READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

It's still a good read Comrade, very funny....
Finished Dissolution and looking forward to his other books. They should arrive today....

[Stanley]

Finished Einhorn on taxation and slavery. A very interesting and persuasive thesis.
Thinking about Peter Jackson's new project of a trilogy based on the Hobbit and the Silmarillion, I had already decided I needed to read it again. Basically the Silmarillion is Tolkein's research book on the fantasy world he constructed from various legends, myths, Norse Sagas and history. It underpins all his writing about Middle Earth. I got a good start on this and then Pete turned up with my Shardlake books so, being a weak vessel I ditched Tolkein and started on them!

[Stanley]

Read Dark Fire yesterday. Page turner!

[hartley353]

I've ordered a copy of the history of Brown and Pickles, is this best read sitting up or lying down and with or without tea.

[Stanley]

Good lad. Let me know how you get on with it. I don't think it matters what your posture is as long as you're comfortable!

[hartley353]

Hi,Stanley. The copy of Brown and Pickles arrived yesterday. I've read 117 pages so far and the memories are flooding back,the picture of the outside of the Well house shop was just as i remembered it. The window at the top of the yard was the only opening one, and during the holidays I could always stop and have a word with my dad, I remember the tunnel through the building and seeing the miniature locomotives on display on the right hand side. To a boy of 8 or 9 they were so special.
At the time my uncle Billy Charnley worked in the Engine house this allowed me entrance to see the Driving engines, and even on a shut down to see and go inside a boiler. The other treat was to have a brew of tea, the makings of which were all contained in a jam jar,there were so many leaves I used to drink it through my teeth to filter out the leaves. Also to hear the history of clock making both my father and grandfather tinkered with clocks and watches,was this a barlick thing. when my grand father died we cleared 5 lathes from his home opposite Gisburn road juniors. In my home I still have a number of pocket watches which he must have had for parts. Plus a Stuart Turner 10H engine, a Microscope with triple object turret and triple eye piece turret which I have no means of knowing wether it is Commercial or home made.
We think he was a bit of an inventor, and had contributed to the modernisation of the weaving industry.

[Stanley]

Glad you like the book. These blokes were engineers who lived for their work and so they never stopped doing it or talking about it in their spare time. People forget how much skill there was in these small firms.

Am on my last Shardlake.....

[Stanley]

I've finished Shardlake and was going to move on to one of Sansom's modern novels but have decided to read Elizabeth Picard's 'Elizabethan London. I have become so immersed in the period that I want to continue for a while. I've ordered MacCulloch's 'Cranmer' as well and will follow Lizzie with him.....

[Stanley]

Two books expected today... The shelf space problem was getting serious so yesterday I had a cull of books I will never read again.



After I did this pic the pile grew a bit more as I found a few more candidates. I'm going to ring the Bookstop on Rainhall Road this morning and I shall give them to them for stock. Then, I can have a complete rearrangement of the shelves! Plenty of room now, there's about 12 feet of shelf space in the hall.

[Stanley]

Books picked up today? MacCulloch on Cranmer arrived yesterday. Looks like a good 600 page read!

[Stanley]

They've gone and the shelves have been tidied up. No books lying flat on top of the others and some shelf space left empty. At present rate they'll be full again in a year! Mind you, I tend to buy only good hardbacks now so overall quality is going up.

[Big Kev]

Been getting into a bit of John Grisham, just finished The Racketeer, very entertaining.

http://www.jgrisham.com/the-racketeer/

[Stanley]

Almost finished Silmarillion.... Fascinating but hard work!

[Stanley]

Silmarillion finished. I've started on Sansom's 'Winter in Madrid'. Bit of a change from Elves!

[Stanley]

Winter in Madrid is a bit turgid after his Shardlake novels.....

[hartley353]

Stanley, Just finished the Brown and Pickles, A good read I thoroughly enjoyed it when a couple of months have passed i will read it again to make it stick.In between my ninety one year old mum in colne may like a look at it she may remember some faces.
Regards Mike.

[Sue]

Mmm, I have Winter in Madrid on my kindle, but haven't started it yet. Do you think it will help me sleep

[Stanley]

Mike, that's what an author wants to hear! Thanks. Glad it hit the spot.
Sue, I don't know. I have been spoiled by the Shardlake books I suppose. I have his 'Dominion' as well and will start that today. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Nolic]

Kicked Pickwick Papers - couldn't get into the style. Now on with Bill Rogers DCI Caton Manchester crime novel. Nolic

[Stanley]

Getting into old styles of writing can be hard. I have a report on Sansom's 'Dominion'. I got 80 pages in and realised it wasn't for me. If you like constant flash-backs and interminable explanations of relationships it could be all right but I'm afraid I wasn't enjoying it at all. It's his latest book and it's almost as though he was being paid by the 1000 words.... If there's another Shardlake I'll go for it but not this thank you.
So, I shelved Dominion and started on what most people would say was a boring textbook. MacCulloch's biography of Archbishop Cranmer. Does just what it says on the tin......

[hartley353]

Mike, that's what an author wants to hear! Thanks. Glad it hit the spot.
Sue, I don't know. I have been spoiled by the Shardlake books I suppose. I have his 'Dominion' as well and will start that today. I'll let you know how it goes.

Just as an aside I wrote to Stephen King to say how much pleasure I had got from his books, During this missive I pointed out that we had a different interpretation of what a Tommy Knocker was. There was no reply to this letter so I was left wondering if I'd been ignored,or had upset him. This has not stopped me from buying his books.

[Stanley]

You tried, that was the main thing.
Cranmer is going well and I'm glad I ditched Dominion. MacCulloch's research and attention to detail is very impressive. He has really dug into the documents, even the comments in the margins Cranmer wrote as he read his books and after detailing his early life we are now in 1527 onwards when he was part of the team trying to find grounds for the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. Amazing amount of detail. You have to read carefully to get the juice out of it but well worth it. If it carries on like this I suspect this will be the definitive biography!

[Bruff]

Took me a while, but I finished the Culpepper book. It's not really about the 'medicine' if you like, it's more about the parallels between Culpepper's battles with the medical establishment and the Civil War raging at the time. It's a great imagining of urban life in the 16th century though, and the author Benjamin Wolley is good at this. I have his biography of Dr John Dee, which is similarly evocative (and a better book if I'm honest).

I have just finished in short order Kate Adie's autobiography The Kindness of Strangers. To my surprise I found this a great read, with a wealth of anecdotes, and a dry humour. I never realised she was a member of the National Youth Theatre, where she notes she never rose higher than 'Member of Shakespearean Crowd' and wondering who is this Helen Mirren anyway. It would appear that the BBC's The Hour is an accurate description of broadcast journalism at the time. From her account, the environment was awash with drink. She's also pretty good on the journalist's art.

Richard Broughton

[rossylass]

There are allotments in Islington called Culpepper Gardens. I wonder if they were named after him.

[Sue]

I want to read something light but a good read. I have just waded through three historical novels about Henry Vl and Richard of York . Interesting but hard work by the third book. Novels I know, but a good historical novel stimulates me to research the facts but a light but meaty read is needed now. I can't be doing with holiday romance stuff