Books - what are you reading just now?

Hobbit said:
Shute was English.

One of my favourites is Trustee from the Toolroom. Requiem for a Wren is another good read. A bit old in style, harking back to a very different time but I like them because of that.
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Indeed - my mistake from him living his final years in Australia. really enjoyed Beyond the Black Stump

In the end Shute managed, IMO successfully, to compare Northwest USA attitudes and culture of the 1950s with that of Northern West Australia outback. Thought provoking and though of it's time I find it had resonance today - none of us are perfect and we need to look to ourselves; to try and understand 'the other', before we point and criticise.

I do like Shute's writing. Straightforward, simply written, but with well drawn characters and evocative settings. I have a 13-strong bundle of his books on my bookshelf that I was given by a friend who downsized and got rid of most of her books - and Requiem for a Wren is there.
 
Read Dava Sobel's short and accessible account of the race to accurately determine longitude at sea. Excellent little book - easy to read and has told me all I probably need to know about John Harrison and his H1-H5 timepieces, and various Astronomer Royals of the 18th Century :)

Now for something completely different. It's probably going to be the rather mammoth 'Parade's End' by Ford Maddox Ford - been on my bookshelf for ages - time to take it down I think.

But as it's a 'big read' I think I'll also do some short reads at the same time, starting with Wind in the Willows - recently picked up from my local Oxfam and just one of these books I've never read but think I know - but I probably don't.
 
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SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Enjoying Beyond the Black Stump by Nevil Shute - based around sheep stations in northern Western Australia. Written contemporaneously with when it was published in 1956, the depictions in it of how the Aboriginal community was considered and treated back then is very thought provoking - and although I knew a bit about how it was, I still find it shocking (present day sensibilities...)

So notwithstanding 65yrs separating then and now, though things have improved a great deal for that community - where it has come from was such a very low point my admittedly rather superficial observations of the Aboriginal lot gained over 9wks last year spent travelling in Australia suggests there may still be a way to go. But where it was in 1955...

Being Australian did Shute write with a 'this is how it is' eye - or with a 'this is how it is - however...' I don't know.
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I don't believe Australia will ever be a single 'integrated' nation as the 2 cultures (and cultural values) are so far apart/different - unlike what (I believe) has happened in NZ where both Maori and Pakeha are 'integrated and distinct'. It's like trying to integrate 2 different types of animals.
My late brother spent some time in Darwin (Northern Territory) and was horrified by both the attitude of Whites to Aborigines in that area and the apparent (cultural) misuse of facilities facilities provided to 'help' Aborigines. There have been some successes, especially in the sporting arena - Evonne Goolagong (elegance personified) probably being the most obvious - but there were some 'cultural' issues in her career too! Australian Rules is another sport where there has been a relatively high participation.

'Beyond the Black Stump' and 'A Town Called Alice' were class set books at High School and Banjo Paterson poetry was also studied - along with some Kiwi authors too. .
 
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Foxholer said:
I don't believe Australia will ever be a single 'integrated' nation as the 2 cultures (and cultural values) are so far apart/different - unlike what (I believe) has happened in NZ where both Maori and Pakeha are 'integrated and distinct'. It's like trying to integrate 2 different types of animals.
My late brother spent some time in Darwin (Northern Territory) and was horrified by both the attitude of Whites to Aborigines in that area and the apparent (cultural) misuse of facilities facilities provided to 'help' Aborigines. There have been some successes, especially in the sporting arena - Evonne Goolagong (elegance personified) probably being the most obvious - but there were some 'cultural' issues in her career too! Australian Rules is another sport where there has been a relatively high participation.

'Beyond the Black Stump' and 'A Town Called Alice' were class set books at High School and Banjo Paterson poetry was also studied - along with some Kiwi authors too. .
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Yes - we could see that things were not great in Darwin....and a local lady very sympathetic to the Aboriginal community situation/plight and who showed us around the city explained the situation. But we could see it for ourselves in Coober Pedy and on the streets of Alice Springs - sad. And as you said so very different from our experience of the Maori in NZ. When we visited Waitangi and asked about the attitude of Paheka to Maori as it seemed that the Paheka community was proud of the distinct Maori community and it's cultures - our Maori guide pointed out that it's not perfect, but that they were a lot better off than the Aboriginal communities in Australia - as we subsequently witnessed.
 
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We don't know what we're doing - Adrian Chiles. All about following WBA for a season.

VERY FUNNY !!!!!!! If you are a football fan and know what that entails.
 
Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford. Half way through middle book of the Great War period trilogy. Excellent. Aiming to complete before Christmas so we can watch the 2012 BBC serialisation (it's on Netflix) over the festive break as I am sure that my Mrs will enjoy it.

Always an issue for me that. Read or Watch - or both - and if both what order? Less of an issue these days with so much available on 'catch-up'.
 
Finished '1982 Brazil' a week or so ago, an excellent book on the 82 World Cup and that Brazil team. Somewhat apt bearing in mind Paolo Rossi's passing today.

Now reading a book on the glory years of the UEFA Cup. Very interesting and fascinating how open the European competitions were in the 70's and 80's.
 
I don't read books so much these days, can't concentrate long enough. It's a shame as I used to read books a lot. Was a very quick reader, known to read novels in a single day, but those days are long gone. I've been reading "A course called Ireland" since last December, and have probably read about 40 pages. However, I recently picked up "Bring me the head of Sergio Garcia", and am about halfway through it.
 
need_my_wedge said:
I don't read books so much these days, can't concentrate long enough. It's a shame as I used to read books a lot. Was a very quick reader, known to read novels in a single day, but those days are long gone. I've been reading "A course called Ireland" since last December, and have probably read about 40 pages. However, I recently picked up "Bring me the head of Sergio Garcia", and am about halfway through it.
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I've got a copy and read it a couple of times. Its well worth persevering with.
 
Kaz said:
I've been droning on about Dune on here for a bit as I read through the original series and later conclusion. (Nearly finished now - halfway through the last book)

Anyway, if anyone is interested, the first book is available for 99p on the kindle daily deals today (only). Well worth a read if you like scifi and have never read it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dune-Sequence-Book-1-ebook/dp/B004KA9UXO/ref=lp_5400977031_1_1
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Will be re reading the first book, next year before the new film comes out!
 
Kaz; thanks for jogging the memory about DUNE(been meaning to get for ages)!
Anyhow,the wonderful SWMBO has just had it put on my Kindle(assuming it's an extra Chrissie pressie-along with the OUUL bag and the course of lessons with Craig)
Oh yeah,did I mention that she bought me a car(to ferry her around-although she has a licence).
What a woman-she makes a great Mrs.Santa!!
Festive wishes to all and fingers X'd for 2021.....Tak Tent one and all!!!!!
Jimbo
 
Kaz said:
I've been droning on about Dune on here for a bit as I read through the original series and later conclusion. (Nearly finished now - halfway through the last book)

Anyway, if anyone is interested, the first book is available for 99p on the kindle daily deals today (only). Well worth a read if you like scifi and have never read it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dune-Sequence-Book-1-ebook/dp/B004KA9UXO/ref=lp_5400977031_1_1
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I got the set of the first 4 books for xmas, that'll keep me occupied until the film comes out!
 
SaintHacker said:
I got the set of the first 4 books for xmas, that'll keep me occupied until the film comes out!
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Maybe it's just me, but i found the first one a distance better than the subsequent ones. I thought it was brilliant.
I read them in my late teens, and had never really encountered sci fi lit before. Maybe that meant that the rest never had a chance.
I'm curious about the film, and will try to catch it in a proper cinema.
 
Kaz said:
Having just reread the series I completely agree with this. The first one is definitely the standout probably because it's the closest to a classic character-led narrative/adventure story. Subsequently it's more about grandiose themes; religion, evolution, terraforming, politics. Still well written and very readable but often leaning on the brilliance of the first book.

What surprised me this time (I've read Dune a few times but not for many years before now) was how abruptly the story gets wrapped up. To much of it seems a tad "convenient" just to get to a conclusion. If I'd noticed that previously I didn't remember.
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Funnily enough, there are a couple of philosophical themes that seem to have proved quite prescient (swidt;-). The rejection of computers to preserve the status of humanity, and (iirc) the idea that producing a human whose actions cannot be traced/predicted is AGoodThing. At the moment, we seem hell bent on the opposite, thanjs to the warm bath of big tech enveloping us...
I suspect these are common themes across the sci fi gender, but I've never explored any further.
 
JamesR said:
Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy
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Also read this when it came out. I was in 6 form iirc. I guess the references to the hitch hikers guide to Europe are slightly lost on today's youth. I had a battered copy with me back in the day. Fortunately, it turned out that quite a lot of the continent was mostly harmless.
At the time, I had no idea that radio4 existed, let alone that it did comedy series.
Douglas Adams's untimely demise is/was a great loss.
** edit - for clarity, i had a battered copy of each of them
 
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