a TV series or something, last year.
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Post by charliebrown on Jan 3, 2013 9:24:47 GMT
I enjoy reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" so far, in a way, it's richer than the Blade Runner movie. And I finished reading A.B.C. Murders the other day; there are a lot of modern thrillers but I enjoy Agatha Christie's style and I can re-read her works while I need something interesting and not heavy to read.
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Post by Shake on Jan 4, 2013 1:52:33 GMT
I finally, in late 2012, finished Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith.
I've now begun The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski. A quick Google search also provides the 13-part TV series shown on the BBC decades ago.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 20:12:18 GMT
I've now begun The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski. Good book, and the TV series was good too.
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Post by Moose on Jan 7, 2013 3:07:09 GMT
I watched the Worsley series and thought it was reminiscent of At Home. I messaged her on Twitter and mentioned it but she seemed very slightly put out and said that no, there was no correlation (a lot of the facts were similar, tho). I've not read the book but I'd like to
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Post by Moose on Jan 7, 2013 3:09:11 GMT
(Sven the TV series should be available on DVD and is well worth a watch)
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Post by Moose on Jan 7, 2013 3:11:48 GMT
And whilst we're on the subject, Col bought me Jane Shaw's 'A Job for Susan' for Xmas, at my request. Previously this would have cost zillions of pounds as it was very rare but they were re-issued a while ago. There's still one in the series I've not read, hoping to get it soon
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2013 20:28:35 GMT
(Sven the TV series should be available on DVD and is well worth a watch) It's not listed on Amazon UK. Odds are it wouldn't be available for Region 1 anyway. I tried to get She the two series of "A Year at Kew" and that wasn't available for Region 1.
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Post by whollygoats on Jan 7, 2013 20:48:48 GMT
"They never come up to Sector R." ~ Firesign Theater, We're All Bozos On This Bus
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Post by Moose on Jan 7, 2013 22:40:35 GMT
Sven you can find it online if you prod around. POssibly not legally but it's there
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Post by Alvamiga on Jan 7, 2013 23:15:31 GMT
I've given up with DVD regions as my computer will play any region anyway. I've imported several box sets of things now where there has been no UK release. This weekend I bought Eric Sykes' Autobiography, If I Don't Write It, No One Will. Probably take me ages to get round to actually reading it though!
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Post by Shake on Jan 8, 2013 1:48:20 GMT
I've now begun The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski. Good book, and the TV series was good too. I may go check it out on YouTube.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2013 21:47:32 GMT
Just finished Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven, an astonishingly poor effort by a couple of science fiction masters. Starting another sf novel by Kevin Anderson, Clockwork Angels.
I'm also reading The Barbarous Years by Bernard Bailyn, the third volume in his series The Peopling of British North America. This volume covers from 1600-1675.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2013 11:06:58 GMT
I just finished reading a German book by Hanna Blumroth vom Lehn. She was on TV in the talk-show "Stern TV" several times throughout the past years because she was suffering from Anorexia Nervosa and because I had seen her there, I was interested in reading her story. She is recovering now, but I'm afraid the book was not good to read. She told her story, but nothing more. It was just talking about the facts and how she felt, but in a very informal, boring way. I think she didn't get published because of her good writing, but just because of her story. At least I finsished reading the book within five days. Some autobiographical books are like that, I'm afraid, which is probably why I don't really enjoy reading them.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2013 13:55:04 GMT
It's surprising how some people can make an interesting life boring when it's written down.
I finished the Anderson book, turned out it's yet another rewrite of Candide. It was worth reading, though I can't decide if it was aimed at a young adult audience or just written to imitate the style of the most common English translation of the Voltaire. Next in line to read is Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain Banks.
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Post by charliebrown on Jan 12, 2013 16:11:00 GMT
I feel deeply sorry for the chickenheads in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" And I guess this empathy that I can feel make me human. And the kipple, so true that it's invading my living space. That's why I am doing some clean-up at home.
"JR - Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers of yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there's twice as much of it. It always gets more and more. Pris- I see. JR - There's the First Law of Kipple, "Kipple drives out nonkipple."
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Post by charliebrown on Jan 18, 2013 15:56:04 GMT
I've finished reading the "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and it is a great read. I appreciate the fact that I have a real cat. And I love her very much.
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Post by whollygoats on Jan 19, 2013 6:45:02 GMT
I just finished Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time. What fun!
Apocalyptic literature with revelations filled with giggles. The Five Horsemen ride!
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Post by Alvamiga on Jan 19, 2013 10:28:10 GMT
I have just read a forum post by whollygoats!
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