Your Favourite non-brew Related Book?

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strange-steve

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I always find it interesting hearing what books people read and more importantly why they like them.
So what do you enjoy reading and why?

Me I'm a bit of a sci-fi geek, I love the following:

The stars my destination by Alfred Bester
Star maker by Olaf Stapeldon
Tau zero by Poul Anderson
Inverted world by Christopher Priest

But my 2 all time favourites are:

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
. An absolute masterpiece of sci fi writing and incredibly easy to read. Despite being over 40 years old it reads like it was written yesterday. The future technology is still fantastic and interesting, the tension and sense of danger is edge of the seat stuff and the analogy to the Vietnam war and the feeling of disconnect that the soldiers experienced is very cleverly done. Well worth a read for any sci fi fans.

Watchmen by Alan Moore. If you've never read a graphic novel don't be put off. It is so beautifully and cleverly crafted, the depth and complexity of the character development is masterfully done. The dark, realistic superhero thing has been done to death now but this, along with The Dark Knight Returns (another great book), was one of the first and still the best imo. A real work of genius.
 
Oh, there are so many, but if I had to pick one it would be Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It offers a far reaching historical view of how the human world ended up the way it did. It is breathtaking in scope and masterfully integrates topics in biology, archeology, anthropology, genetics, linguistics and geography.

A close second would have to be Godel, Esher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hoffstader. A deep exploration of mathematics and consciousness which sends your mind spinning and an absolute masterpiece.
 
I like auto buographies (hendrix, sabbath ac/dc etc) but books about war aswell. Charles Bronsons prison books are also a good read.

I want to get Buster Merryfields buography but its a bit pricey. I seem to think he had an interesting life.

My favourite books are by Ken Wharton about the war (ahem, i mean "troubles") in Norther Ireland. Being a young lad never knew what it was all about untill I read them. £20 a book but well worth it.
 
Hi!
I'm reading Shelby Foote's three volume Narrative History of the Civil War (US civil war), the second book in the Just William series and MR James' ghost stories.
 
I like auto buographies (hendrix, sabbath ac/dc etc) but books about war aswell. Charles Bronsons prison books are also a good read.

I want to get Buster Merryfields buography but its a bit pricey. I seem to think he had an interesting life.

My favourite books are by Ken Wharton about the war (ahem, i mean "troubles") in Norther Ireland. Being a young lad never knew what it was all about untill I read them. £20 a book but well worth it.

Have you read 50 dead men walking, Marty Mcgartland as an undercover agent for the RUC in NI? Whilst being in the IRA.
 
I like British history and looking through my artifact Id books that I use for metal detecting finds. Increasingly more interested in gardening since getting an allotment so reading up on this. I've got loads of nature and fishing books. Story wise I read a lot of the Cussler books last year but only as my machine partner reads them and leaves them lying round...

Cheers

Clint
 
Hi!
I'm reading Shelby Foote's three volume Narrative History of the Civil War (US civil war), the second book in the Just William series and MR James' ghost stories.

Big MR James fan!

my two fave books are:
DUNE (plus Dune Messiah & God Emperor of Dune) - Frank Herbert - ecology, politics, precious resources and religious idealogies. Fiction but easy to see real-world influences of the time (and possibly more so today, ~50 years after its release)
CATCH-22 - Joseph Heller - great satire set in a Mediterranean US Air Force base. The core concept:
Ctrl-C'd from wikipedia...
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle
 
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Steinbeck's Of Mice & Men really got to me. So short, so simple & yet gut-wrenching.
One day I'll finish Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time. I've read it a few times, creeping closer to the end each time. I'm really afraid that he couldn't pull off a fitting ending & that the whole thing will crumble in a heap!
 
Have you read 50 dead men walking, Marty Mcgartland as an undercover agent for the RUC in NI? Whilst being in the IRA.


Cant say i have mate, although I believe the "supergrass" raymond gilmour (?) Had a book but not heard of that fella. Shall look into it.

Reading "big boys rules" by some journalist callee Urban. Bit sh*t tbh
 
Cant say i have mate, although I believe the "supergrass" raymond gilmour (?) Had a book but not heard of that fella. Shall look into it.

Reading "big boys rules" by some journalist callee Urban. Bit sh*t tbh

There have been several attempts to kill him since,he lives in the north of England now and done a follow up book i think (maybe not the smartest idea) the IRA say they will never stop looking for him as provided a great deal of info to the special branch at the time,im sure his thumb was blown off i the last attempt, was in the paper i think,might have been in Northumberland, he's paranoid as hell and thinks all the police are out for him too,just your everyday average joe 😂
 
One day I'll finish Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time. I've read it a few times, creeping closer to the end each time. I'm really afraid that he couldn't pull off a fitting ending & that the whole thing will crumble in a heap!
I read that one a few years back, can't exactly remember how it ended but I did enjoy the book as a whole.
 
There have been several attempts to kill him since,he lives in the north of England now and done a follow up book i think (maybe not the smartest idea) the IRA say they will never stop looking for him as provided a great deal of info to the special branch at the time,im sure his thumb was blown off i the last attempt, was in the paper i think,might have been in Northumberland, he's paranoid as hell and thinks all the police are out for him too,just your everyday average joe 😂


They'll have a job as he snuffed it a month ago lol.
 
DUNE (plus Dune Messiah & God Emperor of Dune) - Frank Herbert - ecology, politics, precious resources and religious idealogies. Fiction but easy to see real-world influences of the time (and possibly more so today, ~50 years after its release)

Excellent book :thumb:
 
They'll have a job as he snuffed it a month ago lol.

Where did you find that out mate, Google? Couldn't see anything, he's certainly had some life,had to fling himself out of a window six floors up whilst hands tied before the IRA drowned him,his Brother was so badly beaten in 1996 he ended up in a wheelchair for three months
 
The Grey man by Mark Greaney and the other books.
In Audible books.
Listen to the story is a great way of theropy for me...reading one is nearly hard as using my few brain cells to breath and concentrate!!
 
Where did you find that out mate, Google? Couldn't see anything, he's certainly had some life,had to fling himself out of a window six floors up whilst hands tied before the IRA drowned him,his Brother was so badly beaten in 1996 he ended up in a wheelchair for three months

A friend of mine who was a green jacket way back then told me n then i googled it and found this

http://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/new...ad-in-his-flat-for-up-to-a-week-35171158.html

We may be talking about different people?
 
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