HarryVegas
Well-known member
What's your own book about?
What are we all reading?
- Thread starter HarryVegas
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changingman
Well-known member
I wanna be yours is excellent, quite an eye opener as to how he lived, even when moderately famous/successful.
I'm making my way (slowly) through "The Man with the Golden Arm" by Nelson Algren. Enjoying it but the Chicago street-talk of the 50s was fairly impenetrable at first.
Ingleby_Flash
Well-known member
Change of plan as Mrs Flash didn’t bring it back from the Canaríes with us. So ‘Black Gold‘ by Jeremy Paxman. Basically the history of coal, which hasn’t really been documented in a proper way, and how it enabled us to have an industrial empire, which enabled us to make the machines that we could use to make the wars etc.
or as George Orwell said “The machines that keep us alive, and the machines that make machines, are all directly or indirectly dependent upon coal. In the metabolism of the western world the coal miner is second only to the man who ploughs the soil. He is a sort of caryatid upon whose shoulders nearly everything that is not grimy is supported.
The owld feller was a coal miner and I’m excited to read it.
Jedi boro
Well-known member
He also had one of the largest private collections of nazi memorabilia in the country. In his castle.
Albert_Park
Active member
Nothing too mentally challenging but currently reading Jack Reacher - Make Me by Lee Child. I’ve always found the Jack Reacher novels easy to get in to if sometimes a little repetitive.
TheYorkshireTerrier
Well-known member
Just did the same, loved it, almost had tears in my eye at times. Such a genuine bloke.Finished Bob Mortimers "And Away" last night. Really enjoyed it
HarryVegas
Well-known member
Having read Max Porter's Lanny, I went back to his first book, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, which I went through in a couple of days. It's a very short but beautifully written story of a bereaved father of two boys and their journey through the process and out the other side.
BaronSmoggie
Well-known member
Re-reading 'Belching out the devil' by Mark Thomas. A look at the history of the Coca Cola company and some of its dubious engagements around the world.
HarryVegas
Well-known member
Just started The Town That Was Murdered by Ellen Wilkinson. Even the background details of how Jarrow miners were routinely mistreated and victimised is shocking.
HarryVegas
Well-known member
Thought I'd revive this thread. Am most of the way through Lemn Sissay's 'My Name Is Why'. The horrific story of his childhood/adolescence as an African child in the UK so-called 'care' system. A very accessible read but emotionally quite tough. He's angry, and with plenty of reasons to be so.
What's everyone else reading?
What's everyone else reading?
gregorgregorovich
Well-known member
The Body - A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson. I like his gentle humour. It's not like his normal travelogues but enjoying it nonetheless.
sweet_left_foot
Well-known member
Bloody Orwell, surely if the coalminer was a he. He'd be a sort of Atlantes, not a caryatid. Fukn amateur.
Dislosure: I had to look caryatid up. Orwell was far more professional and clever than I am. The internet allowed me to be a smartarse even though I have nowt to back it up with.
Ingleby_Flash
Well-known member
Since you Googled it and now ’know’ you can now back up your smartarseness though.Bloody Orwell, surely if the coalminer was a he. He'd be a sort of Atlantes, not a caryatid. Fukn amateur.
Dislosure: I had to look caryatid up. Orwell was far more professional and clever than I am. The internet allowed me to be a smartarse even though I have nowt to back it up with.