Currently Reading

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lambrini
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Re: Currently Reading

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Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum (2017)

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Drawing by Danzig Baldaev. The English caption reads:
The beginning of the road to Communism (Stalin), bondage: gulag, GPU-NKVD-MVD. Shortly, thereafter, the peoples of Russia recalled life under the czar as a lost paradise.
He [the man] was obsolete, but so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognise the worth, the dignity and the rights of man, that state is obsolete.
- Rod Serling
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Carlos J
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Re: Currently Reading

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Royal24s wrote:Yeah, I'm careful what I pick up because I'll get stubborn and persist with it even if it's crap.
The only book I ever gave up with was "The Road to Wigan Pier" , which was just too negative. I tend to like to read fiction because I somehow feel I should be either getting paid or likely to receive a qualification for reading non fiction.
Have you tried Maurice Druon ?

Never read Druon or Mercer from your previous post, Royals. Though one of my favourite books is by a Frenchman, Diderot's 'Jacques the Fatalist and his Master'.

Interesting that Orwell is the only book you haven't finisihed. Orwell is one of my favourite authors and though was years ago I read it, did enjoy it, thought it was more grim than depressing. Without going to Mr Wiki and from memory, isn't it in two parts, first about his trip to Wigan and second what can be done about the situation people are in?

The only book I've started and not finished is Kundera's 'Immortality'. Got about a third in, lost focus and couldn't get back into it despite a few tries. Still got it on the shelf so maybe one day.
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Royal24s
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Re: Currently Reading

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Well I've read most of Orwell's other stuff and enjoyed it. If Wigan Pier was in two parts I never got as far as the second. He was describing a lifestyle I remember quite fondly as if it was a living hell and the lack of any real subject matter, ( from my point of view), made the writing style torturous.
I like Druon not only for his own style and historical expertise,( you know game of thrones is a rip off of his fictionalised 100 years war stuff, don't you ?), but for the direct language he has in common with all French writers.
Patrick Mercer you will recall was an MP but before that was a Colonel in the British Army , ( he was present at "Bloody Sunday" topically enough). He's written two military fiction books which weren't particularly successful but which almost uniquely describe battle and the inter action of individuals in the military both accurately and quite grippingly).
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Panbaams
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Re: Currently Reading

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Something light: a 1980s Star Trek novel called Perry’s Planet. I have never seen a whole episode of Star Trek.
I used to be quite popular round here, you know.

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Carlos J
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Re: Currently Reading

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Royal24s wrote:Well I've read most of Orwell's other stuff and enjoyed it. If Wigan Pier was in two parts I never got as far as the second. He was describing a lifestyle I remember quite fondly as if it was a living hell and the lack of any real subject matter, ( from my point of view), made the writing style torturous.
I like Druon not only for his own style and historical expertise,( you know game of thrones is a rip off of his fictionalised 100 years war stuff, don't you ?), but for the direct language he has in common with all French writers.
Patrick Mercer you will recall was an MP but before that was a Colonel in the British Army , ( he was present at "Bloody Sunday" topically enough). He's written two military fiction books which weren't particularly successful but which almost uniquely describe battle and the inter action of individuals in the military both accurately and quite grippingly).

Will look into them, but trying a self-imposed ban on buying books until get the unread list down. Yay. The old memory is still good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_ ... #Structure
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Royal24s
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Re: Currently Reading

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Looked at that and I can identify Chapter 4 as where I threw it somewhere.
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lambrini
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Re: Currently Reading

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Royal24s wrote:Well I've read most of Orwell's other stuff and enjoyed it. If Wigan Pier was in two parts I never got as far as the second. He was describing a lifestyle I remember quite fondly as if it was a living hell and the lack of any real subject matter, ( from my point of view), made the writing style torturous.
I like Druon not only for his own style and historical expertise,( you know game of thrones is a rip off of his fictionalised 100 years war stuff, don't you ?), but for the direct language he has in common with all French writers.
Patrick Mercer you will recall was an MP but before that was a Colonel in the British Army , ( he was present at "Bloody Sunday" topically enough). He's written two military fiction books which weren't particularly successful but which almost uniquely describe battle and the inter action of individuals in the military both accurately and quite grippingly).


I haven't read The Road to Wigan Pier yet. Down and Out in London and Paris was interesting. 1984 is my favourite so far - Orwell was a genius who deciphered what was happening in The Soviet Union. Hell on Earth is an understatement.
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Re: Currently Reading

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And perhaps what's happening here today, although I think our version is more Huxley than Orwell.
I think both authors,( Orwell more so), intended their works as a warning, but our politicians and media misunderstood, thinking they were instruction manuals.
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Vespa
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Re: Currently Reading

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lambrini wrote: I haven't read The Road to Wigan Pier yet. Down and Out in London and Paris was interesting. 1984 is my favourite so far - Orwell was a genius who deciphered what was happening in The Soviet Union. Hell on Earth is an understatement.


This thread is making me feel dumb.

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Royal24s
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Re: Currently Reading

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Anyone like Simon Scarrow ?
'"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know".

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Re: Currently Reading

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Currently very much enjoying Alan Bennett’s Keeping On Keeping On.
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lambrini
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Re: Currently Reading

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Vespa wrote:
lambrini wrote: I haven't read The Road to Wigan Pier yet. Down and Out in London and Paris was interesting. 1984 is my favourite so far - Orwell was a genius who deciphered what was happening in The Soviet Union. Hell on Earth is an understatement.


This thread is making me feel dumb.


You haven't read the philosophical genius of Rick and Morty either. :)

I'M PICKLE RICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Re: Currently Reading

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lambrini wrote:
Vespa wrote:
lambrini wrote: I haven't read The Road to Wigan Pier yet. Down and Out in London and Paris was interesting. 1984 is my favourite so far - Orwell was a genius who deciphered what was happening in The Soviet Union. Hell on Earth is an understatement.


This thread is making me feel dumb.


You haven't read the philosophical genius of Rick and Morty either. :)


Are they like Game of Thrones fans who've read the books?

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lambrini
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Re: Currently Reading

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Vespa wrote:
lambrini wrote:
Vespa wrote:
lambrini wrote: I haven't read The Road to Wigan Pier yet. Down and Out in London and Paris was interesting. 1984 is my favourite so far - Orwell was a genius who deciphered what was happening in The Soviet Union. Hell on Earth is an understatement.


This thread is making me feel dumb.


You haven't read the philosophical genius of Rick and Morty either. :)


Are they like Game of Thrones fans who've read the books?


Yeah, something like that.
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Re: Currently Reading

Post by Panbaams »

Not currently reading, but hopefully I will be very soon: Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz.
I used to be quite popular round here, you know.

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