Last Book You Read....

[welshbairn]

Reading a recent Jack Reacher book by Lee Child called Make Me. Not a big fan before but this is pretty good, and funny. Reminds me of Elmore Leonard which is praise indeed.

[Fullerene]

Recently read a book called "Black Box Thinking" by Matthew Syed (who is also described as the top Table Tennis player in the UK).

It is all about attitude to failure (including "we learn from our mistakes")

It starts off comparing the aviation industry and the health service. Basically, flying is the safest way to travel because all accidents are investigated - not so much to apportion blame, but to ensure the same thing does not happen again.

It then goes on to subjects like the manufacturer of washing powder, dyson cleaners, the British Tour de France team, marginal gains, Mercedes Benz team in Formula 1, David Beckham as a footballer who practised thousands of free kicks and so on.

Interesting read

[welshbairn]

No probs. His books are BIG so I thought that it had to be a mis-price but 'something' has been dispatched already.

Arrived this morning, not often next day delivery actually works in the Highlands!

[Oscar P]

Recently read a book called "Black Box Thinking" by Matthew Syed (who is also described as the top Table Tennis player in the UK).It is all about attitude to failure (including "we learn from our mistakes")It starts off comparing the aviation industry and the health service. Basically, flying is the safest way to travel because all accidents are investigated - not so much to apportion blame, but to ensure the same thing does not happen again.It then goes on to subjects like the manufacturer of washing powder, dyson cleaners, the British Tour de France team, marginal gains, Mercedes Benz team in Formula 1, David Beckham as a footballer who practised thousands of free kicks and so on.Interesting read

Would recommend Syed's previous book called Bounce.

Based on theory of practice makes perfect, there is much to disagree with, but some of the scenarios and experiments described in it are fascinating.

Enjoyed the chapters on him playing Michael Stich at tennis, and his flop at the Sydney Olympics.

It covers lots of sports, and even chess is included.

Well worth the read.

[Dindeleux]

 I've been reading this book today:

 

 

Its not our Jim from deadline day/Rangers tears fame.  Its also not "Shearer scored a great goal" but it goes into the background to a lot of the games.  For example Man Utd beating Sheffield Wednesday in injury time 1993 to win their first title in 26 years and the difference in fortune of the two clubs since then.  

 

Would recommend.

[Mortar Bored]

Fiesta, oor willie, crime & punishment, the broons, to kill a mockingbird, fiesta.

In that order.

[madwullie]

Half way through Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Probably the most accessible of his stuff I've read, but still find myself wondering wtf is going on most of the time

[Shandon Par]

Been on a bit of a book binge - can't have much of a social life just now. 

 

Atomised - Michel Houellebecq

Reads a bit like Grimbo's accounts of MILF stalking in the Sainbury's cafe, albeit in more exotic locations

 

I Dream of Hell - Malcolm Mackay

Decent Scottish crime stuff - my second favourite behind Rankin. 

 

Perfidia - James Ellroy

The start of a prequel series to The LA Quartet. More of the same - and that's a very good thing. 

[Granny Danger]

Mark Edwards, The Magpies. Best novel I've read in absolutely ages.

[Ross.]

Also just about finished Malcolm Mackay's Glasgow Trilogy (The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, How A Gunman Says Goodbye and The Sudden Arrival of Violence). Concise writing style that unsettles with the casual approach of the characters to life and death. Worth getting hold of them if you're a fan of Rebus or other Scottish crime novels. There's no big personalities like Rebus or Cafferty - more of a study of the grubby workings of underworld figures. 

 

Bought the 3 of them on Monday, started the first yesterday morning. Very impressed so far. I like the style they are written in.

[Shandon Par]

Bought the 3 of them on Monday, started the first yesterday morning. Very impressed so far. I like the style they are written in.

 

The follow-on (I Dream of Hell) centres on Nate Colgan. The plot gets a bit far fetched but still enjoyable. 

 

Started reading Irvine Welsh's The Blade Artist. He nails some standard Edinburgh lowlife characters very well - feels like he's writing about various people I know. 

[McRuffian]

Reading Ilan Pappe's, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

 

Also into Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke.

 

Next one will be I Find That Offensive by Claire Fox which was delivered to the kindle the other day.

Edited May 7, 2016 by McRuffian

[Ross.]

The follow-on (I Dream of Hell) centres on Nate Colgan. The plot gets a bit far fetched but still enjoyable. 

 

Started reading Irvine Welsh's The Blade Artist. He nails some standard Edinburgh lowlife characters very well - feels like he's writing about various people I know. 

 

Finished the 3rd of the Glasgow Trilogy on my lunch break. All 3 books were very enjoyable, though the first 2 were better than the final installment. Ending was sufficiently open to further installments on several of the characters, so will be interesting to see if Mackay decides to do something more with them.

 

Next up is Bounce, by Matthew Syed. Another bought based on a recommendation here, though only because I couldn't get hold of Black Box Thinking, which sounded better.

[Duszek]

Some since the start of the year:

 

Raymond Carver, Cathedral (amazing short stories)

Albert Camus, Le Premier Homme (the novel he was writing at the time of his death, really nice, autobiographical)

John Fante, Ask the Dust (a great love story set in 1930s Los Angeles. Fante was Charles Bukowski's literary hero)

Blaise Cendrars, Moravagine (novel set in Russia and South America, a top yarn from a maestro who scrawled left-handed after losing his arm in WW1)

Henry Miller, Sexus, Nexus (brilliant, funny, autobiographical novels)

 

tbh, anything any of those people wrote is worth checking out.

[Mental]

The Campaigns of Napoleon

[Miguel Sanchez]

No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

It's quite bleak.

[Fullerene]

Just finished "56" by Martin Fletcher

 

He survived the Bradford City fire - but his brother, father, uncle and grandfather did not

He was also at Hillsborough when that happened (albeit as a fan of Nottingham Forest)

 

Interesting to note attitudes to football fans then compared to now.

[Andy_K_97]

This City Now by Ian R. Mitchell - an excellent look into the working-class history of Glasgow. Decent-sized, managable chapters with good anecdotes, facts and even ideas for taking a walk around districts to look at some stuff that's often ignored. 

[Fullerene]

Finished the 3rd of the Glasgow Trilogy on my lunch break. All 3 books were very enjoyable, though the first 2 were better than the final installment. Ending was sufficiently open to further installments on several of the characters, so will be interesting to see if Mackay decides to do something more with them.

 

Next up is Bounce, by Matthew Syed. Another bought based on a recommendation here, though only because I couldn't get hold of Black Box Thinking, which sounded better.

I saw black box thinking in Waterstones - paperback (red cover) - Buy 1 Get 1 half price.  That is in Inverness but there is probably a Waterstones closer to you.  It is an excellent book.

[McRuffian]

Ended up putting Ilan Pappe's book down and forgetting about.

 

Finished Childhood's End.  First sci-fi novel I have read and it was cracking.  Really enoyed it.

 

Finished Claire Fox's book as well and it was decent.

 

Off the back of that book, as mentioned during it, I am going to start on Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publically Shamed next and try to get back into the Ilan Pappe's.