Books You Recently Read

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by Clive_ofthe_Kremlin, Oct 21, 2016.

  1. fan

    fan slow toaster

    kind of. it's by the guy who wrote la confidential which was turned into a movie I very much like and also black dalhia which I'll probably never watch because reviews aren't good.

    it's not going to wow anyone at the many sophistcsophi dinner parties that fill up my summer social calendar but they good for beach-based page turning and the 30s-50s Hollywood underbelly they describe is quite cool. I give it 3 fans on the indefinable fan scale
     
  2. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    I only talk about books with sweaty nerds on the internet so I don't need the highbrow fuel that you do.

    Yeah that's the kind of **** I like.
     
  3. fan

    fan slow toaster

    I do believe they would! the standard formula is maverick cop teams up with maverick corrupt cop to solve a one-off grisly crime that somehow intertwines with a larger slow-burning corruption scandal that takes place over the 4 books.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  4. fan

    fan slow toaster

    if sweaty is your jam then fan is your man
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  5. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    Is there a bored, malevolent woman in there of above average handsomeness but with one uniquely striking feature who tries to corrupt the maverick cop? She probably did the murder or paid the person who did it or knows who did it or whoever did it did it because of her.
     
  6. fan

    fan slow toaster

    I don't know about above average. there are frequent comparison to talkies stars who died long before I was born, but perhaps they were simply the glenn close of their day
     
  7. fan

    fan slow toaster

    I should also add that I'm only half way through the four, so these predictions might at best be only 50% accuraye
     
  8. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    Recently read To Have and To Have Not by Hemmingway. It's similar subject material in some ways to The Old Man and the Sea, but more gangstery. A bit dated and very racist, like the times it was written I suppose. I like his writing style though. He has that talent of making you feel like you're there.

    I have now moved on (and nearly finished) yet another Wilbur Smith book, called The Angels Weep. What a load of old trash, really. The sex bits are boring and excruciating. The book is in two parts. Part one is in the 1890s in Rhodesia and deals with the usual boys own, colonial dewwing do and elephant slaughter. The white hero (?), sets up machine guns and slaughters a whole column of African women, children and babies. The beautiful white women love him for it. He's so rugged! Cue six pages of tiresome bad sex grunting. Wilbur Smith justifies and absolves the white colonial rogue. Had to be done y'know. That's the way war is sometimes. Ha, ha, ha. Yes. Cough.

    The second part is the great grandson of the white colonial baby bayonetter and guess what, he's still fighting the brutal and savage blecks. Only this time they're not only bleck, they're also red! Da da daaaaahhh! Yes, the only thing worse than an uppity savage is a uppity communist savage. It's the war for the independence of Rhodesia and Ian Smith has declared UDI. Only this time, the noble blecks have been cruelly infiltrate, misled and brainwashed in their innocence by cruel COMMIE outsiders. There's a comrade lady from China who teaches them all sorts of bad stuff, like chucking bombs and how to do a fighting defence. Although she is a very stereotypical oriental, wearing only baggy pyjamas and speaking in short, cruel, staccato orders whilst training the blecks, she does suddenly get overcome by lust and spends the standard 6 pages getting boringly rutted by the noble leader...Wilbur Smith is evidently equally titillated and horrified by this unnatural tryst. "Tjanga was amazed to see that her pubic hair was as straight and black as the hair on her head!" and skim page..and turn, skim page and turn.

    There is now a new comrade who is dastardly planning with the lead noble savage to KILL the heroic white colonial grandson. Like all cruel and crazy communists, she is very fat and ugly with thick glasses etc. However that did NOT stop the lead savage from giving her a good old ravage in her lady garage. In ghastly detail and over 6 pages. Skip, skip, skip. New chapter.

    I haven't finished it yet. Commie lady and her nubian mate are off with murder in their hearts, a plan and the weapons to do the job. Knowing old Smithy though, I don't doubt they're heading for a sticky end, after a collossal struggle of course, at the hands of whitey colonial rugger chap.

    And I expect the book will finish with the same colonial hero having his own sticky end with beautiful delicate white colonial girlfriend lady, probably over about 15 pages though this time. Then he'll ask her to marry him or something.
     
  9. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    I read a few Wilbur Smith books, as I do love historical fiction, but I found him puerile in his obsession with private parts and his stories are repetitive and juvenile.
     
    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin likes this.
  10. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    Books ive read bits of recently. I have this thing where i find it really difficult to read a book front to back.. i guess it's called a lack of concentration!

    Anyway in my kazi (the only place to read) is Rocketmen.. GT's Autobiography.. the Wfc Centenary book.. The football grounds of GB.. books on Keith Moon and David Bowie.. and one on the making of the film Taxi Driver.
     
  11. Beekayess

    Beekayess Reservist

    Recently I read "This Is Going to Hurt" by Adam Kay. An excellent autobiographical book that depicts his life as a junior (and progressively more senior) doctor working in the NHS. Funny and depressing.
     
  12. Annoying noises

    Annoying noises Academy Graduate

    If you like a bit of non fiction then I'd recommend 'Not in your genes' by Oliver James.

    Some parts do seem quite extreme but it's basic premise is that a lot of the things wrong with modern Western society are due to bad parenting.

    I've also just finished Neuromancer as I also like a bit of Sci Fi and I really like dystopian fiction. However, I found it quite hard going.
     
  13. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    I read that a long time ago, but didn't really take to the author
     
  14. fan

    fan slow toaster

    i heard it was difficult to read. a real struggle.
     
  15. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    That sounds interesting, cheers.
     
  16. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    Tony Coton's autobiography is very good. He's very thoughtful on the psychology of elite sport. He says the stories of his youthful escapades have been much exaggerated, but considering the ones he admits to...
     
  17. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    Misread your opening paragraph and thought you had recommended a trendy cookbook by a fat tongued Mockney *****
     
  18. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    Good to see you don't only read Commie propaganda, Clive. Much more of this and you'll turn into a Kipper.
     
  19. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player


    Read that just recently and agree that it was pretty funny. I was pleased that he didn't skimp on the full gruesome details of the various cavity insertions presented at A&E. Including a TV remote control (with a condom on it), a toilet brush (bristles first), the contents of a KFC bargain bucket (aged and putrid) and a kinder egg containing an engagement ring inserted and firmly stuck in a romantic lady's front pocket.

    For me, it also underlined the value of the NHS. They worked as hard as they did and completed crazy hours to the detriment of everything else in their lives because of the proper values of a medic - they liked helping and curing people. He explains clearly and precisely why the NHS is so superior to private medicine and what a fraud the latter is.
     
  20. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    I've now just finished it this evening. It didn't work out as I'd thought. I suppose even Wilbur couldn't rewrite history and pretend that the Rhodesian colonial buffers heroically won and didn't get mashed up-a in-a Zimbabwe.

    {spoiler alert}

    Ruggerbugger colonial chappie No.1 got machine gunned, which only slowed his gallant charge down a little bit, then got blasted full in the chest with a pistol, which did make him falter very slightly and finally shot in the brain at a range of 1cm, which was enough to kill even him.

    Ruggerbugger colonial chappie No.2, who was his mate, got blown up by a landmine and lost his right leg. He did however inherit the sweet delicate white heroine colonial lady, who was the only survivor of a massive plane crash (SAM missile attack by reds) and then got multiply raped and violated by assorted blecks.

    She could never stand to have a man near her again. She had nothing to offer a man in 'that way'. Similarly, ruggerbugger chappie No.2 has nothing to offer a woman, because the land mine also damaged his tackle apparently (although precise details are not given).

    Nonetheless, you'll be delighted to know, that they both managed to overcome these handicaps in time to have a massive shag on the final page. The end.
     
    Happy bunny likes this.
  21. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Steve, I sense I know your khaki.

    My selection exactly (exc Moon). Is the Moon one any good? For men of action like him the book is often a limp & insubstantial version of what it must have been like to be there.

    Which Bowie one?

    There are few days on which I don’t reflect on his genius.

    The Picasso of the second half of the century.

    He took the baton of being my hero from Scullion & Stewart never really won it back.
     
    Stevohorn likes this.
  22. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Clive, you pull off the remarkable feat of writing reviews longer than the book.

    Btw, you can borrow my Kew Gardens pass whenever you wish.

    The lack of inbound talent may offer multiple occasions for you to enjoy it over the next decade.
     
    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin likes this.
  23. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    A bit that finding a corpse in a rarely opened cupboard.

    Oh great, it’s Jelly!

    But he is no more!!

    Maybe he has metamorphosed into SantaPorn.
     
  24. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    I've never read any Wilbur Smith. I now bitterly regret wasting my life
     
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  25. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Khazi.
     
    Keighley likes this.
  26. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    The Bowie book is David Buckley’s Strange Fascination.
    I did a bit of research before purchasing cause, as you know, there are so many to choose from. This one seemed to be mentioned often as one of the good reads..
    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/12/best-david-bowie-books

    The Keith Moon book i am currently attempting to read is the one by his sidekick Dougal Butler.. Moon the Loon. It's a bit of a collectors item as it's been out of print for many a year. Basically it's a first hand account of their antics and reads like it was written by a mate. Which it was.
    The definitive Moon book is Dear Boy written by Tony Fletcher. Nothing limp & insubstantial in that one i promise you (632 pages)
    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/329929717


    Yes sorry khazi.. im dropping me 'H's again!
     
  27. Carpster

    Carpster Squad Player

    Any suggestions on a decent Bowie book?
     
  28. Carpster

    Carpster Squad Player

    Whoops. Should of read the rest of the thread.
     
  29. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    The Nicholas Pegg one is the definitive guide. Balanced & beautifully written. It isn't, though, a narrative, being split into sections on each song, the albums, the tours & so on. Armed purely with Pegg & Youtube, you can while away pleasant decades.

    The Buckley & Trynka books are decent narrative accounts. I enjoyed Hugo Wilcken's brief edition in the 33 1/3 series concentrating on Low.
     
    Carpster likes this.
  30. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Roxy Music > Bowie

    < ducks for cover >
     
  31. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Thanks for the Moon tip. Looks like there's an updated 2014 version with a different title by Fletcher.

    Just embarked on a 7oo pager on Sam Phillips (founder of Sun Records) so it may have to wait a while.
     
  32. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    The first two Roxy albums are extraordinary items, especially when accompanied by the live footage. The project was very much Ferry's work, much as Eno garnished it deliciously, although there are few sounds quite like Andy McKay in full pelt. The sax was essentially the lead instrument with Manzanera playing rhythm guitar.

    Heard that our US distributor has been the front for a billion dollar money laundering operation so legal matters, sadly, beckon.
     
  33. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Ah, good luck with that RD.

    I really like Roxy ver 2.0, the lounge lizard stuff, too.
     
  34. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    I have a guilty soft spot for that too.

    We'll need IBB to provide a translation for Song for Europe.

    Only Bryan could be cool singing in Latin.

    (I always mimed to the school song so render myself ineligible for consideration.)
     
  35. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    "Dance Away" still makes me cry, nearly 40 years on (sheesh!).
     

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