Watcha Readin'?

If you like a bit of old school travel/adventure, Jupiter’s Travels is always worth a read.

The Gulag Archipelago is possibly one of the best books ever written…

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Ted Simon

Excellent book…

Cheers eJC, I’ll check that out.

Indeed it is. He also wrote another, re-visiting the places he originally, something like 30 years later. I didn’t enjoy that one quite so much but still worth a read.

You’ll probably want the audiobook…

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or learn Russian :wink: It is a tough read then? … much like his other books as Russian doesnt translate easily.

quality of early translations not good…but it is a big book that provokes lots of thought…

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yep, i didn’t think so much of the follow up…Riding High

I currently have A History of the Bible by John Barton on audible and reading The Dirtiest Race in history.

I am not religous but find the history of Christianity very interesting and while the Barton book isn’t always the easiest read, in that it can be a bit academic, it is good. The dirstiest race is good too, it looks at the contemporaneous reorting around Lewis and Johnson and not just in hindsight.

Currently reading Chastise by Max Hastings, while slipping back into the Rebus novels after not reading one for years. A lighter read that I enjoyed recently was Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace. A bit Nick Hornby-ish and an easy read.

I decided as a goal for the year to read 26 books; I’ve worked from home for the last couple of years and the one thing I’ve missed about commuting is the opportunity to read. So far my list has gone…

  • Elevation - Stephen King - didn’t really enjoy it. It was short which helped me get ahead of the goal, but didn’t do anything for me
  • Bad Blood - John Carreyrou - Liked it. Struggled a bit with how many names there are in it and keeping track of who is who but I was fascinated by the amount of funding Theranos got on somethign that never did what it claimed.
  • Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck - Liked it. Not sure why. John Steinbeck goes travelling with his dog (Charley) around the US.
  • The Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - Loads of people told me it’s great. It wasn’t for me!
  • The Syndicate - Guy Bolton - I enjoyed reading it, but beyond being an entertaining read I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
  • The Smiling Man - Joseph Knox - Enjoyable, a ‘who dunnit’ kind of affair. Didn’t realise it was a second book in the series though I had read Sirens before it.
  • A Legacy of Spies - John LeCarre - only about 20 pages in. It’s fine so far.

Some interesting recommendations from y’all here.

Probably a bit low brow for here, but the two series I’m listening to at the moment, both ‘high fantasy’, but I think they’re very good.

Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour (on about book 10 of 11, plus smaller side series/books - he’s planning on writing like 30 odd!).

Echo saga by Philip C Quaintrell - really enjoying these. He’s written 7 of 9 and they run in trilogies, but are all connected. I’m listened to 5 so far. 6 is out next month on audio book.

Another really good non-fiction book I read recently, was Agent Zigzag. A true story that’s so bonkers, it’s brilliant.

We read that at school (Ivan Denisovich) Isn’t that where the closer you get to the fire, the more doomed you are?

Working my way through John Grisham books…I find them quite light but enough to keep me turning the page without having to think too much. I’ve read about six and three more just arrived.
Finding it to stressy at the moment to start another but as soon as I do it keeps me busy for a few nights and stops me thinking too much. Will try again this evening…

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The Dan Browne books are worth a go too. Better than the films. Really enjoyed. The Da Vinci Code and Angels and demons.

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Read Iron War on the flight to Kona. Really enjoyed it and learned a lot about the history of Kona and the greatest race. In Kona I asked Dave Scott to sign it (Dave Scott is a top, top man and I would say Ironman’s greatest pioneer, as great a pioneer and an adventurer and an athlete as anyone, and very willing with his time and advice), and then he told me there were issues between Dave/Mark and the author, and that Dave/Mark had jointly written an online set of articles about 1989 and the Iron War. It’s great reading, and direct from Dave and Mark.

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Went through those quite a few years ago.

Pelican brief was my favourite iirc

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Same here though my favourite was Rainmaker

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