Last Book You Read....

[beefybake]

I've been reading two books by John Bogle, the inventor of index tracker funds, and founder of the Vanguard Group.

 

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns .

'....  A description of the simplest and most effective investment strategy for building wealth over the long term :

buy and hold, at very low cost, a mutual fund that tracks a broad stock market index.... '.

For me, the most important part of the book is where Bogle says to remove emotion from your investing, and to trust

the arithmetic.  ( Funny how you never seem to hear about arithmetic these days, just Math/Mathematics. ).

Whereas, in a financial world where short-termism, and conflicts of interest are rife, with heavy marketing to incite

the emotions....., the simple arithmetic tells the truth.

 

The simple arithmetic relates to hidden charges, ongoing fees that cripple returns, and the futility, for the many, of trying

to time or beat 'the market'. .

 

Enough

explores the role of values and character in money, business, and life.

Readable.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by beefybake

[scottsdad]

The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin. 

A Laidlaw book started by McIlvanney before he died, and finished by Rankin now. Very good. I often find McIlvanneys books a touch dense and inaccessible. This is much easier to get in to. Much more of a Rankin book. Almost a Rebus book with the names switched around. 

[Craig fae the Vale]

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.

Absurdist fiction based around sight on the colour spectrum and class issues. Highly enjoyable, but it has been a frustratingly long wait for the sequel. Still well worth a read though.

[ttow]

The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. I'm working on my essay about it. Writing is not my strong suit but I found case study writing service recently. Hope with its help I'll write my essay at the highest level. I think writing service is useful option for every student.

Edited November 12, 2021 by ttow

[pozbaird]

‘The Storyteller’ by Dave Grohl. Wonderful. The parallels to Bruce Springsteen’s early days are striking. An unbelieveably supportive and much-loved mother, the opposite situation with their father, and a deep-rooted desire to leave their small hometown life, and follow their dreams of a life as a musician. Grohl is widely regarded as being one of the nicest guys in rock, with his ‘heid screwed on’. Certainly comes over that way through the pages of his superbly written book. 

[scottsdad]

Thunderer by Julian Stockwin. The latest in the Kydd series and, as always, an excellent piece of historical fiction. Very enjoyable.

[Craig fae the Vale]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Didn't really click with me. It's very well written, but I just didn't connect with the main character. 

[Shandon Par]

Been listening to Bob Mortimer’s audiobook (And Away). Only half way though but would recommend. Having him read it really adds something. 

[Lex]

100 years of solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Loved this book, definitely one of my all time faves. I had read love in the time of cholera by the same author and enjoyed it, but this is much better.
It’s epic Colombian magical realism set in one town and focussing on one family over 100 years. There’s no real main character or storyline, but the same themes of time and loneliness run throughout the book. Would highly recommend.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

18 hours ago, pozbaird said:

‘The Storyteller’ by Dave Grohl. Wonderful. The parallels to Bruce Springsteen’s early days are striking. An unbelieveably supportive and much-loved mother, the opposite situation with their father, and a deep-rooted desire to leave their small hometown life, and follow their dreams of a life as a musician. Grohl is widely regarded as being one of the nicest guys in rock, with his ‘heid screwed on’. Certainly comes over that way through the pages of his superbly written book. 

This, along with the memoirs/autobiographies from Bob Mortimer and Bobby Gillespie, form the majority of my birthday/christmas hint list - along with the PE 60 Yearbook.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

On 06/11/2021 at 14:04, scottsdad said:

The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin. 

A Laidlaw book started by McIlvanney before he died, and finished by Rankin now. Very good. I often find McIlvanneys books a touch dense and inaccessible. This is much easier to get in to. Much more of a Rankin book. Almost a Rebus book with the names switched around. 

I was thinking of getting this on Kindle, and you were doing a good job of convincing me to do so up until the last couple of sentences.

Fúck it, I've just got it (it's on at 99p!). I'll be back in a week or so to have a whine about Rankin pissing all over Killie's literary giant's legacy. Or not, we'll see.

[beefybake]

5 hours ago, Craig the Hunter said:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Didn't really click with me. It's very well written, but I just didn't connect with the main character. 

I did some work* in the film of that book, and then read the book.

I was generally unconvinced by the dystopian premise of the book, and didn't really connect

with any of the characters. 

 

*  film extra.

[RH33]

On 06/11/2021 at 14:04, scottsdad said:

The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin. 

A Laidlaw book started by McIlvanney before he died, and finished by Rankin now. Very good. I often find McIlvanneys books a touch dense and inaccessible. This is much easier to get in to. Much more of a Rankin book. Almost a Rebus book with the names switched around. 

Laidlaw was the only reason I got through higher English!

 

[gmca]

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Protaganist wakes up in another person's body at a dilapidated country house full of fairly obnoxious characters. He needs to solve the mystery of who kills Evelyn Hardcastle at 11p.m. in order to be allowed to leave. He changes host bodies every day while he's trying to find the answer, and poor old Evelyn dies 7 times at 11p.m. while he builds up the evidence.

I wondered at times whether this was an allegory of some sort, but the author says he was inspired by being given Agatha Christie novels as a child, so should be read simply as a murder mystery (with a bit of time and body travelling thrown in).

Found it all a bit messy and a bit confusing at times. Would possibly be a better read second time around, but doubt if I could be arsed doing that. 

 

[charger29]

Think Audible have the new customer offer of 3 audiobooks for 99p just now if anyone is interested. They almost always give you another credit when you unsubscribe at the end as well (select "too expensive" when it asks for the reason you're leaving).

I ended up with 8 for £2 a few months ago as I have two accounts. They let you use the same card details on several accounts as well as far as I'm aware but probably best not to push it too far.

I'm mainly focused on history just now. Particularly the past 150 years. The best that I've read recently was maybe Postwar by Tony Judt or Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan. Postwar is very long and detailed (sometimes too much in the economics chapters) but worthwhile.
Reading a few books on the Soviet Union just now as well.

[pittsburgh phil]

What A Carve Up! By Jonathan Coe.

Set in Thatcher era Britain and follows the lives of a vile aristocratic family through several generations.

There are subplots involving a writer who has been commissioned to capture their story and a murder mystery of sorts, but it's mainly about the establishment, greed, Tory rule, entitlement, and the class system.

Obviously intended to be a biting satire, I wouldn't be surprised if it's viewed as an aspirational manual by Tory MP's up and down the land.

Very good read, would recommend.

[Richey Edwards]

The Dangers Of Smoking In Bed by Mariana Enriquez.

 

A collection of short horror stories, mostly set in Argentina. We have witches, curses, revenge stories, cannibalism, ghosts, demons, missing children suddenly reappearing. Nothing spectacular or innovative or groundbreaking, but readable enough and helped kill a few hours. - 6.5/10

[Saigon Raider]

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.

Yes it’s unrelentingly grim but there were real moments of beauty there as well. I absolutely loved it and it’s a book that will stay with me for a long time.

[Shandon Par]

The Rules of Attraction 

Brett Easton Ellis

Another of his I couldn’t believe was written in the mid 1980s. On the surface it’s a dark, dark takedown of vacuous, spoiled students. Poor little rich kids. Dig deeper and it’s really just him wrestling with how he was brought up, the bad example set by 1970s parenting. All stuff that really resonated with me. 
 

He’s such a master of the unreliable narrator and the style goes perfectly with the subject of drink and drug fuelled parties and hazy recollections.

Early appearance of P&B regular meme Patrick Bateman too. 

[scottsdad]

Honour of Rome (Simon Scarrow)

It is a very long time since I have failed to finish a book. I gave up on this one just over half way through. I have read this series since it first came out and many books are excellent. A few books came out about 6-7 years ago that were terrible though and I thought the series was in decline. Then it got better, but this one was a stinker. Barely a plot, just lots of very long, very detailed, very samey fight scenes. 

The plot:

Spoiler

Macro comes to Britain. Gets in a fight with river pirates. Arrives in London. Gets in a fight. Goes to Colchester. Fights the natives. Gets back to London. Gets in another fight. And on and on, page after page of descriptive fight sequences.