The GOT Book Club

[gonetomorrow]

A football book too. 'The Far Corner' author Harry Pearson.
Some good laughs. It's about football in the North East and includes games from the pro leagues but also some local leagues. The style (generally) is going to the game, the game, getting home after the game. The first couple of chapters take some time to get going but from then on, very funny. I have had the book for several years and still pick it up and have a read of an isolated chapter. Each chapter is a separate story.

I've just read the sample bit of it on Amazon and I detect faint tremors of what I remember as laughter. I'll buy it so thanks.

 

[blue to the bone]

All of the Michael Calvin books on football are very good.
Reading Family now the one where he follows Millwall for a season with access to all aspects of the club. Really interesting.

 

[degsy]

I can recommend most books by John Masters a good story teller.
'Bugles and a Tiger' is autobiographical - a snapshot of a 1920s sandhurst cadet, who joins / is posted to ghurka regiment in what is basically Afghanistan, aka, the NW Frontier...theres a follow up book about the Burma campaign, also good
I was given a paperback copy of it back in 1968, by the father of a girl I was going out with at the time...it got lost in one of my moves around.
He served with him in Burma, didnt talk much about the up the sharp end dirty stuff...but they never did did they.
But told me a few funny anecdotes about the foibles of the yanks, who got a lot of the credit.

Then there's his WW1 trilogy, which is excellent.
And a James Michener- esque 'Gibraltar' - to my mind the best bits is the stuff based on fact.
As I say, he tells a good tale.

 

[Melba Toast]

Gonna give ‘likewar the weaponisation of social media’ another read after watching the debacle in the US today.
I highly recommend this book.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Was pretty late, but boy, what a masterpiece.

 

[random]

Continuing my trip through some more sci-fi, have just finished this one



Gets good reviews on Amazon, not so good reviews on Goodreads though.

Overall I thought it a fairly decent read, and although the author makes the usual mistake of over-explaining everything alien tech related, the story is fairly unique and its a very easy to read book.

I was going to give it an average score of 3 out of 5 stars, but when I read the last page, damn I need to read the next one in the series asap (which I am just starting), because things just jumped to a whole new level.

If you like military sci-fi then have a look out for it

 

[wm02]

Just finished the new biography of Louis XIV and am getting started on The Cold Millions by Jess Walter

 

[degsy]

'The Damned United'

Nevermind the tv program, or, for once, the printed book - Get your ears round the audiobook version exceptionally well read by John Simms
NSFW or kiddies in the car - headphones required.
4hrs well spent

 

[random]

GB84 by David Peace.

Dirty deeds by both sides during the Miners Strike.

Reads more like a crime novel, than a political novel.

Wonderfully written as always by Peace and he takes no sides.

Gritty, dark and pulls no puncheson the wrongs done by both sides.

Tried it, had to give up after about 30% of the book. As I said previously, Damned United was good and although I finished Red or Dead (due to subject matter on both) I just can't get into his writing style of using short sentences throughout a book.

For example
He parks well away. Lets the dogs out. He goes to the boot of the car. Takes out the rucksack. He puts it on. Whistles. The dogs come back. He feeds them. Locks them in the car. The windows open just a crack. He walks through the streams.

It's probably just the way my brain is wired, but to me that is hard work to read.

 

[CharliePotato]

Was pretty late, but boy, what a masterpiece.

Never read it or been into the classics but have been meaning to read this or Mutiny on the Bounty for years after a few recommendations. Shall I take the leap?

 

[COYBL25]

Tried it, had to give up after about 30% of the book. As I said previously, Damned United was good and although I finished Red or Dead (due to subject matter on both) I just can't get into his writing style of using short sentences throughout a book.

For example
He parks well away. Lets the dogs out. He goes to the boot of the car. Takes out the rucksack. He puts it on. Whistles. The dogs come back. He feeds them. Locks them in the car. The windows open just a crack. He walks through the streams.

It's probably just the way my brain is wired, but to me that is hard work to read.

At least you gave it a go mate.

It got very mixed reviews when it came out and one of the criticisms was the writing style - as you mentioned.

It took me a while to get into the flow of it, but when I did I found that the use of short sentences really set the tempo of the book.

 

[Caolam]

Just started Neville Southgate’s book. Enjoying it so far.

 

[Caolam]

Just started Neville Southgate’s book. Enjoying it so far.

 

[sdk]

Thanks for the heads up on this, will check it out.

The Damned United was a superb read, but after reading Red or Dead I gave up on him (it wasn't the subject matter, it was just a crap book)

I have to disagree on Red or Dead. I thought the maddening repetition was a useful device for conveying the fictionalized Shankly's obsessive single-mindedness, though it certainly was maddening, particularly after he retires and the reader is treated to what seemed like several step-by-step pages of Shankly washing his car. I recall getting through that passage (I have a hard time skipping ahead) and feeling that Shankly was actually a tragic figure, while simultaneously marveling at what the author had just got me to do by slogging through that section. I was impressed.

The Damned United, of course, was also very good and a lot more fun to read. A lot.

I've been wanting to track down a copy of GB84 but I worry that, as an ignorant Amerikaner, a fair bit of it will be lost on me.

 

[CharliePotato]

Anyone read Rich Dad Poor Dad?