# Reading.



## postman (1 Dec 2020)

Even though Charles Dickens is my favourite author,I have never read A Christmas Carol.My favourite film is Alastair Sim black and white Scrooge film.So yesterday for the price of 49p I bought eight kindle books.Which included Christmas Carol.So today being the first day of December,I intend to stop reading my present book and enjoy CR.Ho ho ho,come closer man and get to know me better.


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## Sharky (1 Dec 2020)

You'd enjoy the Dickens Festival in Rochester. 

View: https://youtu.be/qHky8O8_HJA


Think it was cancelled this year, but is an annual event.


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## oldwheels (1 Dec 2020)

Since the library is closed they have provided Borrowbox for library members.
I think it must be supplied by the local council library as it is a load of crap books. Any requests I have made are not available and the rest are violent "detective" fiction plus chicklit and lots about American teenage girls. Travel books for example are only useless guide books and no modern travel authors and no cycling books. Sport is football or football. Fortunately I have a lot on kindle and also lots of real books in the house on all kinds of subjects.


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## Drago (9 Dec 2020)

Im an Andy McNab or Lee Child kinda reader. That said, at least half of my reading is either biographies or military history. 

I domread rather a lot, typically 2 books a week. The advantages of being a man of leisure.


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## winjim (9 Dec 2020)

It's been nearly five and a half years since I read anything that wasn't either a children's book or a textbook for work. To be fair, before that the last books I read were A Song of Ice and Fire which are a load of tedious bilgewater so I don't really feel I'm missing out on much.


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## Flick of the Elbow (18 Dec 2020)

In praise of a good old book, I have just read Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley. Completely fascinating, wonderful plot, some difficult language at times but surprisingly easy to follow. It was written in 1805-ish but set 60 years earlier during the final attempt to restore the line of the deposed James VII. Every paragraph reads as a mix of how Scott’s characters viewed the events, how Scott viewed the events 60 years later, and how we view the events now. Very enjoyable.


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## matticus (18 Dec 2020)

PSA: Reading will be in Tier 3 next week. Sorry


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## sotkayak (18 Dec 2020)

Drago said:


> Im an Andy McNab or Lee Child kinda reader. That said, at least half of my reading is either biographies or military history.
> 
> I domread rather a lot, typically 2 books a week. The advantages of being a man of leisure.


I would recommend Roger Crowleys Empire of the sSeas.Magnificent narrative history that reads like a thriller. 
View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empires-Sea-Battle-Mediterranean-1521-1580/dp/0571232310


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## Flick of the Elbow (18 Dec 2020)

Drago said:


> Im an Andy McNab or Lee Child kinda reader. That said, at least half of my reading is either biographies or military history.
> 
> I domread rather a lot, typically 2 books a week. The advantages of being a man of leisure.


I wonder if Andy McNab, or perhaps his publisher, was influenced in his choice of name by John Buchan’s John Macnab ? A cracking yarn, more recently and enjoyably revisited by Andrew Greig’s Return of John Macnab.


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## Tail End Charlie (19 Dec 2020)

@sotkayak , @Drago if you like those sort of books you should love "Cochrane" by Donald Thomas. Superb biography of a man who had five lives in one.


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## Tenacious Sloth (19 Dec 2020)

I asked our local librarian for some recommendations the other day and she asked if I like Dickens?

”I don’t know” I replied, “I’ve never been to one.”

Boom Boom!

The old ones are the best.


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## Tail End Charlie (19 Dec 2020)

Or Kipling - "I don't know I've never Kippled"


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## sotkayak (27 Dec 2020)

Tail End Charlie said:


> @sotkayak , @Drago if you like those sort of books you should love "Cochrane" by Donald Thomas. Superb biography of a man who had five lives in one.


 Yes . Read it a few weeks ago. got the heads up on Cochrane when reading Flashman and the Sea wolf by Robert Brightwell....Cochrane quite the forgotten hero. ..I recollect Cochrane the Dauntless by G.A. Henty from our school library almost 60 years ago....Henty probably on theb banned list these days..


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## sotkayak (27 Dec 2020)

Cochrane the Dauntless by G.A Henty http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25993/25993-h/25993-h.html


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## sotkayak (27 Dec 2020)

biography of Cochrane......A real master of amphibious assymetric warfare... volume 2 . http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26067/26067-h/26067-h.htm and volume 1 
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13351


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## sotkayak (27 Dec 2020)

Autobiog by Cochrane . https://archive.org/stream/autobiographyofs01dunduoft?ref=ol#page/n7/mode/2up


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## Yellow Fang (27 Dec 2020)

Flick of the Elbow said:


> In praise of a good old book, I have just read Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley. Completely fascinating, wonderful plot, some difficult language at times but surprisingly easy to follow. It was written in 1805-ish but set 60 years earlier during the final attempt to restore the line of the deposed James VII. Every paragraph reads as a mix of how Scott’s characters viewed the events, how Scott viewed the events 60 years later, and how we view the events now. Very enjoyable.


I read that this year. It was excellent. He really painted pictures with words. This was my favourite bit.

_Such was the situation of matters, when the pedlar missing, as he said, a little doggie which belonged to him, began to halt and whistle for it. This repeated more than once gave offence to the rigour of his companion, the rather because it appeared to indicate inattention to the treasures of theological and controversial knowledge which he was pouring out for his edification. He therefore signalled gruffly, that he could not waste his time in waiting for a useless cur.

“But if your honour wad consider the case of Tobit”---

“Tobit!” exclaimed Gilfillan, with great heat; “Tobit and his dog both are altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a prelatist or a papist would draw them into question.
I doubt I ha;’e been mista’en in you, friend”

“Very like,” answered the pedlar, with great composure, “but ne’ertheless I shall take leave to whistle again upon poor Bawty.”_


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## Yellow Fang (30 Dec 2020)

I quite like seafaring books. I have read:

Moby Dick, Herman Melville
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Sea Wolf, Jack London
Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
The Nigger of Narcissus, Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Aubrey-Maturin series 1..20, Patrick O' Brian
Hornblower series 1..5, C.S. Forester

I still have five-and-half Hornblower books to go. I might read Treasure Island and HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean. Any other good ones?


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## Flick of the Elbow (30 Dec 2020)

Yellow Fang said:


> I quite like seafaring books. I have read:
> 
> Moby Dick, Herman Melville
> The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
> ...


Does Das Boot count ? A cracking read.


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## Yellow Fang (30 Dec 2020)

Flick of the Elbow said:


> Does Das Boot count ? A cracking read.



I once tried to read that in German as I was studying German at night school at the time. It was so full of regional dialect, profanity and submarine terminology, my dictionary wasn't up to it. Great TV series, though.


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## lane (30 Dec 2020)

Drago said:


> Im an Andy McNab or Lee Child kinda reader. That said, at least half of my reading is either biographies or military history.
> 
> I domread rather a lot, typically 2 books a week. The advantages of being a man of leisure.



I have the latest "Lee Child" written by his brother on my Kindle. But can't decide if I want to read it incase it's as poor as the critics say. Mind you the final few written by Lee weren't the best.

Currently reading Snow and Steel an in depth study of the battle of the bulge.


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## slowmotion (31 Dec 2020)

Yellow Fang said:


> I once tried to read that in German as I was studying German at night school at the time. It was so full of regional dialect, profanity and submarine terminology, my dictionary wasn't up to it. Great TV series, though.


Spookily enough, I bought a CD of the original film on Tuesday from Ebay.


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## Yellow Fang (31 Dec 2020)

slowmotion said:


> Spookily enough, I bought a CD of the original film on Tuesday from Ebay.


The film was good, but the TV series was better.


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## DRM (31 Dec 2020)

lane said:


> I have the latest "Lee Child" written by his brother on my Kindle. But can't decide if I want to read it incase it's as poor as the critics say. Mind you the final few written by Lee weren't the best.
> 
> Currently reading Snow and Steel an in depth study of the battle of the bulge.



View: https://youtu.be/HQwjXm9xpqE


View: https://youtu.be/2wzksVIIhXM

These are from an excellent WW2 history channel, from Profesor of history,Dr Mark Felton, always worth a watch if you like that kind of thing, tends to cover the lesser known aspects of WW2


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## Tail End Charlie (31 Dec 2020)

Yellow Fang said:


> I quite like seafaring books. I have read:
> 
> Moby Dick, Herman Melville
> The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
> ...


King Leopold' s Ghost is the true story of the Heart of Darkness if you see what I mean. Fascinating and appalling at the same time. 
If you like seafaring stuff three books by Sam Willis are good reads - The Glorious First of June, The Admiral Benbow and The Fighting Temeraire. I learned lots of things from them.


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## Tail End Charlie (31 Dec 2020)

Yellow Fang said:


> I quite like seafaring books. I have read:
> 
> Moby Dick, Herman Melville
> The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
> ...


Captain Aubrey is based on Thomas Cochrane who I mentioned above.


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## Yellow Fang (31 Dec 2020)

Tail End Charlie said:


> Captain Aubrey is based on Thomas Cochrane who I mentioned above.


Cochrane was mentioned in the Hornblower book I'm reading. You might be interested in checking out Jane Austen's brother Francis's career. He ended up Admiral of the Fleet. During the Napoleonic wars he captured 40 ships. He must have been loaded.


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## Dayvo (31 Dec 2020)

lane said:


> I have the latest "Lee Child" written by his brother on my Kindle. But can't decide if I want to read it incase it's as poor as the critics say. Mind you the final few written by Lee weren't the



I assume you mean ‘Sentinel’. 

Lee Child wrote it with his brother, Andrew, and I believe they have deal to write another 3 books before Lee puts his pen down for good and leaves it to his little brother.


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## Dayvo (31 Dec 2020)

‘South’ is more a tale of adventure in the Southern Ocean with Ernest Shackleton rescuing his crew and saving all their lives.

Compelling reading! 👍


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## Flick of the Elbow (31 Dec 2020)

@Yellow Fang just remembered another maritime one I enjoyed, The Shipping News by Annie Proulx


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## Yellow Fang (1 Jan 2021)

Flick of the Elbow said:


> @Yellow Fang just remembered another maritime one I enjoyed, The Shipping News by Annie Proulx


Is that actually about seafaring?


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## Zanelad (1 Jan 2021)

I tend to go through phases when reading. At times I'll have me head in a book or the Kindle all the time, then I'll go for a month or two without as much as turning a page. I tend to stick with authors I know and enjoy. Currently working my way through the Peter James Inspector Grace stories. I should have read them in sequence, but it's a bit late for that.


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## sotkayak (1 Jan 2021)

@Yellow Fang asked ''Any other good ones ? 
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Montserrat is a must read....


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## annedonnelly (1 Jan 2021)

Zanelad said:


> I tend to go through phases when reading. At times I'll have me head in a book or the Kindle all the time, then I'll go for a month or two without as much as turning a page. I tend to stick with authors I know and enjoy. Currently working my way through the Peter James Inspector Grace stories. I should have read them in sequence, but it's a bit late for that.


I very rarely manage to read anything in order. Mainly I buy from charity shops or borrow from the library so it's what's available at the time. I am working through Lee Child in order as the second hand Kobo I bought had most of them already loaded and I've bought the others as I spotted them.


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## Yellow Fang (1 Jan 2021)

sotkayak said:


> @Yellow Fang asked ''Any other good ones ?
> The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Montserrat is a must read....


I have watched the film. It was an odd sort of a film. I assume it's very realistic. These days it seems odd to me that we made films about such a bitter war which at that time was still so recent. Not that some of them aren't great films.


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## Broughtonblue (9 Jan 2021)

@Zanelad i too tend to batch read, and like you have just found Roy Grace from Peter James, on the second one now, loved the 1st one .


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## annedonnelly (9 Jan 2021)

If you like Roy Grace/Peter James have you also tried Alan Banks/Peter Robinson? One of my favourite "police procedural" series.


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## Zanelad (9 Jan 2021)

annedonnelly said:


> If you like Roy Grace/Peter James have you also tried Alan Banks/Peter Robinson? One of my favourite "police procedural" series.



Thanks Anne. I'll download a sample or two on the Kindle and see how I get on.

Update....what the hell, for 99p I bought the first of the Alan Banks novels. I'll read the others in order if I like his style of writing. I'm off for a cuppa and a read. I may be some time.......


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## annedonnelly (9 Jan 2021)

I envy you the chance to read them from the beginning. 99p is less than I pay for charity shop copies


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## Zanelad (9 Jan 2021)

The first one was 99p. Somehow I think that the more recent ones will be more expensive. I'm enjoying the first book. Time will tell, but the signs are good.


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## Ian H (9 Jan 2021)

The last three books I finished on Kindle are Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan, The Opium War by Julia Lovell, and The Last Broomsquire by Martin Hesp (he's a local author and it's fiction based on real-life Quantock characters). I have a small pile of real & virtual books lined up.


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## normgow (19 Jan 2021)

For seafaring books I suggest "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby. In 1938 he signed on as an eighteen year old apprentice and sailed to Australia on a four-masted barque in the last days of the great sailing freighters.


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## Flick of the Elbow (19 Jan 2021)

Just finished Kate Mosse’s Sepulchre, seriously good. I enjoyed the earlier Labyrinth too but this was even better.


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## Flick of the Elbow (19 Jan 2021)

Yellow Fang said:


> Is that actually about seafaring?


Apologies for the late reply, its set in a seafaring community but no, not actually at sea itself. Very good though !


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## SpokeyDokey (19 Jan 2021)

Just hacking my way through the Dune Trilogy on Kindle.

Second time of reading - so long since the first time I've forgotten most of it.

Only the 4th book(s) I've ever read for the second time the others being:

Lord of the Rings

Shardick

Papillon


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## annedonnelly (22 Jan 2021)

Does anyone read the CJ Box Joe Pickett series? I suspect the crimes are a bit far fetched but it's interesting reading about how the wildife/game ranger services work in rural America.


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## DCBassman (22 Jan 2021)

One of the ways I read is on an old Kindle 3 that somebody gave me with a smashed screen. Fixed that. If eyes are particularly iffy or need a backlight, then use a 10" Samsung tablet instead. I subscribe to several sites that scour the internet for free e-books, and currently have about 300 in the library. Most will be dross and get deleted afted a few pages, some are great. You takes, your chances...
It is also a cheaper way to revisit old books like Doc Smith's Lensman series, hopelessly dated now, but fun to re-read.


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## Yellow Fang (21 Mar 2021)

I have been reading Proof by Dick Francis, who was a champion jockey who went into writing horsey thrillers. He was pretty big for a time, but he seems to have faded from sight. I read somewhere his wife may have co-written them, because she was fearsomely well educated. Proof is pretty good. It is only tangentally related to horse racing. The plot is quite credible, which makes a change.


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## VelvetUnderpants (5 Apr 2021)

Just finished reading Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills of the 1st Battalion, The Prince of Wales Royal Regiment. It's about how his battalion was deployed to Al Amarah and from day one was under attack, having to defend their base from being overun, a true brothers in arms novel and probably the best book I have read so far on a soldiers experiences of the Iraq conflict.

I am just starting We Were Warriors by Capt Johnny Mercer. Its has a tough act to follow.


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## mistyoptic (6 Apr 2021)

Yellow Fang said:


> I have been reading Proof by Dick Francis, who was a champion jockey who went into writing horsey thrillers. He was pretty big for a time, *but he seems to have faded from sight*. I read somewhere his wife may have co-written them, because she was fearsomely well educated. Proof is pretty good. It is only tangentally related to horse racing. The plot is quite credible, which makes a change.


That would be because he died in 2010 .

I agree that his books are good. you'll probably find a good range in the charity shops when we can visit them again.

His son, Felix, has been writing the stories since then. I've tried a few and found them equally enjoyable


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## Drago (6 Apr 2021)

I read a fair bit. I'm part of an informal book swapping circle with the old boy next door and a friend of mine over in Milton Keynes. Thats usually the sex and violence stuff, the Wilbur Smith, Lee Child, Andy McNab type page turners.

The other half of my reading is a little bit of military history, and a fair few biographies. I have read Homer and stuf like Plato's Republic, but that really is the exception.

And once a month Bass Player magazine plops through the door and gets read cover to cover.


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## Salad Dodger (8 Apr 2021)

I have mentioned this before on Cycle Chat, but it bears repeating:
If you are a member of your county library service, they might be signed up to an ebook sharing app called "libby". It's easily downloaded, and you sign in using your library card. It gives you free access to lots of ebooks, which you can download to a phone, tablet or kindle and then read offline.
My county library service also offers a newspaper and magazine ereader service called "pressreader". Exactly the same sort of procedure, and there are lots of magazines available including several cycling ones. Newspapers, too, but you can't wrap your chips in them!

If you are a keen reader, enquire whether your county library service is part of these schemes.....


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## VelvetUnderpants (8 Apr 2021)

Salad Dodger said:


> I have mentioned this before on Cycle Chat, but it bears repeating:
> If you are a member of your county library service, they might be signed up to an ebook sharing app called "libby". It's easily downloaded, and you sign in using your library card. It gives you free access to lots of ebooks, which you can download to a phone, tablet or kindle and then read offline.
> My county library service also offers a newspaper and magazine ereader service called "pressreader". Exactly the same sort of procedure, and there are lots of magazines available including several cycling ones. Newspapers, too, but you can't wrap your chips in them!
> 
> If you are a keen reader, enquire whether your county library service is part of these schemes.....




Can you download ebooks onto your Kindle. I thought it was only Amazon downloads.

I will certainly look into it if I can do so.


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## mistyoptic (8 Apr 2021)

Just looked into it. Staffordshire libraries use an app called Borrowbox. Will investigate further. Thanks for the tip


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## Eziemnaik (13 Apr 2021)

One of the better Reachers


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## Drago (13 Apr 2021)

Eziemnaik said:


> View attachment 583746
> 
> One of the better Reachers


Not his best. Not as violent as a Reacher novel should be, but a good violent e ding. 6/10.


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## Eziemnaik (13 Apr 2021)

No, the best is defo Tripwire with Cp. Hook


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## homebuilds (13 Jun 2021)

_Dracula_ is a superb read.
If you have seen the Francis Ford Coppola movie _Bram Stoker's Dracula _you'll realise Anthony Hopkins portrayal of _Professor Van Helsing_ was more true to the book than any other actor who has played that character.


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## Eziemnaik (26 Jun 2021)

Mcmafia - Misha Glenny writes a convincing account of rise of the organised crime and its links to the globalization. From drug, woman and weapon trafficking to 419 scammers (google Nwude). Similar in scope to zero zero zero by Saviano, but much better written. Recently filmed by BBC, good effort although not much in common with the book.
Best part is the chapter on Yugoslavian Wars and how local crime organisation were able to put their countries' differences and work together Serbs with Croats to make a buck


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## DaveReading (26 Jun 2021)

McMafia the book is much more chilling than the TV series was.


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## Eziemnaik (16 Jul 2021)

Dark Star Safari - Theraux goes on a overland safari from Cairo to Cape Town and reminisces how Africa changed since he was teaching there. A scathing critique of modern aid and charity business which does little more than feed corruption and create indifference among Africans. Up there with Kingdom by the Sea among his best books.


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## NCE7XV (18 Jul 2021)




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## Drago (20 Jul 2021)

I have come over all religious, so I am now reading the bible.


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## Arrowfoot (30 Jul 2021)

This is an exceptional book and my second read years later. 
Most people are aware of the battle of Dine Bien Phu where the natives seeking independence from the colonial masters won a convention battle rather than thru guerrilla warfare. It led to the demise of the French in Indochina. 

British Author Martin Windrow pulls together the various dynamics to paint the picture. The dynamics include oppression and exploitation of the working class by the coloniser as well local businessmen, leaders who worked with the French. So it not just battle strategy and tactics.


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