ozzfan Posted May 13, 2010 Posted May 13, 2010 Currently reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan. Great stuff, I'll have to get the TV series next.
Paid Members ReturnOfTheMack Posted May 13, 2010 Paid Members Posted May 13, 2010 Just read 'The Regional Accounts Director Of Firetop Mountain'. A nice little parody of Choose Your Own Adventure books, worth reading for a laugh if you were into those sorts of books as a kid.
Loki Posted May 14, 2010 Posted May 14, 2010 The Age Of Oil Really interesting and well-written history of the development of the oil industry and how it's effected the political world over the last hundred years or so. The author is a very senior executive of a large oil company, so he knows his stuff. What's great for me is that it's exploded a lot of the oft-repeated conceipts about oil. For example "We're going to run out of oil". We're not, nowhere close, and in fact it's something that's been claimed since the 30s, and used to keep the price of oil artificially high. It's also rather eye-opening to see pretty much all the major conflicts of the 20th and 21st Century explained in terms of the control of oil supplies. Worryingly plausible.
patiirc Posted May 14, 2010 Posted May 14, 2010 Iam actually reading a non 'fact' book or almanac or Video Game book or WW2 book for the first time since I read 'Book of Dave' or 'If no shall speak of remarkable things' Its family accounts of life under Stalin during the 'terrors' The Whisperers: Private Lives Under Stalin Its very heavy going but a really good read The author is also getting a bashing because he has recently admitted sabotaging others book reviews on amazon... ooh the contreversy!
patiirc Posted May 14, 2010 Posted May 14, 2010 It's also rather eye-opening to see pretty much all the major conflicts of the 20th and 21st Century explained in terms of the control of oil supplies. Worryingly plausible. Does it cover any of the P.L.U.T.O stuff with 'Bambi' et al from WW2?
Steveo2007 Posted May 17, 2010 Posted May 17, 2010 Now reading: Very well written and entertaining. Just an all round excellent read.
Loki Posted May 17, 2010 Posted May 17, 2010 It's also rather eye-opening to see pretty much all the major conflicts of the 20th and 21st Century explained in terms of the control of oil supplies. Worryingly plausible. Does it cover any of the P.L.U.T.O stuff with 'Bambi' et al from WW2? It didn't, but I've just looked that up on Wiki and that's pretty cool.
patiirc Posted May 17, 2010 Posted May 17, 2010 It's also rather eye-opening to see pretty much all the major conflicts of the 20th and 21st Century explained in terms of the control of oil supplies. Worryingly plausible. Does it cover any of the P.L.U.T.O stuff with 'Bambi' et al from WW2? It didn't, but I've just looked that up on Wiki and that's pretty cool. Isnt it just? I was reading about secret weapons of World War 2 recently and that came up. As a feat of engineering its up with the Mulberrys ( though they were prone to allsorts of disasters) What kind of stuff were they looking at regards to oil? supplies Hitler and the Caucausus, Romania, Persia et al?
Loki Posted May 17, 2010 Posted May 17, 2010 Really how the control of the supply of oil, particularly from the oilfields in Persia, were a major factor in the Allies war strategies, with the main aim being how to divvy up the spoils afterwards. Of course, if oil had been discovered in Saudi by that point, it all would have been a lot different. One thing that amused me was that after WW2 the CIA wrote a report in which they said that the peak of oil production had been hit and that supplies would run out within 15 years. Then output grew year on year for about the next 40.
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 11, 2010 Paid Members Posted June 11, 2010 about half way through this. The usual gangster/hardman schpiel, but this is some entertaining stuff. It's like the Chopper book though, you just think reading it 'there's no way this is all true', i'm pretty sure Courtney makes half of it up.
The Gaffer Posted June 12, 2010 Posted June 12, 2010 Being going through a lot of Robert Rankin lately. Insanely readable stuff considering each book has roughly the same plot. I think I prefer him over Pratchett at this stage - my other big fantasy satirist. Just finished his Armageddon trilogy - off to Amazon now to dry up the rest of his catalogue .
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