Where has it gone...?! I've been reading my little socks off and have nowhere to talk about it.

Start a new one.

I certainly shall if needs be, but I wanted to refer to things on it...

I cant find it Jim. It looks like it has been pruned.:(

Gareth

Its not in deleted Jim, it looks like it has gone

Start a new one would be best from now on

Definitely gone Jim. Just trawled through my posts and it only shows 187, at this time my post count is 497 so a fair few of my posts have disappeared it seems!

Gareth.

Bloody censorship I call it...

So, anyway, I've recently been interspersing my usual frothy reading with a few works concerning rather more serious issues, since my girlfriend works in conflict resolution and counter-extremism; it's all laughs round here! These two were written by two of her former colleagues:

The first was A Million Bullets, by James Fergusson. A rather depressing account of the British Army's recent operations in Afghanistan, the book nonetheless highlights the fact that the failings are more (as one might expect) political rather than the fault of the overstretched and remarkably resilient British Forces. Worth a read if only to get a better idea of why we are there and who the people actually are that are getting shot at.

I also had a crack at "Revolt on the Tigris: The Sadr Uprising and Governing Iraq", which is written by Mark Etherington, who was appointed as one of the provincial governers for the coalition. It details the bewildering task facing him and his team (initially one person) in trying to restore some form of democratic self rule for the people of Iraq - outside of the best-known hotspots. The gaps in the political resources, the unwillingness of the hierarchy to understand the situation on the ground and Etherington's own self-confessed desire to do things "the right way" make for a nigh-on impossible task and a sobering read.

Despite the fairly heavy and solemn subject matter, both of these accounts are highly readable and cast a lot more, distinctly un-sensational light on both situations.

On a lighter note, I also read The Steep Approach to Garbadale last summer, the latest Iaian Banks. Not among his best, I'd say, but readable as ever. Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe continue to provide as much pleasure as the TV version brings me pain. A Cure for all Diseases is no exception, featuring a convalescing Dalziel conspicuously NOT being officially involved in a classic grisly murder at the Country House.

Picklehead by Rohan Candappa is the true story of a boy growing up in South London in the seventies and beyond against the backdrop of his family's Sri Lankan cultural heritage. Light and humorous in tone, but with some genuinely moving tales, the book's USP is the many and varied recipes it includes - some more appetising than others!

For Christmas, my literary cup overrunneth, having been given "Homicide - a year on the Killing Streets" by Wire author David Simon, Almost Unbelievable - Clive James' Memoirs, Things the Grandchildren should Know - by Mark E Everett (otherwise known as the singer with Eels) and Netherland, a complex story about a Dutch banker in Post 9/11 New York and cricket. I'm about 1/3 through it and it's shaping up nicely, though the style reflects the narrator's intense and pedantic character, making it hard to read quickly!

I've just finished John O'Farrell's An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge).

Its about as impartial as you would expect with a title like that, and while 90% of it is well humoured and interesting enough, the remaining 10% I found very irritating. I'm not sure that a humourous re-write of the speeh Chamberlain made declaring war on Germany is actually in very good taste. Plus, O'Farrell loves the Labour Party and makes no effort whatsoever to hide it, so the bits about the last 100 years are rather skewed. Things can only get better is still his best book.

Before that was Watching the English by Kate Fox. Its a social anthropology book aimed squarely at the intelligent layman - and very very well observed. Makes you cringe every time you think 'Yes, that is a stupid bit of behaviour, and I do it every day'. If you liked Paxman's The English, you will probably like this.

Now reading Batting on the Bosphorous, which is a book about an improbable Cricket tour (See also Penguins Stopped Play), but funny.

I loved Penguins Stopped Play - very readable, with a sad postscript. As a player of cricket in a vaguely improbable location, I'm a sucker for this stuff!

Damn, I lent someone my copy of Watching the English... I shall have to ask them for its return. Only, being English, this is of course something which Is Not Done[tm]...

I'm almost finished reading "Margrave of the Marshes" by John Peel and Shelia Ravenscroft. Its been hilarious, sad and intresting - and all for £2 for a charity shop!

Since Xmas:

Morrissey's Perfect Pint. Nice light read and interesting little facts if you like your beer.

Wiffle Lever to Full.

Nice light read, bit of a nostalgia trip for the author as he spends a summer attending Sci-Fi conventions. If not into your sci-fi its propably not worth reading. If you are, it's possibly worth reading.

Well, I finished Netherland and despite all the enticing ingredients, it was - for me - rather disappointing. The careful and even rather beautiful prose rather smothered the story and I found the characters frustrating. Possibly it was a deliberate device to show the characters' flaws, but I don't know...

I've now started the autobiography of Eels frontman Mark "E" Everett. Rather gloomy stuff so far, but written in a very readable and self-effacing style, pretty funny in places.

In between I read an incredible book called The Translator. Now, although this is my occupation, this story has no discernible connection with my life, thank God. It is the true story of a courageous man called Daoud Hari.

Hari is a Darfur tribesman who recounts the massacre and later the genocide of his people by the Arab-Sudanese government of Sudan, in a quest for land and mineral resources. The story is very simply written and the book can easily be devoured in a few hours, but it is a deeply affecting work, perhaps because of this. The unbearable cruelty of the Janjaweed militia, many of whose "soldiers" are only 14 years of age, the desperate plight of the IDP (Internally Displaced People), the ineffective intervention by outside organisations and - despite it all - Hari's good humour and humbling humanity.

He works as an interpreter (to be pedantic) between English-speaking journalists and the various militias and local people, enabling the story of the genocide to be told. He assists the UN, the BBC, New York Times and others, but he is considered to be a spy by the Sudanese government and, when finally captured, his life hangs by the finest of threads. Many times he expects to be shot, or worse.

But the humour - often rather black - is as funny as it is unexpected. At one point, a BBC journalist falls over onto an unexploded bomb. After the initial heart-in-mouth moment, Hari realises he has spent too long with Brits, as he starts to laugh. The shaken journalist asks why he's laughing; "Well, you'd have laughed if it had been me" replies Hari. "That's because if it had been you, it would have been funny" says the Englishman!

I seriously recommend The Translator - it gives a great insight into an appalling - and continuing *right now* - human disaster, but in a way that connects with the reader immediately. There's some extremely unpleasant and moving stuff, but a lot that's uplifting too...

It's good to see the return of the book review thread - I did mean to post to it earlier, but things have been a bit hectic.

Anyway, my recent readings ...

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
I didn't rush out to buy this after his last, frankly dreaful, effort Rant, but I was bought it as a Christmas present. The story is set around an attempt by porn-star Cassie Wright to break a world record by having sex with 600 men in one day and takes place almost entirely in the grotty waiting area where three men, identified as 72, 139 and 600, interact, occasionally talking to Shelia, Cassie's personal assistant, who is organising the day.

Everybody expects Cassie to die during the record attempt, leaving a fortune in life insurance payouts to her child that she gave up for adoption 20 year previously and has not seen since.

The good news is that this book is a far better read than Rant, the bad news is that it's still nowhere close to Palahniuk's best work - it's certainly not up there with Haunted or Choke. For most of the time the story seems to lack direction and the bitter satire that he does so well is missing. It does provide laugh out loud moments, mainly at the titles of imaginary porn films that are scattered throughout, but the real porn industry churns out these titles just as well and you don't have to wade through a 300 page book to get them.

The Tales of Beadle the Bard by J K Rowling
This one was from Emma's Christmas pile and ... well, it's crap. Rowling fails to live up to her own depressingly low literary standards and delivers a book of 5 tales, tied in to the Harry Potter mythos through notes on each of the stories by Dumbledore. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes to read, and probably took about twice as long to write. Unless you absolutely must by every book with Rowling's name on the cover give this one a wide berth.

Watchmen by Alan Moore (illustrations by Dave Gibbons)
Finally buying my own copy of this book inspired me to re-read it and, once again, I took something new away from the experience.
For those who aren't familiar with this one it is the definitive graphic novel and one of the works most responsible for showing that comics didn't have to be aimed at children.
The story is set in late 1985, more than 8 years after a police strike forced America's masked adventurers to retire. Three of them remain active; the utterly immoral Comedian, the god-like Doctor Manhanttan - both of whom work directly for the government - and the vigilante fugitive Rorschach. When Rorschach begins investigating the murder of a diplomat, Edward Blake, he discovers that he was the Comedian and contacts the other heroes with his theory that one of their old enemies may be killing them.
Initially he is dismissed as paranoid, but when Doctor Manhattan, who is the lynch-pin of America's nuclear defence programme, is forced to leave Earth, an assassination attempt is made on another ex-hero and Rorschach himself is betrayed and imprisoned his old partner, Nite Owl, and another retired heroine, Silk Spectre, begin to investigate.
Ultimately the heroes discover that the events they have seen are part of a far larger plot, with world-shattering consequences, which is equally destructive to the morally black and white worlds they live in.
What gives this story depth is that, unlike traditional comics, where super-heroes tread lightly upon the world, the alternative America portrayed is one where the presence of super-heroes, particularly Doctor Manhattan, has made a huge difference to life. It also provides insight in to the minds of those who would think it was a good idea to wear a costume and beat up criminals. The Comedian and Rorschach are both mysoginistic and right-wing, almost to the point of Nazism, Doctor Manhattan, who has seemingly unlimited powers and complete knowledge of his own past and future, is detached from humanity and Nite Owl's sexual ability is tied to his costumed identity.
Within the story is a sub-plot, unfolding as a young man reads the classic pirate comic Tales of the Black Freighter, wherein a stranded mariner is driven by love and nobel desires down a path of utmost horror and in to insanity, which provides a neat parallel to the heroes' investigation. There's also the background of mounting nuclear tension between America and Russian, each chapter of the story starting with a doomsday clock, its hands getting closer to midnight.
Hopefully the release of the forthcoming film will encourage more people to overcome their prejudices and give Watchmen a try - by any standards it's a classic - intelligent, complex, multi-layered and moving ... and not a "ka-pow!" in sight.

Dam Busters - A Landmark Oral History by Max Arthur

You've seen the film, you know the march, but this book tells us the real story, in the words of the people who made it happen.

One of the most famous raids of all time, this book gives a fascinating insight into the planning and execution of the raid. Told in a series of interviews with the major players in the raid, Wallis, Gibson even Goebbels and Speer.

It's quite something to get a better feel for the men who flew on that raid. To understand their sense of duty, their fears and their elation.

The staff and groundcrew at Scampton and their realtionships with the crews, together with the work they put in for a mission they knew nothing about.

It goes deeper than that, with eyewitness accounts of the devastation the floodwaters caused by the people it affected. Thats the forgotten side of the raid and it's hard not to feel for the civilians who bore the brunt of the floodwaters.

For anyone interested in WW2 I'd recommend it.

To go with that, you should also read the book 'The Dambusters' by Paul Brickhill. And in a reference to another thread, note the name of Guy Gibson's dog, used as a code word for success in the raid, and what it was changed to in the film.

By one of those strange quirks of fate, the daily mail (I think) are giving the film away with the paper tomorrow (sat.).

The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman

As Gaiman's last book for children, Coraline, was a huge success it's good to see him unleashing his dark imagination onto younger readers again with this book.

The story opens with an unnamed toddler accidentally escaping the clutches of a murderer who has dispatched the rest of his family and wandering in to a graveyard, the residents of whom rescue him, name him Nobody Owens (Bod, for short) and resolve to bring him up. Given the freedom of the graveyard he can see the dead, walk through solid objects and see in the dark and the book describes his life up until the age of 15.

Given the age of the central character, his deceased parents and his unflappable guardian, Silas (who is neither of the living nor the dead) and the target audience comparisons to Harry Potter are perhaps inevitable, but Gaiman creates a much darker, more satisfying world which, in contrast to Rowling's work, feels more consistent and unhampered by over-working.

This is a great book, which will delight anybody from 10 upwards, although younger readers may find it a little scary and moan about the lack of a happy ending.

I finished "Things the Grandchildren should Know" by Eeels lead-singer, Mark E Everett, but was left feeling that he is pretty much having a long whinge. He has had enormously bad luck, not least in terms of the untimely deaths of many of his family and friends, but beyond cataloguing this and the number of rejections he receives from the record company, leaving him crying, there isn't much to engage the reader.

I'm now enjoying with great relish the work that inspired The Wire: Homicide by David Simon...

Just read Fight Club. I've been a fan of the film ever since I first saw it in a Bangkok bar (it got a standing ovation in a bar!!).
To be honest, I wasn't so impressed with the book.

I think Fight Club is one of a very few films that is better than the book it's based on. Hmmm, could be a thread of its own there...

I had the delight of hearing Neil read the first chapter a year ago (before it was published). Excellent, and he read it very well; I'd buy the book based on that chapter. Indeed, I'd like to hear it done on Radio Four.

Yes, the film of Fight Club is better than the book, but don't forget it was a first novel and the result of Palahniuk taking a creative writing course - he's written better since.

I'd say that Haunted is his best work to date (providing you've a strong stomach) and is well worth a read.

Have just finished Sniper One by SGT Dan Mills. Totally addictive and makes Bravo Two Zero look like a tea party by comparison. Best military non-fiction book I've ever read. 10/10. Check the reviews on Amazon!

I'm half way through The Saga of Guns n Roses(xmas pressie from my daughter)...Quite interesting, very rock n roll and I'm enjoying it. So much so, Buckcherry came off the car CD player and GNR went on. Its interesting listening to songs you've loved for years after reading about the people and places and incidents they are about. Mr Brownstone, I'd always assumed, was about hash, but its not its about brown heroin. And I'm pretty sure alot of my friends assumed it was hash aswell. Normally I dont pay much attention to the people behind the music I like, but I find myself listening to appetite for destruction with a new perspective.

Naomi Kleine - Shock Doctrine

Well researched and constructed. It's a real eye opener to the ways of the large corporations and the US and British governments.

Is that the same Naomi Klein that wrote 'No Logo'?

Yes. Nuff said.

just reading Duma by Stephen King. for some reason i find most of his books eminently readable, but somehow feel guilty for doing so. i feel i should be reading the classics or some arcane poetry book, and try to educate myself - but i always find myself reading something "candy-flossy"

I know that feeling, Proccy. I reckon as long as it's not Dan Brown, it's ok to read anything! But then I have recently binged on more "worthy" stuff...

Nothing wrong with Stephen King, but I know what you mean. I went through a phase of reading some Steinbeck, Dickens and a few other "heavier books", but still go back to the trashy horror and crime section in Smiths everytime.

King is one of the worlds biggest selling authors, so he must be doing something right, sure you will get the people who say his books are cheap horror trash, but these are people who wear slippers and cardigans and listen to radio 4

Yes. I have acopy but I haven't read that one yet.



Do I take it that it wasn't your cup of tea?

I'm afraid not. But I know I can be a bit ranty about stuff like this!

You Jim.... really?

Hard to believe, I know...

Personally don't like Stephen King. Always starts off nice and exciting, but in the last quarter of the book / movie it always goes paranormal and supernatural.

And yet he speaks so highly of you, KJ!

If you want some off-beat and high-tech science fiction, consider Charlie Stross. Singularity Sky is a favourite, but there are plenty of others to choose from.

Neil

I have just started reading Hannibal Rising, hooked within the first few pages.

Best English books I've written...

Raymond E Feist - Magician (THE best book and I found it way better than any Tolkien material - have quite some books of the series that followed).

And I quite loved reading Isaac Asimov when I was like 13-14.

Nowaddays I unfortunately limit myself to reading Top Gear and Auto Italia.

Kayjay, i am a huge Feist and Asimov fan.
You should try and pick up the feist series again, its just gets better and better. Pug and Tomas are such wonderful characters.

If you like Feist and Asimov, I would recommend Peter F Hamilton's books. In my opinion he is the greatest modern Sci Fi writer. I am currently re-reading the Neutronium Alchemist for the fith time. Its wonderfully dark in places and still gives me nightmares.

Gareth

I read Magician (and, ISTR, a couple of the sequels) when I was 13 or 14, but I've never re-read them, even though I enjoyed them at the time. Maybe I should give them another go.

I think I have around 10-11 books of the series, but unfortunately most of them in Dutch. So probably up to 'Shards of a Broken Crown'. I still consider Magician to be THE best as there are so many (easy to follow though!) parallel stories ALL of which are equally exciting. Really - anyone who liked Tolkien should definitely give Magician a go! These books are superb.

Peter Hamilton, yes. Though I find I prefer his earlier stuff - the ones set near future in England - than the later. And anything by Neil Stephenson. And Alistair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks - though if you don't like phonetic English you might want to avoid Feersum Endjinn. It's an interesting experiment but my word it's hard work.

I like Neil Stephenson, but, by god, he can't write a good ending to save his life. After reading Cryptonomicon for the first time I vowed that on any re-reads I'd stop 30 pages from the end, and as for the ending of Snow crash, well the less said the better ...

Well, I'm working my way through the new Stephenson: Anathem at the moment; it's getting better as I get along and I start to understand the background.

And I may have just found the coolest line in science fiction: "Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."

No Sci-Fi at all, but I recently finished Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Not light reading, I'll grant you, but I usually enjoy this kind of thing.

Interesting stuff, but a bit plodding in places. I'm pretty interested in modern-ish history, and this was good enough, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless you are *really* interested in the subject matter - a wikipedia entry is probably almost as informative. Tell you what though, he was a proper scoundrel.

Lately I've been hooked on Salmon Rushdie. I like to read everything an author has written at one time, then I move to another author. You learn a lot more and the stories make more sense. Rushdie has a great combination of wit and realism. I read the "Satanic Verses" first, which hooks anyone, and now am into his newest and most controversial. "The Enchantress of Florence" is a great catch by him and "Midnight's Children" has been another good read.

In middle of The Fighting Man by Gerald Seymour.

Haven't read anything like this since I was a 'Warlord Agent' and looked forward each week to reading the exploits of Union Jack Jackson.

So much easier to read than Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto!

Anyway it mentions Northern Ireland, and an old Fiat so it must be worth reading.

I'm halfway through "Delorean" by John Z. Can't decide if he has a huge conspiracy complex or was genuinely done over by the DEA/FBI/UK Government and US Government!

Well despite having had nothing to fill my days for months now I haven't been reading very much, but I decided to rectify this and, so, I've been on a bit of a reading splurg.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

This was a Christmas present that I've been studiously ignoring since I recieved it and, as it turned out, that was the best couse of action. There's nothing particularly wrong with this book, but that's about the best that can be said for it. It's the story of Mau, a young man living in The Nation, a small South Pacific island in an alternative late 19th century world. As he makes his way back from the Boys' Island, to become a man, he is swept up by a huge tidal wave which, when he finally makes it home, he discovers has also destroyed the rest of the Nation and killed its people. It's also run aground a trouserman ship, The Sweet Judy, and its sole survivor, a ghost girl who calls herself Daphne.

The book tells the story of the growing friendship between the two youngsters from vastly different backgrounds, as they start to build a society from the survivors of the other nearby islands devestated by the wave and as they await the arrival of the cannibals and other trousermen.

The main issue is that this book can't quite decide what it wants to be. It veers between love story and social commentary without ever really hitting on anything interesting or original to say. One can only hope that this doesn't prove to be the capstone on Pratchett's writing career, as he is capable of so much better.

Red Riding - 1974 by David Peace

A completely different theme here, as those who watch Channel 4's excellent trilogy will know.

In the titular year Edward Dunford returns from down South to his native Yorkshire and takes the post of North of England crime correspondent for The Yorkshire Post, which plunges him straight in to the disappearance of a young girl, abducted on her way home from school and who later turns up raped, tortured and brutally murdered, with swan wings stitched to her back.

Although this book fits in to the crime drama genre, one thing it is completely unconcerned with is actually solving the murder (which appears to be linked to similar disappearances starting in 1968, where no bodies were ever recovered). Instead it's a stream of consciousness from Edward as he uncovers police corruption and brutality which seems to lie on the edge of a British revolution. This certainly isn't a book for the squeamish - aside from the bloody murder that lies at its heart there is a graphic depiction of both sex and torture and the Peace does an excellent job of plunging the reader into Dunford's grimy world, where these is nobody he can turn to for salvation.

If you can follow the complex story through this grime, and through Dunford's smoking, drinking and vomiting, then this is an excellent novel which leaves you keen to follow the story through in to the three sequels - 1977, 1980 and 1983.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I picked this book up on a whim at the same time as I bought the previous one, which is funny as, on the face of it, there are a lot of similarities. This story is set a year earlier, in 1973, and also centres around the rape and murder of a young girl, this time the 14 year old Susie Salmon, and, as previously, the focus of the book is far from the solving of the crime.

Those superficial details aside this couldn't be a more different tale to the dark world of Red Riding. Following Susie's death she watches, from heaven, life unfold for her family over the next 10 years and sees how her death changes them all.

While this novel doesn't have the hard edge of Peace's work it also doesn't pull any punches, and Sebold builds a very real picture of a family struggling to cope with a terrible loss. It's a beautifully crafted, emotional tale and doesn't rely on schmaltz to get its message over.

Ok being an old un i quite like to read/hold "books" etc as opposed to sitting in front of the PC every night - so can anybody recommend any good reading matter for the coop?
Its just a shame Haynes didnt do one for these fab cars - would have been a good read me thinks...
Cheers all
Lenny

I've been reading "The Life of Senna", it's a good read if F1 and the man himself are of any interest to you.

Gareth

Time for a spot of Thread ressurection.

Recently finished The Black Swan by Naseem Nicholas Taleb. If I had to define it I'd say it was an economics book, but its really about uncertainty, and particularly how we are not able to cope with it, and how we can be entirely blind to it. Its more in the Freakonomics vein, but thats not a fair comparison. Interesting stuff, but it took some work. Taleb is a lively author, and writes in a really engaging way, but some of the things he is trying to explain make your brain ache, as its outside our normal ways of thinking. It also picked up the fudamentally unstable position of the banking industry in 2006 (when it was written) and picks on Fannie Mae as an unstable bank. Crikey. Very provocative, and its still making me think.

If anyone has read it and can recommend similar, please do.

Before that Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie - pretty much what you would expect from Maconie. I found it funny, as a grumpy Northern git myself. Loved the definition of a Northern town - A street with a Superdrug and a Greggs.

Also Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. Interwoven stories of 3 women in Toronto, and their highly exploitative relationships with a 4th woman, Zenia. These relationships were what brought them together. Its good stuff, as the reader's picture of Zenia builds through the stories of the 3 women, and it leaves you wondering who the real victim was. Atwood books are usually very good. This was no exception.

Just read "Tricks of the Mind" by Derren Brown.

Most enlightning from the master manipulator

Whilst on holiday recently I read a couple of books.

Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. It was crap. I could go on so I shall. Imagine someone kidnapped Dan Brown, beat him around the head with a blunt instrument a few times and then forced him to write a James Bond novel. I know it's Bond, but the characters were weak, the plot line was very thin and the twist at the end was apparent from about 4 chapters in. Don't bother unless you only read books to make yourself feel better about the amount of TV you watch.

The Butt by Will Self. Having just read the trash I described above I had high hopes for this book and it really didn't disappoint. From the most innocuous of beginnings with a man giving up smoking by discarding his last burnt down smoke off his hotel balcony, Self manages to create a mysterious and rich land as a backdrop for a great story. The plot overview is that the butt injures a man below and the archaic laws of this strange country mean reparations have to be paid, but it plays out and twists in ways that have your mind racing, not the plot line itself. If you have an attention span longer than "Look, shiny!" then I can't see how anyone couldn't enjoy this novel. One of few new works of fiction that have left me deeply moved and somewhat disturbed when I came to the last page.

I haven't seen the old book review thread pop up here for a while, so rather than trawling through the archives for it I thought I'd start a new thread.

One of the mods is welcome to stitch this on to the end of the old thread, if they can be bothered (and if they can't then what the hell do we pay them for, eh?).

I've actually only got one book to add, but it was one that I loved, so I wanted to write it up ...

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Ben Goldacre is both a doctor and a columnist for The Guardian and it's hardly surprising therefore that the main thrust of this book is the relationship between medicine and the media. While he tackles familiar subjects - do alternative medicines work, are nutrionalists frauds, are drug companies evil - the over-riding message is that it's almost impossible for even an intelligent person to make informed decisions based on what's reported in the press.

Given that Goldacre covers such fascinating subjects as how clinical trial work (or are supposed to) and how statistics are gathered and reported this could have been a very dry work indeed, but he's got a witty turn of phrase and, apart from occasionally being a little patronising, he's a pleasure to read.

I suspect that if you have any belief at all in alternative medicines then this book will make you feel, at least, slightly uncomfortable. Alternatively it may make you genuinely angry at how much bunk is pedalled, aided and abetted by the media and, in some cases, governments or even royalty. Either way I'd heartly recommend it - you'll never see a medical item on the news in the same way again.

This is on my "generic online book store" wish list. I also added to my last order but grabed a Dawkins books instead.

The Derren Brown book sounds similar as some of the chapters are regarding stats, alternative medicine and logic traps

I reckon Vickster may have something to say here...!

In book terms, I've mostly read crap lately, as I seem to be addicted to Police Procedural. I read Ian Rankin's post-Rebus Doors Open, but it just wasn't the same without the seedy, smoke-reeking old curmudgeon. The latest Reginald Hill Dalziel and Pascoe was as good as ever (I really enjoy these for my sins), but Lynda LaPlante's Deadly Intent was poorly researched cack. Repeatedly talking about a Mercedes car "jack-knifing" in a motorway accident was the final straw. I won't be rushing to read another of hers...

I did read a few rather more interesting bits and bobs though:

Salam Pax's Baghdad Blog is a great window on what it was like for ordinary Iraqi's in the build-up to and during the second Gulf War. Written with sharp humour and a style that will surprise many with its "Western-ness". My wife recently spent a week working in Baghdad and met the author, who is apparently a thoroughly nice bloke.

The Buddha, Geoff and Me is a light read in novel form that deals with Buddhism and its relevance to everyday life. At times annoying and patronising, but generally quite enlightening (ha!) and without too many pat conclusions, I quite enjoyed it as a beginner's guide.

My favourites of the summer were two books dealing loosely with the same subject (Eastern Europeans coming to the UK to find work). The first is Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka (who wrote Short History of Tractors in Ukranian, though I have yet to read this). We meet a disparate group of mostly illegal workers initially picking strawberries in Kent, though through a chain of amusing and less-amusing events, the main protagonists end up in London and on a quest to get to Sheffield, home to the mythical leader "Vloonki".

Generally light in tone, there is some dark stuff here too. I liked it.

The next book I read turned out to share a theme: The Road Home, by Rose Tremain. This is a much less frivolous-seeming treatment of the subject, but ironically, lacks the extreme nastiness of Two Caravans. Overall, and possibly because the lead character Lev is allowed some fairly big character flaws, I really liked The Road Home. There is a critical look at us, the British, combined with some of the better aspects of our national character. There is tragedy, pain, humour and, eventually, redemption.
Has to be my favourite for some time.

Currently reading Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield. Superb!

Reading this at the moment - it is very interesting as is Dawkins's Modern Science book

I'm reading My Life So Far (Frankie Boyle)

There's not much science in it so far, but it has touched on the media on occassion

It's good to see this thread back again, even if my most recent read has been very much a re-read ...

Fermat's last theorem by Simon Singh

For a book which is, essentially, a history of mathematics to become a number one best-seller says a lot about the skill of the author, but that's what Singh managed when Fermat's Last Theorem was published in the late 90s.

The story, in brief, is that Fermat - a 17th century amateur (but very gifted) mathematician - was playing with variations on Pythagorean triples which say that X^2 + Y^2 = Z^2 and for which it can be proven that there are an infinite number of whole number solutions (X=3, Y=4 and Z=5 being the first). However when the equation is moved from square numbers to cubed or larger numbers there don't appear to be any solutions at all, i.e. X^n + Y^n = Z^n has no whole number solutions for values of n > 2.

Although mathematicians could not find any whole numbers to fit this equation they also could not prove that, in the infinity of numbers, no such solution existed. Fermat infuriated generations of mathematicians by writing, in the margin of a book containing the equation, "I have a truly marvellous proof for this, which unfortunately this margin is too small to contain". His proof seems never to have been written down or discussed with anybody else and so the problem haunted mathematicians from the discovery of Fermat's note, after his death.

Singh opens the book with the lecture at Cambridge in 1993 where British mathematician Andrew Wiles first announced his proof of the theorem, but then moves back in time to Pythagoras and the origins of mathematics as a scientific discipline rather than just an accountancy or problem-solving tool. He then takes us through the history of maths right up to Wiles' remarkable proof.

This could easily have been the dullest, driest book in the world, but every chapter of it sparkles. Although most people (well, me, anyway) will have lost track of the mathematics by the time Fermat himself enters the scene Singh does a remarkable job of making the esoteric world of number theory understandable and manages to explain underlying concepts of the maths without ever sounding like a textbook.

It's only really the closing chapters of the book, which cover the discovery of a gap in Wiles' proof and his work to fix the problem (which he did by 1996) which really are too abstract to work well with this treatment. Overall this is a stunning book - it is a history of 3,000 years of maths and the brilliant, often tragic, figures who transformed it, it's the story of one person's obsession with solving a problem and it's the story of the problem itself, which hung over maths like a cloud for 350 years. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

On a similar vein, I recently read Longitude by Dava Sobel, which is about the search for a reliable method for sailors to establish longitude when out of sight of land. It really is amazing to think how much calamity was caused by not being able to accurately determine longitude.

This is another scientific best seller, in this case with partial thanks to Del Boy Trotter, as it rotates around (see what I did there?) John Harrison's lifelong quest to get the Board of Longitude to accept his Sea Clocks, against the most entrenched opposition.

This could also have been the dullest book in the world. It isn't. Its very informative, and similarly to the above, written in a really engaging way, which keeps you coming back.

Agree with the sentiments of both posts. There's also a book Simon Singh wrote about code breaking - the title escapes me - but also well worth noting.

Though you may not be aware that Singh is in deep at the moment - he's being sued under the Byzantine and unfair UK libel laws.

Harrison's grave can be found approximately in the centre of this image, at St John's in Hampstead. linky

I read and enjoyed Longitude a few years ago, but I fear that Fermat may be beyond me.

I'm currently reading A case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif and it's shaping up well. It's a fictional account of the events leading up to the death of Pakistani dictator General Zia Ul Haq, featuring conspiracy amid the Pakistani armed forces and a comically surreal and witty style. Unfortunately, I only have time to read when I take my infrequent trips to France to see my kids, so everything takes a fair while to get through.

Before this I read Salaam Brick Lane by Tarquin Hall - an interesting history of the immigrant communities that have populated this area of London for centuries, beginning with the Huguenots from France, through the East-European Jewish settlers to the modern day Bangladeshis now being replaced by Afghans and (mainly) Somalis. Colourful goes without saying, but as the book is told from the perspective of a white, middle class "native" Englishman who finds himself - reluctantly at first - living on Brick Lane, it also has some more down-to-earth realities.

When I finish my current read, I have the new Iaiaiaiaian Banks awaiting, Transition, which I hope is better than his last...

Isn't it Simon Singh that is being sued about his comments on alternative medicine? I think he's a friend of Tim Minchin (if it's him).

It's called The Code Book and is, indeed, an excellent read, although some of the later chapters on quantum cryptography have to be read very carefully if you're to understand their significance.



I didn't know this, but I've just read up on it quickly. Alternative medicine, and the prestigious support it enjoys in this country, is really starting to pee me off, I tell you.

Anyway, back on topic. I have just finished Shakespeare by Bill Bryson - a biography that goes to great pains to tell us how hard it is to write a biography of Shakespeare, because we know next to nothing about him. We don't know excatly when he was born, we can't definitely place him except on a few dates in his life, we don't know what order he wrote his works in, we know nothing of his sexuality and we have only 14 words written in his own handwriting - 8 of them on one document, his will.

So what Bryson presents is as much as we do know, a background to late Elizabethan/early Jacobian life and some details of the wild surmises that other biographers, historical and more contemporary, have jumped to. He does all of this with his usual light touch, making this fairly slim volume an easy work to romp through at a fair old pace (I read most of it in a hospital bed, yesterday, while awaiting the doctor with the 2 half-bricks). As is usual for Bryson he adds colour with potted biographies of some of Shakespeare's contemporaries and later researchers, which means that this book isn't wall-to-wall bard.

In all it's a great book, which many will not read because they are put off by the subject - most of us having Shakespeare forced upon us at school - but it's worth persevering past the title page, even if you have only the most casual of interest.

As Tim Minchin says: "You know what they call 'alternative medicine' that’s been proved to work?
Medicine."

Apropos of which, Monday's Beyond Belief is no doubt still available on iPlayer. I couldn't make my mind up whether to laugh or cry as three loons discussed the relative efficacy of various alternate quackeries.

Tim Minchin: If you open your mind too much, your brain will fall out.

Sort of related, I recently read The Last Theorem by Arthur C Clarke

Last two books read are: My Booky Wook by Russel Brand... not as side splittingly funny as we are lead to believe. In fact I saw it as the self justified trail of destruction left by a very disturbed individual.

Monstrous Regiment by Pterry Pratchett. What can I say... ptypically Pterry It's about a girl who dresses as a boy and enlists in the army to find her brother. Set in a land where the God (Nuggan) is very fond of declaring abominations, the latest ones being rocks and accordian players. The army of Borogrovia is constantly at war with everyone, but is running out of soldiers, money and food, but refuses to stop.

Currently reading the I Ching... just a little light reading after the recent heavy stuff

Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys by Neil Oliver.
I first heard about this book while the author was being interviewed on BBC2 a year ago. For one reason or another I have put off reading it until now.
This book chronicles the greatest Hero stories in history, from Charge of the light brigade to Apollo 11 and 13, The siege of Constantinople, and many others. The authors genuine empathy and humanity comes across in this book and the narration is filled with incidental anecdotes that add a truly legendary flavour to the stories told. Some of the tales I am very familiar with (shackleton's expedition via Georgia) some, I read about for the first time (the devils of camerone..wow). Each one told with colour and feeling. I would rate this book 8.5 out of ten and recommend all growing boys from 8 to 80 to read this book, if it was not for the one issue that had me groaning throughout.

The problem..

It is clear that all of us are susceptible to a little National pride now and again, I am Welsh and so I know what it means to have nationalistic pride (even when its not justified sometimes..(OK. most of the time)). This author (Scottish) takes this to a whole new level. I had to check the inside cover more than once to make sure the publisher was not the Scottish national party or some such organisation. What I am talking about here is a ridiculous need by the author to include the names of Scots who were linked to one of the stories (however tenuous the link). Obviously some Scots deserve special mention in some of the stories Collingwood for starters. ( I always thought he had a bad deal in the shadow of nelson during Trafalgar). It gets so bad that if you look at the black and white photos in the centre section of the book, you will find a picture of captain Scott. Underneath this photo are the words.."The greatest hero of them all). I honestly believe that the reason the author believes this, has more to do with the explorers name than anything he did. If you think that ridiculous, so would I, until I read this book.
This book could have been great, really great, damn you Neil Oliver.

I actually struggled through this book in the end, something a reader should never have to do.
so its a 4 out of 10 from me. I had such high hopes for this book.

Gareth

Finally got around to reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Epic book. Am emotionally drained. 10/10.

Try 'The Complaints', I can see that turning into a series, I wouldn't be surprised if Rebus makes a cameo either.

A cult (yes, cult) book for the thread now ... The Beach by Alex Garland.

On his first night on the tourist trail in Thailand English backpacker Richard is kept awake by the Scottish guy in the next room ranting about a beach. The next day the Scot, who gave his name as Daffy Duck, has slit his wrists, but not before he's passed to Richard a beautifully drawn map showing the location of the beach he obsessed about.

Richard, accompanied by a French couple he meets - Etienne and Francoise - set off in search of the mythical location, hidden on an island in a Thai nature reserve where tourists are forbidden. What they find is an idyllic tropical paradise which is the home to 30 or so travellers of all nationalities who have isolated themselves from the world.

Life for the 3 newcomers becomes beautiful, as they settle in to the routine of fishing, swimming and forgetting about their previous lives. Naturally not all is well. The beach commune shares the island with a Thai drug-lord and his cannabis fields, with a seemingly unspoken agreement between the two groups to ignore each other. The greater threat, however, is the insanity that comes with isolation and which starts to make itself felt in the lengths that the beach-dwellers will go to in order to keep their paradise secret and prevent the disintegration of the community.

Because the story is told in the first person from Richard's perspective it's easy to follow him through his journey without realising just how far insane he has gone, in spite of his dreams about Daffy Duck becoming full-blown hallucinations, but his new life starts to blend in to his video-game obsession and fascination with the Vietnam war, leading to a shattering conclusion.

Garland builds the story magnificently, keeping you turning the pages and saving the darkest sides of island life until right at the end, when you're finally allowed to see how far from sanity and morality the group have strayed.

By any criteria this is a great book, a meandering story that pulses with foreboding about events to come, populated with well drawn characters and with something to say about the price of paradise.

And - you won't be surprised to hear - the book beats the crap out of the film. Although you'll be hard pushed to find a better soundtrack of its time.

Try The Tessaract next if you enjoyed that.

I've read The Tessaract - it was ambitious, but flawed.

I have just read A few kind words and a loaded gun by Noel 'Razor' Smith

Razor is a habitual criminal and this is his story, at the point of writing he was 42 years of age and had spent more than half his life behind bars. It starts from his birth, his troubled childhood, his life in and out of young offender institues, prisons and the outside world.

Its a fantastic read, its gritty and doesn't hold back. All in all Razor is not a nice person, but he knows that. The part of his life in prison are excellent reading and certainly paints a different picture to what the Daily Mail would have you believe!

What made it great for me, was the area Razor was brought up in, is not far from me, South London. Many of the pubs he mentions are pubs I drunk in as a teenager, I always thought they were rough places, I just never knew ot what extent!

So if you like true life stories, don't hesitate to read this.

PS. I read it one day, just couldn't put it down!

You've got my address, send it on

My brother has pinched it already, but when he returns it, its yours

Cheers Jim

Has it really been 4 months since anybody on here read a book worth talking about? Oh well, I'll add my thoughts on ...

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

This is a much acclaimed science fiction book, which is probably what persuaded me to read it, despite my general lack of fondness for SF.

The story starts on Earth, about 70 years after mankind's 2nd war with the insectiod alien race known as 'the buggers'. Mankind would have been destroyed in 2nd war without the tactical genius of Mazer Rackham, so an uneasy political treaty maintains the International Force which selects promising children to train to be the future saviours of mankind.

Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin is selected, at the age of 6, to leave his family and enter the elite off-world Battle School and the story tells of his emerging tactical genius and how he is manipulated by the adults around him, hoping to mould him. Ender's childhood is sold to buy a future for humanity, as he is deliberately isolated, made to repeatedly face unfair odds, trained to exhaustion and pushed almost to the point of insanity. However, it's not until the novel's climax that Ender realises just how deep the lies go and sees what he has become.

This isn't a bad book, but for me it seemed to lack any real depth and it pushes of suspension of belief to breaking point to accept that the words and actions described come from children under the age of 12. That said, it kept me turning the pages and the revelations at the end of the story are enough to make me want to read the sequel, Speaker for the dead.

Given that apparently <ahem> you can easily find a pdf of the full novel on the net it's worth Googling and having a read.

Good review there Andrew. I read this book many years ago and it was a great book for someone just getting to grips with Sci-Fi for the first time.
Other Orson S Card books have left me a little cold, although Speaker for the Dead is one of his better ones IIRC.

I finished A Case of Exploding Mangoes as above and it was pretty good. One of those "heading for an already inevitable ending" books, which leads me neatly on to Transition, the latest by Iain Banks. Although not an Iain M. Banks, this is him doing that sci-fi masquerading as normal fiction thing, and I think he does it well. The story is told from the perspective of a number of protagonists whose future relationship becomes gradually clearer. The title is derived from the discovery that there is an almost infinite number of parallel worlds and that certain people can slip or transition in between them. As ever, there is a shady power that seeks to control this, in this instance the Concern. Although it's not the most imaginative of Banks' books, I enjoyed it as a readable romp, unlike the stodgy and frankly dull Steep Approach to Garbadale. If you can't be bothered to read it, it's available as a free podcast on Amazon. Which is nice!

I'm now reading the first of Stieg Larsson's ubiquitous Millennium Trilogy - The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. It's a very slow starter for a thriller, and seems rather stilted in a stiff, Scandinavian way. I have a sense that it's been translated, but that may just be my professional radar working overtime. Now that I'm 300 pages into it, I'm enjoying it and may seek the second book when I've finished. I'll let you know...

Well, following on from Ender's Game last week, this week I have mainly been reading ...

Speaker for the dead by Orson Scott Card

Three thousand years have passed since the end of the bugger wars and, in that time, mankind has spread out to colonize a hundred worlds amongst the stars. Ender is remembered as the worst human who ever lived, for his part in the genocide (or xenocide) of the buggers, but under his pseudonym - the speaker for the dead - which he used to write the history of the bugger race he is remembered as one of the greatest humans, the founder of a vast humanist religion.

On all of the inhabited star systems only one has been found to hold other intelligent life - Lusitania, a remote world colonized by Portuguese-speaking Brazilian Catholics. They share their world with the 'piggies', a primitive tribal race that are observed under strict controls, to prevent human contamination of their society.

When the piggies brutally murder one of the scientists who had befriended them his adoptive daughter sends out for a speaker to speak of his life.

Ender has spent much of the time since the bugger wars travelling between worlds at near light speed, so from his personal perspective only quarter of a century has passed. He is also carrying with him the last remaining queen of the buggers, looking for a planet where he can leave her to rebuild bugger society. He answers the call for a speaker and, after nearly 30 years of space travel, arrives to find himself in the middle of a delicate situation, where Catholicism, alien culture, deep rooted secrets and human fear are clashing.

As with Ender's Game this book felt very lightweight to me and I couldn't shake off the impression that I was reading a children's book. There are elements that I quite like; mankind's lack of understanding in a lot of the technology they have, the alien culture of the piggies and the 'realistic' treatment of near light-speed travel, but the novel from Ender's arrival on Lusitania reads like one extended deus ex machina ending, devoid of any real conflict.

Anyway, if I've decided not to read any more in the series, so I'm off to find something completely new to try. Something a bit more grown-up, hopefully.

I am currently reading

Fire by Kristin Kashore

This is the 2nd book of the 7 Kingdoms Trilogy (the 1st being Graceling which i have also read).

She is the last of her kind...

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

It's pretty light reading and can be read with little effort put in but it does completely capture you with the way the world has been shaped by the author.

If i am honest i am about 3 quarters through and i still believe Graceling was the much better book but both are worth a read.

Iceberg by Clive Cussler:

Major Dirk Pitt finds a boat that was never lost, visits Disney Land, saves the world and turns down the chance of sex with a post op transexual. All fuelled by copious amounts of alchol and cigarettes.

A ripping yarn indeed.

Remember to Tune in next time when I review 'The Last Testament' by Sam Bourne

Okay a variety to choose from, for various tastes - random bookshelf pickings.

I do enjoy (although that is probably the wrong word) accounts of miscarriages of justice. Very influenced by the old Rough Justice series (and I recommend anyone who does not know about the Stefan Kiszko case should do!) They obviously always try to do things one step better in the US, so ended up reading a non-fiction John Grisham, An Innocent Man. Worth reading and, I suspect the only time the author is going to be mentioned in this thread!

Hanif Kureshi - The Body and other collected stories. You know what, some people swoon at his writing, and it is well written, but it wasn't doing anything for me. The Body is an interesting conceit though. All started feeling a bit self-indulgent towards the end.

Dice Man - Luke Rheinhart (George Cockcroft). A seminal work, that I probably would have enjoyed more had I got round to reading it when I was younger. As it is it felt like a big adult book for the Nuts generation. Unpleasant. For the first time ever I binned a book rather than allow someone else to read it.

A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick. Pick of this bunch. Very interesting literary devices (that were new to me anyway). Not a great deal of action - relying more on its language, but a tale told well and beautifully paced and written. Interesting because I didn't want to like this one, but I wanted to like Mr Kureshi. I have no doubt it is the sort of book that Oprah and Richard and Judy will have recommended and I feel terribly dirty.

In my desperation for reading material I even picked up the wife's Chris Ryan - can't remember what it was called, but the hero was called something like Dirk Slazenger or Rock Steel. Good gravy! Even worse that I dared to anticipate. The plot holes actually made it wryly amusing, but ultimately frustrating. Don't, just don't. If you like those sort of books can I suggest you will like Lee Childs' series about Reacher. Still popcorn, but much much better written popcorn.

Finally, ought to mention Mongol Rally - 3 weeks in the unknown, by FCCUK's own John Irving. It's not going to win the Booker prize - it is his first person jottings of his journey and reads exactly how it is, but sharing his passion for travelling and adventure I have thoroughly enjoyed his wing and a prayer account.

I read Dice Man a few years ago and found it pretty disappointing. I would say it's simply a book whose time has past. The mood it tried to capture is gone.

And what I eneded up with was Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, a book I've had hanging around on my shelf for a while, waiting to be read.

Up until a few years ago (when I read The sirens of Titan) all I would have been able to tell you about Vonnegut was that he was a science-fiction writer. It's certainly true that his books sometimes involve time-travel, or spaceships or advanced technology, but the focus of his books is always humanity and I've never read another author who is willing to take such a dark and subversive look at life.

Cat's Cradle is narrated in the first-person by an author, looking to write a book about what various people were doing on the day that the first atomic bomb was dropped. As part of his research he contacts the children of the late Nobel-laureate, Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the fathers of the bomb. This drags him into the strange lives of the three children, the desperately poor Caribbean island of San Lorenzo, it's strange religion, Bokononism, and Dr Hoenikker's last gift to mankind - Ice nine, a crystal which makes water ice at room temperature ... all water.

This book sparkles all of the way through. From the sheer genius of Bokononism (the only religion to openly acknowledge that all of its great truths are lies), to the use of the Cat's Cradle as a metaphor, the utterly banal conversations that people have about huge topics and the the fun that is poked at nationalism, the relationship between government and religion and the arms race.

I really think that this is my favourite Vonnegut book so far, which is saying something, and I'd highly recommend it.

Good review Andrew.I picked up Cats cradle and Galápagos while at the Hay book festival a few weeks ago. I have just finished Galápagos, a strange book indeed(I'll do a review later). Looking forward to Cats Cradle, which I will start tonight.

Well I've been back on non-fiction recently, with Voodoo Histories: How conspiracy theory has shaped modern history by David Aaronovitch, a book which I felt didn't quite deliver all that it could have done. It does go through some of the most significant conspiracy theories of the past 120 or so years, and covers them in some detail, but it never quite engages.

It falls at the first hurdle by trying to go with a chronological structure, so it starts with the late 19th/early 20th century theories about Jewish cabals dominating the world, as laid down in The protocols of the elders of Zion. It was undoubtedly a huge conspiracy theory, and one which Aaronovitch has no problems debunking and it did, almost certainly, have a major effect on modern history. However, it's no longer a popular conspiracy theory and, thus, makes a pretty staid start to the book.

Aaronovitch moves on to the show-trials of Stalin's Russia, which attempted to pass off the pain of the USSR's rapid move from an agrarian economy to an industrial one as the work of an army of Trotskyist conspirators and saboteurs. While, again, this was undoubtedly of historical significance it's not that sexy a story any more. It also, bizarrely, seems to be more of a case of a conspiracy theory going right. The Soviet government did hoodwink its own people, and most of the Western world, into believing that Trotsky commanded a vast army of communists-turned-fascists, and it was only patient detective work by a few people who refused to swallow the government line that exposed the show trials for what they were.

From there the ground covered is more familiar - FDR's knowledge/planning of Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination ... and so on, right through to the 9/11 truthers, the death of Dr David Kelly and the complete non-starter conspiracy theory of where Barack Obama was born. Although this ground is more familiar it's less obvious how the conspiracy theories, as distinct from the events themselves, changed modern history. Aaronovitch debunks with glee, but needs to put in a little more spadework to show what the bunk amounted to, other than a bit of unnecessary government spending on public inquiries.

This book is at its best when its looking at who starts conspiracy theories, who believes them (i.e. insignificant lay-persons who delight in having the intelligence to see the truth, unlike the stupid sheep around them) and how theorists pick apart tiny inconsistencies in plausible stories to show how they must indicate massively unlikely events. However, on a lot of other levels it fails. It's not a comprehensive list of modern conspiracy theories (no mention of the moon-landings, for example), nor is it a full debunking of every aspect of any one of the theories it does devote time to.

Falling between these stools it becomes a bit too deep for casual, light-hearted perusal, but not a full in-depth investigation of any one theory. It's not a bad book, but it is a struggle at times and, given the self-contained nature of the chapters, it might be best to just read up on the theories which intrigue you personally.

Sounds interesting. I love conspiracy theorists, they are just great people to tie up in their own logic. The thing is, a lot of the time, their theories are actually based on something real, but they really don't like it when you present them with this truth. I find it intriguing how they so easily debunk real evidence and accept hearsay with gay abandon.

Anyway, this is quite interesting.

To keep the thread on track, I'm currently reading "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson.

I've only ever read "Notes from a Small Island", and didn't find it as side-splittingly funny as was commented on the back cover, so my initial reaction was "Oh... him" when my girlfriend offered me the book.

However... this book is fascinating. If you're into etymology and the history of language, it's brilliant!

I was never that struck by Mother Tongue, but if you like his serious stuff and language then Made in America is absolutely brilliant.

Reading the Bone Hunter by Tom Holland at the moment. He uses bigger words than Sam Bourne, and hopefully knows how to produce a better and less predictable ending than I experienced reading 'The Last Testament'

These books don't really need much of a review. They are just staple 'Boys Own Adventures'. Easily read, easily forgotten. Though that is maybe a little bit unfair to The Bone Hunter.

Anyway I think Slavoj Zizek’s 'Living in the End Times' will be my holiday read, if/when I ever get around to booking somewhere.

As is The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg.

I'm still ploughing through the Millennium Trilogy. And I like it. There, I've said it.

I love the way all the protagonists are so Swedish. Everyone is in a love-triangle relationship or has sex with colleagues or is gay and it's completely cool and they have summer cabins in places with unpronounceable names.

... return of the book review thread.

(Mods, feel free to merge into the last thread. If it still exists, and you can find it ... hang on, haven't we gone into the open credits of The A-Team here?)

Anyway, I digress.

More than quarter of a century ago my parents, being middle-class to the core, discovered gíte holidays in rural France. To a young lad, such as myself, these holidays had many downsides - being stuck in the middle of nowhere for 2 weeks, too young to drink wine, surrounded by non-English speakers, no amusement parks, etc.

One of these downsides was the 2 day drive from North-East England to central France, trapped in the car with my younger brother and my parents (who both smoked).

For one such journey (in, I presume, 1984) I was instructed to buy a book to read in the car. My memory is of making a selection from a low shelf in a shop that wasn't really a book shop, perhaps a newsagents or a motorway service station. The selected book was not one I'd heard of and was written by an author whose name was entirely unfamiliar to me, so it must have been a near random choice - although, as it turned out, one which probably influenced my life to a greater degree than any other book I've ever bought.

When it comes to my favourite books I enjoy them, but I don't really connect with them on an emotional level. I am not Winston Smith, tortured physically, emotionally and intellectually into accepting the repressive state, and I am not Yossarian, whose madness is the only rational response to the insanity that surrounds him, but the book I bought back in 1984 was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend - and there was a protagonist I could relate to. I was 12.

In the 27 years since then I have grown up with 'Moley'. The first books were daring - discussing topics that I couldn't talk about with my parents; sex and sexuality, a teenager's need to be an individual, but also be accepted by their peers, the creative (as opposed to the procreative) urge. The later books have always, in some way, reflected my life. The last book ([Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction) I hated, possibly because some it was too close and too cutting.

Anyway, on with the review - yesterday I bought the latest book in the series, Adrian Mole - The prostate years. I bought it, I claim, only because it was the only other book in Waterstones' "3 for 2" offer that I was interested in (having already picked up Any Human Heart by William Boyd and Why does E=MC^2 by Brian Cox).

At the end of weapons of... we left Adrian bankrupt and living with his parents, as they converted the piggery they'd bought into housing, but emotionally settled with the sister of his ex-fiancée, Daisy.

...Prostate years picks up five years later, with Adrian facing as many worries as ever. His wife no longer loves him and he may be cuckolded, his daughter is unmanageable, his parents are ageing, his employment is coming to an end, his eldest son (from a teenage tryst) is serving in Afghanistan, he still yearns for his first sweetheart, Pandora, and, on top of all of this, he's battling prostate cancer. He's the same age as I am now.

There are a lot of thing I didn't like about this book; I don't think that Townsend adding, with the benefit of hindsight, Adrian's comments showing amazing lack of foresight is particularly funny/clever, the letters penned to famous people should have gone out of the window 3 or 4 books ago, some of the characters and situations ring far from true and there are a number of continuity errors, but...

... the truth is I've hardly read a thing for 6 months, but here I am posting the review of a 400+ page book the day after I bought it. I've really enjoyed this book, and it's left many loose ends to tie up. I've never laughed at the Mole books, but I have found this one far more wryly amusing than any of the others. It's well plotted, although it develops, rather than concludes a number of storylines. I suppose that in the history of one character that is inevitable. I think that I just want some things to be finally sorted, perhaps in the hope that a happy ending for Adrian means a lot to many 40ish people like myself.

I'm moving straight onto Boyd's Any human heart (also about a diarist and frustrated novelist with many loves, funnily enough), but I think this Mole book will stick with me for a while. As with earlier Harry Potter reviews I suppose that if you haven't read the books so far you won't start here, but if you've never missed one then you won't make an exception based on this review. However, I have to say, Ms. Townsend, why did you bring Brett back? He wasn't missed when he vanished from the story 20 years ago, and his re-insertion here was gauche and unnecessary.

Wow, more Mole! I'm off to buy it now! I'm reading "the night shift" by Stephen King, excellent short stories, one of those addictive books you read perhaps more than you should per night because you're enjoying it.

I read the original Mole when it came out, and found it amusing. However as a right winger I found Susan Townsend@s constant left wing bias tiring ( I was about 20 at the time, perhaps on a revisit I may be a bit more open minded, though I doubt it).

I've been reading some Stephen Leather, I find his novels well constructed, with his characters well developed and likeable even when "baddies", though he never makes them deserving of unqualified sympathy. His novels are full of action, without his heroes being able to achieve superhuman feats, or being without their own character faults. I won't attempt to write a review, but I would recommend his books (having not read all of them). Hungry Ghost, Solitary Man and Tango One are all good reads (particularly Hungry Ghost).

Merged, Andrew.

Never could stand Mole, myself.

Any Human Heart in its version for the small screen I thought was a tour de force with breathtaking performances from the cast. One couldn't not give a special mention to Jim Broadbent who hardly needed to utter a word to convey his thoughts. The screenplay was done and kept tabs on by William Boyd himself, something I would liken to a composer rearranging one of their orchestral works for piano 4-hands rather than a third party doing it later on.
So good luck with the book Andrew.

As Jim says the opening chapters of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first of the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, are heavy-going but as the story unfolds there is a gradual release of uncanny magnetism which makes it almost impossible to put to one side. I have now completed the second book, The Girl who Played with Fire, that oddly enough had a slow patch toward the middle. With the benefit of hindsight I would describe it as the calm before the storm, that is the final volume, The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest that starts off with a bang and just keeps running. Gripping stuff.
Major issues are about violence toward women backed by statistics collected particularly in Sweden, government conspiracy, computer-hacking and a gentle extended learn-all-about-Sweden/Stockholm geography lesson. All wrapped up in two main characters one of whom is a made-acceptable philanderer with oddly cosy relationships and the other.....The Girl!
There is an interesting article about Larsson and his life-time partner here click
that explains their decision not to get married was to do with the need to keep identity and address as private as possible for fear of reprisals from factions upset by his in-depth sleuthing.
As Proccy is reading this atm I will divulge no more, but have no hesitation in recommending this cracking set.

For those that can't be arsed to read, I'd recommend audiobooks from Audible.co.uk. For 15 quid a month, you can download 2 books. And you can end it when you like.

I've been through the Millenium Triology (above) which is fun (and read by a Swede so you can get the names pronounced properly )

I'm currently listening to What I Talk About When I Talk About Running which is different and interesting.

Listened to The Fry Chronicles which is read by Fry himself and is good (voted Audiobook of the Year)

Ok MRS can you do a phonetic for Blomkvist [a main character in TGWTDT] for me? I keep getting my beard in knots attempting to say it.

good write up Edinburgh - i'm in the middle of volume 2 now so keep schtum please

ps i'm not a slow reader, just get limited time

Bloom quist

(said in a Swedish-style accent)

How people cope with the street names, I have no idea - they sound very complicated

Having a quiet night in reading it now (helped by a rather nice rioja).

I nearly didn't watch past the first part of the TV programme, because I found the whole thing too familiar. It seemed to have echoes of too many other things I'd seen or read. I only watched the 2nd part because there was nothing else on, although I'm very glad I did as it represented a real turning point in the story. Once Logan stopped flouncing around Europe, meeting real life famous people and the programme became his story it was far more moving and interesting.

So far the book's going well, although he hasn't even reached Oxford yet (which ISTR is where the TV programme started).

Quite right, and if it wasn't for Mrs Ed's better judgement against my grudging "oh I don't really fancy watching this, committing myself to four parts" I would have missed it too.

I am an avid Boyd fan, so I read Any Human Heart when it came out. I can't now remember anything about it (for those who know me, apologies for this unnecessary point), except that I enjoyed it more than The Blue Afternoon and less than Armadillo.

I finished the Larsson trilogy with the feeling that if there was a fourth book I wouldn't buy it. I loved reading it, but enough is enough.

Adrian Mole never got me at all. Or possibly the other way around, but in recent years I've sort of wished that I did like it.

I recently read Deadheads by Reginald Hill. I can't avoid reading anything by him, especially the Dalziel and Pascoe novels. For anyone who has had the misfortune of seeing the TV version, please strike it from your mind and read one of the books. The word travesty springs to mind (and not in the French sense).

Before that I was trying to read an autobiography of Salman Ahmad, called Rock n Roll Jihad. Ahmad is a Pakistani rockstar of Bono-like fame across the subcontinent (30 million album sales) and recently he worked on a record in aid of the Pakistan flood victims with Peter Gabriel (called Open Your Eyes, it is as squirm-inducing as most charity records). Unfortunately I haven't completely got to grips with the book, so I've moved on via a reasonably interesting Brighton-set police thriller by Peter James (there's a series about copper Roy Grace) to A Habit of Dying, by David J Wiseman. This is a novel that combines a murder mystery with family history research. I think it's more likely to appeal generally to my parents' generation - both my folks are mad-keen amateur genealogists, but I'm enjoying it so far. I should add that the author is my Father-in-Law, so I might not be entirely unbiased in my assessment of it.

Better late than.......... ta for that, so the V is a W, the opposite of German.

Yup - I had Danish au pairs when I was a teenager (where am I going with this...... ah yes)

Vest is the opposite of east and
West is something you wear under your shirt

Is this a sort of pastry?


Just to keep this on topic, the third vol. of the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is still going strong at p.450 [only another 300 to go] without letting up. New characters appear all of a sudden to add to the intricacy and are described in such detail, almost laboriously that it's difficult not to be left with an indelible impression of each - more than I can say for the constant referrals to street names and districts which go in one ear and out of t'other.

I don't think I would kill for yet another of these stories even though there is rumour of one. Finishing these three is easily encroaching into my OCD area.

Here we are again and, as promised, I moved from Adrian Mole to Any Human Heart by William Boyd.

This book tells story of life of Logan Mountstuart through his sporadic journals, which document his personal journey through the 20th century.

Logan has a successful early life, moving from public school to Oxford university, the heir to a fortune left by his father. He is a published author and married to an earl's daughter by the time he is in his mid-20s. Stiffled by the sedate Norfolk life of the landed gentry he begins an affair with a BBC producer, Freya, eventually marrying her after a messy divorce.

During the war he is assigned to keep an eye on the Duke of Windsor (the title given to Edward VIII after his abdication) in the Bahamas, but after refusing to co-operate in framing an innocent man for murder he is given a new assignment in Switzerland trying to catch high-ranking Nazis trying to flee to South America. In Switzerland he is captured, treated as a spy and kept in solitary confignment for two years.

Emerging at the end of the war he discovers that his beloved Freya had thought him dead and re-married and then later been killed by a V-2 bomb.

After a long period of mourning he emerges as an art dealer in New York, working for his school-friend, Ben Leeping. He is forced to leave New York in a hurry after beginning a sexual relationship with a girl who turns out to be 16 (thereby making him guilty of statutory rape).

Taking up a teaching post in Nigeria he reports on the Biafran war, before being forced to retire and returning to his basement flat in London and a life of poverty (his family fortune having been lost in the 1929 stock market crash). To make ends meet he becomes a newspaper seller for a small anti-fascist group, who turn out to be a Baader-Meinhof cell. After nearly being implicated in a plot to smuggle explosives into England Logan retires to a run-down property in rural France, bequeathed to him by an old acquaintance, to see out his days writing his great unpublished novel, Octet.

There journals have been edited by an unnamed compiler, who helpfully adds historical and biographical information and ties off a few (although not many) storylines.

I read this book because I'd enjoyed the Channel 4 adaptation and the novel adds a great deal of depth. Logan meets a number of famous writers and artists during the course of his life and the book makes these relationships seem more real, rather than just randomly inserted pop(?) culture references.

The reader is left with a dazzling picture of a human life, the saddness of an old man who has lost almost everything (his one true love killed, his fortune lost, predeceased by both of his children and his two life-long friends), but who continues to cling to the memory of the years of happiness he had. The journals unflinchingly portray a man who is far from perfect and their candor draws you in and makes you care deeply for Logan.

I'll be seeking out some more of Boyd's novels, as he's clearly an author of skill and intelligence who manages to bring the whole of 20th century history down to the size of one man. Recommended without reservation.