dopper Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Â It's a chronological account of his career from 1994 to 2004 during which he was the editor of News Of The World, before going on to be the editor of the Daily Mirror. Â Â I like the way the very first thing you say about the book highlights one of it's biggest failings. It isn't chronologically correct, mainly because it isn't a diary as Moron claims - he has gone back in and added things to make himself look good but in the process ends up tripping over the truth and creating many instances in which he refers to things that hadn't yet happened or people in jobs they hadn't yet got. Â Can't argue with that. Little comments about him having a bad feeling about Hutchence & Yates' relationship, and even Matthew Harding on the one occasion they met do seem to suggest he added a few bits to old diary entries knowing how things ended up. Â I'm now into 2000 and he's just noticed Paul McCartney seemed pretty impressed with some one-legged blonde at one of Morgan's parties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted March 17, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 17, 2009 Currently reading "Wizards and Glass" in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So far these books have just completely sucked me in. The world, mythology and characters are just amazing. My dream would be to one day see a HBO animated series based on it, it''ll never happen but it would be incredible. Â I've got the first one of that series. Haven't got round to reading it yet, am currently reading the Illuminatus! trilogy. It's a sort of semi-parodical version of the Da Vinci Code, but was written in 1975. The style of writing is bizarre, but it reads surprisingly well. Definitely recommended for both conspiracy theorists and de-bunkers alike. Â I have this, and started to read it before I started the book above but I just couldn't get past the strange writing style. Â Stick with the Mars Trilogy first - it's very good indeed, although very heavy on technical detail. I will say this, though - if you can get through the Mars Trilogy, you can get through Illuminatus! relatively easily. Â Oh, and if you decide you like Robinson, have a read of The Years Of Rice And Salt - it's a historical work of an alternative Earth where the East, not the West, became the dominant hemisphere, owing to the European nations being decimated and almost completely destroyed by the Plague. Well worth a read. Â I lost Red Mars for a couple of days (I'd been reading in a bubble bath, yeah, a bubble bath and left it on the windowsill where somehow it wound up almost out the window and I couldn't find it) so I started reading Illuminatus! trilogy again and yes, I can see that I will get through it and probably enjoy it also. Â What other SF would you recommend Carbomb? I'm just updating my Amazon wishlist for approaching pay day, and have been looking at Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, have you read this? Â My wishlist, btw, in case anybody wants to buy me anything or critique my tastes! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/FLV8Z12DTIN1 it's mostly books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 17, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 17, 2009 What other SF would you recommend Carbomb? I'm just updating my Amazon wishlist for approaching pay day, and have been looking at Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, have you read this? Â I haven't read the Foundation Trilogy, no - but Asimov is definitely a sci-fi god. Obviously, you need to read I, Robot at some point - it's a seminal piece of work. Also, read William Gibson's landmark novel, Neuromancer - this was the book that pretty much created the cyberpunk genre, and provided inspiration to a whole slew of movies, in both large and small ways. The Matrix and Hackers are the two examples that spring to mind, but there are many others. Â Anything by Iain M. Banks is pure greatness - he's one of my favourites. Consider Phlebas, Excession, Against A Dark Background, Feersum Enjinn, Inversions, Look To Windward, they're all good. My favourite, and also one of my favourite novels of all time, is The Player Of Games - if you never read any other Iain M. Banks, read that one. Also, his most recent book, The Algebraist, is brilliant. Simply put, Banks is the master of massive-scale sci-fi - it's mind-boggling at times, but once you get used to the idea of a civilisation so far advanced that their space-ships are thousands of miles in scale, it becomes easy reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted March 17, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 17, 2009 (edited) Nice. I shall have to give Mr. Banks another go as I had Excession but I didn't think it was great. I think the next thing's I'm ordering will be Songs of Distant Earth, the Foundation Trilogy and Neruomancer was already in my sights also. Â As well as books on Latin, Mein Kampf and Das Kapital! I need to get fired soon so I can get through all this stuff. Â EDIT: Also, what's your opinion of Peter F. Hamilton's books? Edited March 17, 2009 by JobberToTheStars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo2007 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Don't take a book about Stalin, of all people, to be a be-all and end-all treatise on communism, particularly as he was the guy who pretty much ruined the concept. If you want to understand communism (even if you don't agree with it), read Capital by Karl Marx, to start with. That's pretty much the fundament. From there, if your interest is still piqued, read anything by Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Gramsci, Plekhanov amongst a myriad of others. Just like capitalism, there's no one, single type of communism or socialism, or hard-and-fast definition of it. I'm planning on picking up something by Lenin or Trotsky next. I've always had a big fascination with the notion of a dictator and Stalin seems like one of the more complex of the bunch. The book is more of an exploration of the man on a psychological basis and the events in his life which may have led to the Great Terror and other subsequent events.  I'm not going to pretend to understand a lot of it, but from what I can make out I feel that the Russian revolution and the USSR came about with good intentions of peace in mind but was massively tainted by the Second World War and Stalin's murderous personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WU LYF 4 LYF Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 but from what I can make out I feel that the Russian revolution and the USSR came about with good intentions of peace in mind but was massively tainted by the Second World War and Stalin's murderous personality. Â Possibly, but it must be noted that the cruelty and violence goes as far back as the Civil War in 1917-21, only a few months after they gained power, where Lenin ordered the Red Army to massacre full villages, to subdue others as a form of intimidation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIDDUM_N_STYLE Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 The Damned United by David Peace, with the film version due out soon i finally got round to purchasing the book. its not a bad read, if you get over the fact that the author has written it from the mind of clough himself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo2007 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 but from what I can make out I feel that the Russian revolution and the USSR came about with good intentions of peace in mind but was massively tainted by the Second World War and Stalin's murderous personality. Â Possibly, but it must be noted that the cruelty and violence goes as far back as the Civil War in 1917-21, only a few months after they gained power, where Lenin ordered the Red Army to massacre full villages, to subdue others as a form of intimidation. True, but from what I remember and I'll probably have to go back over a few chapters, but I believe this was in response to supply trains being stolen from as they passed through these villages and their justification was that it was a preventative measure to try and discourage the idea. Correct me if I'm wrong though and if you have any books in particular in mind that I could pick up which would teach me more on the subject of the Russian Revolution, The Soviet Union and Communism as a whole, a recommendation would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members seph Posted March 19, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 19, 2009 Just finished reading Where Eagles Dare by Alistair Maclean- I'd lost it in a huge pile of jumble and thought I'd never find it again. If only my copy of FFVIII'd turn up somewhere in the same vein... Â Currently going back to The Great Shark Hunt (Hunter S. Thompson)- an enormous comp of his writings. Quite a heavy read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members bAzTNM#1 Posted March 19, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 19, 2009 (edited) Ledley King's Biography. Bought in Poundland. Â Inside cover says it was originally Edited March 19, 2009 by bAzTNM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 20, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 20, 2009 Nice. I shall have to give Mr. Banks another go as I had Excession but I didn't think it was great. I think the next thing's I'm ordering will be Songs of Distant Earth, the Foundation Trilogy and Neruomancer was already in my sights also. As well as books on Latin, Mein Kampf and Das Kapital! I need to get fired soon so I can get through all this stuff.  EDIT: Also, what's your opinion of Peter F. Hamilton's books?  The Songs of Distant Earth is an immense, evocative and beautiful book. Fucking read it. It's so good, Mike Oldfield went a created a whole album inspired by it in 1996, by the same title. I actually discovered the book through the album - Oldfield uber-fan right here.  Haven't read any Hamilton, but that's largely down to lack of opportunity. Am also reading Robin Hobb's fantasy series, The Tawny Man. It's very good, but it's best to read its preceding series, the Royal Assassin trilogy.  Gonna be re-starting Rousseau's The Social Contract soon - couldn't initially get through it, as I was so busy at uni at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo2007 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 (edited) Well although I'm enjoying the read of the Stalin Biography, I'm still finding it a massive challenge to get my head round. Â I feel like a primary school student trying to understand advanced modern history. To try and help me get my head around the notion of communism and Marxism I've just bought this. Â Â Which I'm hoping will give me a better understanding of what the Russian Revolution was meant to achieve. Â Still got the second half of the Biography to finish first, but Robert Service is a really good historical writer. Very detailed in content and flows perfectly from significant event to significant event. He's also very good at pointing out the smaller, lesser known events which lead to a bigger tragedy. Edited March 20, 2009 by Steveo2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philo_Vance Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Currently on the go: Â 'Now and Then' by Joseph Heller. Memoirs of the Catch 22 author growing up in the 30s and 40s in Coney Island. I've got a keen interest in the history of Coney Island, so a first hand account by such a great author was a dream find for me. Â Also: Â 'Do What Thou Wilt'- A biography of Aleister Crowley, Chuck Berry's Autobiography, and a late 1940s collection of MR James ghost stories, that still has a cloth sticker on the inside cover from the bookshop in Israel that sold it years ago. Â You'll have gathered that I only buy books from charity bookshops.. Also, four books on the go is pretty standard for me, I like to have a variety depending on mood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted March 20, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 20, 2009 Guys, any recommendations for books that have NYC as a backdrop? Sort of like 'A Guide To Recognising Your Saints'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philo_Vance Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Joe Connelly's 'Bringing out the dead', that the Nic Cage film was based on is incredible, and very much tied in with the setting if NYC. Highly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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