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Golden Oldies out there...what books are you reading right now?


Guest Jetsun Milarepa

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Thank you Chandrakirti. 

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Skycaptain

The Voyage of the Argo, by Appolonius of Rhodes (translation) 

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11 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

The Voyage of the Argo, by Appolonius of Rhodes (translation) 

Does that include  Jason and the Golden Fleece ?

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Skycaptain

@Midland Tyke, I believe so, its widely discussed in the introduction, but I've just finished that, and am about to tackle the book proper 

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Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson - a little outdated maybe

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Skycaptain

@daveb, it's still both informative and entertaining. Bill Bryson is seriously underrated as an author simply because he came from journalism

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  • 4 weeks later...
Gentle Giant

I just finished The Seven Songs of Merlin - Book Two of The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron. It’s a fantasy story about Merlin when he was young. Even though he is portrayed as being a boy I still imagined him much older than he is. It is an o.k. story, took me a while to get through it. There is no sex or romance in it. I have only read this book in the series. Not sure if I’d read the others or not. It seems too much like a lot of fantasy stories.

 

I’m now reading Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates by Kim Kennedy. So far it is good and sort of reminds me a little of Harry Potter is some way.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.  It's about the period from when Korea was colonised by Japan right through to modern day, seen through the eyes of three generations in one family. Good way to do relatively obscure history.

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imnotafreakofnature!
On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 12:01 PM, daveb said:

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson - a little outdated maybe

I read that a couple years ago and enjoyed it.

 

I've recently started going to Adult Children of Alcoholics, a 12-Step group, so I've been reading the ACA big red book. It's over 600 pages, so I've interspersed some other books in along with it. One of them was Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Romer and The Nag Hammadi Library (which was a summary of the various books). Looking at some different options for the next one.

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16 hours ago, imnotafreakofnature! said:

Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

I haven't read the book, but there was a fun movie (or tv movie?) version of it some years ago. I imagine it would be a fun read.

16 hours ago, imnotafreakofnature! said:

Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer

I read some of the Fu Manchu books many years/decades ago. My very fuzzy recollection is they were a fun read, albeit dated and "pulp-y and possibly (probably?) rather racist when it comes to Asian stereotypes and all. A product of its times. If you like pulp era adventures you might like the Saint series (40+ books) by Leslie Charteris. I think they actually hold up pretty well considering their age. :) I often read through those books pretty quickly.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Unthinkable by Helen Thomson. I met her at the Science festival and she answered a load of my questions. It's a bit like a Sachs book (not sex!) in that it tells the stories of people with amazing brains.

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Changing Planes: Armchair Travel for the Mind by Ursula le Guin

 

I'm a bit behind in my reading this year but so far I've read:

 

Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories by Doug Murano
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood *
The Serial Killer's Daughter by Lesley Welsh *
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay *
Operation Hail Storm by Brett Arquette 
Almost Invincible by Suzanne Burdon 
The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh *
Snare by Lilja Sigurðardóttir *
Rupture by Simon Lelic 
The Sorrows of Work by The School of Life
Thriving Through Uncertainty by Tama J Kieves 
Tolkien on Fairy-stories by J.R.R. Tolkien 
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty *
Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman (* if you are a Pullman fan)

 

I'd recommend any of them, especially those marked with an * and with the exception of Operation Hail Storm by Brett  Arquette which was rubbish and The Sorrows of Work by The School of Life which was disappointingly simplistic information which could be found easily on the internet.

 

I received Operation Hail Storm for free on the proviso I reviewed it on Goodreads - which I did. I will probably never be offered anything by that author again, even though I did hold back on what I really thought!

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Moved on to 'How do we get out of this mess?' by Robert Peston (another one I acquired at the Science Festival). It's an analysis of the 2008 crash by the economics reporter who warned of it coming.

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Gentle Giant

Just finished Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates. It’s a good story and even though it is a book for kids, I like these for a lighter read and not have to worry about sex or excessive violence in them.

 

I am now working on Heavens to Betsy and Other Curious Sayings by Charles Earle Funk. The book is about old sayings and how they came to be.

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2 hours ago, Gentle Giant said:

I am now working on Heavens to Betsy and Other Curious Sayings by Charles Earle Funk. The book is about old sayings and how they came to be.

This sounds interesting! I love learning about the origins of sayings...though I don't always retain what I've learned.... 😒

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Gentle Giant

@teatree I doubt I’d be able to retain what I read in that book either. I find it harder to remember stuff anymore. For fun at work they had info sheets posted about Bangladesh and we could do a quiz on it and maybe win a prize. Well, even though I read the sheets and thought it was very interesting, I didn’t remember much if it!

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3 hours ago, teatree said:

This sounds interesting! I love learning about the origins of sayings...though I don't always retain what I've learned.... 😒

Same here!

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Since my lost post I've read:

 

Less by  Andrew Sean Greer (2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner about a gay writer facing being 50 - had me giggling on the train.)

Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson - Icelandic noir

Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin - Quirky. Love Le Guin.

 

I'm currently reading Cassidy's Deadly Exit by Marla Hayes - crime novella by a writing acquaintance.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Now half way through Bill Bryson's 'the Road to Little Dribbling. Probably you can hear the gales of laughter from here.

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flagsforhippos

All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work

By Joanna Biggs

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imnotafreakofnature!

Just started A Collector's History of Fans by Nancy Armstrong. It's pretty old for a book - came out in 1974. I've only read the first chapter, and it's pretty good so far, but I'm a little disappointed that so few of the pictures are in color.

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imnotafreakofnature!
On ‎6‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 1:26 PM, Gentle Giant said:

I am now working on Heavens to Betsy and Other Curious Sayings by Charles Earle Funk. The book is about old sayings and how they came to be.

The origins of old sayings interests me, too. Things like "horsefeathers" and "talking through your hat" (something that I still find myself saying occasionally). And what about "humdinger"? When I was little, I was given a gray sweater that I didn't like (what kid likes gray? We're all about color at that age!). But my great-aunt asked, "Why don't you like it? That's a humdinger of a sweater!" From then on I loved it and called it my humdinger. I guess a silly word outweighs color on the kid scale! Lol But I have no idea where a word like that even came from!

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

I'm on to 'Down the rabbit hole' by  Alan Ropper then I'll be re-reading 'Seven Years in Tibet' by Heinrich Harrer.

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I just started reading The Atrocity Files by Charles Stross. It's the first in a series of novels about an IT consultant turned occult secret agent in a series that combines Lovecraftian horror, spy thrillers, science fiction, and workplace humor. My wife recommended it to me as she has it in her Kindle library.

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A graphic novel, called The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang. It was a "staff pick" at the bookstore, and is about a prince who likes to wear dresses. Cute artwork, too.

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imnotafreakofnature!
On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 11:11 PM, daveb said:

If you like pulp era adventures you might like the Saint series (40+ books) by Leslie Charteris. I think they actually hold up pretty well considering their age. :) I often read through those books pretty quickly.

I've never read the books, but I enjoy The Saint old time radio show.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Half way through the Heinrich Harrer book, a pure joy to read and nothing like the film. It's great to re-read it again after some decades.

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