What are you reading at the moment?

What's Hot
13468943

Comments

  • dafuzzdafuzz Frets: 1522
    Philly_Q said:
    dafuzz;464577" said:

    Getting on with 'Life' by Keef now. I tried before but got distracted so have started again.

    I don't usually like biographies - most are just "I did this. Then I did that. Then I got divorced. Then I went bankrupt. Then I did that again." and they're so badly written.

    The Keith Richards book was one of the very few I've really enjoyed reading.

    I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

    Generally I like biographies for the tales of excess etc. Bloke at work emailed me some excerpts from Tony Blackburn's autobiography and it's unintentionally hilarious - he comes across like a real life Alan Partridge: https://storify.com/Eamonn_Forde/tony-blackburn-s-autobiography-compressed-for-stor Got to read that next :D
    All practice and no theory
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I'm reading "The Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell. Typical Mitchell interwoven stories, quite pacy narrative.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    I don't feel like I need to read that Blackburn bio now!  It really does read as if he wrote it himself.  >:D<
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • SkippedSkipped Frets: 2371
    edited January 2015
    Currently reading  Be Careful What You Wish For  (Simon Jordan).... and I only have a very passing interest in football. But it is a great read full of bitchy comments about everybody.


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • beed84beed84 Frets: 2403
    edited January 2015
    fatherjack said: I'm working my way through the Jack Reacher books at the moment.  Decent page-turners, but the style of the first one nearly put me off.
    Jack Reacher book are mostly written in the third person, but some are first person.  The first one (Killing Floor) is in the first person, and it starts with loads of really short sentences, as if it was dictated by a fifty-year-old with high blood pressure at the closing stages of a marathon.
    The style of the first one
    did put me off.  Couldn't stand the 'he said' or similar at the end of every turn even though there were only two participants speaking.  
    What on earth was his editor thinking? I mused.

    Currently, I'm on with "It Looks Like You're Writing A Letter" by Alexander King.  A sci-fi detective story which deals with social networking issues and the like.  A very well written debut for not a lot of money on Amazon.  Recommended.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    Part way through the first Jack Reacher, although I read very slowly so it might take me to next Christmas. I agree the style isn't helping but I got the second one for 49p in Barnados so I should get as far as that - one day.
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • xSkarloeyxSkarloey Frets: 2962
    Dennis Wheatley novels  :)

    Basically rip-roaring thrillers with great big chunks of satanism and the kind of politics you hear spouted in Surrey golf club houses thrown in for good measure. 

    The guiltiest of guilty pleasures. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • BogwhoppitBogwhoppit Frets: 2754

    The Long European Reformation: Religion, Political Conflict, and the Search for Conformity, 1350-1750 (European History in Perspective).

     

    image

     

     


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • VimFuegoVimFuego Frets: 15476
    did they find it?

    I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • lloydlloyd Frets: 5773
    Quarter way through Pulp by Bukowski-it's enjoyable enough but not sure if I 'get it' yet-I'll finish it though.

    Just finished reading Down and out in Paris and London by Orwell-fantastically written short memoir-best short book I've read.

    Next on the list is Interview with a vampire by Anne Rice seen the film years ago and enjoyed it, so hoping this will be better and a bit of light relief getting back into work.

    Manchester based original indie band Random White:

    https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite

    https://twitter.com/randomwhite1

     

     

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • BogwhoppitBogwhoppit Frets: 2754
    VimFuego said:
    did they find it?

    I think so, but then they lost it again.


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • NiteflyNitefly Frets: 4902
    I'm currently on the 2015 Railway Modeller Annual.  This is the year I'm going to start making a model railway.  Or at least some railway models...
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    edited January 2015
    Just finished Pete Townshend's autobiog. Starts off ok but gradually evolves into a huge defence against the paedophilia charges. He also comes across as an insufferable, egotistical and self pitying prick.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • BudgieBudgie Frets: 2099
    I'm currently wading through Necronomicon - a collection of HP Lovecraft's stories. I've just started Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut too, which looks promising.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • imaloneimalone Frets: 748
    Clive Cussler latest ! Love all his books.
    Cussler is good fun, used to read lots of his books.

    Just finished the Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Mishima. Hard going in places, but an interesting book, slightly reminiscent of crime and punishment. Before that finished the Broken Road, quite sad to hit the end of the original manuscript, but the Mount Athos section that ends the book is fascinating.

    Now starting out on & Sons, but have heard conflicting reports and it looks ridiculously long. And then may try some Orhan Pamuk, but already have Foucault's Pendulum lined up on my kindle.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • GrunfeldGrunfeld Frets: 4028
    edited January 2015
    Reading and doing:

    Mindfulness:  A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

    Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzz word that's creeping up.  A bit like Pilates.  Worthy but for skinny middle-class women... no, it's much more than that.  Fashion is cheap; empty talk.  There are a lot of cheap magazine articles talking about "mindfulness" and they are 99.9% crap -- this is a really good book (with a CD). 

    I've been doing "mindfulness" for (quite) a while and modesty aside, I'm not a novice.  What I love about 2015 is that there are really excellent teaching resources available that were not around years ago.  In guitar terms, 30 years ago there was no YouTube and no accurate transcriptions, and no f*cking internet.  If you wanted to learn something you were in the dark and had to rely on natural talent and dumb luck, or a decent teacher who actually knew the song and was able to get it right.  In mindfulness terms it was similar:  30 years ago mindfulness was all wrapped up with religious trappings and you had to find a teacher who could actually bloody teach.  Today it's much different, there are lots of resources -- but it's like having lots of TAB on the internet:  some of it is good but there's a whole bunch of inaccurate transcriptions which will lead you astray.

    Here's the current skinny.  Mindfulness is a loose translation of a foreign word.  It's exact meaning doesn't matter because, e.g. knowing the word "diving" won't tell you what it's like to experience a dive until you do it.  Mindfulness is something you do.  And I was looking for something I could recommend to my clients which was non-religious, academically rigorous, written in plain English and accessible to people with or without an academic background.  This book fits that bill really well.  It is mindfulness 101.  It is not the last word in the matter but it is a sensible, no-nonsense place to start.  It's good TAB. 

    Why bother? 

    Feel stressed?  Feel anxious?  Feel that something about life is on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite get it?  Ever wonder who the f*ck you are?  There is a lot to be said for feeling grounded, for feeling stable.  That is definitely one of the things that the practice (yeah, you gotta do it) of mindfulness can offer. 

    PS  just in case you fancy delving a bit deeper into the current scientific understanding of "this stuff", then I'd love to mention Sam Harris's "Waking Up:  Searching for Spirituality Without Religion".  I read this a while back and it's clear, it's exceptional.

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • d8md8m Frets: 2431
    @Grunfield

    Have just added this book to my Amazon list!

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • SRichSRich Frets: 762
    Just finished "Play On: Now Then and Fleetwood Mac" which is a really enjoyable read.

    I'm half way through "Wild Tales" Graham Nash's autobiography......just at the point when Stills & Crosby + Mama Cass and Joni Mitchell provide the motivation to make the big move.

    Next in line will be Stephen King's "Revival" after I read about it in Rolling Stone last month.


    "There's things I want, there's things I think I want 
    There's things I've had, there's things I wanna have" 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    Grunfeld said:
    Reading and doing:

    Mindfulness:  A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

    Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzz word that's creeping up.  A bit like Pilates.  Worthy but for skinny middle-class women... no, it's much more than that.  Fashion is cheap; empty talk.  There are a lot of cheap magazine articles talking about "mindfulness" and they are 99.9% crap -- this is a really good book (with a CD). 

    I've been doing "mindfulness" for (quite) a while and modesty aside, I'm not a novice.  What I love about 2015 is that there are really excellent teaching resources available that were not around years ago.  In guitar terms, 30 years ago there was no YouTube and no accurate transcriptions, and no f*cking internet.  If you wanted to learn something you were in the dark and had to rely on natural talent and dumb luck, or a decent teacher who actually knew the song and was able to get it right.  In mindfulness terms it was similar:  30 years ago mindfulness was all wrapped up with religious trappings and you had to find a teacher who could actually bloody teach.  Today it's much different, there are lots of resources -- but it's like having lots of TAB on the internet:  some of it is good but there's a whole bunch of inaccurate transcriptions which will lead you astray.

    Here's the current skinny.  Mindfulness is a loose translation of a foreign word.  It's exact meaning doesn't matter because, e.g. knowing the word "diving" won't tell you what it's like to experience a dive until you do it.  Mindfulness is something you do.  And I was looking for something I could recommend to my clients which was non-religious, academically rigorous, written in plain English and accessible to people with or without an academic background.  This book fits that bill really well.  It is mindfulness 101.  It is not the last word in the matter but it is a sensible, no-nonsense place to start.  It's good TAB. 

    Why bother? 

    Feel stressed?  Feel anxious?  Feel that something about life is on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite get it?  Ever wonder who the f*ck you are?  There is a lot to be said for feeling grounded, for feeling stable.  That is definitely one of the things that the practice (yeah, you gotta do it) of mindfulness can offer. 

    PS  just in case you fancy delving a bit deeper into the current scientific understanding of "this stuff", then I'd love to mention Sam Harris's "Waking Up:  Searching for Spirituality Without Religion".  I read this a while back and it's clear, it's exceptional.


    my understanding of Mindfulness was part of the package of being involved in Buddhism 25 years ago. Interesting that it has become a buzz word in psychology circles in recent years ( I work to manuals written by clinical psychologists) and, yes, I have seen it in glossy magazines as I've had the Baby Spice guide to Mindfulness quoted at me.
    I might see if I can get that ordered up through work, trying to 'get' Mindfulness is a bit of a headache at work and I can't say I've retained that much.
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • xSkarloeyxSkarloey Frets: 2962
    Budgie;465580" said:
    I'm currently wading through Necronomicon - a collection of HP Lovecraft's stories. I've just started Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut too, which looks promising.
    Superb choices.

    Breakfast of Champions for out and out laughs is my favourite of his books.

    If you get seriously into Lovecraft, the Penguin books edition edited by ST Joshi is worth a look, because his introductions and notes genuinely help to understand and enjoy the stories more.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.