This is my quality reading at the moment.
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This is my quality reading at the moment.
Beautiful Brutality,by Adam smith,intresting read about the part familys play in
boxing,good and bad.Well worth a look.
Just started Cryptonomicon, so far, so good. It's a fictional account of allied code breakers in WWII.
Cryptonomicon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I read the Baroque Cycle already so it's interesting to see what the families are up to three centuries later.
Between silk and cyanide is a brilliant book by an actual allied codebreaker during WW2. Haven't had time to read a book for ages but I'd love to read that one again. Martin Cruz Smith books are brilliant too if you haven't read any. Start with Gorky Park. I'm sure they're all free on the internet somewhere.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check those out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing
Dangerous Days
A Diggers Great escape.
Ernest Brough.
Wonderful read, sort of book you wish didnt finish and makes you want go and meet the Author and shake his hand and thank him for his life.
Factual story about Earnests time fighting on the beaches and in Syria then their capture and the following escape by three, two Aussie and a New Zealander trooper from a Nazi camp with all their pre plans then their experiences on foot through Austria over snow covered mountains into Serbia and Croatia eventually over to Italy just as it was freed into allies hands.
Makes you appreciate the grit and good hearts these old time heroes naturally had.
Well I finally finished it
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And I do not mind admitting that it was a bit of a struggle at times. It is magnificently written but very data intense. The lists of events and names is integral to the plot and the clever interweaving is necessary, but I did find it hard work. This is not just a fictitious wedge of escapism or merely an historical thriller either, it does a great job in throwing light on the machinations of hate and envy that continue to shape modern Europe and the wider world. Conspiracy theories and the general distrust of Jews, Masons and those who are different from "US" are brilliantly dismantled. Thanks @Nameless for the recommendation.
Friends, Enemies, and Lovers is my new book. Civil war book. So far, so good.
All my pleasure. With good ol'Umberto, it's always the same; it takes "dediction" to read the whole book as there are so may informations but in the end, once you get the "courag" to get through it, it's just pure ecstasy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenbeanz
At the moment, I am mainly finishing reading for the philosophy classes that I give (end of semester oblige) but soon enough, I should find some more time to read books for myself.
I have just finished
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@Andre you would love it mate and I am assuming @killersheep and many others here have already read it because it's at least a year old which is quite a long time for fast moving sciences about slow moving subjects like cosmology. Here is a Quote that gives the gist of it
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A nice quick read after Eco
I have now started this huge omnibus which I bought, like many of my books from a charity shop for a £1.
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I must have got it a year ago and have finally now got around to reading my first John Updike. I don't know if the American guys here would see him as one of the quintessential modern American novelists but I have been bowled over by the quality of the prose. By page 8 my mouth was almost hanging open with the succinctness and beauty of his phrasing. It is really good stuff, so much so that it has inspired me to design some original artwork on which I will shortly be working. I hope to travel to the States one day but would like to do so with enough spare money and free time to create and exhibit some art over there and this just whets the appetite. It is full of little dramas lived out in front of epic backdrops.
I was recently on a Cormac McCarthy kick. Great reading. I plan on getting back to Kafka next. I like all my music and literature as depressing as possible.
Interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by walrus
So whats your favorite music genre, song, band and Book?
The play Les Miserables, a good night out maybe :-\
Bob Dylan is amongst my favorites. Mississippi John Hurt and Johnny Lee Hooked are up there. Funny you mentioned Les Mis, I finished reading it about a month ago. What an epic. I will definitely see in in theatre at some point. By the way, I just started reading Kafkas "The Trial"
If you really like depressing music then Gorecki's Sympnony Number 3 "Sorrowful Songs" will definitely break your heart and fill your head with black sand, but for something a little less full of dread and leaden mourning you can't beat a bit of old misery GutsQuote:
Originally Posted by walrus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRi8MYrtKYk
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenbeanz
I am now just starting the third book in the omnibus "Rabbit is Rich" and have to say I am still blown away. The characters are presented with none of the rough corners knocked off, and the plot is pretty incidental, but the eye and descriptive power of Updike just never wanes. Quality Read.
Alfred Hitchcock: A life in darkness and light by Patrick McGilligan.
I love HITCHQuote:
Originally Posted by Gandalf
This came out very recently
http://bigpondmusic.com/images/Album...-His-Music.jpg
Bernard Hermann his long time musical collaborator is one of my heroes and his work right the way up to and including his terrifying score to Scorcese's Taxi Driver has remained a huge influence
You can hear snippets of the new collection here
Alfred Hitchcock and His Music - Various Artists : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic
:)
Hitchcock is great and Hermann was a perfect complement. I always return to Hitchcock as he has it all. Best scripts,music, actors and actresses, angles etc. So many great films inthe ouvre. Every development and there was Hitch honing his craft at every stage.
Its a nicely written book thus far and its only 13 dollars on a Kindle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenbeanzQuote:
Originally Posted by Greenbeanz
I am now just starting the third book in the omnibus "Rabbit is Rich" and have to say I am still blown away. The characters are presented with none of the rough corners knocked off, and the plot is pretty incidental, but the eye and descriptive power of Updike just never wanes. Quality Read.
I have now finished this trilogy, thinking that was it for Harry Angstrom. If it were it would still make perfect sense finishing as it did, but no there is a fourth and final book in the tetralogy "Rabbit at Rest" which I have ordered online. Then there is a short novella "Rabbitt Remembered" which is included in the short story collection "Licks of Love", where he is remembered by people from his life. I don't know whether that should be included to make a pentalogy but I think probably not. Anyway I only found this out today which was a nice surprise. I bought the short story collection second hand from a hospices charity shop online which concludes a nice synergy initiated with the original trilogy omnibus being bought in person at a hospice charity shop. I can see why he got the Pulitzer and was also interested to find that he wrote a lot of art criticism too which I will read at some point.
Have started this as a quick snack before the other Updikes arrive. Got it in a big pile of Murakami's from the local Charity shop.
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He seems very different from the guy I imagined after reading some of his novels. It talks about the process of writing also, which is very instructive as I have started to do so again, in a much more structured,consistent and considered way.
I have bought the David Hayes,s book making haye I will start reading it today.
I'm reading a Suede biography that finally got put onto the Kindle. It is written by David Barnett and I am enjoying it so far. It's a book I have wanted to read for a long time.
I had a long weekend of travel by car so I invested in a book on CD. I usually tire of music or talk radio after a while. On this trip I picked out 'Proof of Heaven' by Dr. Eben Alexander who is a neurosurgeon who experienced a grand mall seizure during a bout with bacterial meningitis and spent 7 days in a coma with his brain basically inactive.
It is a fascinating account and is a good read/listen for all people religious or not
The Talisman by Lynda LA Plante.
She writes as good as any top novelist, hard to put it down.
Reading Haye’s book halfway through and it is interesting. Haye has a son named Cassius, he wanted desperately avenge his defeat against Carl Thompson but the money could not be arranged, and Haye loves his boxing history and never really developed his left hook like Sugar Ray Robinson.
Finished the Murakami now. Can't really say it gives too much insight into his personality but it was an interesting distraction. I have now started this, the fourth and final book in John Updike's Rabbit tetralogyQuote:
Originally Posted by Greenbeanz
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Rabbit at Rest is great so far, and he does not seem to have let his brilliant prose fall below the bar he raised so high, with the previous three books. It is set in the late 80's, early 90's and the central character is now in his mid 50's. Not a lot happens but the books do not need a plot to hold your attention. It is Updike's acute observation of people and their reaction to the world around them that pulls you through it. Harry Angstrom the central character is constantly amazed and confused by everything that happens. Not just the external world but his own body and the condition of being, what it is to be a human living in a body that is gradually sinking back down to the earth from which it came. He is not J.G.Ballard but I would definitely have him in my top 5. Great stuff.
.....pretentious Brits naming their offspring after American greats :-XQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
I will read the rest and let you know what he thinks of the yanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong.....pretentious Brits naming their offspring after American greats :-XQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
Pffft he hasn't really fought any decent ones...Ruiz and Barrett are the only ones I recall him fighting so he really doesn't have much to comment on.Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterI will read the rest and let you know what he thinks of the yanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong.....pretentious Brits naming their offspring after American greats :-XQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
Im currently reading The Book Of Five Rings by Miyamoto Mushashi..
Just wanna let ya know.. No Knights, Spartan Warrior, nor Achilles himself can fuck with Musashi in a one on one duel.. none
I finally got through that Hitch book, but it was really long and obviously a lot to talk about in a career like that. It got really sad towards the final decade. Time was running out, his health was failing and he wanted to make his 'realistic' Bond 'The Short Night'. However his wife had a series of strokes, Hitchcock himself was failing and falling over in the bathroom. Still he clung to the dream that he could win over the fans again, but it was never going to happen. He seemed to have given up on life in the end. Even if the script were finished, he wouldn't be able to shoot it himself. His wife now declining with dementia and Hitchcock seeming to have lost the will to live. And apparently that is what he did. We willed himself to death by refusing meals, drinking only water and talking to nobody. Eventually it happened. His wife lived on for 2 more years seemingly not noticing the death. 'Oh Hitch is out at the studio. Back later'. Very odd.
Anyway, a great, exhaustive book, excellently researched. Imo the most important director of them all. A talented, talented filmmaker.
Attachment 2852
Charles Bukowski - Notes of a Dirty Old Man.
It's a collection of his newspaper columns. Just started reading it today.
Watch out UK crowd I'm on the cusp of becoming a learned scholar on your empire
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FinitoElDinamita
Cool as.:cool:
The Book of Five Rings (五輪書 Go Rin No Sho?) is a text on kenjutsu and the martial arts in general, written by the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi circa 1645. There have been various translations made over the years, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than only that of martial artists: for instance, some business leaders find its discussion of conflict and taking the advantage to be relevant to their work. The modern-day Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū employs it as a manual of technique and philosophy.
Musashi establishes a "no-nonsense" theme throughout the text. For instance, he repeatedly remarks that technical flourishes are excessive, and contrasts worrying about such things with the principle that all technique is simply a method of cutting down one's opponent. He also continually makes the point that the understandings expressed in the book are important for combat on any scale, whether a one-on-one duel or a massive battle. Descriptions of principles are often followed by admonitions to "investigate this thoroughly" through practice rather than trying to learn them by merely reading.
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Miyamoto Musashi in his prime, wielding two bokken.
Musashi describes and advocates a two-sword style (nitōjutsu): that is, wielding both katana and wakizashi, contrary to the more traditional method of wielding the katana two-handed. However, he only explicitly describes wielding two swords in a section on fighting against many adversaries. The stories of his many duels rarely reference Musashi himself wielding two swords, although, since they are mostly oral traditions, their details may be rather inaccurate. Some suggest that Musashi's meaning was not so much wielding two swords "simultaneously", but rather acquiring the proficiency to (singly) wield either sword in either hand as the need arose.[citation needed] However, Musashi states within the volume that one should train with a long sword in each hand, thereby training the body and improving one's ability to use two blades simultaneously, though the aim of this was only for training purposes and wasn't meant to be a viable fighting style.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanman
I really enjoy Bukowski's books, but I haven't read this one. Will have to check it out.
I just finished the The Voice of Bugle Ann. A fun piece of Ozark heritage.
The Suede book was a cracking read. A bit short, but informative. It made me think a little less of Anderson as he always claims it was all about 'Suede', but he would fall under one addiction after another and I would imagine you need to be a bit more serious like Bernard Butler, to be claiming to be all about the music. 'Coming up' bounces them back and then he is onto smack and crack and a couple of last albums that don't hold up. Brett gets angry with Bernard and Codling for letting the band down, but he was no angel and over the long haul it told as Brett was the least musically able. You sense the solo work is him trying to prove that he can write on his own and that did eventually lead to the Suede reformation. Brett himself had to be clean and focussed for that decent album to come out. None of that historical 'I will just add the top line and my work is done....where are the drugs?' nonsense. Just a case of, 'I got my shit togetherand learned the instruments, now lets make an album'.
My new book is called Dry Storeroom No. 1 : The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. At first I was disappointed that this was about a museum in the UK, however it is a fascinating read and well worth the buck I spend to buy it at a second hand store.
On and off I look to read some Harvard Classics, it's a good foundation for life.
Harvard Classics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My Kindle only seems to work in my other apartment, so whilst there I took the time to download 4 books.
1- No Ordinary Joe - Written by Calzaghe (apparently)
2- Oscar Wilde - By something someone. I left the damn kindle there I cannot remember. Supposedly a bit salacious.
3. The Kuran - Odd I know.
4 The Bible - Again, odd, but free.
Might as well give it a go, for revision and sharpening critical skills.