What are you reading at the moment?

Generations by Strauss and Howe.
Sociological study of history seen through the lens of generational ‘cycles'. Obviously focused on U.S. history
(surprise, surprise) it would be interesting to see if the principles put forth in their book could also be applied
to another nation. Especially an older one with more historical significance.
Like the U.K. with it's rich island heritage.
 
Inspired by Iain @Digimonkey , I thought I'd submit a trio. Out of the three, I've only revisited Slaughterhouse 5. Part WW2, magical realism, science fiction or even the musings whilst undergoing post-traumatic stress. I'll expect Sinclair to be characteristically challenging but prosaic; and Cohen is sublime.

For @Digimonkey, @Missoni , @patw , @Blademonkey, @Ferryshave, @donnie_arko

FD79668B-6934-47E8-B516-C7B222C17589.jpeg
 
@Digimonkey Iain, random convestation in the pub on Thursday evening - the Desert Island Disc episode for Winkle Brown is rated as one of the best? Can't judge on that as have not listened yet - however, the guy who was chatting to me about it was enthused. Hope all is good,

Chris

Thanks C. - I listened to it last night - it is archived on the BBC app - if you haven't heard it yet - I couldn't recommend it too highly - it addressed the main issue that frustrated me with the book - my copy is 2007 but I believe it has been updated since - he never gives anything of himself away - in fairness - this was probably an age thing - guys of his generation didn't share their feelings or anxieties - charming in some ways - very much in the style of Sir Fitz Maclean - a near death experience might be rendered as ' a bit of a tight squeeze,' - but his visit to the newly liberated Belsen making a single paragraph was - as I say - frustrating. He speaks much more freely in Desert Island Discs - he was 95 when it was recorded - a couple of years before he died - I swear the old goat was flirting with Kirsty! - fair enough - I photographed her a few years ago and she is deeply charming in person. It is quite moving in places - a remarkable life. Great stuff - thanks again for the heads up - cheers - I.

@patw @Scotshave
 
Thanks C. - I listened to it last night - it is archived on the BBC app - if you haven't heard it yet - I couldn't recommend it too highly - it addressed the main issue that frustrated me with the book - my copy is 2007 but I believe it has been updated since - he never gives anything of himself away - in fairness - this was probably an age thing - guys of his generation didn't share their feelings or anxieties - charming in some ways - very much in the style of Sir Fitz Maclean - a near death experience might be rendered as ' a bit of a tight squeeze,' - but his visit to the newly liberated Belsen making a single paragraph was - as I say - frustrating. He speaks much more freely in Desert Island Discs - he was 95 when it was recorded - a couple of years before he died - I swear the old goat was flirting with Kirsty! - fair enough - I photographed her a few years ago and she is deeply charming in person. It is quite moving in places - a remarkable life. Great stuff - thanks again for the heads up - cheers - I.

@patw @Scotshave

Will listen in, hopefully this weekend! All the best, Chris
 
Botd-4-3-20.jpg

Just about to start this - Maxwell has intrigued me for years - a long time ago - my sister and I were wandering around the Highlands - and we ended up spending the night at Sandaig Bay - where there is a cairn to him and an otter - Mijbil- in Arabic - Midge in English - what stuck in my mind was that the cairn to the otter was massively bigger than his - excellent - all well and good. I knew of Maxwell - him being mentioned by Thesiger - the Iraq marshes - I'd read his 'Lords of the Atlas' - before going to Marrakesh - like Thesiger - ex SOE - it looks like a big read - 500 odd pages - thicker than an otter tortilla. Otters - just wet dugs? I.

@Scotshave @patw @Ferry-shave @Missoni @Blademonkey
 
Last edited:
This is a great read - part auto-biography - the man was a maniac - think Hunter S Thompson with a meat cleaver - part de-bunking the restaurant trade and celebrity chef culture. His 'A Cook's Tour,' is well worth reading as well - in fact I would recommend any of his non-fiction. His fiction - on the other hand - I found poor. I was saddened by his death. I.
 
This is a great read - part auto-biography - the man was a maniac - think Hunter S Thompson with a meat cleaver - part de-bunking the restaurant trade and celebrity chef culture. His 'A Cook's Tour,' is well worth reading as well - in fact I would recommend any of his non-fiction. His fiction - on the other hand - I found poor. I was saddened by his death. I.
Thanks for the recommendation I'll look that one up. I really liked him and his crazy character comes over in his writing, I'm only a few chapters in but hooked already.
 
Botd-5-3-20.jpg

Today is 'World Book Day,' - so I thought to mark it. I love books - I'm a compulsive reader - I haven't owned a television for approaching 15 years - these two things are probably not unconnected. It took me a while to find - and photograph - the above title to recommend to you - I can't walk in a straight line across my front room because of the piles of books - get a Kindle I hear you say? Fuck that - they have no tactile quality - they don't smell nice and you can't put a lovely book mark in them. T. E. Lawrence fascinates me - second only to the cartographer Mercator - obscure, I know - I have read more biographies on him than anyone else - this book was his own take on his experiences - classified as auto-biography - it isn't really - in important places he fantasises - his epic camel journey to report the fall of Akhaba to Allenby - all most certainly not true - his capture and rape by Ottoman troops - very much not true - an indication of the author's difficulty with his own sexuality - but it remains an astonishing book. Vital - a primary source if you want to try to understand the weeping sore of the middle east today - he negotiated in good faith with the Arabs - without knowledge of the Sykes-Picot agreement - that had carved up the territory beforehand - in secret - between the French and British. Go look at a map - see the straight lines - that's where they came from - disjointing culturally cohesive peoples. A recipe for disaster - add to that the Balfour Declaration - if you ever wondered why Arabs have a problem with the British - this is a good place to start. The book is a big read - it runs to nearly seven hundred pages - his ability to describe sand, sand-dunes and general camel stuff - is exceptional - which is probably just as well. Lawrence wrote the first draft longhand - in pencil - and then left it by mistake in a train station - on his way to meet his publisher - he had to start again. This book needs a commitment of time - obviously - thicker than a camel sandwich. He became one of the first celebrities in the sense we understand today - thanks to the American photographer and film maker Lowell Thomas - unlike cretins called Kardashian or West - he actually did stuff - he was a central figure in massively important events - and David Lean made a truly wonderful film about him. Yours - I.

@Scotshave @patw @Blademonkey @Ferry-shave @Missoni @Skylarking
 
View attachment 52014

Today is 'World Book Day,' - so I thought to mark it. I love books - I'm a compulsive reader - I haven't owned a television for approaching 15 years - these two things are probably not unconnected. It took me a while to find - and photograph - the above title to recommend to you - I can't walk in a straight line across my front room because of the piles of books - get a Kindle I hear you say? Fuck that - they have no tactile quality - they don't smell nice and you can't put a lovely book mark in them. T. E. Lawrence fascinates me - second only to the cartographer Mercator - obscure, I know - I have read more biographies on him than anyone else - this book was his own take on his experiences - classified as auto-biography - it isn't really - in important places he fantasises - his epic camel journey to report the fall of Akhaba to Allenby - all most certainly not true - his capture and rape by Ottoman troops - very much not true - an indication of the author's difficulty with his own sexuality - but it remains an astonishing book. Vital - a primary source if you want to try to understand the weeping sore of the middle east today - he negotiated in good faith with the Arabs - without knowledge of the Sykes-Picot agreement - that had carved up the territory beforehand - in secret - between the French and British. Go look at a map - see the straight lines - that's where they came from - disjointing culturally cohesive peoples. A recipe for disaster - add to that the Balfour Declaration - if you ever wondered why Arabs have a problem with the British - this is a good place to start. The book is a big read - it runs to nearly seven hundred pages - his ability to describe sand, sand-dunes and general camel stuff - is exceptional - which is probably just as well. Lawrence wrote the first draft longhand - in pencil - and then left it by mistake in a train station - on his way to meet his publisher - he had to start again. This book needs a commitment of time - obviously - thicker than a camel sandwich. He became one of the first celebrities in the sense we understand today - thanks to the American photographer and film maker Lowell Thomas - unlike cretins called Kardashian or West - he actually did stuff - he was a central figure in massively important events - and David Lean made a truly wonderful film about him. Yours - I.

@Scotshave @patw @Blademonkey @Ferry-shave @Missoni @Skylarking
A fantastic book, Iain. I read it a few years back and thought it amazing. His desert word painting was exceptional.
 
View attachment 52014

Today is 'World Book Day,' - so I thought to mark it. I love books - I'm a compulsive reader - I haven't owned a television for approaching 15 years - these two things are probably not unconnected. It took me a while to find - and photograph - the above title to recommend to you - I can't walk in a straight line across my front room because of the piles of books - get a Kindle I hear you say? Fuck that - they have no tactile quality - they don't smell nice and you can't put a lovely book mark in them. T. E. Lawrence fascinates me - second only to the cartographer Mercator - obscure, I know - I have read more biographies on him than anyone else - this book was his own take on his experiences - classified as auto-biography - it isn't really - in important places he fantasises - his epic camel journey to report the fall of Akhaba to Allenby - all most certainly not true - his capture and rape by Ottoman troops - very much not true - an indication of the author's difficulty with his own sexuality - but it remains an astonishing book. Vital - a primary source if you want to try to understand the weeping sore of the middle east today - he negotiated in good faith with the Arabs - without knowledge of the Sykes-Picot agreement - that had carved up the territory beforehand - in secret - between the French and British. Go look at a map - see the straight lines - that's where they came from - disjointing culturally cohesive peoples. A recipe for disaster - add to that the Balfour Declaration - if you ever wondered why Arabs have a problem with the British - this is a good place to start. The book is a big read - it runs to nearly seven hundred pages - his ability to describe sand, sand-dunes and general camel stuff - is exceptional - which is probably just as well. Lawrence wrote the first draft longhand - in pencil - and then left it by mistake in a train station - on his way to meet his publisher - he had to start again. This book needs a commitment of time - obviously - thicker than a camel sandwich. He became one of the first celebrities in the sense we understand today - thanks to the American photographer and film maker Lowell Thomas - unlike cretins called Kardashian or West - he actually did stuff - he was a central figure in massively important events - and David Lean made a truly wonderful film about him. Yours - I.

@Scotshave @patw @Blademonkey @Ferry-shave @Missoni @Skylarking

I...an interesting post and one that made me reach for my own penguin paperback copy of Seven Pillars, which I quickly page flicked to oil the dusty cogs of my memory. Firstly, no doubt like some others, I will have a go at gently persuading you to give a Kindle a whirl, at least for one book. I was very much an evangelist for holding on to the printed book, the tactile experience; the smell; the linear measure of reading progress; the beauty of my book shelves; the four colour printed covers etc. All of this and more can not be bettered by the Kindle. Indeed, I used to travel with books bulging out of my luggage, still resolutely affirming how much better the printed book is. After several hours of using a Kindle, I immediately recognised what I had been missing-out, not least being able to scale the font to my own preference or immediately look up the definition of a word, it is not even that it is just so much more comfortable to hold a Kindle for several hours at a time, it is more than this. It is worth reading at least one book on a Kindle; challenge your own prejudices, and be prepared to be surprised. It will not replace your printed books but it is a wonderful compliment; you will understand after only a few hours of using. Go for a re-furbished v3 Paperwhite or older Voyage model, try it and if you do not gel with it, no problem with a refund.

Now the book :); Lawrence was without doubt an extraordinary individual, he was single handedly shaping history “I wrote my will across the sky, in stars”, even though he was betrayed and the map of the ME we are currently living with, was subsequently shaped by others. His language though is archaic and I required a dictionary, a very extensive dictionary at that, constantly by my side, it was hard work. Many of the words he uses are uncommon, I suspect even at the time of writing. His observations though are truly insightful. Indeed, I recall reading somewhere, that his book was required reading for some military personnel, prior to their posting to Iraq. I still quote from the book:

- “He was old and wise, which meant tired and disappointed...”
- “Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.”
- “Mankind has had ten-thousand years of experience at fighting and if we must fight, we have no excuse for not fighting well.”
- “Many men would take the death-sentence without a whimper, to escape the life-sentence which fate carries in her other hand.”

And of course who could forget “The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.” used by David Lean and subsequently Ridley Scott in Prometheus. If only his book had been read more by the people now making the decisions to re-shape the ME. Lawrence comes across as the consummate intellectual, fighter, teacher, humanist, leader of men, able to prosecute his own will, but still fatally flawed with the imperial arrogance of the ruling class of the time. He clearly lived several lifetimes in one lifetime - an extraordinary life lived; a first person account of monumental events of the time; an exceptional Brit that our kingdom throws up only now and again.

If the book has immersed you in the sand-pit then worth checking out Patrick Seale's seminal books on the ME. The late Seal, a former Observer journalist of note, has a writing style that is the polar opposite of Lawrence's but also had the same insightful eye. He was for me, one of the best writers on the ME, years ahead of his time. His books today, are still seminal texts, as is Lawrence's, on the ME and a foundation for understanding where we are today.

How did you get on with "The Man Who Fell in Love With The Moon"?

1583492744048.png
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom