Read any good books?

[Eziemnaik]

Command and Control by E.Schlosser - history of an accident at ICBM silo in US with a background on safety and efforts to increase the safety of nuclear weapons. Main takeaway is it is a miracle that no nuclear weapon accidentally detonated yet.

 

[tyred]

I used to read a lot but had sort of got out of the habit of doing so. Since being laid up after my accident in October I have read a lot, mostly re-reading books that I had "in stock" from years ago. In particular I have many detective novels which used to be my favourite. I have re-read a lot of Dalziel and Pascoe, a few Inspector Morse and quite a lot of Sherlock Holmes.

I'm also on a bit of a Thomas Hardy kick having re-read Far from the madding crowd and Tess of the D'urbervilles and read the Woodlander for the first time and am currently reading a Pair of blue eyes. I have been a lifelong fan of Hardy's poetry and have been trying to appreciate his novels.

 

[Time Waster]

Last summer I got into Lee Childs Reacher books. I read three then realised they were virtually the same book! Don't you just hate it when you're getting into a new to you writer with a big list of books to go at only to find out they're basically the same story reworked?

I got a book that looked good late November. I couldn't get into it but being a library book I renewed a few times rather than give up. It was a mystery detective thriller based in Northumberland. I then got a lucky dip / lucky 6 book bag from the library, all thrillers, crime and mystery. Got them home all excited to pull them out of the paper bag. I got a few in the first lockdown and found few new authors I quote liked. Only this time they were all a bit too, how shall I put it without sounding archaic, a bit too human condition or slow. So I went back to the earlier Northumberland detective book.

I got past the first quarter mark, my usual point when I know I'm getting into a book. It sped up as I neared the end of the book. Thoroughly enjoyed it so got another three books by the author, L J Ross and the DCI Ryan series. Nothing intellectual just a page turner pulp fiction. I have about 17 to go at in the series plus another 5 in another character series she has written.

BTW is it cynical when an author finds a character people seem to like so they churn out another book in the series every 9 months or so that end up being the same basic story with different padding? Still I'm enjoying this me to me author. I'm not good at finding new authors I end up liking. I've got a lot of books bought that I never will read because I didn't like them or couldn't get into them or high ideals to read up about something only to real I'm just not interested in the end.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I'm getting back into reading actual books after several year of audiobooks only, due to eyesight issues. Sometimes I miss audiobooks as it's not easy to 'do stuff' while eye-reading a book, but there again, there's no chance of being distracted by someone's accent, tone or (mis)pronunciation, and much easier to go back a page or a chapter to an exact spot to check something.

I'm currently on a 'women in wartime' binge and am enjoying 'A Spitfire Girl - one of the world's greatest female ATA ferry pilots tells her story - Mary Ellis, as told to Melody Foreman'. It is 'spiffing'. She flew Spitfires, Wellingtons, and almost every other type of plane, just like the male civilian ferry pilots, in all sorts of conditions. I think the only ones the women didn't fly were seaplanes - but I'm barely halfway through the book yet, so maybe ... The bias against the 'girl pilots' was almost unbelievable, looking at from 2022, yet sadly not at all unbelievable - in fact not too different - when looking at it through my memories when I was around the same age, in the 1960s and early 70s. Mary Ellis really tells it like it was, although with no sense of bitterness, and an open admittance that few of the female pilots really appreciated, at the time, just what an amazing thing their Senior Commander and a woman MP had achieved in getting them awarded equal pay with their male colleagues in 1943. She said they simply 'learned to laugh off morale-crushing socio-political taboos'. Post-war she became Europe's first female Air Commandant. Highly recommended!
I bought it from a charity shop for £1 and I'll be keeping it. Most of my charity shop book purchases are returned from whence they came but this one won't be.

 

[DCBassman]

Command and Control by E.Schlosser - history of an accident at ICBM silo in US with a background on safety and efforts to increase the safety of nuclear weapons. Main takeaway is it is a miracle that no nuclear weapon accidentally detonated yet.

Read this a year or two back. Quite scary.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Last summer I got into Lee Childs Reacher books. I read three then realised they were virtually the same book! Don't you just hate it when you're getting into a new to you writer with a big list of books to go at only to find out they're basically the same story reworked?

I got a book that looked good late November. I couldn't get into it but being a library book I renewed a few times rather than give up. It was a mystery detective thriller based in Northumberland. I then got a lucky dip / lucky 6 book bag from the library, all thrillers, crime and mystery. Got them home all excited to pull them out of the paper bag. I got a few in the first lockdown and found few new authors I quote liked. Only this time they were all a bit too, how shall I put it without sounding archaic, a bit too human condition or slow. So I went back to the earlier Northumberland detective book.

I got past the first quarter mark, my usual point when I know I'm getting into a book. It sped up as I neared the end of the book. Thoroughly enjoyed it so got another three books by the author, L J Ross and the DCI Ryan series. Nothing intellectual just a page turner pulp fiction. I have about 17 to go at in the series plus another 5 in another character series she has written.

BTW is it cynical when an author finds a character people seem to like so they churn out another book in the series every 9 months or so that end up being the same basic story with different padding? Still I'm enjoying this me to me author. I'm not good at finding new authors I end up liking. I've got a lot of books bought that I never will read because I didn't like them or couldn't get into them or high ideals to read up about something only to real I'm just not interested in the end.

Childs's wittering are trashy and written to young teenage standard at best imo.

Writers need to earn so they churn.

I consciously avoid starting on novels that are part of a mega-series (new or ongoing) with a very few exceptions.

 

[Dave7]

John Grisham.
I am reading one of his latest, Camino Winds.
Has been a favourite of mine but he seems to have lost the plot. This is painfully slow and I may not even finish it, it is so poor.

 

[Gillstay]

Childs's wittering are trashy and written to young teenage standard at best imo.

Writers need to earn so they churn.

I consciously avoid starting on novels that are part of a mega-series (new or ongoing) with a very few exceptions.

Yep, I got a Reacher book for Xmas and read it to be polite. Never again. I did not know he was a teenager, but it explains the standard of writing and plot.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Agent of the State by Roger Pearce. Fast paced thriller about suicide bombers and others, written by an ex Special Branch commander. A good romp.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

City of Thieves by David Benioff. Set in the siege of Leningrad about two youths who have to find a dozen eggs. Some of it I can imagine was very true to life, but the ending felt a bit rushed to me. Despite the setting at times it was very funny.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Presently re-reading ‘Snuff’ at bedtime

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snuff_(Pratchett_novel)


And, this morning
Sadly, not an original edition, but a 1998 reprint

 

[GetFatty]

Yep, I got a Reacher book for Xmas and read it to be polite. Never again. I did not know he was a teenager, but it explains the standard of writing and plot.

I thought Childs had now retired from writing?

 

[DCBassman]

About to start the latest Temperance Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs, "Cold Cold Bones.

 

[Norry1]

Just read the whole EarthSea series by Ursula K Le Guin. About a million miles from what I normally read but really enjoyed it.

 

[Oldhippy]

Bedlam, London and its mad. A history of the oldest metal institute opened in 1247. I had a guided tour when I worked in specialist mental health. The approach has certainly changed over the years that's for sure.