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khay
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I think it's a great book.

 

 

We

 

And Fish although it's not exactly football fiction, try and find a copy of My Favourite Year: A Collection Of Football Writing as edited/compiled by Hornby.

Was Galatic Pot Healer any good btw? And have you tried any of his non-SF stuff?

 

I thought GPH was amazing.

Does The Man In The High Castle count as SF?

 

No I don't think so. You? Any recommendations?

Alternative history I suppose although it won SF awards I think. Anyway, Mary and the Giant, Confessions of a Crap Artist and The Man Whose Teeth Were Exactly Alike were all good although it's very different from his SF stuff. Ubik is maybe the best one of his I've read. Or A Scanner Darkly.

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I'm not really arsed which football club a book is about about sometimes, they don't have to be about NUFC, but I saw this in the library so have taken it out. Brian Reade writes for the Daily Mirror [or used to, don't know what he is doing these days] but he quite often did a good column for it a few years ago

 

 

brian-reade-43-years-same-bird-cover.jpg

Edited by LeazesMag
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I decided to read War and Peace as my father in law had it and had long since given up on it. Currently just shy of page 600 of 1400 and it's as you'd expect from such an epic, superb in some places, shite in others. I did 19th Centrury European history at A-level (yes, yawn, I know) so I had a good background of the Napoleonic wars and Russian aristocracy, but I would recommend anyone wanted to try and read War and Peace to at least do a little background on that era or you will be totally lost.

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I decided to read War and Peace as my father in law had it and had long since given up on it. Currently just shy of page 600 of 1400 and it's as you'd expect from such an epic, superb in some places, shite in others. I did 19th Centrury European history at A-level (yes, yawn, I know) so I had a good background of the Napoleonic wars and Russian aristocracy, but I would recommend anyone wanted to try and read War and Peace to at least do a little background on that era or you will be totally lost.

 

insanely good book

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I decided to read War and Peace as my father in law had it and had long since given up on it. Currently just shy of page 600 of 1400 and it's as you'd expect from such an epic, superb in some places, shite in others. I did 19th Centrury European history at A-level (yes, yawn, I know) so I had a good background of the Napoleonic wars and Russian aristocracy, but I would recommend anyone wanted to try and read War and Peace to at least do a little background on that era or you will be totally lost.

 

insanely good book

 

Yep, certainly the superb bits outweight the shite bits. The battle scenes early on (as I'm still not that far through when you look at it) are some of the best literature I've read.

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I decided to read War and Peace as my father in law had it and had long since given up on it. Currently just shy of page 600 of 1400 and it's as you'd expect from such an epic, superb in some places, shite in others. I did 19th Centrury European history at A-level (yes, yawn, I know) so I had a good background of the Napoleonic wars and Russian aristocracy, but I would recommend anyone wanted to try and read War and Peace to at least do a little background on that era or you will be totally lost.

 

aye, but have you read it in Russian ?

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I decided to read War and Peace as my father in law had it and had long since given up on it. Currently just shy of page 600 of 1400 and it's as you'd expect from such an epic, superb in some places, shite in others. I did 19th Centrury European history at A-level (yes, yawn, I know) so I had a good background of the Napoleonic wars and Russian aristocracy, but I would recommend anyone wanted to try and read War and Peace to at least do a little background on that era or you will be totally lost.

 

aye, but have you read it in Russian ?

 

No, but the 19th Century Russian aristocray all spoke French anyway..which is well confusing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm usually reading about half a dozen books at the same time.

 

At the moment:

 

Fiction:

 

Preben Mørkbak: Eirik Raude (Eric the Red) It's a novel about Eric the Red (who discovered Greenland in the 10th century) and his son, Leif Eriksson, who discovered Canada in the early 11th century. I'm reading it in Norwegian, translated from Danish, although written Danish is very close to written Norwegian. Excellent.

 

Henryk Sienkiewicz: Krzyzacy (The Knights of the Teutonic Order) It's about the Poles and the war against the Germans in the early 15th century. I'm reading it in the original Polish, and it's very difficult for me to understand. But I love the works of this writer, which I've written in English, and I'm very interested in Polish history.

William Shakespeare Hamlet. I'm reading it in Polish. It's excellent, and I've read it so many times that I understand much of it. Hamlet is a tragic character, tormented by the burden on his chest. Excellent.

 

Henryk Sienkiewicz Potop (The Deluge). It's 1656, and the Swedes have conquered the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then they try to loot a Monastarty in Clear Hill, Czestochova. This is to push the Poles too far. I'm reading the English translation from Polish. Excellent.

 

P. G. Wodehouse Cocktail Time. Very funny book about a barrister who is provoked into writing a novel. Excellent.

 

Non-fiction:

 

Pawel Jasienica Polska Piastow. A history book about Poland under the Piast Dynasty, who ruled Poland from 966 to 1350-something. I understand bits here and there.

 

I don't agree with Sweetleftpeg. You can enjoy War and Peace without background knowledge. I read it twice, and it is quality. I learnt so much about the Napoleonic War with Russia.

Edited by Nick-Kielce-Poland
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:lol:

 

Been reading some of Orwell's articles/essays, he did one about mining. An absolutely horrible life that must have been (as a miner).

The descriptions in The Road to Wigan Pier made me think about what my Grandad had to go through.

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In the conclusion of this piece 'Down the Mine', which includes his vivid descriptions of the most unbearable working conditions, he writes:

 

"It is not long since conditions in the mines were worse than they are now. There are still living a few very old women who in their youth have worked underground, with the harness round their waists, and a chain that passed between their legs, crawling on all fours and dragging tubs of coal. They used to go on doing this even when they were pregnant."

 

By Christ.

 

Also reading (slowly) Portait of the Artist AAYM. Joyce is an incredible prose stylist, but I think through my ignorance I'm missing a lot of the historical context of the book - I know fuck all about Irish history. Still, it's nice to read; I could not be arsed with Ullysses and haven't got past the first few pages of that one. I don't have a lot of time to read, I think someone said of that book, "It takes a fortnight to read, if you do nothing else."

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In the conclusion of this piece 'Down the Mine', which includes his vivid descriptions of the most unbearable working conditions, he writes:

 

"It is not long since conditions in the mines were worse than they are now. There are still living a few very old women who in their youth have worked underground, with the harness round their waists, and a chain that passed between their legs, crawling on all fours and dragging tubs of coal. They used to go on doing this even when they were pregnant."

 

By Christ.

 

Pics or STFU.

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Anyone on here read Lee Childs books? They are about an ex MP, a 6'5 bloke who just goes round filling in bad guys basically. Anyway the first movie version has just been greenlit with Jack Reacher to be played by . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wait for it . . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Fucking Cruise! :lol:

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I think Hollywood tends to take novels and butcher them beyond recognition so it's possibly not the biggest liberty being taken in relation to the source text.

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