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Books - what are you reading just now?

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Just thought I would mention that if you are a member of your local library you can download ebooks for free loans. (but perhaps it may not be nationwide)
 
First to fight- shedding a large light on the German - Polish, USSR-Polish war that started WWII, as a much overlooked theatre of war compared to the rest of WWII.

I went to a talk by the author at the BBC history magazine weekend in Chester last year, and promised myself I'd get the book in due course. Glad I did so far, as it debunks lots of "whig" history views like Cavalry vs tanks, and how much the UK and France didnt stick to their promises etc
 
Max Hastings Bomber Command... Had read much of the book previously but couldn't bring myself to read the chapter about my old Dads squadron... So, for whatever reason, decided to do so this evening... Knew Dad didn't get a name check but wasn't surprised to read the squadron was considered the most ill disciplined of Bomber Command... Struggled to get through some parts as it brought back memories of the old man... He very rarely spoke of the war years but one incident he spoke of is described within the chapter...

Aside from that, have been reading The Chamber by John Grisham... Long time since I've read one of his works and finding a good read...
 
Moved onto Tales from the Fast Trains by Tom Chesshyre. Have read a couple of his books (Slow Trains to Venice and From Source to Sea) and been very impressed so have high hopes for this one.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Was struggling with To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf until yesterday when I googled 'is Virginia Woolf difficult' and found that To the Lighthouse is in some bibliophile website's Top 10 difficult reads...It advises readers to not try and work out who the heck is thinking what about whom (it seems to be mostly the thoughts of the characters about themselves and each other, and not a lot of dialogue) and just read it...so I can now read it accepting that I'm not going to have much of a clue, but just enjoy the words and wait and see what happens.
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Well it has taken me nearly 6 weeks to read the 160 pages or so of To the Lighthouse...a book unlike any I have read before. And not at all easy.

As the wiki article about it says... the novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. Quite - and no plot to talk of so nothing to grab hold of. Apparently now that have read this then Joyce's Ulysses should be a piece of cake..but not sure that I am ready.

Think it might be a bit of light adventure stuff - Walter Scott's Rob Roy...:eek:
 
Been reading mostly on Kindle in recent times, but Mrs B has instructed that I should clear (ie read) some of the backlog of hardback books bought over the last year - so currently going through Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bodies, with biographies of Stalin, Napoleon and Alan Turing to follow. Then a history of the Palestinian "problem". After that just another 20 or so to get through.
 
Happy Old Me by Hunter Davies. Have enjoyed his writing for more years than I care to think about and this is a good as any. I just picked it up in a big pile of books I managed to book out very shortly before our County Council closed the libraries. When I started it, I couldn't believe that he was writing in a very entertaining way about exactly my personal situation - living alone in your 80s.
 
rosecott said:
Happy Old Me by Hunter Davies. Have enjoyed his writing for more years than I care to think about and this is a good as any. I just picked it up in a big pile of books I managed to book out very shortly before our County Council closed the libraries. When I started it, I couldn't believe that he was writing in a very entertaining way about exactly my personal situation - living alone in your 80s.
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When I was a kid I used to go the library to keep warm and read back issues of punch. Always enjoyed 'fathers day', which he wrote for many years.
 
Just finished Scrublands by Chris Hammer. Great crime/thriller book set in a small town in Australia. I see it's only 99p now on kindle so if you have one and have a bit of spare time I'd really recommend it. You need to pay a bit of attention to the plot but that's not a bad thing. In a similar vein The Dry by Jane Harper (also set in Australia in the middle of a heat wave) is very good, as are her others Lost Man and Force of Nature.
 
Hacker Khan said:
Just finished Scrublands by Chris Hammer. Great crime/thriller book set in a small town in Australia. I see it's only 99p now on kindle so if you have one and have a bit of spare time I'd really recommend it. You need to pay a bit of attention to the plot but that's not a bad thing. In a similar vein The Dry by Jane Harper (also set in Australia in the middle of a heat wave) is very good, as are her others Lost Man and Force of Nature.
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With Australia in mind and given the current crisis, I am rather avoiding re-reading Nevil Shute's On the Beach - hopefully our ending is better :eek:
 
rosecott said:
I, too, was always an avid reader of Punch.
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I assume it's no longer published. I subscribe to private eye, which (at least in the back half) has supplanted it.
Also used to enjoy Alan Coren's pieces. An English teacher used to read from a selection of his pieces called (iirc) Golfing for Cats. Pretty certain it wasn't about golf or cats though...
 
backwoodsman said:
Been reading mostly on Kindle in recent times, but Mrs B has instructed that I should clear (ie read) some of the backlog of hardback books bought over the last year - so currently going through Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bodies, with biographies of Stalin, Napoleon and Alan Turing to follow. Then a history of the Palestinian "problem". After that just another 20 or so to get through.
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Looks like I'd have a field day with your collection. A very interesting read, if you haven't already, is Broken Vows, by Tom Bowyer. Certainly portrays Blair and Brown in a different light.
 
pendodave said:
I assume it's no longer published. I subscribe to private eye, which (at least in the back half) has supplanted it.
Also used to enjoy Alan Coren's pieces. An English teacher used to read from a selection of his pieces called (iirc) Golfing for Cats. Pretty certain it wasn't about golf or cats though...
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No, long gone, sadly. I still go back to many of the old contributors. I recently finished Someone Like Me by Miles Kington. It was in the biography section but you could hardly call it an autobiography, more a bunch of tallish tales of his childhood.
 
Without commuting, do people read more or less?
I usually read on the train and during lunch break, I haven’t touched a book in about 3 weeks now. I was struggling to find them next thing’ anyway, hopefully there will something once the world starts to turn again.
 
larmen said:
Without commuting, do people read more or less?
I usually read on the train and during lunch break, I haven’t touched a book in about 3 weeks now. I was struggling to find them next thing’ anyway, hopefully there will something once the world starts to turn again.
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Personally i'm reading more. Getting through a book every week at the moment but i did stock up before lockdown hit!
 
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