What to read

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 broken spectre 12 Jul 2022

I've got another hankering to immerse myself in a book.

One book recommendation per poster.

Cheers / Thanks / Many ta's

 Dax H 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Book 1 of the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley

Light but enjoyable reading with 5 more to follow if you enjoy it. 

 Tony Buckley 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

A directional hint might help.  Bulgarian erotic fiction?  Angolan romance?  The combined workshop manuals to British Leyland models from the 1970s?

T.

The first two might be titillating but the last one will be really dirty.

Post edited at 17:43
 profitofdoom 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

My favourite book ever is "Wind, Sand and Stars" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Autobiography, by a pilot who flew in the 1930s

Post edited at 17:43
In reply to Tony Buckley:

> A directional hint might help.

This absence of a directional hint is the critical part of this cunning plan. Stripped from any context and with only one recommendation available for you, I'm hoping for a broad and eclectic selection of excellent reads!

In reply to Dax H:

>Book 1 of the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley

Cheers, is it a page turner?

One book ordered already!

Keep the suggestions coming though.

 Mike-W-99 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Its not the nicest of subjects but I got Midnight in Chernobyl recently out of the library and it was absolutely engrossing. Ours had it as an ebook.

 Tony Buckley 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Try A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth then.

T.

 Andy Hardy 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

> One book recommendation per poster.

Good luck identifying that one!

> Cheers / Thanks / Many ta's

In lieu of aliases:

I'm enjoying The Iron Hand of Mars at the moment, detective story set in ancient Rome, I'd start with The Silver Pigs and go from there (later ones in the series aren't quite as good)

In reply to Andy Hardy:

That sounds appealing, I drive around Chester quite a bit and if I become unsure of where I am I repeat the mantra 'All roads lead to Rome' to myself. It's a period of history I think I'd find fascinating, in fact I think I'd rather be a Roman citizen than a modern day Brit!

 Hooo 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I have just been totally immersed in Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.

Here's a quote for you, you'll either love it or run a mile...

"As is well-known, when the moon hours lengthen, human beings come adrift from the regularity of their mechanical clocks. They nod at noon, dream in waking hours, open their eyes wide to the pitch-black night. It is a time of magic. And as the borders between night and day stretch to their thinnest, so too do the borders between worlds. Dreams and stories merge with lived experience, the dead and the living brush against each other in their comings and goings, and the past and the present touch and overlap. Unexpected things can happen."

3
 Tony Buckley 12 Jul 2022
In reply to Hooo:

Which of the Tory leadership candidates has that as part of their pitch?

T.

 Tom Last 12 Jul 2022
In reply to profitofdoom:

Good shout, that's a beautiful book.

If the OP likes that and wants similarly dreamy stuff, though a bit more magical realism, then it's worth giving Borges a go, maybe The Aleph. Similarly Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown.

They're my favourite go to recommendations anyway. 

Edit. Whoops, sorry, you get two from me. 

Post edited at 20:38
 cenotaphcorner 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Bearing in mind the recent heatwave and the sweltering temperatures, I would recommend 'One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Quite short but with a huge impact.

 FactorXXX 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I recently read 'Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks who Plotted Hitler's Defeat' and can thoroughly recommend it. 
Well written with a good mix of history and anecdotes of some of the mad stuff they got up to.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Ministry-Ungentlemanly-Warfare-Maverick...
 

 Badgers 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Just read Otherlands: a world in the making by Thomas Halliday. It's a fascinating exploration of prehistoric worlds, their flora and fauna and what has been learnt in paleobiology recently. Much of it is written in the present tense which takes away some of the potential dryness and makes it feel a bit more "Attenbourough-ery" and accessible. Would recommend if that's your bag. Draws lots of parallels to modern day ecology and climate. May not be everyone's cup of tea but have enjoyed it and learnt just how many chickens there are in the world now .

 Hooo 12 Jul 2022
In reply to cenotaphcorner:

I love that book. Ideally read in one sitting, in the middle of a miserable drizzly winter day when you're feeling sorry for yourself. You're transported to Siberia, then when you come back real life doesn't seem so bad any more.

 J101 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Dead Lies Dreaming - Charles Stross

 Bob Kemp 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I really enjoyed This Eden by Ed O'Loughlin - a spy thriller for the surveillance society. Elements of Le Carre and Greene, even Fleming, with a contemporary edge like some of William Gibson's very-near-future novels.

 hokkyokusei 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.

 Matt Podd 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Horizon, Barry Lopez. Wisest book I’ve recently read and easy to read. 

 abr1966 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

'As I walked out one midsummer morning'......by Laurie Lee....my favourite all time book...!

 Pedro50 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Richard Feynman - "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman"

The chapter on Los Alamos safecracking is particularly good.

 Dr.S at work 12 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

“The shortest history of England” by James Hawes. 
 

engrossing history which can anger and amaze

 mike123 12 Jul 2022
In reply to profitofdoom:

> My favourite book ever is "Wind, Sand and Stars" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

> Autobiography, by a pilot who flew in the 1930s

Perfect gift for my brother who used to fly competitive aerobatics . Ta .

 C Witter 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I have just been recommended the novel Q by Wu Ming. It is one of a series of Italian novels by a collective of anonymous authors, attempting a "new epic" novel form that rearticulates important historical conjunctures through the lens of class struggle. It sounds great to me, but I'm yet to order and read it.

 pneame 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson.  Poignant hard sci fi with an optimistic ending. 

 Tringa 13 Jul 2022
In reply to pneame:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt.

I wish I could write a first book as good as this one, actually I'd be happy to have written anything as good.

Dave

 Trangia 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

How many people have read Edward Whymper's classic "Scrambles amongst the Alps"?

If you never have, you might be pleasantly surprised.

In reply to broken spectre:

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, first of a trilogy but stands alone wonderfully. Brilliantly dark 'odd fiction'

 Rog Wilko 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Simon Mawer has a long list of books, largely novels set in a real time frame eg Cyprus during the 1950s. I think his best is The Glass Room, set in Eastern Europe as WW2 approaches, but there are many others.

 Xharlie 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Keep the Aspidistra Flying -- Orwell.

... because 1984 gets lauded too much, anyway, (and for the wrong reasons because 1984 is far more about the insiduous horrors of double-think than those of mass of surveillance) and, in my opinion, the Aspidistra is perhaps even more relevant.

If 1984 explains the mechanism -- control of the proles through exploitation of the human tendency to resort to double-think, perhaps best stated as "bull-shit baffles brains" -- then the Aspidistra explains the reason why controlling the proles is a desireable dominant strategy for anyone, anyway.

Both books, taken together, pretty much explain today.

 CantClimbTom 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Not saying you should use amazon, just using this link so you can see the blurb

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023...

In reply to CantClimbTom:

If I was twenty years younger I'd hoover that up!!

Couch to 5K is probably more appropriate for me 😕

In reply to FactorXXX:

> I recently read 'Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks who Plotted Hitler's Defeat' and can thoroughly recommend it. 

> Well written with a good mix of history and anecdotes of some of the mad stuff they got up to.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Ministry-Ungentlemanly-Warfare-Maverick...

>  

I was going to recommend the very same book, which I recently read for the second time.

By complete coincidence, I am having my car serviced next week at a garage in Whitchurch, Bucks, which I have never visited. When I Googled the garage, I found that it is right next door to The Firs, which features large in this book, so I will have a thorough snoop around while my car is being fixed!

In reply to Trangia:

> How many people have read Edward Whymper's classic "Scrambles amongst the Alps"?

> If you never have, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I still think it's about the best mountaineering book ever written - which is remarkable, given that it was one of the first.

 Carless 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Any of David Mitchell's stuff

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(author)

eg. Cloud Atlas

3
 Pedro50 13 Jul 2022
In reply to Rog Wilko:

> Simon Mawer has a long list of books, largely novels set in a real time frame eg Cyprus during the 1950s. I think his best is The Glass Room, set in Eastern Europe as WW2 approaches, but there are many others.

His climbing novel The Fall is well worthwhile too.

 joeramsay 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - the best thing I've read in ages. Don't read the blurb or any reviews or anything, it's way better if you just go in completely blind. You'll like it

In reply to joeramsay:

Totally magical book, and a good recommendation to go in onsight.

Her first novel about the restoration of respectable English magic is similarly brilliant.

For my suggestion I'll go for 1Q84 by Murakami, totally emersive and pretty much undefinable. Of all of his books this feels like the most complete. Technically a trilogy but one book really...

In reply to broken spectre:

I recently enjoyed Klara and the Sun. A first person story from the perspective of an AI robot trying to make sense of humans, relationships and the world. 

 owlart 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

The Salt Path, and the follow-up The Wild Silence are books I've just finished - a couple's account of being made homeless and deciding to walk the South West Coast Path. There's a third book due out later this year about them walking the Cape Wrath Trail.

 graeme jackson 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Helter Skelter: the shocking story of the Manson murders.  By Vincent Bugliosi and Kurt Gentry. Very good if you like true crime.  And Manson is the spitting image of my neighbours wife

 Siward 13 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Just finished the Grapes of Wrath. Well worth a read I think. 

In reply to Siward:

Steinbeck! Love it. Have you read Cannery Row?

 Armadillo 13 Jul 2022

> I'm enjoying The Iron Hand of Mars at the moment, detective story set in ancient Rome, I'd start with The Silver Pigs and go from there (later ones in the series aren't quite as good)

The BBC radio adaptations with Anton Lesser as Falco are not half bad either

In reply to Will_Thomas_Harris:

Yes, I was gonna suggest anything by Murakami. Such an amazing imagination.

 Rog Wilko 13 Jul 2022
In reply to Pedro50:

> His climbing novel The Fall is well worthwhile too.

Yes, I’ve read it twice. The impressive thing about it is the realistic nature of the climbing episodes. I don’t believe he is a climber so I think he must have taken a lot of expert advice. The details all ring true.

 damowilk 14 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge.

This would be my if you only read one sci-fi book recommendation.

 birdie num num 14 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Two Years Before The Mast.

Richard Henry Dana.

 Mark Kemball 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

The Breaking of Northwall, Paul O Williams. 

Post-apocalypse, the first of a series of 7 books. 

 spenser 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Flowers for algernon by Daniel Keyes, have some tissues at hand, it's a tear jerker. 

 mountainbagger 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings

I'm reading it now, almost finished. It's intense, relentless, gripping, hard to put down.

Usually I just read nonfiction books about running or climbing so I didn't want to read it, but my wife persuaded me!

 Siward 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I have read Cannery Row. It didn't grab me so much but glad I read it nevertheless.

Other Americana I've enjoyed recently (breaking the one book rule here) are A Prayer for Owen Meany (Gary Irving) and The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt). 

In reply to broken spectre:

Currently reading Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Obviously it is viewed as a classic but I have been surprised at how just plain enjoyably readable and funny it is.

 Pedro50 15 Jul 2022
In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

Perhaps my favourite novel although I could never get anywhere with 100 Years of Solitude.

In reply to Pedro50:

Not tried that one (just as well by the sound of it!)

 PhilWS 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

If you want to get totally immersed in a series, then just pick anything by Brandon Sanderson. Easiest to start with Mistborn series if you like fantasy or Skyward series if you are more into sci-fi. (sorry two suggestions)

 Siward 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

> That sounds appealing, I drive around Chester quite a bit and if I become unsure of where I am I repeat the mantra 'All roads lead to Rome' to myself. It's a period of history I think I'd find fascinating, in fact I think I'd rather be a Roman citizen than a modern day Brit!

Might be worth then looking up the Robert Harris books about Cicero, and Pompeii. Impeccably researched but with a good readable story too. 

 Robert Durran 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Circe by Madeline Miller. The best book I have read in ages.

 RJML 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I’m currently two thirds of the way through Cairngorm John by John Allen.

It’s a great account of his life in the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team. I’m really enjoying it - definitely worth a read if you haven’t already.

 wintertree 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Ignition! by John Clark

It's just bonkers what they tried, and how they tried it.

 jockster 15 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

My usual recommendation for best book threads,

Quartered Safe Out Here, by George MacDonald Fraser

interesting and very funny.

https://amzn.eu/d/eQjDHRZ

Also, The Siege of Krishnapur by  J G Farrell

Another very funny classic.

 pneame 16 Jul 2022
In reply to Dax H:

> Book 1 of the Amtrak wars by Patrick Tilley

> Light but enjoyable reading with 5 more to follow if you enjoy it. 

well that is a bit addictive! As you say- light but enjoyable  

 Andy Hardy 16 Jul 2022
In reply to jockster:

> Also, The Siege of Krishnapur by  J G Farrell

> Another very funny classic.

I had to dissect that for O level English lit. Kinda knocked the gloss off, if you know what I mean 🙄

 Dax H 16 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I enjoyed it, post apocalyptic world, one civilisation underground in a massive set of cities and bunkers under the control of their leaders, a second set of tribes above ground living a hunter gather existence. 

 halo 16 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

I recently started reading CHARGED. Co-written by Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone. A retelling of the how the Police try to suppress protest. 

 colinakmc 17 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead.

 deepsoup 17 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

The Crow Road by Iain Banks.
(But I bet you've already read it.)

 DaveHK 17 Jul 2022
In reply to jockster:

> My usual recommendation for best book threads,

> Quartered Safe Out Here, by George MacDonald Fraser

2nd that, it's very good. I reread the McAuslan stories from time to time too.

In reply to deepsoup:

I haven't! I did read The Wasp Factory though. The Crow Road is now on the list. There's a good few years worth of recommendations above 🙂

 full stottie 17 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Just finished "4000 weeks" by Oliver Burkeman and realised I've nearly used them all up.

Dave

 Petrafied 17 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Stuart Russell's "Human Compatible" - ethical treatise on the challenges to humanity posed by AI.  Not a jolly read, but makes a compelling case for how we need to be actively addressing these now and urgently.  

 Rob Exile Ward 17 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Here's something a bit off the wall. The Executioner's Song, by Norman Mailer, about Gary Gilmore. A bit of an insight into the other side of the American Dream.

 rka 17 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Any of Donna Leon but the first is "Death at La Fenice". Detective stories embeded in Venice. Author wont let stories be translated into italian becuse "because she regards celebrity as irksome and doesn't want locals to read them"

Post edited at 12:58
 Baron Weasel 18 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Salt by Mark Kurlanski

 Kean 18 Jul 2022
In reply to C Witter:

> I have just been recommended the novel Q by Wu Ming. It is one of a series of Italian novels by a collective of anonymous authors, attempting a "new epic" novel form that rearticulates important historical conjunctures through the lens of class struggle. It sounds great to me, but I'm yet to order and read it.

Say what?

 C Witter 18 Jul 2022
In reply to Kean:

> Say what?

We're talking about books! You know... those papery things with words written inside? Don't worry: there's this great one I know about a caterpillar with an appetite that we can start you off on!

 Kean 19 Jul 2022
In reply to C Witter:

> We're talking about books! You know... those papery things with words written inside? Don't worry: there's this great one I know about a caterpillar with an appetite that we can start you off on!

Thanks...I'll get stuck in.

 Eam1 21 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

One recommendation per post ain't easy but;

The sea: John Banville

 Dr.S at work 21 Jul 2022
In reply to Eam1:

> One recommendation per post ain't easy but;

> The sea: John Banville

It’s worse than that, one per poster, not per post.

still:

Mr. Midshipman Easy by Captain Marryat

 Eam1 22 Jul 2022
In reply to Dr.S at work:

Crikey!

 magma 22 Jul 2022
In reply to broken spectre:

Let's Do It - Bob Stanley (history of popular music)

 mbh 22 Jul 2022
In reply to owlart:

> The Salt Path, ..... - a couple's account of being made homeless and deciding to walk the South West Coast Path. 

I've just read that vicariously as my wife recounted huge chunks of it to me while she read it during our holiday over the last week or so. What an undertaking, and what funny comments about Paddy Dillon. 

I'll recommend the book that I was reading at the same time: Why Evolution is True, by Jerry Coyne. I watched an interview with him as part of a course I did on evolution a couple of years ago. He is erudite, witty and very readable. The book is full of astonishing facts, like: each ancestral species would only have to have split into two descendants once every 200 million years in order to account for the 10-100 million species that exist on Earth today, assuming lie started with a single species 3.5 billion years ago.

 Dr.S at work 22 Jul 2022
In reply to Eam1:

> Crikey!

Yes, having broken the rules I can only apologise, All Zeal, all zeal.

 SNC 22 Jul 2022
In reply to Rog Wilko:

Another vote for The Glass Room.  I'd also recommend Prague, same author.  


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