Planet Rugby Forum

danny_fitz wrote:My holiday book for next week.

Spoiler alert...

ZappaMan wrote:

danny_fitz wrote:My holiday book for next week.

Spoiler alert...

Spoiler: show

It's tops

Jolly good, I enjoyed his first book 'Sapiens' so seems logical to have a crack at this.

Reading ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Nazi sympathiser Henry Williamson at the moment, something I have been meaning to do for a while since reading ‘Waterlog’ by Roger Deakin, in which it is extolled as a near-mystical work of singular poetic luminosity and so on.

I can see that it is that, and certainly the evocation of the natural world is very impressive and detailed, and I am sort of enjoying it, but by ‘eck it’s hard work ploughing through endless descriptions of rills, guts, conduits, pools, weirs, banks, endless species of reeds, grasses, trees, insects, birds, mammals etc, probably two-thirds of which are unknown to me and therefore nigh-impossible to visualise.

I am quite surprised it is an enduring children’s classic, as I am fairly sure that as I child I would not have been able to force myself to keep reading through yet another passage describing every aspect of the latest stretch of water Tarka finds himself in, in a load of unfamiliar language. But perhaps I’m just hamstrung by my comparative ignorance of the natural world.

Edit: There is a line in it that made me think of this place:

"They were among birds what the Irish are among men, always ready in a merry and audacious life to go where there is trouble and not infrequently to be the cause of it" (talking about Jays).

Not that I agree with the sentiment, but I could imagine it causing a bit of minor outrage amongst the more sensitive members of The Swarm.

He clearly just couldn't handle the craic.

Boobs not Moobs wrote:Reading Hobb's last Fitz and fool book 3. 800+ pages and it really drags at times.

Well that was disappointing. Really needed a good editing. 2.5/5

Womack wrote:Reading ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Nazi sympathiser Henry Williamson at the moment, something I have been meaning to do for a while since reading ‘Waterlog’ by Roger Deakin, in which it is extolled as a near-mystical work of singular poetic luminosity and so on.

I can see that it is that, and certainly the evocation of the natural world is very impressive and detailed, and I am sort of enjoying it, but by ‘eck it’s hard work ploughing through endless descriptions of rills, guts, conduits, pools, weirs, banks, endless species of reeds, grasses, trees, insects, birds, mammals etc, probably two-thirds of which are unknown to me and therefore nigh-impossible to visualise.

I am quite surprised it is an enduring children’s classic, as I am fairly sure that as I child I would not have been able to force myself to keep reading through yet another passage describing every aspect of the latest stretch of water Tarka finds himself in, in a load of unfamiliar language. But perhaps I’m just hamstrung by my comparative ignorance of the natural world.

Edit: There is a line in it that made me think of this place:

"They were among birds what the Irish are among men, always ready in a merry and audacious life to go where there is trouble and not infrequently to be the cause of it" (talking about Jays).

Not that I agree with the sentiment, but I could imagine it causing a bit of minor outrage amongst the more sensitive members of The Swarm.

If you had just left us alone we'd have stayed on our feckin island botherin nobody.

danny_fitz wrote:

ZappaMan wrote:

danny_fitz wrote:My holiday book for next week.

Spoiler alert...

Spoiler: show

It's tops

Jolly good, I enjoyed his first book 'Sapiens' so seems logical to have a crack at this.

Brilliant interview with him (podcast) on BBC/the Inquiry.
The 'interbrainnet' is coming (linking human brains through tech - literally 2-and more-heads are better than one)

I know one head of investment banking who believes that will be a reality in 20 years!

Rocketz wrote:Arguably the best scifi book since Dune,



I had the honor of interviewing Iain Banks before he died... Just to meet a person who is so positive of the future of (marxist) humanity was amazing

Wow. Very nice. Reading Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms as recommended in this thread. Fascinating look at some of the fast disappearing religions in the Middle East. Got all 52 books from Star Trek Deep Space Nine prepped next.

Anyone else here a fan of Stephen Baxter? Don't think I;ve read anything from him that I didn't like. Read Evolution a few weeks ago. Brilliant book imo.

flaggETERNAL wrote:Anyone else here a fan of Stephen Baxter? Don't think I;ve read anything from him that I didn't like. Read Evolution a few weeks ago. Brilliant book imo.

Read the Long Earth and Long Mars (missed the Long War because I got the order of the books wrong when I downloaded them on my Kindle). They were grand. The first one was better but that's probably because of the novel idea and so on.

I only read them because Pratchett was involved but I wonder how much of an influence he actually had, given that the first one came out only 5 years ago.


Is Baxter's other stuff worth looking into?

Edit, this Reddit thread answer my question on Pterry's input to the series perfectly.

Nolanator wrote:

flaggETERNAL wrote:Anyone else here a fan of Stephen Baxter? Don't think I;ve read anything from him that I didn't like. Read Evolution a few weeks ago. Brilliant book imo.

Read the Long Earth and Long Mars (missed the Long War because I got the order of the books wrong when I downloaded them on my Kindle). They were grand. The first one was better but that's probably because of the novel idea and so on.

I only read them because Pratchett was involved but I wonder how much of an influence he actually had, given that the first one came out only 5 years ago.


Is Baxter's other stuff worth looking into?

Edit, this Reddit thread answer my question on Pterry's input to the series perfectly.

Yes. Definitely worth a look. His Xeelee series is good. As is his Time's Tapestry IIRC is also good. And my favourite, his Northland series set in Doggerland. The biggest issue with Baxter is that he seems to have issues creating interesting characters but his ideas really are brilliant imo.

I created a PR goodreads club if anyone wants to recommend books or see what others recommend

https://www.goodreads.com/group/invite/ ... pastegroup

Finks by Joel Whitney is good.

Especially considering the current political/media climate.

Womack wrote:Reading ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Nazi sympathiser Henry Williamson at the moment, something I have been meaning to do for a while since reading ‘Waterlog’ by Roger Deakin, in which it is extolled as a near-mystical work of singular poetic luminosity and so on.

I can see that it is that, and certainly the evocation of the natural world is very impressive and detailed, and I am sort of enjoying it, but by ‘eck it’s hard work ploughing through endless descriptions of rills, guts, conduits, pools, weirs, banks, endless species of reeds, grasses, trees, insects, birds, mammals etc, probably two-thirds of which are unknown to me and therefore nigh-impossible to visualise.

I am quite surprised it is an enduring children’s classic, as I am fairly sure that as I child I would not have been able to force myself to keep reading through yet another passage describing every aspect of the latest stretch of water Tarka finds himself in, in a load of unfamiliar language. But perhaps I’m just hamstrung by my comparative ignorance of the natural world.

Edit: There is a line in it that made me think of this place:

"They were among birds what the Irish are among men, always ready in a merry and audacious life to go where there is trouble and not infrequently to be the cause of it" (talking about Jays).

Not that I agree with the sentiment, but I could imagine it causing a bit of minor outrage amongst the more sensitive members of The Swarm.

This, in a nutshell. Me, being a born and bred country boy, can easily relate to his descriptive prose, and also really appreciate some of his other books on post WW1 rural life as I'm old enough to have witnessed, as a child, the dying embers of lifestyles that had little changed for centuries. Books such as 'The Peregrine's Saga', 'Tales of Moorland and Estuary'' and 'Life in a Devon Village' are both authentic and beautifully descriptive in reflecting a way of life now consigned to history.

Red Chopper wrote:

Womack wrote:Reading ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Nazi sympathiser Henry Williamson at the moment, something I have been meaning to do for a while since reading ‘Waterlog’ by Roger Deakin, in which it is extolled as a near-mystical work of singular poetic luminosity and so on.

I can see that it is that, and certainly the evocation of the natural world is very impressive and detailed, and I am sort of enjoying it, but by ‘eck it’s hard work ploughing through endless descriptions of rills, guts, conduits, pools, weirs, banks, endless species of reeds, grasses, trees, insects, birds, mammals etc, probably two-thirds of which are unknown to me and therefore nigh-impossible to visualise.

I am quite surprised it is an enduring children’s classic, as I am fairly sure that as I child I would not have been able to force myself to keep reading through yet another passage describing every aspect of the latest stretch of water Tarka finds himself in, in a load of unfamiliar language. But perhaps I’m just hamstrung by my comparative ignorance of the natural world.

Edit: There is a line in it that made me think of this place:

"They were among birds what the Irish are among men, always ready in a merry and audacious life to go where there is trouble and not infrequently to be the cause of it" (talking about Jays).

Not that I agree with the sentiment, but I could imagine it causing a bit of minor outrage amongst the more sensitive members of The Swarm.

This, in a nutshell. Me, being a born and bred country boy, can easily relate to his descriptive prose, and also really appreciate some of his other books on post WW1 rural life as I'm old enough to have witnessed, as a child, the dying embers of lifestyles that had little changed for centuries. Books such as 'The Peregrine's Saga', 'Tales of Moorland and Estuary'' and 'Life in a Devon Village' are both authentic and beautifully descriptive in reflecting a way of life now consigned to history.

My father spoke a lot about growing up on a farm outside Hereford after the Great War, so I will be getting hold of some of these.

What's everyone's opinion of the Dark Tower? I am struggling to get into it.

OptimisticJock wrote:What's everyone's opinion of the Dark Tower? I am struggling to get into it.

I struggled to get into it as well, but persevered. Don't make the same mistake. I think I got to book 5 before finally giving up completely. It's just not that good.

Demilich wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote:What's everyone's opinion of the Dark Tower? I am struggling to get into it.

I struggled to get into it as well, but persevered. Don't make the same mistake. I think I got to book 5 before finally giving up completely. It's just not that good.

Hahaha. Cheers, noted.

Demilich wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote:What's everyone's opinion of the Dark Tower? I am struggling to get into it.

I struggled to get into it as well, but persevered. Don't make the same mistake. I think I got to book 5 before finally giving up completely. It's just not that good.

Indeed. It just gets progressively worse. Books 1-3 were pretty good IMO, but after that got pretty shit pretty quickly.

Boobs not Moobs wrote:

Boobs not Moobs wrote:Reading Hobb's last Fitz and fool book 3. 800+ pages and it really drags at times.

Well that was disappointing. Really needed a good editing. 2.5/5

Horrifically disappointing. Amazing how far hobb has fallen since her first two trilogies. This was a self-indulgent mess.

Just finished the audiobook of Stephen King's "The Long Walk" ... oddly/appropriately enough, while out for a walk. Should have known that I'd be in for more questions than answers, but I think if you combined it and "The Running Man", you'd probably see the precursors for "Battle Royale" and "The Hunger Games".

While no big fan of The Hunger Games, part of me at least likes to have some of those 'what's going on in this society to get to this point?' questions answered ... though I'm not sure Collins even does it well (the first book was enough for me and I wasn't even into it, but I have seen the second film).


The Running Man is actually on a very small list for me: I prefer the movie to the book. While Stand By Me borrows heavily - even taking a lot of lines verbatim - from the book, I prefer that the film ignores a lot of the bits where the protagonist is reflecting on his life after the journey with his friends. Some of it's classic King - uber weird.

Anyone read "Phantoms in the Brain" by VS Ramachandran? Its a brilliant book and introduction to neuroscience.

Fangle wrote:

Red Chopper wrote:

Womack wrote:Reading ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Nazi sympathiser Henry Williamson at the moment, something I have been meaning to do for a while since reading ‘Waterlog’ by Roger Deakin, in which it is extolled as a near-mystical work of singular poetic luminosity and so on.

I can see that it is that, and certainly the evocation of the natural world is very impressive and detailed, and I am sort of enjoying it, but by ‘eck it’s hard work ploughing through endless descriptions of rills, guts, conduits, pools, weirs, banks, endless species of reeds, grasses, trees, insects, birds, mammals etc, probably two-thirds of which are unknown to me and therefore nigh-impossible to visualise.

I am quite surprised it is an enduring children’s classic, as I am fairly sure that as I child I would not have been able to force myself to keep reading through yet another passage describing every aspect of the latest stretch of water Tarka finds himself in, in a load of unfamiliar language. But perhaps I’m just hamstrung by my comparative ignorance of the natural world.

Edit: There is a line in it that made me think of this place:

"They were among birds what the Irish are among men, always ready in a merry and audacious life to go where there is trouble and not infrequently to be the cause of it" (talking about Jays).

Not that I agree with the sentiment, but I could imagine it causing a bit of minor outrage amongst the more sensitive members of The Swarm.

This, in a nutshell. Me, being a born and bred country boy, can easily relate to his descriptive prose, and also really appreciate some of his other books on post WW1 rural life as I'm old enough to have witnessed, as a child, the dying embers of lifestyles that had little changed for centuries. Books such as 'The Peregrine's Saga', 'Tales of Moorland and Estuary'' and 'Life in a Devon Village' are both authentic and beautifully descriptive in reflecting a way of life now consigned to history.

My father spoke a lot about growing up on a farm outside Hereford after the Great War, so I will be getting hold of some of these.

I'm from Hereford, would be interested to know your surname as my family from that era worked in agriculture and might know your relations.

blindcider wrote: I'm from Hereford, would be interested to know your surname as my family from that era worked in agriculture and might know your relations.

As far as I know nobody with my surname lives there anymore. My Dad's farm was near Letton, and grandmother grew up at Bredwardine. He went to the cathedral school. My Dad's cousins included Dale (of Dale Turkeys?) and some of the numerous Powells.

If you really want my name, look up number 470 on the Comrades web site.

That really isnt far away at all from where I grew up

I presume you've read Kilvert's Diary.

I'm looking for new books to read, and have never read Iain M Banks. Punched his name into my Kindle and Consider Phlebas is $3 right now. Good starting point?

That's his first sci-fi novel. He writes those as Iain M. Banks, his contemporary stuff is as Iain Banks.

Consider introduces you to his Culture stories. I'd definitely recommend reading them all, although I'm an unashamed fanboi.

Of his contemporary books, the Crow Road is one of his best. Although, most of his works are very good and there's a good chance you'll enjoy any one you pick at random.

I'm on the 3rd book of NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. Seriously good. 1st two both won the Hugo for best novel. Very dark fantasy with no elves or dwarfs or shit. Totally original and well written.

Reading the second Takeshi Kovac's book. Really enjoying them. I like the very different feel of the two novels too. The first is a futuristic, steampunk whodunnit, while the second is much more military sci-fi with aliens, spec-ops soldiers and shit.

OptimisticJock wrote:What's everyone's opinion of the Dark Tower? I am struggling to get into it.

I'm onto the third book, loving it so far

Just finished A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Incredible book. Immensely powerful in a way that I haven't read for quite a while. Almost as good as Dickens in his characterisation.

Just finished Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Fantastic piece of work, one of the most impressive sci-fi novels I've read in a long time. Pretty sure I bought it after seeing someone on here recommend it (possibly on another thread) so cheers, whoever that was.

Finished all the Booker Prize winners, now moved on to Death of A River Guide by Richard Flanagan. Enjoying it so far, but not sure whether that's because I've rafted the Franklin River myself and there's a certain amount of sepia-toned nostalgia in reading about the locations and experiences of the Franklin.

Finished An Ordinary Soldier earlier.

It was a very genuine and honest account of a rough few weeks in Garmsir. It was also slightly surreal reading about places I've been and on occasion fought over too. I don't think I've read a book like this where I can accurately picture the area from memory rather that photos.

A lot of the questions, feelings and emotions he spoke about I've asked myself or felt. I completely understand his reaction to going back out too. Well worth a read particularly if you're a civvy with even a passing interest as it gives a good insight into the early days of Herrick and a squaddies tribulations.

Reading Citizen Clem - John Bew’s biography of Clement Attlee. Wonderful writing and a great examination of the inner workings of the most radical government we,be ever had. For anyone who grew up in London’s east end like me the local history is fascinating.

Conservative Eddie wrote:

echo wrote:

Tony Blair's Therapist wrote:

flaggETERNAL wrote:Anyone else read this? Currently reading it and it's fcuking fascinating, if a little uncomfortable at times.

My brother recommended it. Next on my book list!

Its a reasonable popularisation but hardly revelatory.

Debt by Graeber is a far more complex and original work. Even though he avoids jargon its hard to get your head round some of what he says if you don't have an anthropology degree.

Not a book that'll be praised by Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, unlike Sapiens. Worth reading alone for the chapter on "The Myth of Barter".

It skewers the sort of targets that don't get skewered enough.

Just finished Debt by Graeber.

Honestly found it tedious and poorly written, even if the underlying themes were interesting. Felt the book really needed a strict editor to rein in Graeber. Possibly this is down to my lack of an anthropology degree.

Nolanator wrote:Reading the second Takeshi Kovac's book. Really enjoying them. I like the very different feel of the two novels too. The first is a futuristic, steampunk whodunnit, while the second is much more military sci-fi with aliens, spec-ops soldiers and shit.

Re-read them back to back a few months back.

Epic

Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Brilliant

Pat the Ex Mat wrote:

Nolanator wrote:Reading the second Takeshi Kovac's book. Really enjoying them. I like the very different feel of the two novels too. The first is a futuristic, steampunk whodunnit, while the second is much more military sci-fi with aliens, spec-ops soldiers and shit.

Re-read them back to back a few months back.

Epic

I keep going to bed too late and falling asleep almost straight away. Have made very little progress into #3.
Need to get my arse in gear, since watching the Expanse on Netflix I now want to churn through the corresponding books.