Books & Reading Thread 2025

Took Michael Palin's Erebus with me on holiday last August, managed to get to page 82. Took it with me again on holiday last week and managed to get to page 104.
I might be left alone to finish the fucker Some holiday.
 
I see the BBC has axed 'Between the Covers' their BBC2 Book Review programme after 8 series. Not the best programme but the only one doing this on TV. The BBC says the decision was made to focus on “high-impact content” for iPlayer. Jesus. Money doubtless being spent on such high-end programmes as ' Dear Viv' a tributary to the drag superstar and a documentary on Tommy Fury. Talk about dumbing down
 
Recently finished Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll and The Guts by Roddy Doyle. Two very different books about Ireland.

I don’t normally do non fiction but Killing Thatcher was like a real life political spy thriller. An absolute page turner. I’m politically left leaning but by the end of it I had a much fuller understanding of the Troubles and also a slightly softened attitude or new found admiration to Thatcher for the way she reacted to the bomb.

The Guts was a great antidote to some of the depressing content in KT and also well worth a read. Doyle’s got a lovely conversational writing style.
 
Currently reading - James Frey - A Million Little Pieces. The start is about a young man detoxing. It’s quite intense and heavy going.

I’m also reading Irvine Welsh’s new book, Men In Love. It’s a big hardback version which is like a doorstep. It’s yet another spin off from Trainspotting, which is one of my favourite books of all time. Trainspotting was the book that aged 17, kickstarted my love of reading and language. I was blown away that someone could write a book in a dialect or vernacular. You had to learn to read it. But once you got your heid around it, the language sucked you in. It probably helped that I read it at around the same time I started experimenting with illegal substances - mainly weed and E’s.

Men In Love, is written in the same style and is about the same 5 character which people of a certain age will remember from the film posters of the 90s.
 
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TheGhost said:
Recently finished Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll and The Guts by Roddy Doyle. Two very different books about Ireland.

I don’t normally do non fiction but Killing Thatcher was like a real life political spy thriller. An absolute page turner. I’m politically left leaning but by the end of it I had a much fuller understanding of the Troubles and also a slightly softened attitude or new found admiration to Thatcher for the way she reacted to the bomb.

The Guts was a great antidote to some of the depressing content in KT and also well worth a read. Doyle’s got a lovely conversational writing style.
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Totally agree about "Killing Thatcher". I listened to the audiobook earlier this year and it was a compelling listen. I found the story of the hunt for the bomber as good as any thriller. A must read for anyone interested in "the troubles".
 
Might have to look at Killing Thatcher. Thanks

Just finished The Siege by Ismail Kadere, about an Albanian stronghold hanging on against the Ottoman army in the fifteenth century . Pretty brutal but powerful portrait of the horrors of siege warfare and, if you love horses, look away now . Tbh I think a lot of it's literary power passed over my head , as it was written when Hoxha had Albania under his iron grip and so there must have been many parallels I missed , not being Albanian . I was more imagining Game of Thrones ...

Just read The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker which I never got to at the time of publication . Can strongly recommend and the anti hero is a Manc.

Am currently enjoying Molly Keane and on my second of hers this month. The Rising Tide is a pitch perfect character driven tale of the privileged life of the Anglo Irish aristocracy in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It's as well observed as Jane Austen, but funnier , and has a couple of monstrous matriarchs at its core, as their whole world slips slowly away .

Also reading, slowly, Black Lamb Grey Falcon by Rebecca West which may be one of the best non fiction works I've read in a long while and at over 1000 pages certainly the longest . It's the perfect book to read with the internet at your fingertips as there are so many gaps in my knowledge of Balkan history and the politics of the period ( pre WW2) . Even if I'd paid more attention to history at school none of this fabulously complex past was on the curriculum .
 
PinkFinal said:
Very good apparently

Listen to Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen on Audible. https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0CN3NXK3D?source_code=ORGOR69210072400FU
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I’ll have a look at that..

I bought a year of Audible after buying a couple to see if for a change listening to books instead of reading them. Liked it! But you get 12 credits for 12 books then they like half price! 12 ain’t enough for me easy do 2/4 a month. I still read books because that give you a a total different experience..
 
69FACUPfinal said:
I do too. But far less than I did previously, because life in the way,plus this wretched phone has really damaged my levels of concentration.

The thing with enjoying books is that I can honestly say in my leisure time I have never been bored in my entire life. My hubby is the same, whereas offspring don't read novels, just leisure interest/ instruction books. We tell them they are missing out on so much. When I had a really bad, out of the blue personal incident mid 80s, a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel and the series helped me off into another world; gave me time to heal and get myself together. I fear the ability to read for enjoyment will be lost on future generations because of Internet scrolling and addiction. I worry about myself and I'm an foc with a developed (!) brain, so what lack of reading will do to those youngsters Lord only knows.
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Love your observation about never being bored if reading is your leisure activity . I'm the same . In fact reading novels is an underrated antidote to life's stressors and understanding, as I can completely disappear inside the pages of a good book and start to see life anew .

These days ,where solutions to life are offered up in endless lists , algorithms and to do lists , I've found my brain is better suited to the serendipity of reading and being surprised by stories and characters that can have profound effects in me , emerging slowly and sometimes incompletely and uncertainly after hours , not the two minute sound bite .
 
surprisedbygrass said:
Love your observation about never being bored if reading is your leisure activity . I'm the same . In fact reading novels is an underrated antidote to life's stressors and understanding, as I can completely disappear inside the pages of a good book and start to see life anew .

These days ,where solutions to life are offered up in endless lists , algorithms and to do lists , I've found my brain is better suited to the serendipity of reading and being surprised by stories and characters that can have profound effects in me , emerging slowly and sometimes incompletely and uncertainly after hours , not the two minute sound bite .
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We are on the same page. Not literally obviously as we aren't reading the same book.

I've picked up some gems lately from Booths Supermarket where folks take old books, you pay a donation for charity and make a selection. Am instruction book about A1 for the offspring, a Sharon Osborne biography ( timely given the sad recent loss of Ozzy); an OS street atlas of Greater Manchester that has 270 pages and a Jilly Cooper novel. I've still got the Evolution of Pep to read as well.

Certainly make sure I continue to read, I'll still read the Times too occasionally, infact I'll buy one tomorrow to see their PL predictions. Most of them are usually wrong!

Happy reading friend x
 
waspish said:
I’ll have a look at that..

I bought a year of Audible after buying a couple to see if for a change listening to books instead of reading them. Liked it! But you get 12 credits for 12 books then they like half price! 12 ain’t enough for me easy do 2/4 a month. I still read books because that give you a a total different experience..
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You can upgrade to 18 credits per year for an annual subscription.

Edit. 24 credits for £110 per year. That's good value at £4.58 per book.
 
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69FACUPfinal said:
We are on the same page. Not literally obviously as we aren't reading the same book.

I've picked up some gems lately from Booths Supermarket where folks take old books, you pay a donation for charity and make a selection. Am instruction book about A1 for the offspring, a Sharon Osborne biography ( timely given the sad recent loss of Ozzy); an OS street atlas of Greater Manchester that has 270 pages and a Jilly Cooper novel. I've still got the Evolution of Pep to read as well.

Certainly make sure I continue to read, I'll still read the Times too occasionally, infact I'll buy one tomorrow to see their PL predictions. Most of them are usually wrong!

Happy reading friend x
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Ha . I read " instruction book about AI " and wondered why anyone would need a guide to The Great North Road ...I'm certainly a FOC . Great finds . I confess to being addicted to second hand book shops and have to temper my choices for lack of space at home . I have so many unread novels ...but I do have two books of old facsimile OS maps of Lancashire and West Yorkshire from the nineteenth century that are endlessly fascinating . I adore maps ...
 
waspish said:
How’s that work? I paid for a annual subscription yearly only got 12 credits
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You can also get a decent choice of free audiobooks via your library . I'm able to source most of my audiobooks from Manchester Library and from Calderdale and Kirklees .
 
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