What Are You Reading

[Harp]

Mais, bien s?ªr!

Je m'ennuie avec Kant.

 

[plain old dave]

Margaret Thatcher: The Downing Street Years. INteresting, seeing the contrasts between American Conservativism and British Conservativism.

 

[Spitfire]

On my vacation I started to re-read PIECE OF CAKE by Derek Robinson. A truely great novel 'bout pilots, aeroplanes, the Phoney War and Battle of Britain. And fellowlounger Smithys avatar!!! (Must have been the sight of it, that started me out again...)

 

[Smithy]

Good job Spitty

 

[Spitfire]

Nothing to it - peace of cake really, Smithy.It's such a great story - and I forgot how absolutely hillarious and witty the conversation sometimes goes. I truely enjoy it - even the second time. (Just like I enjoyed the TV series)

 

[Smithy]

The bit at the start with the "getaway tractor" and later when Rex blows his stack about the squadron being like the Foreign Legion when Hart arrives cracks me up every time.

One of my favourite books!

 

[dhermann1]

As far as I am concerned, that is the greatest experience one can have with a book!

Well, the great thing about Churchill is that there's an ENDLESS amount more stuff by and about him. I have the 4 volume Marlboro bio, and then there's the Randolph Churchill bio, "Great Contemporaries", etc., etc. The one I would recommend to anybody, tho, is "My Early Life".

 

[Harp]

Veritatis Splendor, Ioannes Paulus PP. II

 

[Midnight Palace]

Currently reading....

 

[Bebop]

I am about half way through "God is not Great" by Christopher Hutchins and it is a refreshing view on an old subject although I don't really like the way he writes. His thought patterns on religion are very similar to mine (maybe I should say that we have the same people on our "foolish blowhard" list) except I don't think I am the intellectual that he is. It is a good read. Recommended for believers and non-believers. I think everyone can take something from it.

 

[Lancealot]

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force - Exile. It's one of the expanded universe books that takes place 30 years after the movies.

 

[Dr Doran]

BEBOP: Wanted to read the Hitchins book, he's an interesting fellow if a prick at times.

LANCEALOT: As for Star Wars novels: can you give me a basic idea; is Luke a grandfather now or what? Don't worry about spoilers, I'll never read them. I'm just curious about the general sweep or scope of the epic.

 

[Harp]

Well, the great thing about Churchill is that there's an ENDLESS amount more stuff by and about him. I have the 4 volume Marlboro bio, and then there's the Randolph Churchill bio, "Great Contemporaries", etc., etc. The one I would recommend to anybody, tho, is "My Early Life".

Something of a cavalier rakish youth, he carried a Mauser automatic pistol
instead of a Webley revolver, quite the lad. His Malakand Field Force
is a good read.

 

[Dr Doran]

Something of a cavalier rakish youth, he carried a Mauser automatic pistol
instead of a Webley revolver, quite the lad. His Malakand Field Force
is a good read.

Harp, between you and Baron Kurz, you have read every single book in the entire world.

"Higgins, is there any place you haven't been, any thing you haven't done?"

- Thomas Magnum, Magnum P. I.

 

[Harp]

Harp, between you and Baron Kurz, you have read every single book in the entire world.

I was in Sister Mary Therese's First Grade Huckleberry Hounds Reading Group, sort of like Special Forces. lol

 

[Dr Doran]

I was in Sister Mary Therese's First Grade Huckleberry Hounds Reading Group, sort of like Special Forces. lol

I was in the top reading group in Catholic school too, but it was still full of retards.

 

[Harp]

I was in the top reading group in Catholic school too, but it was still full of retards.

Retards are more interesting.

 

[Haversack]

I've just finished with _Lost Voices of the Edwardians_ by Max Arthur. This is a book of interviews and annecdotes from people who lived in England in the years 1901-1910. It is broken up into chapters such as Childhood, Making a Living, Politics, Daily Life, etc. The people who speak in it are from all classes and walks of life. Its a book which is causing me a deal of thought. I thought myself fairly familiar with the era. My Grandfather, born in 1890 in Kent, grew up in it and spoke often of it. I read all his Boys Own Paper Annuals when I was younger. I heard many stories from other English and Scottish relatives about growing up back then.

Still, you are never too old or too wise to learn. Although in retrospect it is obvious, I didn't know that Britain had a large amount of immigration from Italy and Eastern Europe just as the USA did. Similarly I didn't know about the great enthusiasm that the first aviators created among the popular culture. What I find myself thinking most on is the nature of terrorism and political activism. Several of the people who speak in the book were active in the Sufferagette movement, including those who committed what even today would be labeled acts of terrorism, (arson directed against public buildings and political leaders' homes, coordinated vandalism on a city-wide scale), and who were imprisoned, force-fed, released, repeatedly. (See Cat and Mouse Act.) It is really weird to read words from someone who is thoroughly committed to committing terrorist acts and speaks matter-of-factly of continuing these actions in order to prove to the government that it cannot keep the peace without agreeing to the Sufferagettes demands. It is especially weird when you agree with the demands -"No taxation without representation" And there are also writings from people vehemently against women gaining the vote. It really raises questions about the nature of extremism and about dealing with political movements that have a terrorist wing.

So now I am turning to an old friend of a book set in that era. _Mr. American_ by George MacDonald Fraser. Hopefully it will allow me to digest _Lost Voices_ while letting me reexamine Fraser's story of a quiet man from the Old West who moves to England and encounters the English upper class.

Haversack.

 

[Dr Doran]

Haversack, that book about the Edwardians sounds very thought-provoking. I like how you took the time to describe it. I like that better than a one-line post with only a book title. Very interesting.

 

[warbird]

This week the "Green Hills of Africa", by Ernest Hemingway. It's a good read and about an area of Africa where my grandmother spent 30 years of her life. And she was there when Hemingway was also.