revtothelimit - motorbike forum

KungFooBob wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:07 pm

Taipan wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:03 pm I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I went through a stage of reading 'school' books, mine were secondary school level tho'...

Lord of the Flies, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, etc...

Emil and the Detectives!

For some reason we did The History of Mr Polly twice at school...it was the first time and the second. Did Lord of the Flies too....'see the pig, cut its throat...' Just like school.

Taipan wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:03 pm I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

Check the attic of plenty first

Ted Simons book about him retracing Jupiter's wheel tracks when he was 70. Enjoyed the first book, but the miserable bastard has become one of those uninformed environmentalists that do more damage than good. The fucker (& many other morons) fought against more water storage in Califailure when he lived here & that lead to a new dam/reservoir being cancelled.

KungFooBob wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:07 pm

Taipan wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:03 pm I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I went through a stage of reading 'school' books, mine were secondary school level tho'...

Lord of the Flies, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World, etc...

All great books, recently reread Brave New World and Animal Farm.

Botany is where it is at - or rather should I say where I am at.

I have been adding to my ever expanding gardening/horticulture library with as many botany books I can lay my hands on. In particular, I have taken a liking to what are known as Florilegium. In essence, a collection of illustrations of plants in a specific garden e.g. Kew or the Sheffield Botanical Garden et al. I have collected quite a few books and spend many a happy hour looking at some truly marvellous illustrations by gifted artists. One of my favourite illustrators is Sarah Simblet. My goodness, is she gifted with her mind blowing pen and ink illustrations!

Before I tell you what I am currently reading I’ll share with you an anecdote about a recent correspondence with one of King Charles’s staff - Lady Pearson. I jest not! I discovered there was a Florilegium of King Charles’s Highgrove Gardens. I watched a review of it on YouTube. Fantastic! I want, I want I told myself. A limited edition of 175 copies signed by the King himself! I wrote to Lady Pearson and asked the cost: a mere £12,575.00! Aargh! Thankfully, after getting back up from the floor, common sense prevailed. I realised as much as I would love to buy them they would need to be stored in perfect archival conditions - something I do not have.

If you want to see to what I am referring go here: https://youtu.be/oz16gBujCD0. The skills and talent involved in creating these works be it the illustrators or the actual book producers is something to behold.

Back to today, I am reading: The New Sylva A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century. To save words a description is given here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Sylva-Disc ... 408835444 or here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/new-sylva-9781408835449/. It is a tome, if ever there was one. Not a book you could read in bed unless you want to break a couple of ribs - lol.

Next up, my book is the words, wisdom and the multi talents of one Carl Linnaeus - aka Carl von Linné. It is to him that the World Of Nature is indebted for his ‘Binomial Nomenclature’.

I am going to be so busily engrossed in my books that Crimbo will have been and gone before I notice - thank goodness!

Meantime...

Be Good. Take Care & Love The One You Are With.

Taipan wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:03 pm I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I remember reading Stig of the Dump to Gremlinette many years ago. You forget just how good some of these books you toiled over at school are when you're sharing them with your own kids anew.

One of my favourites was this one. We read it a few times...
https://books.google.com/books/about/Th ... aeBAAAQBAJ

Recently its been Spycatcher by Peter Wright, previously banned in the UK and a fairly damming indictment of the old school tie method of recruitment used in our security services after the second world war.
Some ok tech information and anecdotes about spying/catching people out.
A worthwhile read.

gremlin wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 6:24 pm

Taipan wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:03 pm I've just bought Stuart Little in paperback and will probably buy Stig of the Dump too!

I remember reading Stig of the Dump to Gremlinette many years ago. You forget just how good some of these books you toiled over at school are when you're sharing them with your own kids anew.

We got to read Emil and the Detectives at school. Quite why a 1929 German book set in Berlin should be such a perennial (never been out of print apparently) must be down to it being quite good.

demographic wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 6:56 pm Recently its been Spycatcher by Peter Wright, previously banned in the UK and a fairly damming indictment of the old school tie method of recruitment used in our security services after the second world war.
Some ok tech information and anecdotes about spying/catching people out.
A worthwhile read.

I read that years ago and have forgotten about it until you mentioned it. Good call and IIRC a very worth read?

gremlin wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 6:24 pm I remember reading Stig of the Dump to Gremlinette many years ago. You forget just how good some of these books you toiled over at school are when you're sharing them with your own kids anew.

It was one of the "required reading" books at my school.

Flight, by Capt Neil Hansen about his time as an Air American pilot in Laos. Highly recommended & often hilarious.

Just about to finish listening (Audible) book 1 of the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson.

Been a fair old while since I read / listened to sci-fi books, and this strikes the balance between humour, gore & sci-fi about bob on for me, I reckon this will be a decent series, which is good as I only gave it a try due to the narrator

Dave Weir, Project Hail Mary

The author who wrote The Martian. It's another 'man, on his own, in space' with lots of science detail and peril. So, if you enjoyed that (I've only seen the movie), you'll probably enjoy PHM. I did.

Horse wrote: Sun Feb 19, 2023 4:13 pm Dave Weir, Project Hail Mary

The author who wrote The Martian. It's another 'man, on his own, in space' with lots of science detail and peril. So, if you enjoyed that (I've only seen the movie), you'll probably enjoy PHM. I did.

I got through it, but it was a bit far fetched here and there .

I'm currently, and very slowly, reading Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi. I seem to only read books these days about people on motorbike adventures or music.

Singer of 90's indie band Lush, good so far but not really got to the bits about the band.

Blood Red Snow.

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, rip roaring space opera. Proper page turner for me.

MingtheMerciless wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:55 pm Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, rip roaring space opera. Proper page turner for me.

I keep seeing books by AT but haven't read any. Is Shards of Earth the best place to start?

Ta.

I read Children of Time, it was ok, but I've been in no rush to read any of his other stuff.

KungFooBob wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:28 am I read Children of Time, it was ok, but I've been in no rush to read any of his other stuff.

The plot summary looks interesting. Uplifted spiders.