Stickied What are you reading right now?

After finishing the Kerr book (which was average), I read a book by Robert Galbraith but who really is an acronym of JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author. It was a load of crap. If I ever needed a reason not to read the Harry Potter series, this book (The Silkworm) is it. A very average story published simply because Rowling wrote (under an acronym).
Currently reading Rising 44 by Norman Davies. It depicts the Warsaw uproar during WWII. Very good so far.

That's a strange acronym.

It's pseudonym isn't it?

I learned something today!

Temporary Wire fix.

Stevencc said:

Temporary Wire fix.

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Need

Mr. Scruff said:

Need

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It's great - it functions well as an episode/series guide but it's also full of essays related to the show, characters, Baltimore itself etc.

It was only a couple of quid (used) on Amazon too.

Right, hoping a few of you guys could point me in the right direction.

Looking for a few recommended books to read -

• a book on the Romans (origins, influence over Europe, that kinda thing)
• a book on the Nazi's
• a book on a drug smuggler (caught or framed), busted up in a foreign prison

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Nath said:

Right, hoping a few of you guys could point me in the right direction.

Looking for a few recommended books to read -

• a book on the Romans (origins, influence over Europe, that kinda thing)
• a book on the Nazi's
• a book on a drug smuggler (caught or framed), busted up in a foreign prison

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

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Mr nice. Not loads about his time in prison but it's a great book.

Nath said:

Right, hoping a few of you guys could point me in the right direction.

Looking for a few recommended books to read -

• a book on the Romans (origins, influence over Europe, that kinda thing)
• a book on the Nazi's
• a book on a drug smuggler (caught or framed), busted up in a foreign prison

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

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On the Romans, I can vouch for the first 2 novels of Robert Harris' biography of Cicero via his slave, Ciro: Imperium and Lustrum. Don't read the 3rd one though, it's crap.

The Walls Of Byzantium by James Heneage'
First in a trilogy of novels about the wars between The Byzantium and Ottoman empires in the 14 century. I had never heard of this author before but i'm impressed with his attention to detail and research.

Just started this. A number of real life mysteries. Only one story in, fascinating already.

Nath said:

Right, hoping a few of you guys could point me in the right direction.

Looking for a few recommended books to read -

• a book on the Romans (origins, influence over Europe, that kinda thing)
• a book on the Nazi's
• a book on a drug smuggler (caught or framed), busted up in a foreign prison

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

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The Damage Done by Warren Fellows is pretty good. He was an Aussie drug dealer who spent some time in a pretty horrific Thai prison.

Similarly, Marching Powder by Rusty Young is worth checking out.

About to start Annihilation by Vandermeer. I know nothing about it but was recommended it by a friend.

I'm currently reading The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre. Seemed a bit slow to start with but it's getting going now.

Also near the end of Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. I think it's brilliant, absolutely compelling and there's so much to take away from it. If you liked Bounce, then you'll definitely like this.

Veggie Legs said:

I'm currently reading The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre. Seemed a bit slow to start with but it's getting going now.

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Most of his books are slow burners I feel. Enjoyed it though.

Cheese & Biscuits said:

Just started this. A number of real life mysteries. Only one story in, fascinating already.

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This is a cracking book. 4 stories in and we've had:

1. Mystery surrounding the death of the world's leading Sherlock Holmes expert as he tries to stop an archive of Conan Doyle papers being sold privately.
2. The story of Cameron Todd Willingham who was convicted of murder after his house was burned down and his three children were killed. All the evidence pointed towards arson and he was the only suspect but an expert sheds doubt on his conviction weeks before he's due to die.
3. The story of Frederic Bourdin, The Chameleon, who has spent his whole life pretending to be others. The bulk of the story is about his time he convinced an American family he was their son who went missing 3 years ago.
4. The mystery surrounding the death of Dariusz Janiszewski. It was seen as a perfect crime with no leads but a policeman picked up the cold case years later and solved it.

Fascinating stuff. Would recommend it on what I've read so far.

Veggie Legs said:

Also near the end of Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. I think it's brilliant, absolutely compelling and there's so much to take away from it. If you liked Bounce, then you'll definitely like this.

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Googled about this and I'm fascinated by this in the Daily Mail's review

'But I think Matthew Syed is on to something. As a former England table tennis champion with a starred first in PPE, he has moved effortlessly on to a writing and broadcasting career of some distinction.

Few people, other than possibly Boris Johnson or Alexander the Great, are better qualified to write about success.'

shane said:

About to start Annihilation by Vandermeer. I know nothing about it but was recommended it by a friend.

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Oh, I've read the whole trilogy. I like them.

Just finished Paul Foot's Who Framed Colin Wallace, which was originally published in the late 1980s. Like so much of Foot's work, it's now out of print; however, it's easy enough to pick up from second-hand sellers.

Anyway, Colin Wallace was a Senior Information Officer in the British Army who served in Northern Ireland during the early stages of the Troubles (circa 1969-1975). He was also involved in Clockwork Orange, not the ace Stanley Kubrick film but a secret psyche-ops project led by MI5 that involved feeding disinformation to the local and national press in order to smear, fragment or confuse republican and loyalist terrorist groups (but mostly the IRA).

Wallace claims that the purpose of Clockwork Orange changed from fucking with terrorist/paramilitary groups (which he was perfectly fine with) to smearing senior British politicians, including the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson (BTW, there is a fair bit of crossover here with the claims Peter Wright made in Spycatcher). Anyway, at this point Wallace began to dislike the work and refused to co-operate further until his seniors provided evidence of ministerial clearance for the project. Around the same time, he received reports of routine sexual abuse at the Kincora Boys' Home in Belfast. He raised the matter with his superiors and recommended that the RUC should investigate further.

Shortly afterwards, Wallace was transferred out of Northern Ireland (for rather spurious reasons) and later resigned from the MOD in a jumped before he was pushed kinda way. He later found employment with a local authority in England, but his new life was ruined when he was charged with the murder of a friend, who also happened to be the husband of a colleague. The evidence against him was weak but he was nevertheless convicted of manslaughter and served six years in prison. It is Wallace's contention – and it's clear Foot mostly agrees – that he was stitched up by people in intelligence who feared what he knew about Clockwork Orange and Kincora. It should be added that the abuse at Kincora was uncovered but years after Wallace alerted his superiors to it, which invites the question of why they didn't act sooner.

Anyway, I found this absolutely compelling. I've always liked and admired Paul Foot's journalism, but this is particularly good.

I finished The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of Calla the other day.

Been slowly getting through the series for over a year now, trying to pace it out... but I sort of feel as if I'm getting too into it to resist just finishing off the last two books in one fell swoop now. The more I read of the series the better it's getting...

This being said, he book was a little bit of a drag at times... not sure it quite needed to be quite as long as it was. It's pretty much 706 pages of build up for 60 pages of conclusion, which seems like a bit of a strange ratio. It's funny because Roland does pretty much say about how you do all this preparation for 5 short minutes of chaos all the way through the book and that's pretty much how it turns out.

Still though, it kept me hooked, invested me even more into the world of The Dark Tower and its characters, plus it left the story in a really interesting place and I can't wait to get going with the next one now.

Met my mate on holiday and he brought me 'The Tower of the Swallow' by Sapkowski (witcher saga) which I'd been waiting to read for a while.
Tried to ration it out as much as possible over 3 weeks but couldn't avoid finishing it before holiday even ended.

Awesome book, just like the previous 3 in the saga, although the new gimmick in this book is half the story being told from the perspective of secondary characters which can get quite confusing. Still an excellent book, a lot more of what I wanted to see (more Ciri, Yen and a bit less military strategy)

Now another year until the next/last ones translated officially.

I'm towards the end of the Warsaw Rising book by Norman Davies and, like Oaf, find the book fine but think that it doesn't need to be this long. Davies goes into great depth into finding examples of how evil the Russians are. You say it 10 or so times, we get it.

Sword In The Storm by David Gemmell. You can't beat a bit of swords and sorcery fantasy by for me the best author of the genre.

I got through Harry Potter And the Cursed Child over the last few days. It's alright. And actually, I didn't really find myself minding the whole play script format of it either. I'd still like to see the play (or see it made into a movie...) though.

Currently getting started on a series of books I've had since a kid, The Chronicles of Narnia. I only ever read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and got like half way through the first book before. Got started on The Magicians Nephew earlier... I hope that these are as good as I remember from when I was a kid, and not as shit as the recent movies make them out to be.

Altar Of Blood by Anthony Riches.
The 9th book in The Empire series which sees the Romans returning to Germany swhere 2 centuries before Varos led his 30,000 men to be massacred in a forest wher their bones lay for years before before finally getting a burial.

Currently reading a selection of Edgar Allan Poe short stories. The pit and the pendulum is as intense as words on a page can get.

I seem to always get a free seat on the train when I'm reading this.

A few Ibsen plays

smat said:

A few Ibsen plays

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Sword And Scimitar by Simon Scarrow.
A novel about the defence of Malta by The Knights Of Saint John against The Ottoman Empire in 1565.