Interesting. I absolutely loved his book on Everest, but he’s come in for some real stick in recent years for taking Gladwell style liberties in some of his later ones (especially the one on Pat Tillman), which has made me less inclined to read his other stuff.
Right now I’m reading Slaughterhouse Five. Periodically I try to look for classics I havent read and this is my latest. I’m half way through, and I’m struggling to see what it was that made this so well regarded.
Never heard of Mark Felton. I used to read a lot of popular works on Japanese history and culture but not so much over the last decade. Will look at his stuff
It was Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air opened my world to reading non-fictions.
I read into thin air, I think it was, many years ago that was an enjoyable read even though the subject matter and the authors own experience was not a positive one.
I’ve never got into Slaughterhouse 5, only made it into the first few pages before stopping. I dont know if I’m just too old or to lazy to read books like this now, or it just isn’t as good as people make out.
Yeah, It was a book I was required to read, but by the second sitting I’d got into the interesting part and stayed up literally night telling myself “just one more chapter and then bed” before I finished the entire thing.
I’ve officially given up with Slaughterhouse Five. A dark comedy that is the one of the most enduring anti-war books of all time. Im 200 pages in and done see much evidence of either yet so Im out.
Just ordered Le Carrie’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold so will go and pick that up later and hopefully start it tomorrow.
Late to the party, but I read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books with my daughter
My English teacher had me read Slaughterhouse 5 when I was in high school- probably 16 yrs old- and I didn’t get it at all, really didn’t enjoy it. Maybe I was just too young, but not one that I plan on trying again.
I enjoy historical fiction. The classic example is The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It’s an absolutely fascinating look at the battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. I highly recommend for anyone with any interest at all in the subject. I’m also a big fan of Bernard Cornwall books, although the farther back in history he sets his story is generally related to how much I enjoy the series (the older the better-maybe more artistic license allowed?).
I’m currently about half way through the Devil in the White City by Erik Larson- fascinating story, but I’m reading it fairly slowly.
I’m also a sucker for fantasy ‘coming of age’ books. That’s what I read mostly as a teenager.
Ha. We were just talking about that in the film thread (Leo has been trying to adapt it for film for 10 years)
It’s an incredible story! A mini series by one of the services with unlimited funds would be a must watch from me. I think they would have to cut and condense too much to try and make it a movie, but who knows. I saw it’s rumored to have been switched over to TV (either a death blow or good news lol, hard to say without any specifics about who might pick it up). IMDB page is not promising lol. Looks more like a pet project that doesn’t really have many legs. With the names attached, if it does get made should be good.
I read, and thoroughly enjoyed Vonnegut’s books “Player Piano”, “The Sirens of Titan”, “Cats Cradle” and “Slaughterhouse Five”, back in the late sixties / early seventies when I was studying Science Fiction (don’t ask).
I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s taste - it’s a good job we all don’t like the same things. Perhaps reading “The Sirens of Titan” before “Slaughterhouse Five” might give it (Slaughterhouse) more context and you’ll achieve a better understanding/appreciation of the Tralfamadorians.
So it goes.
Finished a few more books. Two of the more notable books that I read that were so depressing.
Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq by Nicolas J.S. Davies is an important read for those still believing US should continue to be the big brother in “policing” the world, when in fact everything that US has/had interfered for “regime change” only caused chaos, death and destruction. In the Iraq war, US (and in part UK) has further undermined UN abilities.
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America by Sarah Kendzior: The corruptions, etc. were there for all of us to see, but every level of government institutions, media, either brushed them under the carpet, or were blindsided by distraction tactics.
Now, onto some less depressing stuff: Star Wars fictions (Thrawn (Yeah yeah, its Mitth’raw’nuruodo 
) Ascendancy), and something Chomolungma/Sagarmatha (Everest) related.
I have recently read The Fisherman by John Langan. I highly recommend it if you have any interest in Lovecraftian type of horror.
Speaking of which, Lovecraft Country is great. I tried watching the series, though I had to give up due to what I felt were unneccesary changes.
I have friends who we involved in the production of it so battled through it solely for that reason, but was massively disappointed in it. If you say Lovecraft you expect monsters. They then dropped in a thing about this being magic and despite this not being presented as a universe in which people acknowledge that it exists, all the characters are just like “oh, that’s magic. cool,”
Just started my summer reading of football books with Allez Allez Allez by Simon Hughes.
I don’t read them in season as they seem to impact on Liverpool’s form 
I’ve got David Golblatt’s second book on the history of football, Zonal Marking and When Footballers were skint, kind of Euros reading.
Harry Potter was a spoiled, self-righteous, prick.
That’s an interesting take.
I liked him. He was my favourite character. He was only really an asshole in book 5, but then there was some important context happening.
Came across some old books of mine I had first read many many years ago. They were stacked away neatly in the attic… which immediately reminded of how fond of them I obviously was at one time…
No No No, not those type of books :0)
It was a series of stories set in the American gunslinger days of the wild west. Written by George G Gilman (one of many pseudonyms he used). The stories centred around a drifter, who was always dressed in black, but was an absolutely ruthless killer with graphic details included to hold you at the end of your seat. These series of books were titled EDGE, which was also the characters name throughout, along with the name of that particular adventure he had…
As a youngster, what confused me with the writing was although it was horrendous, thought provoking and unnerving in parts… George Gilman littered these stories with laugh out really loud one-liners throughout his pages…
I vaguely remember one incident when Edge killed a guy whose name was O’Leary. I think he sliced and diced him before throwing the body over a cliff edge of a 100metre drop or so, just to make sure the guy was actually dead…
Looking down from the clifftop, EDGE murmurs (if my memory serves me) something like…
“Its a long way to tip O’Leary”…!
I mean talk about opposite ends of the spectrum here… But it did make me laugh at the time.
Guess I will just have to spend the next few weeks re-visiting some of my misspent hours as a youth to see if they still hold the same fascination and interest these stories once did eh.