The GOT Book Club

[Tony Hibbert's 3rd leg]

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Just finished this.

If you like Antony Beevor - Stalingrad, Berlin etc you'll like this.

Just like Beevor, Holland makes a potentially dry subject very interesting.

loved anthony beevors books.very easy reading.

Just started Berlin: The Downfall 1945. I'm fascinated by military history. The extent of human atrocity is staggering.

I read War and Peace earlier in the year, and you have think that war never changes. There are so many parallels to Napoleon's advance into Russia. Front offensives with hundreds of thousands of troops. Millions of people displaced scraping to survive. And the total ineptitude of higher command. Trying to control motions that are far out of their hands.

 

[bluebrotha77]

Just started Berlin: The Downfall 1945. I'm fascinated by military history. The extent of human atrocity is staggering.

I read War and Peace earlier in the year, and you have think that war never changes. There are so many parallels to Napoleon's advance into Russia. Front offensives with hundreds of thousands of troops. Millions of people displaced scraping to survive. And the total ineptitude of higher command. Trying to control motions that are far out of their hands.

Ya crazy but we have been mass killing each other since day dot.genghis khan once had a 160000 men,women and children slaughtered in one sitting because a.they didn't surrender a city and b.because he wanted to blood in the young warriors some of whom were only kids.
Hard to even fathom that about of people being on a large grass plain and just sitting there waiting there turn.
Imagine if hitler had realised he wasn't up to the task and handed power over to his generals.war would have went a very different way id imagine.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Currently reading

 

[RaleighBlue]

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco.

This is definitely a 5 star or 1 star book. It depends. The plot is pretty lightweight and the mystery isn't fantastic. The exposition can be long, and even sometimes tedious. The characters are pretty much meh.

But I loved it anyway. I loved it because it scratched a pretentious little itch that enjoys being wrapped in delightful prose and wordplay. It was so wonderfully well written that I didn't care too terribly about what it was actually saying. It's one of those books that at a fancy dinner party I'd act all snooty with, but pretend I hated it around my friends, because liking it as much as I do makes me feel like a smug <swear>. And even with the flat characters - I enjoyed the characters, I liked spending time around them. I liked following the little eddies and swirls of their conversations.

In short, crap - but I loved it. Or amazing, but easily hateable. I really can't decide.

 

[summerisle]

After finally finishing five John Buchan books - The 39 Steps, Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, The Three Hostages and The Island of Sheep - I can confidently say, if the characters in his books are anything to go by, that Buchan had a great dislike of :
Modern sychiatry
Belgians
Some French
Germans
'Painted woman'
Socialism
Communism
Suburbia and its inhabitants
Homosexuals
'Northern' countries : Denmark, Sweden, Iceland.
Jews
Shell Shock
The effete aristocracy
Africans (put much more crudely)
Arabs,
Chinese
Modern Youth
Black Jazz
American consumerism
Italians
Spanish
Modern literature
There are nuances to the list but all in all he seems, at least in the character of Richard Hannay, to be hankering for the certainties and set prejudices of a pre-war world. Every five to ten pages within the books are frankly shocking stereotypes of races, countries and ideas which greatly diminish the quality and enjoyment of the books. He has a large back catalogue but I think I'll give him a miss for a while.

 

[wm02]

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco.

This is definitely a 5 star or 1 star book. It depends. The plot is pretty lightweight and the mystery isn't fantastic. The exposition can be long, and even sometimes tedious. The characters are pretty much meh.

But I loved it anyway. I loved it because it scratched a pretentious little itch that enjoys being wrapped in delightful prose and wordplay. It was so wonderfully well written that I didn't care too terribly about what it was actually saying. It's one of those books that at a fancy dinner party I'd act all snooty with, but pretend I hated it around my friends, because liking it as much as I do makes me feel like a smug <swear>. And even with the flat characters - I enjoyed the characters, I liked spending time around them. I liked following the little eddies and swirls of their conversations.

In short, crap - but I loved it. Or amazing, but easily hateable. I really can't decide.

It's a good read which led me to try Foucault's Pendulum. The pretension index goes up to 11 with that one. Barely made it through 30 pages

 

[Caolam]

I don't read fiction, I find little value in what people "make up". I am an avid reader of biographies and true accounts. I find accounts of people's lives or things they have achieved much more interesting than the product of an over active imagination.
I also prefer to watch my grandson play in an under 14 game live than watch Barcelona play Real Madrid on television.
Does that make me unusual - please feel free to comment but please be gentle as I have drink taken.

 

[bluebrotha77]

I don't read fiction, I find little value in what people "make up". I am an avid reader of biographies and true accounts. I find accounts of people's lives or things they have achieved much more interesting than the product of an over active imagination.
I also prefer to watch my grandson play in an under 14 game live than watch Barcelona play Real Madrid on television.
Does that make me unusual - please feel free to comment but please be gentle as I have drink taken.

some weirdo likeya i used to be big into fiction but last few years defo gone over to the non fiction side.way more interesting and educational. just finished off the genghis khan conqueror series which is historical fiction and im really enjoying that genre at the minute.going to start on spartacus today at work which summerisle put me onto and at home im reading gomorra.a book about the naples clans and which the tv series was based on.
non fiction one of my favourite authors would be john connolly.love his charlie parker series.

 

[COYBL25]

I don't read fiction, I find little value in what people "make up". I am an avid reader of biographies and true accounts. I find accounts of people's lives or things they have achieved much more interesting than the product of an over active imagination.
I also prefer to watch my grandson play in an under 14 game live than watch Barcelona play Real Madrid on television.
Does that make me unusual - please feel free to comment but please be gentle as I have drink taken.

It's a free world mate.

Imagine what @Ashtonian gets up go in his spare time.

Puts it all in perspective !

 

[Ashtonian]

It's a free world mate.

Imagine what @Ashtonian gets up go in his spare time.

Puts it all in perspective !

mostly play clash royale and come on here tbh.

Between doing parenting things

 

[Caolam]

some weirdo likeya i used to be big into fiction but last few years defo gone over to the non fiction side.way more interesting and educational. just finished off the genghis khan conqueror series which is historical fiction and im really enjoying that genre at the minute.going to start on spartacus today at work which summerisle put me onto and at home im reading gomorra.a book about the naples clans and which the tv series was based on.
non fiction one of my favourite authors would be john connolly.love his charlie parker series.

I read Gomorra, I had never heard of them, thought all the criminals gangs in Italy were Mafia.

 

[RaleighBlue]

I don't read fiction, I find little value in what people "make up". I am an avid reader of biographies and true accounts. I find accounts of people's lives or things they have achieved much more interesting than the product of an over active imagination.
I also prefer to watch my grandson play in an under 14 game live than watch Barcelona play Real Madrid on television.
Does that make me unusual - please feel free to comment but please be gentle as I have drink taken.

You do you, you shouldn't read things that you don't enjoy afterall.

I also tend towards nonfiction. And avoid purely entertainment fiction...I like my fiction to have ideas. I do think you may be unfairly limiting yourself though by counting all fiction as purely make believe. Obviously the plot lines of fiction are made up, but often the allegories and themes in fiction are speaking to fundamental human truths as much, or often more than nonfiction. Imagination can uncover truth when applied correctly.

I'd say there are two types of fiction - fiction for fun, and fiction for purpose. As a crotchety (not so) old man, I prefer the latter in almost all cases, but every now and again dip my toes in the former.

 

[RaleighBlue]

It's a good read which led me to try Foucault's Pendulum. The pretension index goes up to 11 with that one. Barely made it through 30 pages

Yeah, I have no idea if I'll ever go back to the Eco well, but I enjoyed what I read.

Maybe I'll try something else by him at some point in the future, but it's not a pressing matter.

 

[bluebrotha77]

I read Gomorra, I had never heard of them, thought all the criminals gangs in Italy were Mafia.

Pretty much thought same myself but their the sicilian mafia,then you have the gomorra clans in naples and the ndrangheta in another part of italy.can't remember which part.thought the book was decent enough,not fantastic but readable.must get another book on them.serious money they turn over every year though.

I read Gomorra, I had never heard of them, thought all the criminals gangs in Italy were Mafia.

 

[Caolam]

You do you, you shouldn't read things that you don't enjoy afterall.

I also tend towards nonfiction. And avoid purely entertainment fiction...I like my fiction to have ideas. I do think you may be unfairly limiting yourself though by counting all fiction as purely make believe. Obviously the plot lines of fiction are made up, but often the allegories and themes in fiction are speaking to fundamental human truths as much, or often more than nonfiction. Imagination can uncover truth when applied correctly.

I'd say there are two types of fiction - fiction for fun, and fiction for purpose. As a crotchety (not so) old man, I prefer the latter in almost all cases, but every now and again dip my toes in the former.

I did read Catch 22 years ago, I think I will read it again.