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    Current Reading - Books best thread

    I am currently reading which is about the 4th Modesty Blaise book I've read. In this one we go back to the days when The Network was just being wound up. Modesty has one last caper to achieve.

    #2
    Current Reading - Books best thread

    I just finished The Exception by Christian Jungersen. It's really good, and has got me a little bit obsessed with the psychology of genocide.

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      #3
      Current Reading - Books best thread

      I'm currently reading a simplistic history of the Persians (Achemedids, Arsacids and Sassanids). It's interesting stuff but it's very badly written so is taking me ages to wade through 200 pages of it.

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        #4
        Current Reading - Books best thread

        And what are you reading now...?

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          #5
          Current Reading - Books best thread

          I recently finished the immensely enjoyable Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, and before embarking on some Natsuo Kirino grimness (Grotesque) I'm easing through the fairly fluffy Gold by Dan Rhodes (an author I know nothing about).

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            #6
            Current Reading - Books best thread

            Untold Stories by Alan Bennett: marvellous writing, as ever, displaying his wonderful ear for phrase and his gentle and human understanding of the world he finds himself in. However, at times his customary self-deprecation sometimes seems to edge into a determination to reveal and draw attentions to the more unpleasant aspects of his character, as if he's bent on dispelling the image he has that I've heard described as that of "the nation's teddy bear".

            The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, prompted by a couple of otfers and by my wish to get up to speed on all this esoteric new stuff that's going in in theoretical physics. And it's very good indeed, written clearly and even patiently for the layman readership. He seems to have taken to heart the publishers' dictum that each equation means a halving of sales - there aren't any, but the book has no less a feel of precision for that. It meanders a bit when he's writing about the history of his own work, but this in itself is a nice glimpse into the world and workings of high-level academic research at the forefront of physics and mathematics. For me, the one irritation is the American writer's habit of mixing imperial and metric units, which as worst-things-you-can-say-about-a-book go isn't bad at all.

            It's good enough to spark a few supertsing-theory-related questions in my mind, and I might get around to starting a thread seeking a bit of extra enlightenment from our resident experts one of these days.

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              #7
              Current Reading - Books best thread

              And what are you reading now...?
              Me? Erm.
              The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
              and Eating Less by Gillian Riley
              and Green Rider by Kristen Britain.

              But there's not much to say about any of them. Well there's a lot to say about Patanjali but I'm not sure what, yet.

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                #8
                Current Reading - Books best thread

                Just finished The Siege of Mecca, about half way through The Two Faces of Islam.

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                  #9
                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                  Just started The Geographer's Library.

                  Half-way through Reading Lolita in Tehran.

                  Just finished a re-reading of H.M.S. Surprise.

                  Waiting for the amazon [US] release of Soccer in a Football World

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                    #10
                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                    Matt (Crusoe), I saw Gold for the first time in Waterstones this week, it reminded me that I read Dan Rhodes's Anthology about 10 years ago (if not more) which is great!

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                      #11
                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                      human smoke by nicholson baker.

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                        #12
                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                        The Age Of Assassins, a book about Putin and his state apparatus, translated from the original Russian. I've got to review it. It's balls-achingly dull -- every page is a laundry list of dates and names but the author cannot tell a story to save his life.

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                          #13
                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                          Just finished Calcio, by John Foot.

                          Just started The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre, which Chippy very kindly leant me.

                          Next up: Dynamo, the story of Dynamo Kiev (or whatever it's called).

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                            #14
                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                            I'm about 3/4 of the way through Underworld by Don DeLillo, not really enjoying it but am too far along to quit. It better start redeeming itself.

                            Yesterday, in Urban Outfitters, I saw a small cookbook called Good Kitchen Magic. I wonder if it's any good.

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                              #15
                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                              I'm nearly finished Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, which took me a good while to get into but is actually a terrifically written, extremely acute novel about class and gender and the stifling restrictions on personal freedom they impose. A properly good feminist book I reckon.

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                                #16
                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                Second try on Master and Margarita by M. Bulgakov. Gave up the first time as I found the translation insufferable. Enjoying it immensely this time around.

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                                  #17
                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                  I've ordered World War Z by Max Brooks. I know I'm going to hate it but I have a soft spot for zombies.
                                  I'm basically killing time until pants recommends something fantastic again (The Road, Cloud Atlas....)

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                                    #18
                                    Current Reading - Books best thread

                                    I really enjoyed World War Z. The multiple viewpoints give the book a much broader view than other zombie novels manage.

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                                      #19
                                      Current Reading - Books best thread

                                      Why would you hate it? It's superb.

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                                        #20
                                        Current Reading - Books best thread

                                        Just started At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien, because so many people on here rated it and I've never read anything of his.

                                        Also reading Pictures & Tears by James Elkin. Elkins is one of my favourite art educationalists. A highly accessible academic who is always thinking about ways to get people to talk about art. Here he explores how and why certain paintings move people to tears. Number one in this regard, he reckons, is Rothko's chapel in Houston, a distant number two probably Guernica. He also considers — though I haven't got to this bit yet — why the art establishment is uncomfortable with the phenomenon. At the moment he's dealing with Stendhal Syndrome which I'd never heard of and is really fascinating.

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                                          #21
                                          Current Reading - Books best thread

                                          Matej wrote:
                                          Waiting for the amazon [US] release of Soccer in a Football World
                                          Look for my name in the introduction!

                                          Finishing up Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving a collection of essays on mostly Southern California architecture by John Chase. I normally really like Verso, but this was really sloppily edited--missing punctuation and a few misspellings. I have the first hardcover edition, so hopefully it was corrected.

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                                            #22
                                            Current Reading - Books best thread

                                            Tales Of The Alhambra by Washington Irving. I've not had much time for it since starting it but it's dead good, although it might prove an expensive purchase in the long term because it's making me really really REALLY want to go back to Granada and see it all again.

                                            My first ever post outside 'Football'... the new board's had some effect then.

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                                              #23
                                              Current Reading - Books best thread

                                              Currently I'm reading no books at all. And haven't since I finished Revolution In The Head by Ian MacDonald. I'm just not in the mood for books at the moment. I hope that this feeling will pass. Soon.

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                                                #24
                                                Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                just finished White Heat by Dominic Sanbrook which takes his post-war review of GB up to Heaths 1970 election win...

                                                decent concise summaries of the Wilson period without being ground breaking...

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                                                  #25
                                                  Current Reading - Books best thread

                                                  Market Forces by Richard Morgan.

                                                  Executives fight duels with each other in bids to win contracts and promotions. To the death, in armoured vehicles. Kind of Mad Max 2 meets Wall Street.

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