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  • Joseph K
    Banned
    • Oct 2017
    • 7765

    Trip reports on Erowid.

    It's the closest to tripping I get to these days, having given up absolutely every non-medical substance use...

    Apologies for unseemly topic...

    Comment

    • Rjw
      Full Member
      • Oct 2012
      • 117

      The Big Six by Arthur Ransome

      Always a treat, I read it as a child, read it to my children and now I find it as good as ever sixty years after my first reading!

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      • LMcD
        Full Member
        • Sep 2017
        • 8396

        'Will' by Jeroen Olyslaegers (translated by David Colmer) This novel is set in Antwerp in the present day and in the period of Nazi occupation. It's very hard to put down despite its unflinching depiction of increasingly grim events and the moral dilemmas which they pose for the Belgian policeman who is the central character.

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        • teamsaint
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 25190

          Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
          Ok, shameless plug time, but you'll thank me.

          It has been a while, but several months ago, I read the finished text of " Jeoffry: The Poet's Cat" by Tippett biographer Oliver Soden. He won multiple awards for that book, and we were very excited to acquire this title for our autumn list.
          The book is a fictional biography of both Jeoffry and Christopher Smart. We follow Jeoffry from his birth in a Covent Garden brothel, as he grows up on the streets of Georgian London, is adopted by Smart in the Asylum, through to ending his days, somewhat surprisingly in Ottery St Mary ! I know I would say this, but it is quite beautifully written, and with great creativity. But don't take my word for it, check out the endorsements on the Amazon page from a glittering array of writers, including Hilary Mantel, Alexander McCall Smith and many others.
          It is beautifully presented in a blue cloth bound cover, and would be the perfect gift for the cat/poetry/music lover in your life. It deserves to be a big hit, and we have thrown everything we have at making it one. Unfortunately, without a Penguin sized marketing budget, we do have to work doubly hard, but I am convinced this can do great things.
          Out next Thursday, unless you get lucky......

          Buy link:




          Or from your friendly local onliner at a great price



          Or of course from your local bookshop, Hive, Waterstones or wherever.
          Nicely considered piece by the author about Jeoffry here.



          Get your Xmas pressie copies while stocks last.....
          I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

          I am not a number, I am a free man.

          Comment

          • french frank
            Administrator/Moderator
            • Feb 2007
            • 30208

            Just finished Joseph Roth's novella The Legend of the Holy Drinker and have started rereading I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal - one of Simon Howard's recommended writers.
            It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

            Comment

            • Bryn
              Banned
              • Mar 2007
              • 24688

              Dipping, rather than reading, but Nicolas Slonimsky's Music Since 1900, Fifth Edition (1994) taking the chronological reports (not quite journal since many days are skipped) up to 23 Decemger 1991. I was alerted to the existence of the tome by a posting by Ian Pace on his FB page. I was extemely lucky to find a near mint condition ex-reference library copy for £12.58 including p&p at £4.48 due the considerable mass of the hardback book (1280 pages).

              Comment

              • DracoM
                Host
                • Mar 2007
                • 12955

                'Serpentine' / Pullman.

                Comment

                • Leinster Lass
                  Banned
                  • Oct 2020
                  • 1099

                  As a result of discoveries made when looking into my County Kerry and Dublin forebears, I've started taking an interest in military history, and have just finished reading Tim Bouverie's 'Appeasing Hitler.' Scrupulously researched, it's also so beautifully written that it reads like a thriller.

                  Comment

                  • Rjw
                    Full Member
                    • Oct 2012
                    • 117

                    Here We Are by Graham Swift

                    Very enjoyable book.

                    Comment

                    • Rjw
                      Full Member
                      • Oct 2012
                      • 117

                      Originally posted by rathfarnhamgirl View Post
                      As a result of discoveries made when looking into my County Kerry and Dublin forebears, I've started taking an interest in military history, and have just finished reading Tim Bouverie's 'Appeasing Hitler.' Scrupulously researched, it's also so beautifully written that it reads like a thriller.
                      I remember enjoying this book when I read it. Still relevant today.

                      Comment

                      • Joseph K
                        Banned
                        • Oct 2017
                        • 7765

                        A day or two ago I took a break from Hobsbawm's Age of Revolutions to read Miles: The Autobiography from roughly the year 1966 to when he decides to take a break - 1975. The book sure is riveting and captures his tone very well.

                        It is evident, though, from the way he talks at times that he might have had what could be described as a personality disorder - if one thinks such things exist... other people might just say "not a nice person" but then, that would doubtless depend on who you were (to him).

                        Comment

                        • verismissimo
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 2957

                          Originally posted by Joseph K View Post
                          A day or two ago I took a break from Hobsbawm's Age of Revolutions to read Miles: The Autobiography from roughly the year 1966 to when he decides to take a break - 1975. The book sure is riveting and captures his tone very well.

                          It is evident, though, from the way he talks at times that he might have had what could be described as a personality disorder - if one thinks such things exist... other people might just say "not a nice person" but then, that would doubtless depend on who you were (to him).
                          Like most very talented people?

                          Comment

                          • Joseph K
                            Banned
                            • Oct 2017
                            • 7765

                            Originally posted by verismissimo View Post
                            Like most very talented people?
                            Don't think so - in terms of being violent to women.

                            Comment

                            • verismissimo
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 2957

                              Originally posted by Joseph K View Post
                              Don't think so - in terms of being violent to women.
                              Seems to me that, one way or another, most very talented people don't pass any kind of 'niceness' test. Still, it always provides rich fodder for biographers …

                              Comment

                              • DracoM
                                Host
                                • Mar 2007
                                • 12955

                                Dombey and Son / Dickens
                                More absorbing and anger-making than I ever remember it. Am amazed that more women's organizations do not champion it.
                                Mr Dombey.........crikey - as chilly a monster as has been drawn in literature.
                                Last edited by DracoM; 06-11-20, 09:39.

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