As a Euro/African I take that comment as a grave insultā¦RETRACT!! 
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Just finished āThe Great Game: On Secret Service In High Asiaā by Peter Hopkirk.
A look at the machinations of Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia in central Asia, tales of the first Afghan war and the battle for control of the various Khanates bordering Britainās Indian Empire. Interesting stuff. Lots of detailed accounts from British and Russian officers and adventurers.
Just moved on to Robert Fiskās āThe Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of The Middle Eastā for something a little more up to date.
Bought my first book since the Lee Child short story combo ready for holidays.
Artemis - sequel to The Martian. Hope itās beach reading!
No spoilers D_P, have it being delivered tomorrow. Enjoyed TāMartian so thought Iād give it a go.
Yeah, funny how I chose it.
Lee Childās new novel is not yet published. So Dan Brown would be the perfect beach book. Unfortunately here it is only in Hardback, not an āAirport Editionā - The Hardback weight b asically screwed up our entire carry-on limits on the flights Sunday as we now have to take a laptop and were always taking our entire collection of Camera Kit and Lenses.
I was browsing in Krakow Duty Free no less and there it was. Just like you I thought āI liked the Martianāā¦
It already caused me grief because when I went to check in for my rebooked flight after the delay, my carry-on baggage was 1kkg too much and I ended up having to row with the Station Manager to keep the bloody thing!
And no spoilers - Wonāt open mine until Sunday at the earliest and then only if Gulf Airās Entertanment system is shit! 24th December on the Beach is the plan 
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Iāve heard itās not a very good follow-up to The Martian (which was superb). Let us know what you thinkā¦
EDIT: Ah, just seen that you like Dan Brown 
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I read Inferno(itās shit). I much preferred Craces digested read. Anyone that hasnāt read Inferno and plans to, donāt read below.
Seven kilometres out into the azure waters of the Adriatic, the Provost ā the head of a top-secret organisation called the Cornsortium, which specialised in contriving idiotic plotlines ā stood at the prow of his 237m yacht, the Mendacium. I may have finally taken on a plotline too stupid even for me, he thought.
Dr Elizabeth Sinskey, CEO of the World Health Organisation, combed her Medusa-like grey hair and thought unnecessarily of the glucocorticoid treatment that had destroyed her reproductive system. Her mind then switched to that fateful meeting she had had with Bertand Zobrist. āThe population of the world is growing too fast,ā the billionaire geneticist had said urgently. āIf we are not careful, there will soon be eight billion Dan Brown readers. We must have a cull.ā
āSo letās get this straight. Zobrist left a trail of pointless clues to where the virus wasnāt, so the whole book has been a total waste of time?ā Sinskeyās mouth stretched into a knowing but sad smile. āThatās about it. But at the end of the day, you will still have four billion readers, so you canāt complain.ā
Digested read, digested: A divine comedy
Not reading, but listening to an audio book. Tim Shipmanās Fall Out, the necessary sequel to All Out War. Itās epic, almost 30 hours in length. Itās mostly an examination of the May triumvirate, and how they got it so wrong. Iām up to the part where sheās trying to woo Trump.
The honey moon period, eh?
Excellent so far. Driving up to Liverpool tonight so will have heard considerably more.
Things can only get better by John OāFarrell.
Plots his adolesence spent waiting for Thatcher to fuck off and a Labour government to take power.
Enjoying it so far.
Didnāt know you could read tbf
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On a topless beach on a sun lounger with a Pins Class?
Or $0.50 A pint beers?
Yes guilty.
I prefer Lee Child but already read thus years release.
I am Jack Teacher (the real one not the Tom Cruise impost0rr midget)
As mentioned in another thread, just finished the first two Hannibal Lecter books āRed Dragonā & āThe Silence of the Lambsā in quick succession.
Both excellent, easy to read, tension builders.
If youāve seen the movies then you will definitley enjoy them, the plots are basically the same but with all the extra background information you would expect. in Red Dragon particularly there are 3-4 chapters purely on the title characterās childhood and upbrining that molded him into the beast in the book.
What I like most about the books is that they are reffered to as the Hannibal Lecter books, despite the fact that in the first two books he is barely in them which builds you up to the 3rd book where he is the main protagonist. Itās clever writing by Thomas Harris and works well.
Lecter is an anti-hero no doubt about it.
Finished The Good Immigrant the other day. Itās lots of short stories from BAME writers/actors/artist. What it is like to be an immigrant or the child of one. Good read and thought provoking.
Been meaning to pick that up. Lots of people I like have contributed.
Thatās one that came out through Unbound isnāt it? I quite like their business model; it seems to be producing some very interesting writing. I recently read The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth which, as a novel written in an approximation of Old English, probably wouldnāt have been picked up by publishers but turned out to be a fantastic read. Very pertinent about nationalism and cultural imperialism.
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After the recent film adaptation of IT I decided to read the book again, depsite this film being much better than the mini-series in the 90s (??) it still lacks a lot from the book.
Definitely worth reading if you donāt want to go to sleep at night.
As an aside the best adpatation of Stephen King books into films, for me, is The Green Mile and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (The Stand doesnāt count as that was a TV mini-series). All the rest you need the King imagination part to make the book work, something that always lacks in the films.
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Ew i hate Green Mile. There is a lot I would take before that! Running Man, Stand by me, Carrie
Halfway through The Bottom Corner: A Season with the Dreamers of Non-League Football by Nige Tassell
A really good insight into non-league football and some of the characters that inhabit the nether regions of the football pyramid
Crash by JG Ballard. I saw the film many years ago and wondered how true it was to the book. If anything the book is even more pervy. If you like your sex off the scale kinky, this is for you!
Just finished Antony Beevorās Stalingrad. Itās a deeply affecting read, or listen as it was in my case. Itās a brilliant study of arguably the most important battle in world history, a titanic struggle between two totalitarian states. As a reader, the only side I could pick was that of the common soldier, sent into this crucible by armchair megalomaniacs that never knew the hardships they were creating or perpetuating, Hitler being especially prone to his own press. Stalin doesnāt come out of this much better as a human being, even though the Soviet Union was the nation that managed to achieve the imperial expansion it sought pre-war, including a large part of Germany.
Along with Verdun, Stalingrad is up there for one of the least-wanted representations of hell on Earth. Human beings so malnourished that when many eventually got food, it killed them, because the bodyās ability to process fats had atrophied. A Wehrmacht sent into territory they were told was full of sub-humans, with an order to kill all partisans, and a very loose definition of what a partisan actually was.
The SS, operating behind the front lines, applying Nazi āpolicyā to any āuntermencshenā unfortunate to come their way. POW camps that were just barbed wire enclosures, with no shelter, where soldiers were simply left to die. Summary executions and collective punishment meted out by the Nazis, returned in spades by the Soviets.
Insane decisions from the totalitarian leaders. Stalin disappeared from view in the first three weeks of Barbarossa, simply because he couldnāt believe he was wrong (heād been warned for months beforehand and attributed it all to a Churchillian plot to bring the Russians into the war), and probably had cause to dwell on the 30K experienced Red Army officers heād purged in the preceding decade. The last comment Iāll make on the contest between the two leaders, and itās not one made by the book, but Stalin, whatever else he was, was a man learning harsh lessons from huge mistakes. Hitler was someone convinced that previous success made future success inevitable.
The human cost was incredible. Barbarossa took at least 26m lives. Stalingrad was the furthest the Nazis ever got, and from Beevorās account, seems to be an illustration of just how depraved and immoral we humans can be when motivated, properly or otherwise.
Arguably humanityās darkest moment.
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I āenjoyedā this too.
If this sort of thing had been on the syllabus I may have enjoyed History at school.
Still, itās no Spinning Jenny.
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