Reading: The Book Thread

[Taipan]

Chickenhawk is currently on offer at £1.99 for a kindle an Amazon.

[cheb]

Mason also wrote a couple of tolerable thrillers about a robot, Solo, and Weapon.

Authors from me:

John Le Carre
Tom Wolfe
Len Deighton
George Perec
William Boyd


I'm giving Peter May a go, as he's written a series based on Lewis.

[Horse]

Mid-way through Trinity's Wake, by Greg Bennett.

It's a scif-fi / fantasy novel, but based around the decisions which led to the allies using atomic bombs against the Japanese.

Of course I knew it happened, that it was terrible. The book goes into a lot of detail explaining the Japanese psyche for war. It uses as a background framework the negotiations that went on, looks at whether Stalin might have been duplicitous, and issues such as the predicted costs of lives lost if a land invasion had taken place.

Like I said, half way. I stopped reading last night, about 10pm, August 8th.

The anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.

I stopped reading at the point 'Little Boy' was released. Today I have been reading the eye witness accounts (through the narrator's eyes) of the damage and desolation, structural and human.


Amazingly researched, superbly written, thoroughly recommend. I have no idea where it's 'going'. The fantasy aspect relates to the narrator, Robert Tulliver. GB has written several novels with RT (and the psychic Society that he belongs to) as the linking factor.

I'm reading on kindle, but printed also available:

[Yambo]

Mid-way through Trinity's Wake, by Greg Bennett.

Like I said, half way. I stopped reading last night, about 10pm, August 8th.

The anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.

Close but no cigar.

08:15 on 6th August.

[Horse]

Mid-way through Trinity's Wake, by Greg Bennett.

Like I said, half way. I stopped reading last night, about 10pm, August 8th.

The anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.

Close but no cigar.

08:15 on 6th August.

I always knew that there was a major problem with international time zones

Great book, thoroughly recommended. Frightening, too, how through subsequent tests various governments appear to have 'accidentally' experimented on service personnel and civilians.

[ZRX61]

Explorations, Robert Ballard.

Picked it up at a used book store for under $1 a few weeks back. Started on it today & discovered it's an autographed copy

[KungFooBob]

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky.

I'd been putting it off for ages, finally got round to it this week. It's a great story, deffo in my top 10 of all time (so far).

[Yambo]

I've just put down 'The Thin Red Line' by James Jones, unfinished.

In fact I only read 3 chapters which are overly long. One thing you could say about Mr Jones is that he's not a man of few words. Why write 50 words when 500 will do?

I may pick it up again but I might just watch the film instead.

[KungFooBob]

I'm reading 1984 again, with a foreword from Thomas Pynchon.
It's grim reading in 2020.

It's grim reading any year.

I'm not sure about Pynchon, I failed to get more than 50 pages into Gravity's Rainbow.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm reading 1984 again, with a foreword from Thomas Pynchon.
It's grim reading in 2020.

It always strikes me that human nature hasn't changed since that book was written. If Orwell could think all that stuff up in 1948 you can see how present times aren't all that unusual.

[David]

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, which is a helicopter pilots story of Vietnam.

When ya get done read the sequel "Chickenhawk, Back In The World"
Then you'll want to read Chickenhawk again... & maybe the sequel again too.
Sequel is out of print so you'll have to find a used copy, there's plenty out there online.

I think everyone has read Chickenhawk, several times, but I didn't know the second book existed.
Thanks.

Neither did I...

[weeksy]

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, which is a helicopter pilots story of Vietnam.

When ya get done read the sequel "Chickenhawk, Back In The World"
Then you'll want to read Chickenhawk again... & maybe the sequel again too.
Sequel is out of print so you'll have to find a used copy, there's plenty out there online.

I think everyone has read Chickenhawk, several times, but I didn't know the second book existed.
Thanks.

I wasn't aware of its existence till this thread.

[harum-scarum]

Anything by Tom Robbins. 'Another Roadside Attraction' and 'Jitterbug Perfume' are my particular favourites. Re-read both these during this year's lockdowns, and they age well.

[Mr Moofo]

In my last few years of travelling I started to read Peter James books _ only because they were all based around Brighton and the surrounding area.
They are unbelievably badly written, obvious and implausible stories - and I am stunned that he gets a book deal.
But he does ...

I must stop reading them _ they are shit!

[wheelnut]

In my last few years of travelling I started to read Peter James books _ only because they were all based around Brighton and the surrounding area.
They are unbelievably badly written, obvious and implausible stories - and I am stunned that he gets a book deal.
But he does ...

I must stop reading them _ they are shit!

Have you ever read a Dan Brown book, most of them are virtually unreadable.

[Mr Moofo]

In my last few years of travelling I started to read Peter James books _ only because they were all based around Brighton and the surrounding area.
They are unbelievably badly written, obvious and implausible stories - and I am stunned that he gets a book deal.
But he does ...

I must stop reading them _ they are shit!

Have you ever read a Dan Brown book, most of them are virtually unreadable.

Yes - three of them - but Angels and Demons just was embarrassing to be seen carrying onto a plane. A bit like Martina Cole books

[wheelnut]

Recently finished the new Michael Connelly. It’s good and certainly worth reading, it feels a little like he’s writing for a TV now. His last two or three have been the same. Which is a shame as he has consistently being one of the best procedural crime authors around for a long time.

[Trinity765]

Manuals. I read them. The last one was for a home weather station and it was very good. Concise with clear instructions and pictures, written in good English and nicely printed - would recommend.

[slowsider]

In my last few years of travelling I started to read Peter James books _ only because they were all based around Brighton and the surrounding area.
They are unbelievably badly written, obvious and implausible stories - and I am stunned that he gets a book deal.
But he does ...

I must stop reading them _ they are shit!

Have you ever read a Dan Brown book, most of them are virtually unreadable.

They're fine once you've cracked the code

[ZRX61]

Manuals. I read them. The last one was for a home weather station and it was very good. Concise with clear instructions and pictures, written in good English and nicely printed - would recommend.

Have a butchers at Shop Theory by the Henry Ford Trade School. First published in the 1930's.