READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Tripps]

Well would you believe it - it's gone very spooky again -

Guess what's on Radio 4 Extra this afternoon,

Vasily Grossman's sweeping historical tale set against the ferocious Battle of Stalingrad.

Vassily Grossman

Two connections within 12 hours - what are the chances?

[plaques]

Vassily Grossman

Two connections within 12 hours - what are the chances?

What OG does today the world does tomorrow. Remember you read it in OG first.

[Stanley]

It's reading well. A brilliant book.

[Stanley]

Xmas reading is definitely assured. Hartley on Water arrived yesterday, a good clean hardback revised second edition with DJ for less than £8, not ex-libris. Bookfinder is wonderful!

[Stanley]

Over half way through 'Stalingrad'. It is fulfilling its early promise, a magnificent achievement and well worth reading!

[Stanley]

Stalingrad is still gripping me. A wonderfully well written book and the translation does it justice.

[Stanley]

I finished Stalingrad yesterday. Very rarely you read a book and end up being certain that it is destined to be a classic of the highest rank. I can't recommend it too highly. I shall start on Grossman's 'Life and Fate' today, I have been saving it for years, it's the sequel to Stalingrad.

[Stanley]

Life and fate is very small print. I went looking on line for an older hardback copy. They exist but are an enormous price. I fear I shall just have to struggle on....

[Stanley]

Started 'Life and Fate', up to now it is reading well with a very enlightening description of life in the Treblinka concentration camp. He mentions the 'Moor Soldaten' and their work, shades of Paul Robeson!

[plaques]

Not that I haven't enough books to read but this one caught my eye. 'Double Standards, The Rudolf Hess cover up.' This team of researchers are very good at digging things up that the authorities have buried. Abebooks, should be with me for the new year.

[chinatyke]

Just started on 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking. Thought provoking so far.

[Stanley]

Not many people have finished that one China, good luck!
P, that sounds interesting. I guarded Hess in Spandau Gaol. Not many people can say that.....
(Can't find it on Bookfinder P. Correct title?)

[plaques]

China. Read it twice just to make sure I didn't understand it. Sure enough I was right, I didn't understand it. Waiting for your review

Double Standards: The Rudolf Hess Cover-Up by Lynn Picknett (2001-04-05) [Lynn Picknett;Clive Prince;Stephen Prior]

The paperback second hand books were very cheap £3.40 , I went for a hardback mainly because I can see it doing the rounds and I want something back when it returns.

[chinatyke]

China. Read it twice just to make sure I didn't understand it. Sure enough I was right, I didn't understand it. Waiting for your review

It's heavy going to understand or accept some of the theories. I'm sure the Universe was much simpler the last time I looked into these things.

[Stanley]

I got half way in and then classed it with 'Does God Play Dice?' and decided it was beyond my pay grade.
Thanks P. Have ordered it from World of Books, used hardback for £12.88. I ignored the new hardback at £575, who do they think they're kidding!
(I see some of my books are a snip at hundred's of pounds..... The weird world of bookselling! You can get them all new at Lulu.com for around £15.)

[Tripps]

The weird world of bookselling!

Dorothy Hartley

I suppose it depends on whether you buy a book for the contents or the item itself.

[Stanley]

And I wonder whether the person who pays that sort of money ever reads the book.... Pack rat mentality.
I'll pay a high price if a book has rarity value, Like Bourne on Steam but that's for the information.

[plaques]

Rudolf Hess book delivered this morning. My next read now having to put Mein Kampf down yet again, pity because I was finding it more interesting than I thought I would.

[Stanley]

Good man P! Know the enemy! Main Kampf is quite a cogent argument for fascism actually. The concept had much good in it but the execution was horrible.
In support of that I was treated to Grossman describing the actual mechanisms of the Shoah yesterday. Terrible but a different and cogent view of what was actually happening.

[Stanley]

Still deep in the Shoah in 'Life and Fate'. Very difficult reading as it is extremely graphic but I am staying the course. We need to remember these things.....

[Stanley]

Grossman goes on at some length about the evil of anti-Semitism. It should be extracted and published widely. He really gets to the roots of it, this is a Great Book!

[plaques]

Finished 'Double Standards, The Rudolf Hess cover up'. The whole book presents one big mystery after another. Its one of those books that you have got to read at one pass. The plots are so interwoven that if you put it down for a week you could easily get yourself lost in its complexity. Having said that the authors try to make the sequences as logical as possible. I personally enjoyed it but others may find it sliding into improbability. There are many other issues about who runs the country, not actually mentioned, that really makes you think.
I'll wait and see what Stanley makes of it.

Before buying the book I ordered one via the Lancashire library's, there wasn't one in Lancashire but they had actually organised one through the inter-library system when I cancelled it. So its there at minimal cost.

[Stanley]

My copy should be here any day now....

[Stanley]

Hess arrived yesterday. A clean hardback copy with dust jacket, first edition. Very pleased with it. I am near the end of Life and Fate and Hess could well be next for shaving!

[plaques]

Struggling my way through 'Mein Kampf' when I saw the reference to Manchester Liberalism, Not being familiar with it a quick Google gave me... A political moment started in Manchester in opposition to the Corn Laws and free trade. c 1840. Started by Richard Cobden who was born in Sabden and John Bright born in Rochdale. John Bright is recorded as the first person to use the phrase in parliament."'It would be like 'trying to flog a dead horse'".

Not many people know that.