James Broonbreed Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 I can't remember what it was called, but I read a book a few years back compiled of interviews with various ex Fall members. Entertaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirsten Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 I can't remember what it was called, but I read a book a few years back compiled of interviews with various ex Fall members. Entertaining. Was that the one where the author decides to take on the task of tracking down and speaking to every single former member of the Fall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Aye, that's the one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alkaline Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 I finished The Man in the High Castle, pretty good intertwining plot lines but I felt the end was a little abrupt. Well worth a read though!Moved on to Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, started slow but has picked up, a while since I saw the film as well so it's all feeling pretty new again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Dick's nae the best at endings like. Try reading Time out of Joint. Really good book but the ending is infamously bad - almost as bad as "BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ, and then he woke up and realised it was a dream." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Started this weekend on The Smartest Guys in The Room about the rise and fall of Enron. Some pretty ridiculous practices, but not a million miles from all of the other 'big business gets a bit wide adn goes down the tubes' stories I've read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 (edited) Recently read "The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett, "The Casual Vacancy" by JK Rowling, "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling, and "No Fixed Abode: A Journey Through Homelessness From Cornwall To London" by Charlie Carroll (the author become a tramp for three months). Currently reading "Dolores Claiborne" by Stephen King. Edited August 10, 2015 by Lemonade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colb Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 Started this weekend on The Smartest Guys in The Room about the rise and fall of Enron. Some pretty ridiculous practices, but not a million miles from all of the other 'big business gets a bit wide adn goes down the tubes' stories I've read. The strangest thing about that book was that their approach to forecasting and booking profit was totally logical but also absolutely mental at the exact same time. Also, cheers for the years of hell every company in Aberdeen has had to go through generating the endless paperwork caused by SOX compliance Enron... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Yeah, an absolutely astounding way to do business. It's the same old story with big businesses where 'massive profits' don't actually mean that any real money has been made and 'huge losses' can often be write downs of the value of existing assets, rather than real money walking out the door. It was a crazy way to behave and the speed with which the US business press jumped on the bandwagon and poured on the praise, without having any real understanding what was happening inside the company, was staggering. Nice to see that some of them went to jail at the end of it, which hasn't been the case in a lot of big business disasters. Now I'm reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell and A New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year by Armin A. Brott. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Finished Moby Dick last night. A very insightful, if somewhat verbose, look into 1850's whaling voyages with some madness and revenge thrown in for good measure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyboy Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 All that stuff about whale biology and the mechanics of whaling in Moby Dick is just nuts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 It was annoying at first as it seemed to just get in the way of a good story, but I think it definitely adds to the reading experience, giving a sense of realism. It's also quite informative, although the science is a bit out of date as they all still think whales are fish - I've seen Jaws and I know this to be false.If I ever re-read it though, I'll try and get a version where all that shite is omitted - a whole chapter about the colour white! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 The book is pretty nuts - if it was just the main narrative, it'd be about a quarter of the length but all of the history and technical detail turns it into this epic read which mirrors the epic nature or traipsing all over the world to find a whale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 I'm on to The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 The book is pretty nuts - if it was just the main narrative, it'd be about a quarter of the length but all of the history and technical detail turns it into this epic read which mirrors the epic nature or traipsing all over the world to find a whale. There was also no information about how he got so many tunes onto so many adverts. What a dick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyboy Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 I think all that stuff has to be some 19th century version of, say, having all the minutiae about police bureacracy, or the drug trade or the port system in The Wire. It helps bring the whole thing to life and to make it about something real and massive. That there's just so freaking much of it, and all about just sperm whales, is what doesn't make sense; at least to a 21st century reader with Google and short on time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Read 'Heart of a Dog' By Mikhail Bulgakov. Satirical look at the rise of the Soviet union in which a stray dog gets a pineal gland and a pair of nads transplanted from a cadaver. The dog then becomes a human with socialist tendencies and causes havoc in the bourgeois surgeons home. Perhaps not quite as seminal as 'Animal Farm', but an entertaining read nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Is it based on true story? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 That's going straight on my Amazon list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 I think it's usually published as a trio of short stories, Dog Heart, Fatal Eggs and another one about the devil - not entirely sure of the translation My Blon' has a hardback of all three but it's written in Estonian so it's all just gobbledygook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 I'm on to The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. This was excellent. Maybe my favourite book I've read this year. It's like reading a Louis Theroux documentary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted August 29, 2015 Report Share Posted August 29, 2015 Finished Mort last night. It's the first Pratchett book I've read and is basically what I expected, which is good. Basically Douglas Adams but with wizards and shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted September 1, 2015 Report Share Posted September 1, 2015 I re-read Heart of Darkness yesterday. A brooding novella about folk going mental and the ivory trade. Great book - although I still prefer watching Apocalypse Now. Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner, the only films to be far superior to the books they were based on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted September 1, 2015 Report Share Posted September 1, 2015 I'm reading "Notes From a Big Country" by Bill Bryson. Although I accidentally got the American version and it's different apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted September 1, 2015 Report Share Posted September 1, 2015 I re-read Heart of Darkness yesterday. A brooding novella about folk going mental and the ivory trade. Great book - although I still prefer watching Apocalypse Now. Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner, the only films to be far superior to the books they were based on.Apocaypse Now has been a favourite film of mine for years and I just read that last month and it's wicked! I love the way it was adapted too - it seems really obvious when you know the film first, but its pretty creative Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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