Decent holiday reads anyone?

[FourLaneBlue]

Did you have a good time?  You've not missed much while you've been away.  

That's nice to know.

Guffaw

At least, nothing that is not still continuing be discussed to death with no end seemingly in sight.  

[MancRover]

Ah yes, the boy Banks always churns out a good yarn (except Song Of Stone) and ideal holiday reading material.

Did you have a good time?  You've not missed much while you've been away.  

song of stone - truly bewildering when you consider the other great boots he's written (The Wasp Factory, Whit and Espedair Street).

[Cheshireblue]

Next, Colin will be coming out and saying he's been a lifelong Thatcherite.  

I intend visiting a bookshop in the next week or so to purchase "The Wrong Boy".

I look forward to reading it.

It was reported earlier in the year on a Morrissey fan website, that Willy Russell has received a letter from Mozza who wrote to Willy to say that he enjoyed the book.

Have you had the chance yet AESF?

Colin is actually the chairman of our local conservative society.

[colin]

Colin is actually the chairman of our local conservative society.

Ha,

It's a job but someone has to do it

The annual debutantes ball in Macclesfield gives me the option of deflowering the cream of the 18 year-old female Cheshire set.

Honest.

I'll get me anorak and my copy of Parade from the shed.

Time to plant the turnips.

[FourLaneBlue]

Colin is actually the chairman of our local conservative society.

In this parallel universe do you stand outside selling copies of Socialist Worker?

[MancRover]

I intend visiting a bookshop in the next week or so to purchase "The Wrong Boy".

I look forward to reading it.

It was reported earlier in the year on a Morrissey fan website, that Willy Russell has received a letter from Mozza who wrote to Willy to say that he enjoyed the book.

Have you had the chance yet AESF?

Just bought it myself on yours and Colin's recommendations.  Great read so far - just got up to the canal/fly catching episode!  Very Disturbing!

I get the feeling it may end up on the lines of The Wasp Factory.....

[Flopsy]

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King is a cracking book (not sure about the film) as are IT, Insomnia and the Stand. Like all Kings books they take a while to start but once you get into them wow!

[Cheshireblue]

Colin is actually the chairman of our local conservative society.

Ha,

It's a job but someone has to do it

The annual debutantes ball in Macclesfield gives me the option of deflowering the cream of the 18 year-old female Cheshire set.

Honest.

I'll get me anorak and my copy of Parade from the shed.

Time to plant the turnips.

I think you are confused Colin. I have the feudal right of "first knight" over all of the peasants on my lands, not you!

However if your turnips grow really big, I might let you have a go for your birthday. :'>

Which reminds me another very good book - Tom Sharpe's Ancestoral Vices. Very dry and very british!

[colin]

I think someone else has mentioned "The Way It Was," The Autobiography of Stanley Matthews.

I'm only up to page 60 of the 400 but it is a splendid read.

I am really looking forward to the next 340 pages.

He really seems like a true gentleman.

[Cheeky Sidders]

Which reminds me another very good book - Tom Sharpe's Ancestoral Vices. Very dry and very british!

But Tom Sharpe's best books are Riotous Assembly, Indecent Exposure, The Throwback and Vintage Stuff.

Most of the others shouldn't be tampered with, especially The Great Pursuit.

[Manchester Blue]

I'm off on holiday on monday so will try and pick a few up. as for recommendations.  I've read quite a few by Kevin Sampson especially Powder and they are very good.  Footy related I would recommend The Boss by Michael Crick, it's about Fergie but is very interesting and puts a different slant than his own book.

[Cocker]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet but I have just come back from my hols (Grand Canaria - very nice thankyou very much) and read a copy of the Frank Skinner book.

Very Very Funny - not a dull moment throughout

[Cheeky Sidders]

After much cajoling by an elder sibling and being bought one for Christmas, I recently read a book by Bernard Cornwell (author of the Sharpe books, apparently).  Not my usual cup of tea, I nevertheless pressed on with his lesser known opus "Stonehenge" which gives a speculative account of how the great monument was made and why.  In short, this book is absolute @#/? and should not be touched by anyone.

Since then I have commenced reading Julian's Cope memoirs of the years 1976 to 1982, "Head-on" (the punk years, the Liverpool music scene at that time and the rise and fall of The Teardrop Explodes).  Absolutely mad, funny, bleak, bitchy, downright debauched, a bit scary, brutally frank, completely honest in a somewhat self-critical way and very readable.  Even if you're not a fan of the mad one's music, you'd be hard pressed not to find this very entertaining.

[colin]

If you are reading this you like football.

You must reads : Stanley Matthews' "The Way It Was

This is the autobiography of an eighty five year old who first played for England schoolboys in 1929; played his first league game in 1931 and his last in 1964.

That's thirty five years as a top class player.

His last game in the old first division (that's the Premiership now) when he was aged 50.

ISBN 0-7472-7108-9

Beg borrow or steal my fellow Rovers fans. It is 430 pages of a history of how it was..

It is worth missing lectures or a night in the pub just to read it

[FourLaneBlue]

There are some decent football books on the market, which do not peddle the old 'i woz gutted' routine of so many bland ghost-written autobiographies. If interested try these-

The Far Corner by Harry Pearson - the best football book I have ever read. Insightful and intelligent. The far corner of the title relates to the North East although this is a great read for any football fan.

A season with Verona by Tim Parks - Not really a recommendation although it seems many others have enjoyed it. Parks is an articulate and descriptive narrator of his own travels with the most notorious club in Italy.  Yet I found his biased reporting merely served to irritate and he does seem like a bit of a big girl's blouse at times.  There wasn't as much on Italian football as I was expecting although everyone else I have discussed the book with recommended it highly so don't necessarily let me put you off.

Fathers, sons and Football by Colin Schindler - Examing the Summerbee family business through the decades, namely football. Grandad George plyed for Preston, his son Mike (easily the best of them) was an England international and a Man City legend (who also played for our nearest dearest to the east) and the youngest, Nicky Summerbee, is crap but gets well paid for being so.  An interesting look at the changes to the players and their wages that have steadily progressed over the years.  Schindler also wrote 'Manchester United ruined my life' but that is too much of an autobiographical element to it if you ask me (why do I want to know which school he went to or how he lost his virginity? Just united-bash will you?).

The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro by Joe McGinniss - Brilliant tale of a bemused American attempting to pick his way through the minutiae of Italian life and its football (calcio!). Castel di Sangro is a tiny remote village in the Umbrian mountains who, despite only having a population of 5,000, managed to spurt forth a Serie B side a few years back.  Imagine Barley or Keswick in the Lake District having a team in the first division. Some very (very) interesting revelations about corruption and match fixing in Italian football which means it is still banned in Italy to this day.

Stamping Grounds by Charlie Connelly - Bloke follows Liechenstein around their World Cup qualifiers. Sounds boring but isn't, a very funny and quirky read.  Amazed that anyone could make Liechtenstein interesting.

Barca by Jimmy Burns - Tale of probably the world's greatest club (after Rovers naturally), which has had to battle the establishment as much as the other teams.  Repressed against Franco and almost torn apart during the Spanish Civil War, the book shows how Barcelona came to represent Catalonia, individuality and human freedom, rebelling against the fascist plaything that constituted their greatest rivals Real Madrid.

Psycho by Stuart Pearce - Does as it says on the tin.

The Day Italian Football Died by Alexandra Manna and Mike Gibbs - A history of Torino, focusing on the 1949 Superga disaster which obliterated their greatest team. Unlike Manchester United they have never really fully recovered and have won only one Serie A title since.  Only recommended if you are HEAVILY into football (and Italian football as well for that matter).

The Essential History of Blackburn Rovers/The House the Jack built/Simon Garner autobiography - The only three books you should need as a Rovers fan. The history book contains all Rovers' league results meaning you can answer questions by checking the book and everyone will think you know more than you do. Works for me.

The Story of the World Cup by Bryan Glanville - A football journalist who attempts to steer away from cliche recalls the last seventy odd years of the greatest competition in football.

Sightlines by Simon Inglis - Bloke with obsession about football stadiums (or stadia, whichever is the correct plural) travels to see some of the most interesting. Although obviously being an expert on stadiums is a rather peripheral subject to have as a career, the bloke is strangely interesting.  Even if he is a stadium geek.

and finally Addicated by Tony Adams - This is a warning to avoid the most overated football book of all time. Adams is the kind of bore only a recovering alcoholic can be. Man, can this donkey preach! The book goes along fine until he (unsuccessfully) attempts to philosophise about alcoholism. Adams is attempting to relaunch himself as a thinking man's former footballer. Unfortunately the pseudo-intellectual claptrap he comes out with in his ever more tedious diatribes are embarrasing.  Enough already! If I see one more interview in which Adams offers to be a guiding influence to younger players I think I will scream. The man is so boring he will drive them all to drink just by taking to them. Class A plonker. The prose is turgid, the style is akin to secondary school Creative Writing class standard and, worst of all, Tony "I bore for England" Adams is at the centre of it.

Blimey, that's a long post! Has AESF infected me with something?

As for non-football reads...  Everybody should read at least one of George Macdonald Fraser's brilliant 'Flashman' series which are some of the best comic novels of all time. Genius is too light a word. Flashman was the bully in 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' and Fraser has used this character in his series to show how Flashy squirms his way through some of the great historical moments in British colonial history. Flashman turns up at the Indian Mutiny, the Zulu Wars (soon to come), the American Civil War, Battle of Wounded Knee and The Charge of the Light Brigade.  Yet he is a coward, a poltroon, a cad, a lecherous womaniser, a drunk and an a complete antihero.  Throughout the novels he seduces his way through various nationalities of women, using his fool proof 'Flashman manoeuvere' - one hand on a breast, one on a buttock and away you go. Brilliant novels and they teach you history at the same time without boring. Fraser should have had a knighthood by now.

[Cheeky Sidders]

I read a couple of the Flashman books as a student (one about the Crimean war with the charge of the Light Brigade, and the other about the Opium war) and both were superb.  Very funny and with amazing historical detail.  Currently got Flashman In The Great Game (about the Indian mutiny) on loan from a mate and will read it at some stage.  Some of the earlier Flashman books are back in print again as I saw some in WH Smiths last week.

[FourLaneBlue]

I read a couple of the Flashman books as a student (one about the Crimean war with the charge of the Light Brigade, and the other about the Opium war) and both were superb.  Very funny and with amazing historical detail.  Currently got Flashman In The Great Game (about the Indian mutiny) on loan from a mate and will read it at some stage.  Some of the earlier Flashman books are back in print again as I saw some in WH Smiths last week.

All the Flashman books are back in print as they were republished a couple of years ago for the 30th Anniversary of the original Flashman.  Of the series my favourites are the original Flashman (in which he is a real b'stard, not likeable as in the others), Flashman's Lady (in which his bird-brained dizzy wife also contributes to the storytelling) and Royal Flash, which is the only one they have made a movie out of so far.  Malcolm Macdowell played Flashman whereas Oliver Reed played the baddie; irritating example of miscasting as I thought Reed would have made a perfect Flashman.  There is to be another film soon (of the first one which will turn into a series of them if successful) although haven't heard who is to be Flashman.  

The two that you seem to have read sound like Flashman at the Charge and Flashman and the Dragon, both of which are classics.  They aren't the easier novels to begin reading but once you make an effort you will be hooked.  Cannot praise these highly enough!!!

PS- You will need to go to a decent bookstore to see all of them.  In other words, one out of Blackburn.  The Waterstones in Preston and Bolton are much better bets than any in Blackburn. Seed & Gabbut (spelling?) used to be the best but that upped and scarpered to make way for an overpriced tacky Irish theme bar.

[FourLaneBlue]

Another cracker (which I have just finished) is Ratpack Confidential by Shawn Levy which details the exploits of Sinatra, Matin, Davis, Lwford etc...

Cost???

Zero... free with the first edition of Word magazine- haven't even bothered to read the magazine yet...

[Shevchenko]

I can recommend a book called "The Devil's Own Luck - Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic 1944-45" by Denis Edwards.

Edwards was a member of Major Howard's D Company, (Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, 6th Airborne) the coup de main force that took the now famous Pegasus bridge. He kept a diary during his time on the front lines and this book is his memoirs, giving a detailed look on life as a combat infantry man in the british sector of Normandy and beyond.

I'm half way through and it's a brilliant read so far.

[FourLaneBlue]

As my holiday to Greece is well and truly over (boo!) I may as well as recommend these two books that I read.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Tartt by name, good novelist by nature. Actually read this because it appeared on the list for the BBC Big Read 100 and I hadn't heard of it never mind read it. It is a a kind of murder mystery in which the twist is that the reader is told at the start about the murder and the rest of the novel unwraps the actual scenes. Well recommended although quite heavy going in places as these are students of Ancient Greek and there is much musing on morality, violence, language etc.

Dune by Frank Herbert. Wasn't expecting much from this as I am not a huge sci-fi fan but it's fantastic! So much superior to that David Lynch film in the eighties which had Sting looking like a weirdo. The action takes place on the planet of Dune (also known as Arrakis) the only source for Spice- a drug-like substance which allows time travel or something like that. Anyway the planet is so arid the locals have to wear suits to recliam moisture from their own er... outgoings. Paul (played by Kle McLachlan in the film) has to find himself (etc etc) and live up to the myths that he would one day arrive. Gigantic sandworms also make appearances. Great novel, recommend to all, even non-Sci Fi fans like myself.

[Morph]

Thanks. I could do with the advice too seeing as I'm off to Peru in three days.

I was thinking of reading a Michael Moore but I also need a backup.

Really enjoyed "Stupid White Men", would well recommend it. On a footballing theme, "Football Against The Enemy" by Simon Kuper (I think) was a very interesting read, and did a good job of putting the global game in it's socio-political context (honestly, it's a lot more interesting than I just made it sound). If you like your sci-fi, Ian M Banks or Alistair Reynolds are my current faves. Makes me wish I was going on holiday this year. Bah!

[Cheeky Sidders]

I have recently read "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres and can heartily recommend it.  Forget about the saccharine, dire film (the ending is somewhat different) and read the book instead - it's occasionally very funny and made me laugh out loud, it taught me a lot about the war in Greece (of which I knew absolutely nothing), it's occasionally brutal (the war scenes are superbly written and it's obvious that de Bernieres is a former military man) and it's also heartbreakingly sad.  Not ashamed to admit I had a tear in my eye more than once.  If you're off to Greece this summer, it's a must read.

[Tarka]

About to finish Fast Food Nation. It's a good insightful book on the workings of the fast food industry, focussing in particular on the market in the 'States. For anyone who wants to continue to enjoy eating hamburgers and for whom Maccy D's is home from home stay well away. For those who like to seek out truth, I thoroughly recommend it.

I don't know if I have already mentioned this but I am a big fan of Carl Sagan and his books, Dragons Of Eden and Demon Haunted World are fascinating. Thoroughly recommend them.

Recently I read a good work of fiction by an author called Anita Rau Badami. The book is called The Hero's Walk and it's about how a family in India copes with raising the infant grand-daughter they have never seen following the death of their daughter and her husband in Canada. It's a nice, easy and captivating read.

[Cheeky Sidders]

Back to the top for this one as I'd be interested to learn what anyone can recommend.

While on my recent of conquest of Greece I read "Archangel" by Robert Harris and "Prey" by Michael Crichton.

Archangel was well-written and a bit of a page turner but I felt a bit let down at the end.  Without wishing to give the plot away too much, it's set in present-day Russia and is about a dark secret from the Stalin era that has been long-buried (literally) and is now about to shake the world.  Anyway, it's worth a read and it kept me entertained on innumerate plane/ferry/bus journeys.  It does a particularly good job of convincing the reader of how barking mad Stalin was - the howling dogs waltz is particularly disturbing and amusing at the same time.  A concise Who's Who of the Stalin era might have helpful though for those who are unfamiliar with the likes of Malenkov, Khrushchev and Beria (shudder!), so a bit of Googling might help some.

Prey was a typical Crichton book and was about technology gone mad and killing people.  In this case it was micro-robots.  Call me old fashioned, but these microscopic menaces were no match for a robotic Yul Brynner or a 40ft T Rex as in other Crichton works and I just couldn't escape the thought "This is just too far-fetched".  Now I've always enjoyed his books before despite the fact they usually get turned into rotten films (Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, Disclosure, Rising Sun, etc), but this one didn't grab me at all like his others have done.

[Wiggy]

I've just read The Kindness of Strangers, Kate Adie's autobiography. Excellently written, funny and also a revisit to some modern history.