What are you reading?

[Pete Smoke]

I have a few on the go:

A delightful book called Woodlands by Oliver Rackham
Bible Myths and their parallels in other religions by Thomas W. Doane
Nick Drake The Biography by Patrick Humphries.

[Pete Smoke]

I've recently finished

Himalayan Climber by Doug Scott ( a British Legend )
The Crystal Horizon by Reinhold Messner

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Nick Drake The Biography by Patrick Humphries.

Short one, that, I suppose.... Any worthwhile insights?

[Peat Sampras]

Recently finished Ian Rankin - The Complaints

Now working through Hamish Haswell-Smith - The Scottish Islands

[Robert]

Recently reread The GULAG Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Just started Mythology by Edith Hamilton

[Pete Smoke]

Nick Drake The Biography by Patrick Humphries.

Short one, that, I suppose.... Any worthwhile insights?

I'm only 30 pages in, but it seems to be well written. The page count is 271. So far it's covered the Drake family connection with colonial Burma. How they had to flee to India with the Japanese WWII occupation, and their subsequent return to Burma after the war, Nick was born in Rangoon in this period where the fledgling Burmese government Nationalised British colonial assets ( for a fee ). And the their return to England in 1951, at all times sustaining their upper-middle-class existence.

We have a saying over here - "that blinkered-eye middle-class view of the world" and theres an example of it here concerning 1956 and the death knell of the sense of empire in Britain concerning the Suez debacle, John Osborne's Look Back In Anger opening in London ( a play which was a clarion call to all 'angry young men' ), and the appearance of an alien hailing from Tupelo Mississippi. The values which families such as the Drakes had built their lives were under a two-pronged attack by John Osbourne and Elvis Presley - yet it passed the Drakes by almost unnoticed, protected in the safe cocoon that was the BBC which refused to acknowledge any of it.

[Pete Smoke]

Recently reread The GULAG Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I've heard of this book - that its an excellent read - and a long one. How did you find it?

[Robert]

Recently reread The GULAG Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I've heard of this book - that its an excellent read - and a long one. How did you find it?

It is an excellent read but it takes patience and it helps if you already are familiar with the history of the Soviet Union. It is the key to One Day..., The First Circle, and Cancer Ward. It typically is printed in three volumes, you should have no difficulty finding it online.

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Recently finished Ian Rankin - The Complaints

I just finished Doors Open...will look for The Complaints when I'm over in the fall. Hopefully it will be in paperback by then. I'd far rather read a British edition, so I don't have to read about the characters drinking single malt whiskey.

[Peat Sampras]

Recently finished Ian Rankin - The Complaints

I just finished Doors Open...will look for The Complaints when I'm over in the fall. Hopefully it will be in paperback by then. I'd far rather read a British edition, so I don't have to read about the characters drinking single malt whiskey.

You won't, the main character is a dry alcoholic which means that he doesn't drink... well, sometimes he's quite near to crack though

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Well, I don't want to read about him not drinking whiskey, either!

[Pete Smoke]

You won't, the main character is a dry alcoholic which means that he doesn't drink... well, sometimes he's quite near to crack though

Next Peats going to tell you how it ends MrT.

[Peat Sampras]

You won't, the main character is a dry alcoholic which means that he doesn't drink... well, sometimes he's quite near to crack though

Next Peats going to tell you how it ends MrT.

Yes, he starts doing crack

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Well, there's a thing with Rankin--it's not the end, but how you get there. I thought a lot about that after reading Doors Open. If you were told how it ends before reading it, you'd feel one way about it; if you were already a couple chapters in, you'd feel a different way about it; and by the time you actually arrive there, you feel quite a different way again. I found myself often in the reading trying to assess how I felt about what was going on, what I thought would happen, and what I wanted to happen. At the end, you find yourself in a very familiar place, but with a changed perspective for what you've been through. It was very clever in that way. (Hope that's suitably vague for anyone who might be thinking about reading it.)

[C57]

Dickens - The Christmas Books. Nearly finished "The Cricket on the Hearth"

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Dickens - The Christmas Books. Nearly finished "The Cricket on the Hearth"

I don't get very seasonal like some (Islays in winter, lowlands in summer), so it really does just depend what I fancy.

You're consistent, anyway....

[C57]

[malt_boy]

[ash005]

Alex's adventures in numberland - by alex bellos - a book about the history of maths and how to understand maths better

next i may track down - Extraordinary People: Understanding Savant Syndrome - which sounds interesting


ash .

[countrygirl]

I've just finished the entire series of Anne Mustoe's cycle travel books, they are an inspiring read. I'm saddened to learn she died recently.

[Pete Smoke]

Hello countrygirl, welcome to the forums.

That is indeed sad news. I know a few people who enjoyed her books.

[Willie JJ]

Now working through Hamish Haswell-Smith - The Scottish Islands

I always find that book better for dipping into rather than working through.

[Peat Sampras]

Now working through Hamish Haswell-Smith - The Scottish Islands

I always find that book better for dipping into rather than working through.

I agree but actually it's also a book to read through, at least the chapters as the introduction always gives you some info on the island group which is crucial to understand the single islands afterwards.

[countrygirl]

The Cooks Herb Garden by Jeff Cox, and, Preserving Food At Home by Janet Chadwick.

[C57]

Appreciating Whisky y Pip Hills
and The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens