What book are you reading atm??

Celly Smunt

All the pretty horses-Cormac McCarthy

Only about Eighty Pages in.It's going fairly slow at the moment but seems to be building up to something (i hope).

Manic Moran

The Great Tank Scandal by David Fletcher. The definitive work on British tank design in the first half of WW2

MagicMarker

I'm gonna start on 'Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq' by Thomas E. Ricks. I'm fairly clueless on the war tbh so I hope this will be quite informative.

AudreyHepburn

The Help by Katherine Stockett. I'd highly recommend it.

silentfox

At the moment I'm in the middle of 'Die Trying' by Lee Child, very entertaining!

delaad

Anglo Republic by Simon Carswell.

Its factual, it moves along, has bits you might not have heard about.... like Fitzpatrick got into UCD with ONE honour(in french) and 5 passes. This was earlly Seventies and Matriculation still ruled. On the strength of which he got to graduate in Commerce, ending up qualified as an Accountant.

It is recorded that he is not boastful of his academic achievements.

HUNK

The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

delaad

triseke wrote: »

Fantastic book. I really loved it. It takes a while to get used to the characters as they all have very similar names, but just a wonderful story.

Anyone on here ever try Claire Keegan for magic realism? She'ld grip your guts!

Custardpi

One Hundred Years of Solitude is top of my reading list for 2012 - have had so many recommendations for it I'll have to give it a go. Currently reading The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - very funny & surreal novel written during the height of Stalinist oppression. Been meaning to read it for years as a book on the KGB I got a few years ago (The Mitrokhin Archive) referred to it & how the author knew he would never live to see it in print - his last act was to be helped from his sickbed to check that the hiding place for the manuscript was secure. Thus satisfied he struggled back to bed & expired soon after. Very poignant so kept meaning to read it over the years but so many other books got in the way. Then a few weeks ago a friend casually mentioned Bulgakov & recommended I try the book (hadn't discussed it with him before) so I decided that was the push I needed to finally get the finger out & get the thing. So glad I did as it's absolutely magical.

Jev/N

Just finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in advance of the film

Moving on to the Girl who Played with Fire now

meoklmrk91

Just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, wasn't sure about how I felt about it but still had to buy the second book in the trilogy Catching Fire as I just want to know what happens.

kraggy

Looking for some help.

Ashamed to say, I've never read any Stephen King, so I have 2 questions:

1. Are they easy to read?

2. If so, which one would you recommend that will almost certainly catch my attention from the start? Preferably not too long either.

I'm extremely fussy when it comes to books, couldn't finish the last one as it bored the hell out of me and just about finished the one before that. It was boring as well but I was determined to finish it.

So, suggestions?

recyclops

pmcmahon wrote: »

All the pretty horses-Cormac McCarthy

Only about Eighty Pages in.It's going fairly slow at the moment but seems to be building up to something (i hope).

Keep with it, mc carthys books are usually very descriptive and hard to get into but always are worth it, I'm currently halfway through second read through of blood meridian

triseke

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, wasn't sure about how I felt about it but still had to buy the second book in the trilogy Catching Fire as I just want to know what happens.

I thought the series as a whole was a bit meh. First book was great and I think it went a bit downhill from there.

Vicxas

Reading the Revenge of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz, Quite good so far.

Carter P Fly

Abhorsen hy garth nix

Johnny Foreigner

What book are you reading atm??

Why are you asking a cash point machine what book it is reading?

later12

Reading Beyond Religion, the new book by the Dalai Lama.

Even as a spiritual person, he has lots to say about the inefficacy of religion in the modern world, and gives his views (which are largely sympathetic) on Marxism and social democracy.

My first book to have read by the Dalai lama, and overall I'm not sure I like it. His opinions on the balance between equality and liberty for example, which is supposedly at the crux of so much political theory, seem to be basically the same as your averagely informed middle class suburban housewife.

It certainly isn't anything revolutionary or thought provoking, and again I am wondering why this man is so widely respected on matters of international political relevance.

The_Kew_Tour

The man who broke into Auschwitz.

So far so good. About quarter of the way through it though.

Paddy Samurai

Doc Ruby wrote: »

now working on Brian Lumley's Necroscope series.

Tried a few of Lumley's books and did'nt like them.
But Necroscope is a great series..........I love those books.

GLaDOS

kraggy wrote: »

Looking for some help.

Ashamed to say, I've never read any Stephen King, so I have 2 questions:

1. Are they easy to read?

2. If so, which one would you recommend that will almost certainly catch my attention from the start? Preferably not too long either.

I'm extremely fussy when it comes to books, couldn't finish the last one as it bored the hell out of me and just about finished the one before that. It was boring as well but I was determined to finish it.

So, suggestions?

I've always found King easy to read, it's why I like him so much.

Misery is a great book and is relatively small, so that might be a good start. If you want something more along the supernatural side of things, The Shining or Pet Cemetery might be a good bet. Hard to tell what you might like, been a good while since I've read a lot of them .

Towards the longer scale of books, It and The Stand are must haves. And of course there's the Dark Tower.

Tom

I'd recommend some of his short stories to get you started - Different Seasons and Skeleton Crew are a good place to start and you will know a few of the stories in those (The Shawshank Redemption, The Body (Stand By Me) and The Mist.)

conor.hogan.2

later10 wrote: »

Reading Beyond Religion, the new book by the Dalai Lama.

Even as a spiritual person, he has lots to say about the inefficacy of religion in the modern world, and gives his views (which are largely sympathetic) on Marxism and social democracy.

My first book to have read by the Dalai lama, and overall I'm not sure I like it. His opinions on the balance between equality and liberty for example, which is supposedly at the crux of so much political theory, seem to be basically the same as your averagely informed middle class suburban housewife.

It certainly isn't anything revolutionary or thought provoking, and again I am wondering why this man is so widely respected on matters of international political relevance.

This is not his best book or work, it is not a buddhism book and is a bit too serious. I have it on audible, I am not too fond of it either. It is read by Martin Sheen though and I got it for free, so I did not have to use a credit.

He is so widely respected for his outlook, he bridges the gap of spirituality and science.

--Kaiser--

kraggy wrote: »

Looking for some help.

Ashamed to say, I've never read any Stephen King, so I have 2 questions:

1. Are they easy to read?

2. If so, which one would you recommend that will almost certainly catch my attention from the start? Preferably not too long either.

I'm extremely fussy when it comes to books, couldn't finish the last one as it bored the hell out of me and just about finished the one before that. It was boring as well but I was determined to finish it.

So, suggestions?

Easy to read? Certainly

The Shining and The Gunslinger would be good books to start with

Batsy

I'm reading several books at the moment. One of them is "Hunting Eichmann". Adolf Eichmann was one of the major organisers of the Holocaust and, when the war finished, he eventually fled to Argentina. In 1960 he was captured outside his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires by Mossad agents and, after being found guilty at a trial, was hanged.

The book starts off telling you all about Eichmann's actions near the end of the war and then his actions just after the war was over.

He was responsible for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Near the end of the war, however, Himmler told him not to deport any more Jews because he wanted to use them as bargaining chips with the allies. But Eichmann, not wanting any Jews to escape deportation under his watch, still sent many to their deaths anyway.

The first couple of chapters of the book also recounts the horrors that a young Hungarian Jew named Sapir had to put up with in Auschwitz. He, his mother and his three younger siblings were put on a train with thousands of other Jews from his town. They were herded like cattle into these empty carriages, the doors were closed and then padlocked. The people had no idea where they were going. During the journey many of the people in this Sapir's carriage, who had been packed liked sardines into it, fainted or cried out for water. Eventully the train stopped at the station and the doors to Sapir's carriage opened. They were at a train station and a Nazi soldier gave Sapir a bucket and told him to get some water for them to drink. He went and filled his bucket up, but when he was returning to his carriage the same Nazi soldier deliberately knocked the bucket out of his hands and onto the floor, spilling the contents onto the floor.

The train then continued its journey. When they reached their destination the doors to Sapir's carriage, and all the other carriages, were opened and the Hungarian Jews were told to get off the train. They didn't know where they were but they could see a group of buildings and a large chimney belching out thick black smoke.

They were ordered to walk towards the entrance. As they started to do so Sapir heard an old man, who had been on the train with him, shouting out that he has left his prayer mat on the train. A man shouted to him: "What do you need your prayer mat for when you'll soon be in there?" As he said that he pointed towards the chimney.

When Sapir and his family reached the entrance a Nazi guard was directing each person to go left or to go right. He orders Sapir to go right and Sapir's family - his mother and younger siblings - to go left. At this the family became hysterical and tried desperately not to be parted but some guards grabbed them and Sapir was beaten. Sapir never saw his family again.

Whilst in an Auschwitz satellite camp Sapir was a slave labourer. He and his fellow prisoners started work at 4am and worked until 4pm. Sapir had to fill 45 wagons with coal during each shift. If he didn't do so then he would be given 25 lashes.

Sapir's other job was taking the bodies out of the gas chambers. Whilst doing this he suspected that his family had been killed in them. He had to drag each body into the yard and lie them on their backs, where someone else came along, cut off their hair and took out any gold teeth. Sapir then had to take the bodies and throw them into a ditch. There they would be burnt. A channel running down the middle of the ditch collected body fat, which was stored and later used to fuel the crematoriums.

One night, during the early hours in early 1945, the 3,000 inmates of the Auschwitz satellite camp were ordered outdoors into the freezing cold. They were told that the Soviets are coming and that they had to walk. Sapir did not know where they were walking to but he just knew that he had to do what they say or else he'd be shot.

The 3,000 of them then marched through the snow. They didn't know where they were going. Anybody who sat down for a rest or struggled to keep up were shot dead. Eventually they were all ordered to sit down by the side of the road. They were told that they didn't need to keep walking. Anybody who couldn't continue were able to wait there and a truck would come along and pick them up and take them to their destination. Sapir knew that it was a lie but just lay there in the snow and fell asleep. When he woke up he discovered that just 200 of them, including himself, had decided that they couldn't continue.

A Nazi guard them gave them all shovels, took them to a field and told them to start digging. The 200 Hungarian Jews knew they were digging their own graves. Despite this they just carried on digging.

After a while they were then taken to the cafeteria of an abandoned coalmine nearby. When they went in a man came out of a room carrying a huge pot of food. An SS officer said: "You must all be hungry!" Several of them barged to the front to be the first to get food. But all that happened is that the SS officer grabbed hold of each victim one by one, leaned them over the pot and shot them in the back of the neck. Sapir just stood there thinking he was about to die, listening to gunshot after gunshot.

Eventually, with all 200 dead except just 19, including Sapir, then SS guard was called into another room, so he stopped the killings. Sapir then somehow escaped and ran through some nearby woods. He fell over and knocked himself unconscious. When he awoke he found himself surrounded by Soviet troops, who saved him.

Sapir's testimony at the trial of Eichmann - a trial which will probably be gone through in detail later in the book - helped to convict Eichmann of crimes against humanity.

clownman

Just finished reading The Green Marine.

Paddy Samurai

Batsy wrote: »

I'm reading several books at the moment. One of them is "Hunting Eichmann". Adolf Eichmann was one of the major organisers of the Holocaust and, when the war finished, he eventually fled to Argentina. In 1960 he was captured outside his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires by Mossad agents and, after being found guilty at a trial, was hanged.

If you like these type of books ,give " Escape From Sobibor" by Richard Rashke
a try.Its well worth reading,its the only time the Jews managed a mass escape from a concentration camp,and killed the guards.Hitler was so pissed off he had the camp destroyed.

In the “New Afterword” to the 1995 reprint of Escape From Sobibor, Richard Rashke makes explicit what was already implicit in the original 1982 edition. He forthrightly challenges historians of the Holocaust to reexamine a “flawed premise” of much of their writing. Unconsciously accepting the flawed premise that “if the Nazis…did not give it much significance, it wasn’t significant,” Rashke argues that historians have distorted the nature of the Jewish response to the Final Solution. Most historians have mistakenly portrayed Jews “as a flock of sheep on the road to slaughter,” he insists, causing “intense suffering and irreparable damage to the Jewish people.” He offers his own book as an antidote. The story of the escape from Sobibor and those who survived it, he argues, “represents the buried stories of hundreds of thousands who fought and died in ghettos no one ever heard of; who tried to escape on the way to camps but never made it; who fought back inside camps but were killed anyway; who managed to escape only to be recaptured and executed; who formed or joined partisan groups from the woods of Vilna to the forest of the owls and who never saw liberation...”. I find Rashke’s argument very convincing, and I would like to encourage others who teach about the Holocaust to join me in reexamining the way we present the Jewish response to the Final Solution to our students.
Rashke’s book provided the basis for a film of the same title which was first televised in 1987 and which is still available on videocassette. The film, which tells the story of the planning and successful execution of a mass escape from one of the three major Operation Reinhard death camps, Sobibor, in eastern Poland, has been widely used by teachers to illustrate Jewish resistance to the Final Solution. Rashke’s book, however, goes far beyond what is depicted in the film.]

http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Sobibor-Richard-Rashke/dp/0252064798

daithi1970

I'm currently reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall It s about the origins of distance running and the culture of ultramarathon runners in the US. It's a great read, and makes me want to go out for a run right now!!
If you're into running, or indeed just reading, it's a hugely enjoyable book and well worth seeking out.


daithi

benj

Happyslapped by a jellyfish by Karl Pilkington.......
very funny

The Agogo

6 weeks: The short and gallant life of the British Officer in the first world war. by John Lewis-Stempel