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Last Book You Read....


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12 hours ago, NotThePars said:

What did we all get reading wise for Christmas then?

I got Knausgaard's Spring and Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium and bought myself Alex Branson's Water, Wasted

I will probably start with Dominion. I've read Eastern Approaches before but it's a great read and good to have a copy. Almost finished Karoo by Steve Tesich which is a great dark comedy.IMG_20201231_110919181.thumb.jpg.e8ca54f2b5ff380f3e8cfaf5e46badaa.jpg

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50 minutes ago, ThomCat said:

I will probably start with Dominion. I've read Eastern Approaches before but it's a great read and good to have a copy. Almost finished Karoo by Steve Tesich which is a great dark comedy.IMG_20201231_110919181.thumb.jpg.e8ca54f2b5ff380f3e8cfaf5e46badaa.jpg

Nice one, never knew Tom Holland had a newish book out. Have booked from the library. 

For my Christmas i got a Charles Stross laundry series book (enjoyable silliness) and:

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James P McPherson

Speaking of (well, James MacPherson) has anyone here read The Ossian Cycle? It's crazy how it was so influential around Europe and helped form the modern romantic view of Scotland yet you can't even find it in a Princes St. bookshop.

I fancy giving it a shot but I've struggled with epic poetry in the past. Is it worth a read?

Without it Oscar de la Hoya would probably have been called Juan de la Hoya or something.
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1 hour ago, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

Yeah I think that is my least favourite of his probably for the same reason. I suppose architecture is his specialism though so he needs to include that to differentiate himself. When he gets the balance right between the architecture and the politics it all works really well imo - Landscapes of Communism and Adventures in the Post Soviet Space are outstanding I reckon, and Trans-Europe Express is good as well but similarly probably just a bit too much on the architecture side for a non-specialist like me. If he were ever to get bored at Tribune he'd find a good career as a travel writer/TV presenter imo. 

I bought Adventures in the Post Soviet Space in the Repeater Black Friday sale! Good to see it has a glowing review from yourself.

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22 hours ago, virginton said:

Alexander Watson - The Fortress

Waited for the paperback version because f**k that - a very readable account of the siege of Przemysl during the First World War. The Eastern Front, as usual, proving the far more interesting theatre of European war than the trench foot and poetry, wah wah nonsense in western Europe.

Good to have further confirmation that Conrad von Hotzendorff (Austrian chief of staff) was the most dangerously moronic person in Europe in 1914. Very much the Jonatan Johannson figure of The First World War.

I read that a few months ago. It is really good, as is Ring of Steel by the same author.

I agree that the Eastern Front is far more interesting than what went on in the West. There really is not much written about it in English though. Most WW1 texts only really treat it as a afterthought, with not much more than a few paragraphs. 

 

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I can’t be the only one that enjoys Mark Feltons YouTube channel about WW2.  Well I’ve just finished one of his books about senior officers in their late fifties and sixties trying to escape from an Italian castle.  A good read.

 

 

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Re-read Lanark before Christmas. Think it’s the novel I’ve gifted to most people over the years. We need a statue of Alasdair Gray somewhere.
 

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36 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

I'm a huge fan of it but have found people either really like it or cannot get on with it at all.

Perhaps if you don’t know Glasgow you get less out of it. Like Dublin/Ulysses.

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Speaking of (well, James MacPherson) has anyone here read The Ossian Cycle? It's crazy how it was so influential around Europe and helped form the modern romantic view of Scotland yet you can't even find it in a Princes St. bookshop.

I fancy giving it a shot but I've struggled with epic poetry in the past. Is it worth a read?

Without it Oscar de la Hoya would probably have been called Juan de la Hoya or something.


Reading it now in the full knowledge that it’s fake makes it seem even weirder

The desire to believe that “Gaelic Culture” was more than it actually was meant people were all set to fall for it
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26 books read in 2020. Was on track for far more having been very prolific during lockdown but only finished three from school starting back in August (two have only been in the last week of the year). The Springsteen autobiography and We Need to Talk About Kevin took me ages so that played a part in keeping my numbers down. Also read the most recent Alex Rider books for a nostalgia kick so they hardly count.

Top 5 in no particular order:

"One Football No Nets" by Justin Whalley

Story of an English coach who ends up in charge of the Matabeleland (a region of Zimbabwe) national team in their quest to qualify for the CONIFA World Cup in London. A bit long in parts but a great Read. Truly mental story and shows you how much football means to some people.



"Prisoners of Geography" by Tim Marshall

This has been discussed plenty on here but I loved it. Really fascinating insight into a lot of things that you never consider in global politics but that seem really obvious when outlined here. Pitched at a level that's easy to understand, without sacrificing depth.


"Lone Rider" by Elspeth Beard

Read this immediately after "It's on the meter" which was a similar story but with a London taxi. Funnily enough I read them about a week before flights to everywhere got cancelled. This one is about the first woman to motorcycle around the world. Some of her stories are mad and it was an unbelievably impressive achievement given the constant challenges she faced. Also interesting how little interest there was in her journey, mainly due to her being a woman. Takes a tragic twist at the end which only adds to what is a very impressive story and well worth a read.


"31-0: On the road with football's outsiders" by James Montague

Worthwhile read for any football fan. The author spends some time with lowly national teams across the world including Palestine, American Samoa, (this chapter covers the same time frame as the Next Goal Wins documentary) Lebanon, Jordan, Antigua as well as bigger hitters like Egypt and the Balkan states. Really good insight into international football at the lowest levels. It's well structure as well in that it spends just enough time on each country to give you a good insight without boring you.

"Porno" by Irvine Welsh.

Finally got onto this sequel to Trainspotting. Obviously not as good as the first, but a solid read nonetheless. Reminds you that Welsh is an outstanding writer and not a one hit wonder. Funny in parts and the characters are all well fleshed out and developed from the original. Always takes me a while to read these books as the prose makes them quite difficult at times but that's what makes them what they are. I'll need to get onto Skagboys next.

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I definitely read better books in 2020 but those were the ones I enjoyed the most. My aim for next year is to always have a weighty one and a lighter read on the go at once. Good to have respite from the heavier reads and stops me going long spells without reading at all.

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Somewhat late to the party, but I've just read Graham Greene's The Confidential Agent.

Quite pacey I suppose, but I didn't think much of it in truth.  It's Graham Greene, so obviously, we know he can write.  There were only odd flashes of his brilliance though.  Apparently it was written both at and on speed, which I think shows.

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I read some really good books this year but Knausgaard's series were the ones that stuck with me the most just for being something completely different to what I normally read and leaving me utterly confused over how good I think they are.

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I definitely read better books in 2020 but those were the ones I enjoyed the most. My aim for next year is to always have a weighty one and a lighter read on the go at once. Good to have respite from the heavier reads and stops me going long spells without reading at all.
Short story compilations are great for this. I've Nikolai Leskov (whose Scottish uncle convinced him to be a writer) and The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories on the go for that right now.
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3 hours ago, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

2020 highlight for me was probably The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford. The third book in the Frank Bascombe series which shows Frank's life in late middle age dealing with being separated from his second wife, prostate cancer, loudmouth neighbours and annoying grown up children set against the backdrop of the 2000 US election. 

Have any P&Bers read any of Ford's non-Bascombe books? I'm tempted to give them a go but worried they won't stack up. 

Never heard of him but I like the sound of that.  Have downloaded a sample, Amazon has the three books on for £10.83 on Kindle so here’s hoping.

 

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