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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.
What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.
But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.
While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
Kind of a strange one to have lumped in the middle of a load of horrors, my mate borrowed my copy of Stephen Hawkins 'A Brief History of Time' and then moved to the other side of the country (he also took The Stand and Turn of the Screw as well the bastard) anyways I had to replace it but thought I'd go for this, not much to say really, if you are interested in this sort of shit its well worth a read although I preferred Brief History of Time.
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'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils... and found instead a new unspeakable horror.
A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.
All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.
First time I'd read this in about 15 years, it is what it is, Vampires as they should be, none of this twilight bollocks.
Its strange how everyone in the town seemed quite happy to embrace the idea of a vampire breakout in the middle of their little town, it seems like everyone seemed to just accept that this mythical creature had decided to take up residence in The Lot, if i remember correctly there was only one person who thought the very idea was preposterous and he died around 5 minutes later.
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Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. In the midst of adolescence she senses a creeping darkness in her life, which will spread among nightmarish parties, poisonous college cliques and the manipulations of the intellectual men who surround her, as her identity gradually crumbles.
Inspired by the unsolved disappearance of a female college student near Shirley Jackson's home, Hangsaman is a story of lurking disquiet and haunting disorientation.
Just finished this today, I love Shirley Jacksons books and this one was really good, it sounds like a bog standard coming of age book, its anything but, some of the writing was really clever, Jackson omits certain things in order to drive her point home and she works it in such a way that as the main character starts struggling to differentiate between what is real and not the reader has exactly the same problem, it did get confusing as fuck towards the end but I think that was partly intentional to try and convey how much poor old Natalie was struggling as well.
Next up is this, I don't know whether to start it tonight or just stick a film on
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It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
The book that became Blade Runner, I've been wanting to read this for years but for some reason never got around to it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I've just reread Charles Dickens 'Tale of Two Cities'.
Did you know that all of his books were originally serialised in newspapers, and they only were put together into books later on?
The two local papers that this book was first printed was the Biscester Times and the Worcester Times.
;D
I suspect that's one for the Brits here, as Americans murder the pronounciation of those places to such an extent they wouldn't get the joke. Having said that, most of you Brits on here are illiterate chavs, so you wouldn't get it either but for a different reason.
It is a joke for cultured Scandinavians, clearly
:D
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I read lots of Bernard Cornwell, and Dave Ramsey. I just ordered financial peace university revisited, and am anxiously awaiting Cornwell to finish off the saxon series.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I'm a huge Phillip K Dick fan, good on you.
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Originally Posted by Batman;
1463896
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The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.
What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.
But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.
While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
Kind of a strange one to have lumped in the middle of a load of horrors, my mate borrowed my copy of Stephen Hawkins 'A Brief History of Time' and then moved to the other side of the country (he also took The Stand and Turn of the Screw as well the bastard) anyways I had to replace it but thought I'd go for this, not much to say really, if you are interested in this sort of shit its well worth a read although I preferred Brief History of Time.
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Quote:
'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils... and found instead a new unspeakable horror.
A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.
All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.
First time I'd read this in about 15 years, it is what it is, Vampires as they should be, none of this twilight bollocks.
Its strange how everyone in the town seemed quite happy to embrace the idea of a vampire breakout in the middle of their little town, it seems like everyone seemed to just accept that this mythical creature had decided to take up residence in The Lot, if i remember correctly there was only one person who thought the very idea was preposterous and he died around 5 minutes later.
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Quote:
Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. In the midst of adolescence she senses a creeping darkness in her life, which will spread among nightmarish parties, poisonous college cliques and the manipulations of the intellectual men who surround her, as her identity gradually crumbles.
Inspired by the unsolved disappearance of a female college student near Shirley Jackson's home, Hangsaman is a story of lurking disquiet and haunting disorientation.
Just finished this today, I love Shirley Jacksons books and this one was really good, it sounds like a bog standard coming of age book, its anything but, some of the writing was really clever, Jackson omits certain things in order to drive her point home and she works it in such a way that as the main character starts struggling to differentiate between what is real and not the reader has exactly the same problem, it did get confusing as fuck towards the end but I think that was partly intentional to try and convey how much poor old Natalie was struggling as well.
Next up is this, I don't know whether to start it tonight or just stick a film on
https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1...1l/6696927.jpg
Quote:
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
The book that became Blade Runner, I've been wanting to read this for years but for some reason never got around to it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
The last few books I've read
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Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision; an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.
Not a lot needs to be said about this one, its a classic for a reason, its fucking fantastic, it isn't the fastest paced book, the characters just tend to trudge along with a reluctant acceptance of their situation and the pace reflects that, it isn't the most uplifting of books and whilst the characters are faced with constant upheaval and problems the book doesn't become a drag to read, all of the characters were fantastic and it was easy to warm to them all.
If times were really that difficult back then, I'm glad that I missed them.
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A decade ago, teacher Nathan Brookes saw four of his students walk up a hill and vanish. Only one returned: Olivia, starved, terrified, and with no memory of where she'd been. Questioned by the police but released for lack of evidence, Nathan spent the years trying to forget.
When a body is found in the same ancient woodland where they disappeared, it is first believed to be one of the missing children, but is soon identified as a Bronze Age warrior, nothing more than an archaeological curiosity. Yet Nathan starts to have horrific visions of the students, alive but trapped. Then Olivia reappears, desperate that the warrior's body be returned to the earth. For he is the only thing keeping a terrible evil at bay.
this was just batshit crazy from the very fucking start, 3 kids go missing in Sutton Park (which is 5 minutes away from where I live) and from there on in ensues alternate dimensions, multiverses, time travel, time shifting, primitive tribes, monsters, warriors, you name it, its there somewhere.
A decent quick read this was, I quite enjoyed it although I won't be in a rush to re-read it.
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The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery:" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable range--from the hilarious to the truly horrible--and power as a storyteller.
fantastic collection of short stories, some are basically people living their lives and nothing truly exceptional happens in them whereas others are pretty sinister, as much as I enjoyed this I think I'm done with Shirley Jackson for a while.
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A score of centuries has passed since the First Apocalypse and the thoughts of men have turned, inevitably, to more worldly concerns...
A veteran sorcerer and spy seeks news of an ancient enemy. A military genius plots to conquer the known world for his Emperor but dreams of the throne for himself. The spiritual leader of the Thousand Temples seeks a Holy War to cleanse the land of the infidel. An exiled barbarian chieftain seeks vengeance against the man who disgraced him. And into this world steps a man like no other, seeking to bind all - man and woman, emperor and slave - to his own mysterious ends.
But the fate of men - even great men - means little when the world itself may soon be torn asunder. Behind the politics, beneath the religious fervour, a dark and ancient evil is reawakening. After two thousand years, the No-God is returning. The Second Apocalypse is nigh. And one cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten...
Well this just throws you in and doesn't really explain a helluva lot at all, I found that I really had to concentrate in order to try and put the pieces together, the characters were pretty strong and the writing style is good but for me it doesn't stand up to the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, I'll read the next in the series but I've got a few books to get through before I get to that point.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
The next books that I have to pick from are
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From Mark Z Danielewski, author of the cult bestseller House of Leaves, comes the astonishing Only Revolutions, a shoot-from-the-hip American road novel about Sam and Hailey - two wayward and wild kids who magically career across the American mainland and from the Civil Rights Movement to the Iraq War and beyond.
Powered by an ever-evolving fleet of cars, these two teenagers never age and never stop. They crash parties in New Orleans, barrel up the Mississippi, and blast through the Badlands, cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself.
And where this journey takes them is what sets the pages, even the actual book, turning. Alternating between Hailey and Sam, this kaleidoscopic novel spins the strangest, most gripping and lyrical love story published in more than a generation.
House of Leaves was a fucking mind bending book and this one looks just as bizarre, the book starts from either side so you have to keep switching it back and forth to get each perspective, the only problem is that it doesn't tell you when to flip the book around, from what I have read you are best to read about 8 pages then turn it over and read the same 8 pages from the other side.
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Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going to die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.
Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.
a nice bog standard horror for me to get my teeth into, I think I'll probably get stuck into this one next.
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A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.
Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
I'm gunna buy this when I'm back at work next week, I don't know anything about it but I haven't read anything like this for absolutely ages so I'm going to take a punt on it.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Haven't been reading as much just lately, I'm always more of a winter reader but I have really took my foot of the pedal over the last few months
Anyways the here's what I've been reading
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I bought this and I was expecting it to be quite an understated story of a haunted house...I was wrong.
Understated is certainly not the way to describe this, yeah its a tired story in that an old rich bloke gets a few people to stay in a 'haunted' house to investigate the chances that there is life after death.
Of course you have the unbending sceptic, the unbending sceptic who refuses to believe in anything other than science, you have the strong hearted head strong spiritualist who's belief is unwavering, the third member of the party is one of the world’s greatest mediums, though he is tired and hasn't practised in years, he visited Hell House before and it damn near killed him, finally you have the sceptics insecure wife who tags along because she can't bear to be on her own whilst her husband is off chasing (or disproving) ghoulies.
As for the actual 'haunting' there is a little of everything and it doesn't take long until things escalate massively, it starts off with rocking chairs moving on their own, bed sheets being thrown over nothing only to unveil the shape of an invisible presence, not too long after that you get all the twisted demonic horrors that you can imagine, it certainly doesn't pull any punches and is a lot more in your face than I expected (I thought I was going to get something more in line with The Haunting of Hill House)
A fantastic read and one that I would highly recommend if you want a good straight up horror story.
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We follow Esther Greenwood's personal life from her summer job in New York with Ladies' Day magazine, back through her days at New England's largest school for women, and forward through her attempted suicide, her bad treatment at one asylum and her good treatment at another, to her final re-entry into the world like a used tyre: "patched, retreaded, and approved for the road" ... Esther Greenwood's account of her year in the bell jar is as clear and readable as it is witty and disturbing.
Esther Greenwood is a young girl who seems to have the world at her feet, she is whisked off to New York on an internship and is really living the high life, she aligns herself with two other girls, one called Doreen who is off the wall and always ready to break the rules and the other is Betsy who is a straight up book worm who gets everything done as it needs to be done on time without fail.
The problem is that Esther doesn't feel enthused by the high life, she feels intimidated by it, to say that she disliked it would be wrong, it is quite clear that she just feels completely neutral to it.
I have read some people saying that her descent happens all to quickly but if you read the book you will see that her depression didn't suddenly come on over night, there were little clues all over the place, I really appreciated this, it wasn't too in your face but once you have spotted it you can feel it growing slowly.
Once it really has her in its grips Esther is constantly thinking of suicide, the thing about this section is that it is handled in an almost light hearted way I thought, Esther didn't seem as if she actually wanted to go through with it, this was a fantastic piece of writing because you can feel Esther's confusion at this point.
A really good book, very similar to Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson but this is actually a kind of thinly disguised autobiography by Sylvia Plath
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A great book well worth a read.
I don't really tend to go towards the sci-fi genre.
This is an all out sci-fi thrill though, from time space travel, terraforming planets, biologically altering life forms via a virus, war, gods, technology and giant spiders, it really does have it all.
Best thing about it is that all the way through the book you don't know who to route for, the ending was fantastic and really well done.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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God Is Not Great is the ultimate case against religion. In a series of acute readings of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the ways in which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts the very origins of the cosmos. Above all, Hitchens argues that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged humanity, and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without 'him'.
I love Christopher Hitchens, I've watched countless hours of him on You Tube and he always provides witty, intelligent debate and his grasp of language is superb.
I do think that this book suffers from the lack of counter arguments that get thrown at him during his debates though, these are what usually brings out the best in The Hitch.
To say that it was an interesting read would be an understatement however at times it did get a little tedious some arguments are repeated over and over and there were one or two chapters that I couldn't help but skim read, if you are a fan of The Hitch then you should read this (the entire audiobook is on youtube as well if you are too lazy to read the actual book)
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Meet Quentin P., the most believably terrifying sexual psychopath and killer ever brought to life in fiction. The author deftly puts you inside the mind of a serial killer--succeeding not in writing about madness, but in writing with the logic of madness.
I reckon that I must be completely desensitised to all things disgusting.
I have read some of the reviews most people seem to either hate the book because they were disgusted by it or loved the book because they were disgusted by it.
I just felt kind of numb to it, the book started off strongly and I was intrigued but Q____ P____ (as the narrator refers to himself throughout the book) just didn't seem to go anywhere, yeah it was interesting to see things from inside the killers mind but it just seemed extremely bland. I suppose that is what things are like in a serial killers mind though, lack of empathy, compassion, almost robotic with well practised human emotions but I just found it all a little boring.
Talk of erections, orgasms, and the like doesn't offend me, as I say maybe I have just been desensitised over the years with horror films and books....and the daily news....
It is quite obviously based on old Jeff Dahmer but just isn't anywhere near as interesting or disturbing, I wouldn't really recommend this one
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When I first heard about this book I was truly excited after reading House of Leaves a few years back, when I read about the kookiness of this book my excitement grew even more.
I loved the premise of the book, two stories running together alongside each other, the constant switching ends of the book was a nice little gimmick as well, this however is actually where things start to go downhill a little.
It seems as though there was too much emphasis on the 'gimmick' aspect of the book and not enough on the actual story telling side, each page has exactly 180 characters (per rotation) which makes 360 characters per page which makes a revolution, now in order to get to the magic 180 characters you get random whishwooble floobling words thrown in just to help Danielewski hit his magic quota, another thing that happens is that some words are needlessly extended e.g. looooooooong.
I like the idea of having two unreliable narrators both telling the same story at the same time from opposite sides of the coin but I think it would have worked a lot better if it was told as an actual story rather than a poem and without the author having to work within the self imposed constraints of 180 characters per page, also I think it would have been better if there was a build up of the two main characters before they meet so you actually had a bit of a pay off from constantly flipping the book after 8 pages, so it would be as though they crossed paths and things melded together.
Its a shame because it could have been a fantastic book but unfortunately I found it to be a bit of a mess.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
The classic novel of a post-literate future, ‘Fahrenheit 451’ stands alongside Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.
Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which over fifty years from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.
It is quite unnerving to read this book today, Ray Bradbury was spot on with his vision of the future, from the visual aspect it isn't quite as accurate as Orwells 1984 but from a social aspect he couldn't have been more right.
Books have been banned and firemen these days are actually deployed to start the fires in order to burn the outlawed books, Guy Montag runs across a curious young girl named Clarisse McClellan, Clarisse has a queer way of looking at the world...this is because she actually looks at the world, she sees the plants, the stars, the trees and the people whilst everyone else these days just tends to walk around in a haze.
Montags wife lives in such a way that she is almost at the point of social retardation, all she is interested in is watching 'the wall' (basically a big ass TV) and whatever program it is showing, she has no interests in anything else and whilst she seems to have a carefree attitude towards life this is blown out of the water when she takes an overdose, it could be that she was just so vacant that it was accidental but I got the impression that despite outward appearances she was deeply unhappy.
Montag starts questioning his job of burning books and reveals that he has been secretly stashing them away rather than burning them, it doesn't take long before Montags own home has been burned down and he is on the run himself, he discovers an unlikely ally who aids his escape and he winds up meeting up with other like minded people who keep their books in their heads for such a time as society needs them, that time is coming sooner than they could imagine.
In a world where social media has taken over I think the parallels between people of today and Mildred (Montags wife) are uncanny, the thing is that it isn't just social media, it is the news outlets, people form certain ideas and opinions on things (whether it be anything from celebrities to politics) just because an online article tells them to, people blindly follow these days and seem to have lost the ability to form their own opinions or even ask simple questions, that to me is where this book got it so right.
oh a final note Clarisse McClellan was the absolute highlight of this book, I wish that she was in it more.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Next up I'm going to be reading this
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Frank Hammond explains the practical application of the ministry of deliverance, patterned after the ministry of Jesus Christ. He presents information on such topics as: How demons enter When deliverance is needed Seven steps in receiving & ministering deliverance Seven steps in maintaining deliverance Self deliverance Demon manifestations Binding and loosing Practical advice for the deliverance minister Answers to commonly asked questions, and more. The Hammonds also present a categorized list of 53 Demonic Groupings, including various behavior patterns and addictions. And they include testimonies of deliverance throughout the book including Pride, Witchcraft, Nervousness, Stubborness, Defiance, Mental Illness and more. With over 1.5 million copies in print worldwide, and translated into more than a dozen languages, Pigs in the Parlor remains the authoritative book on the subject of deliverance."
And I think that is just about everything I have read since I last posted in here, I don't think I've missed any out anyway
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I'm nearly finished reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I've just completed this one. Max Hasting is a great writer, iI didn't want to stop reading after I started it.
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945 by Max Hastings
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Now I'm about to start this one:
The Great Mutiny: India 1857 by Christopher Hibbert
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
One man's mutiny is another man's revolution.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Freedom
See I'd love to be able to read stuff like this but I struggle with it massively, if you've got any exceptional recommendations let me know cuz I'd love to get stuck into a book like those.
I'm in the middle of "the war of the end of the world" by Mario Vargos Llosa at the moment, it's fucking brilliant but I keep having to take breaks from it cuz it's a fucking monster of a book
I'm also reading "Ghost Story" by Peter Straus which has started off great
I've also got to get through
Brand new world - Aldous Huxley
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
The demolished man - Alfred Bester
The woman in white - Willkie Collins
Pale Fire - Nabakov
Sweetheart sweetheart - someone I can't remember
And another one or two that I'm waiting to be delivered
Should be enough to keep me busy
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Book sales went up last year, I can see why with you reading that much.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Batman
See I'd love to be able to read stuff like this but I struggle with it massively, if you've got any exceptional recommendations let me know cuz I'd love to get stuck into a book like those.
I'm in the middle of "the war of the end of the world" by Mario Vargos Llosa at the moment, it's fucking brilliant but I keep having to take breaks from it cuz it's a fucking monster of a book
I'm also reading "Ghost Story" by Peter Straus which has started off great
I've also got to get through
Brand new world - Aldous Huxley
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
The demolished man - Alfred Bester
The woman in white - Willkie Collins
Pale Fire - Nabakov
Sweetheart sweetheart - someone I can't remember
And another one or two that I'm waiting to be delivered
Should be enough to keep me busy
I was never able to read Catch 22 all the way through, I found it very dull. The movie was boring too, with poor attempts at humor, so I turned it off after about 30 minutes.
Brave New World wasn't bad, but there are better science fiction novels. I read it a long time ago.
The others you mentioned I've never even heard of.
Some I'd recommend: Pillars of the Earth and Armageddon mentioned above, as well as Napoleon's Russian Campaign which I read last year.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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Robert Bloch's Psycho captivated a nation when it appeared in 1959. The story was all too real-indeed this classic was inspired by the real-life story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and turned the book into one of the most-loved classic films of all time the year after it was released.
Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. He has lived with Mother ever since leaving the hospital in the old house up on the hill above the Bates motel. One night Norman spies on a beautiful woman that checks into the hotel as she undresses. Norman can't help but spy on her. Mother is there though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.
Well its Psycho, old Norman Bates, The Bates Motel, the infamous shower scene, we all know the story.
This was a good fun paced read, Norman is completely different to the film version of him and it gets a little bit deeper into why he is the way that he is, his appearance is also completely different in the book, here he is a short fat sweaty guy who tends to be nervous around people, that is in stark contrast to the Anthony Perkins version that we all know so well.
The film stuck to the book pretty faithfully (although it has been a while since I watched Psycho) the shower scene is actually underplayed in the film, the book version is a lot more graphic which I wasn't expecting.
There isn't a lot that I can add to this as it is such a well known story.
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The War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, Mario Vargas Llosa tells the story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars and bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise.
Well that was a pretty epic tale of monstrous proportions.
How one man who goes around preaching to the weak, the criminals, the cripples and the poor can ultimately cause so much devastation whilst still retaining his followers is unreal.
That is pretty much what happens here, a strange man known as the counselor goes from town to town preaching and gaining followers, he does odd jobs around these towns in exchange for paltry amounts of money and shelter, he preaches he fixes churches, builds walls around cemeteries etc.
Eventually as his following grows larger and larger he sets up base in Canudos, people continue to flock to this new land, due to the overwhelming amount of new arrivals the authorities start to get a little nervy and send out a small army to try and restore order, it doesn't go well for them, they keep trying and keep sending out larger and larger armies and ultimately continue to fail to take control back from the poverty stricken malnourished faithful.
The book paints a real bleak picture of what life in Canudos would have been like yet people appeared to be happy living in the squalor.
The characters were absolutely fantastic, Galileo Gal, The Shortsighted Journalist, The Little Blessed One, The Dwarf and my favourite The Lion of Natuba, each character had a huge chunk of the book dedicated to their stories, some ultimately ended earlier than others yet they all managed to be integral to the plot.
This was an unusual book for me to read as I had to put it down for a while and take a bit of a break from it and read something else inbetween, its certainly a hefty book about nearly 800 pages but it is well worth the time and effort
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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In a seedy motel in Florida, a young man holds captive a little girl in a soiled pink dress. He is anxious, tormented, introspective. She is calm, passive, strangely detached. She says her name is Angie Maule.
In the small upstate town of Milburn, New York, four old friends meet to honor the traditions of the Chowder Society. They drink good whiskey and trade ghost stories. As chilling as these tales are, and as strangely prophetic, they pale before the horrific nightmares that began a year ago when one of their members attended a party for a visiting actress--and there died of a heart attack. Or was it fright? Ask the actress. She says her name is Ann-Veronica Moore.
In California, a talented young novelist teaching creative writing at Berkeley finds himself hopelessly obsessed with one of his students. She is exquisitely lovely, infernally elusive. She says her name is Alma Mobley.
What is the connection between these places, these people, these agonizing events?
So five old men who name themselves the 'chowder society' meet up on a monthly basis and tell each other ghost stories, the meetings are rather strange though, in the respect that each of the members of the Chowder Society are having frequent nightmares, it is pretty obvious that something happened early on in the book and this is their coping mechanism.
It ends up that there is a huge supernatural presence at work in this small town, things continue to escalate during a blizzard of epic proportions, with the help of one of the societies nephews and a plucky 17 year old they commence battle.
The book has everything required to make a good horror, although the book is called Ghost Story it is anything but.
It makes you question what is real and what isn't, at times it was almost like an early alternate take on the simulation theory that you often hear being discussed by .
Stephen King has heaped praise on this book and you can see exactly why, it reads so much like a King book that at times it felt as though he could have been the author of it, small town setting, strong quirky characters, a slow foreboding supernatural twist which grows as the plot develops, there were loads of similarities to Salems Lot especially.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
next up
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Professor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously perched at the heart of an American campus. Battling with American life and language, Pnin must face great hazards in this new world: the ruination of his beautiful lumber-room-as-office; the removal of his teeth and the fitting of new ones; the search for a suitable boarding house; and the trials of taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has yet to master.
Wry, intelligent and moving, Pnin reveals the absurd and affecting story of one man in exile.
I actually ordered Pale Fire by Nabokov but Amazon sent the wrong book out and I ended up with this, no bother though as Nabakov is a great author so I've got no problems with it, an acceptable mistake I suppose.
or I may read this
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A gangster is murdered during a blistering Manhattan heat wave. City cop Andy Rusch is under pressure solve the crime and captivated by the victim's beautiful girlfriend. But it is difficult to catch a killer, let alone get the girl, in crazy streets crammed full of people. The planet's population has exploded. The 35 million inhabitants of New York City run their TVs off pedal power, riot for water, loot and trample for lentil 'steaks' and are controlled by sinister barbed wire dropped from the sky.
Written in 1966 and set in 1999, Make Room! Make Room! is a witty and unnerving story about stretching the earth's resources, and the human spirit, to breaking point.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
@Batman or anyone who knows
Have you ever bought books from Amazon for 20p? (£2.70 delivery). I don't care if the books are battered as long as they're not full of shit and piss
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fenster
@
Batman or anyone who knows
Have you ever bought books from Amazon for 20p? (£2.70 delivery). I don't care if the books are battered as long as they're not full of shit and piss
I have mate. Bought used books from all over, often because they were out of print. It should usually give you a grade for what type of condition they are in. I would have thought the piss and shit would have dried a long time before they come through your letterbox.
and that is not a euphemism
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fenster
@
Batman or anyone who knows
Have you ever bought books from Amazon for 20p? (£2.70 delivery). I don't care if the books are battered as long as they're not full of shit and piss
I get the majority of my books off Amazon, usually I choose the ones that are in good or very good condition, I've had a fair few that have been in pretty poor condition, it doesn't bother me though, I quite like it when other people have wrote in them, I had one and some dude had wrote a load of gibberish about his new pen on the inside cover, it gives the book a bit of personality when you get stuff like that in it.
its not often that you buy them and pages are hanging out of them, as Beanz said it usually gives you a brief description of the general condition that they are in.
What you looking at buying Fenners?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I am actually looking at buying several books, I used to read lots back in the day before internets and whatnot, lived next door to a big library which would order any book for free, had favourite authors like Douglas Copeland, Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut (Beanz will be disgusted by my Americanism).
I now have time and space to sitdown again so want to reread some of my favourites from back then and get lots of newer stuff to restock a big old fashioned book case unit.
Boringly the 16p book was about speed figures/gambling. It said the front cover was folded but spine and pages in good condition. Just wondering if I can trust those little descriptions. Thanks
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Go for it Fenster. You can give it a sample and if it works well then you can order some more. No big loss if you don't like it on a first try.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fenster
I am actually looking at buying several books, I used to read lots back in the day before internets and whatnot, lived next door to a big library which would order any book for free, had favourite authors like Douglas Copeland, Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut (Beanz will be disgusted by my Americanism).
I now have time and space to sitdown again so want to reread some of my favourites from back then and get lots of newer stuff to restock a big old fashioned book case unit.
Boringly the 16p book was about speed figures/gambling. It said the front cover was folded but spine and pages in good condition. Just wondering if I can trust those little descriptions. Thanks
Not really if you look further back in the thread you will see that John Updike is among my favourite authors. Not only the sublime Rabbit Novels but his art criticism too which is lucid, insightful and inspirational. I don't like the eschewing of British culture in a blind rush to adopt imported culutre per se. (Fucking Italians) but have a great love and affinity for many American artists, writers etc and am hanging out to go and visit as much of the country as I can one day.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
A little update on what I have been reading
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charmingly sad is probably the best way that I could describe this book.
This is my 3rd Nabakov book (the others were Bend Sinister and Lolita) and all three are spectacularly different.
Pnin is quite a simple book at first glance, nothing major happens in it, there is no huge drama, it is really just one clumsy man stumbling from one minor haphazard incident to another, and therein lies the beauty of Nabakovs writing, how he can make someone getting on the wrong train so interesting is fantastic.
Pnin himself was such a really sad character, he didn't really seem to fit in anywhere and whilst he had friends he never seemed to have 'close friends' and his social awkwardness is all to apparent throughout the book.
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DARK FOREBODINGS.
All should have been well for Colin and his English bride -- but his twin brother, David, sensed trouble. Growing obsessed, David made his way to England to calm his fears -- instead he found an...
UNBOUNDED HELL.
Colin and his wife were dead -- victims of ghastly violence. Their seemingly serene cottage seethed with an aura of murder, madness, and betrayal. Overpowered by the evil, David soon embarked on a...
JOURNEY INTO THE MACABRE.
Suffocatingly, the presence grew...grew to a malevolent force trying to kill David's fiancee...grew until David himself was a helpless prisoner of unholy passion!
The story sounds like a paint by numbers horror/ghost story and for the most part it is.
David and his twin brother Colin were separated at a young age, they met up and bonded again later in life only for David to strike out and move to America, unless I have forgotten it doesn't really delve into the reasons why, it is hardly important though, David moves over their and starts a new life.
That is until his brother stops writing him and David feels an urge to travel back to England as soon as possible, he takes the plunge and no sooner than he arrives he is met with the news that both his twin brother and fiance have died within a matter of weeks of each other and their cottage and all of their money has been left to him.
David takes up residence in the cottage and this is where things start getting eerily similar to the magic cottage by James Herbert, everything is idyllic and the place immediately feels like home, David has some questions to ask regarding the circumstances of his brother untimely demise though, around the same time Davids other half arrives and a few sinister occurrences take place.
As you can imagine things escalate from there.
The first 200 pages were really slow burning but things really took off in the final 100, the twist at the end is a real curve ball that is somehow right in front of you the whole way through but almost impossible to see.
first 200 pages - 3 stars, final 100 pages - 5 stars
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With introductions by Margaret Atwood and David Bradshaw.
Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...
Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.
I was really looking forward to this but it left me feeling a little flat.
It felt as though the whole book was leading up to one conversation in the final pages in which Huxley really attempts to drive his point home.
2 stars may be a little harsh but when I compare it to Bend Sinister, 1984 and Farenheit 451 it falls short by quite a distance.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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In a near-future France, François, a middle-aged academic, is watching his life slowly dwindle to nothing. His sex drive is diminished, his parents are dead, and his lifelong obsession – the ideas and works of the nineteenth-century novelist and pessimist Joris-Karl Huysmans – has led him nowhere. In a late-capitalist society where consumerism has become the new religion, François is spiritually barren, but seeking to fill the vacuum of his existence with something.
And he is not alone. As the 2022 Presidential election approaches, two candidates emerge as favourites: Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and Muhammed Ben Abbes of the nascent Muslim Fraternity. Forming a controversial alliance with the mainstream parties, Ben Abbes sweeps to power, and overnight the country is transformed. Islamic law comes into force: women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged and, for François, life is set on a new course.
Submission is both a devastating satire and a profound and painfully sharp meditation on isolation, faith and love. It is a startling new work by one of the most provocative and prescient novelists of today.
I was pretty disappointed with this, I was expecting a controversial subject here, it ends up that it is more of a commentary on how Western men are fed up with their lot, they are just going through the motions, they accept the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and their newly introduced laws without question.
The title of the book is really about how the public submits to these changes without challenging it, the Muslim way of life actually suits the main character of the book, he retires early with a huge pension only to be offered his job back along with a promotion and the opportunity to have 3 or 4 wives, things look pretty good, what the book doesn't go into is how these changes affected the females, you can see that life isn't quite as comfortable for them however you are left to come to your own conclusions as to how they feel but that is really a side part of the book.
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'It is the history of a revolution that went wrong – and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,' wrote Orwell for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. Orwell wrote the novel at the end of 1943, but it almost remained unpublished. Its savage attack on Stalin, at that time Britain's ally, led to the book being refused by publisher after publisher. Orwell's simple, tragic fable, telling what happens when the animals drive out Mr Jones and attempt to run the farm themselves, has since become a world famous classic.
Everyone knows the story, they all know the parallels between Animal Farm and the Russian revolution, Stalin, Marx etc so there isn't any need to go into that.
I will say though I wish that I was made to read this at school, I can see why it is such a popular choice, it is short and to the point, there aren't many layers to the story, it hits you in the face from an early point and leaves you with no doubt as to which direction things are going.
I can imagine that kids would enjoy it a whole lot more than having to trawl through Shakespeare.
Special shout out to Benjamin the donkey, he was my favourite from the get go.
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The Buddha. Rene Descartes. Emily Dickinson. Greta Garbo. Bobby Fischer. J. D. Salinger: Loners, all—along with as many as 25 percent of the world's population. Loners keep to themselves, and like it that way. Yet in the press, in films, in folklore, and nearly everywhere one looks, loners are tagged as losers and psychopaths, perverts and pity cases, ogres and mad bombers, elitists and wicked witches. Too often, loners buy into those messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature—and hiding from it. Loners as a group deserve to be reassessed—to claim their rightful place, rather than be perceived as damaged goods that need to be "fixed." In Party of One Anneli Rufus -- a prize-winning, critically acclaimed writer with talent to burn -- has crafted a morally urgent, historically compelling tour de force—a long-overdue argument in defense of the loner, then and now. Marshalling a polymath's easy erudition to make her case, assembling evidence from every conceivable arena of culture as well as interviews with experts and loners worldwide and her own acutely calibrated analysis, Rufus rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, the fallacy that all of those who are alone don't want to be, and wouldn't be, if only they knew how.
Well this is as close to a self help book I reckon I'll ever get.
When I read the foreword I immediately thought 'finally, someone else gets it' that was a big help because it really piqued my interest, everything the author was saying for the first few chapters resonated with me.
The average loners attitude to crowds and social events, work, relationships and love, friends, family, so much of it rang true with what I go through on a daily basis.
One example that I can think of from the top of my head was where it talks about people asking what you did on a weekend, its a straight forward question but my answer is the same 99% of the time, my usual reply is 'I didn't do anything, I just stayed in all weekend' people are usually left aghast by this, they can't comprehend that it is what I choose to do, I stay home read books, watch films, play instruments, I have plenty of hobbies to keep me occupied, I don't need or want company most of the time.
The other is when I am home alone and someone phones me, they seem to think that because I am alone that I am always available to speak, the thought that someone could be busy whilst being alone seems alien to them.
There were plenty of points like the above throughout the book and it was pretty nice to read them, I found that the second half got a little bit too preachy though, it felt almost like an attack on the non loners at times.
overall a good solid book and it was nice to read something that I could actually identify with so closely.
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I'm currently reading this
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On a damp October night, 24-year-old Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley's life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror film director Stanislaus Cordova--a man who hasn't been seen in public for more than thirty years.
For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova's dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.
Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova's eerie, hypnotic world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.
This has been brilliant so far, nice fast pace, interesting and engaging plot, characters are pretty good but there are a few things that are bothering me, the whole thing seems pretty easy and there is bound to be a major plot twist which at the moment seems pretty obvious to me and if the fast pace gets any faster towards the final third of the book then it will be going at a breakneck speed and will most likely end up growing to be absurd.
Enjoying it so far though
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Reading Margaret Pole: Countess in the Tower right now. I'm about half-way through. Very nicely written.
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Perhaps the most evil act of Henry VIII was ordering the execution of the age 67 countess, daughter of the brother of Edward IV and a direct descendant of Henry II.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
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From the bestselling horror author of Within These Walls and The Bird Eater comes a brand-new novel of terror that follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.
Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.
But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…
The two main characters are Michael who is an unwilling participant in the brutal kidnap and murder of countless young women and his brother Reb who is his twisted manipulating older brother (the rest of the family aren't much better)
When Michael meets Alice there is an instant attraction between them both, although Michael is cripplingly shy and constantly worries that he is going to reveal his families secret Alice takes a shine to him regardless, it is around this point that Reb's behaviour starts to change, he is becoming more and more unhinged and Michael knows that just by merely talking to Alice he is putting her life in danger because Reb is getting to be so unpredictable, the last thing Michael wants is for Reb to roll up to their home with Alice in the trunk but that is becoming a distinct possibility, Michael needs to escape before things go too far.
When I first started reading the first thought that came to mind was Texas Chainsaw Massacre but as the book progresses it loses that raw outback feel and almost morphs into something entirely different that I couldn't put my finger on, I still can't now.
The best character was Misty Day, she's Michael's younger sister and the only 'innocent' one in the family, she is the one that I really felt for whilst I was reading, she had a child like quality about her and she seemed to shut all of the evil around her out by living inside her head in her own little safe space.
The big plot twist was telegraphed though, it was obvious what was going on at an early stage, that isn't to say that it wasn't well done or that it was poor, I just think that there wasn't really any other route for the book to go down.
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'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'
The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.
Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, and discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical and societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel and its serialisation history.
So this was apparently the first ever real mystery novel, I love books from this era (1859) and whilst old Wilkie loves his words they are put together fantastically well and when I was in the mood for it I couldn't help but find myself completely taken in by the book, when I wasn't in the mood for it I couldn't help but find myself looking for an excuse to look at my phone after every page or two.
All in all I really enjoyed it and I will most likely revisit it again at some point in the future.
Right now though I've gone for an old classic (seeing as its Halloween I thought I should dig one of my old favourites out)
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The shocking true story of an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining...
In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price had been too good to pass up. Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror...
This is the spellbinding, bestselling true story that gripped the nation - the story of a house possessed by spirits, haunted by psychic phenomena too terrible to describe.
I actually have the bus ticket still in there from when I first read it, 2nd December 2010
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Floyd Patterson: the Fighting Life of Boxings Invisible Champion by WK Stratton
It's a good read and I've learned a good bit about Floyd's relationship with Cus and what happened behind the scenes. Only thing I don't like about the book is that it's heavily implied that Marciano retired to avoid fighting Patterson, which is pretty laughable lmao
Other than that, just finishing it up, it's been a good read
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Slim the BoxingManiac
Floyd Patterson: the Fighting Life of Boxings Invisible Champion by WK Stratton
It's a good read and I've learned a good bit about Floyd's relationship with Cus and what happened behind the scenes. Only thing I don't like about the book is that it's heavily implied that Marciano retired to avoid fighting Patterson, which is pretty laughable lmao
Other than that, just finishing it up, it's been a good read
No way Rocky retires to avoid any Floyd. Nino Valdez was supposed to be June 1956 and then he would have dispatched Floyd The Really Youngun' in late September 1956 and retired 51-0 with 44 KO's.
Don't think he could've knocked out the 6' 3" 220 pound Valdez, but think he'd have fucking ***SPARKED*** Patterson with body shots, not in 1 like Liston but in 4 or 5.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
brocktonblockbust
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Slim the BoxingManiac
Floyd Patterson: the Fighting Life of Boxings Invisible Champion by WK Stratton
It's a good read and I've learned a good bit about Floyd's relationship with Cus and what happened behind the scenes. Only thing I don't like about the book is that it's heavily implied that Marciano retired to avoid fighting Patterson, which is pretty laughable lmao
Other than that, just finishing it up, it's been a good read
No way Rocky retires to avoid any Floyd. Nino Valdez was supposed to be June 1956 and then he would have dispatched Floyd The Really Youngun' in late September 1956 and retired 51-0 with 44 KO's.
Don't think he could've knocked out the 6' 3" 220 pound Valdez, but think he'd have fucking ***SPARKED*** Patterson with body shots, not in 1 like Liston but in 4 or 5.
He's knocked out bigger guys than Valdez, and it's hard to see anybody from that time period going the full fifteen with Marciano.
But yeah Patterson would have been fucked lmao
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
A Short History of the Wars of the Roses by David Grummitt
It's nicely written and covers all the important facts about the Wars of the Roses without going into great detail.
https://books.google.com.ua/books/co...39L7GJI7V4bFLO
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
@Batman .....you don't work in Antarctica do you?
Antarctica scientist stabbed colleague for spoiling book endings
https://nypost.com/2018/10/30/antarc...ndings-report/
This is the coldest case ever.
In the first attempted murder ever on the frozen continent of Antarctica, a Russian scientist reportedly snapped and allegedly tried to stab a colleague to death because the victim kept giving away the endings of books.
:scratchchin:
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
El Kabong
@
Batman .....you don't work in Antarctica do you?
Antarctica scientist stabbed colleague for spoiling book endings
https://nypost.com/2018/10/30/antarc...ndings-report/
This is the coldest case ever.
In the first attempted murder ever on the frozen continent of Antarctica, a Russian scientist reportedly snapped and allegedly tried to stab a colleague to death because the victim kept giving away the endings of books.
:scratchchin:
Ha none of the fuckers I work with read books, they ask me what I'm reading I start telling them and within about 20 seconds they have lost interest and I can tell they ain't interested
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
White Nights - Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
Considering I have been quoting and giving stats from it - The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray - was a recently read book. I urge everyone who cares about the future of their nations to read it. American, British, Australian, whoever. It was very well received and gives you all the context and data you need regarding the mess that is immigration today.
All you need to do is bring out the numbers and data and no Cultural Marxist can respond as Murray himself states: 'None of the facts in this book were able to be refuted and nobody of any consequence has even tried to contest or deny them.' Strong words indeed.
For instance in Lower Saxony in Germany 90% of the rise in violent crime was down to young male migrants. Rather than live in denial arm yourself with the facts and take on liars and cowards. They cannot refute the truth because they are ideologues and the public mostly disagrees with them. Thus when a local German representative tells Germans if they don't like it they should 'leave Germany' then there are likely to be consequences.
Knowledge is power. Arm yourself with knowledge. Spread that knowledge.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
@Batman 'Brother' sounds a bit like 'The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders' to me, but I guess the whole deal was Sanford Clark wasn't a willing participant AT ALL in those murders. Gruesome book by the way.
I need to start up a new book, only trouble for me is finding the time to read it.
