Aye 'tis good is that UW..

Not sure if this has been shared before and I realize E-Readers can be a bit Marmite! A lot of the books on here are quite old but IMO there are some real gems

https://www.gutenberg.org/

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search ... arch=Go%21

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11980

Currently in a mess of reading about 5 things at once...quite slowly just because home life and general fatigue is getting in the way.

- The Way Home: Tales from a life Without Technology by Mark Boyle - so close to finishing this, and it's been an OK read I suppose
- Moby Dick (Norton Critical edition) on Kindle - Read some before for my degree but thought i'd immerse myself in a decent long read again. The critical edition really illuminates context and literary references. It'll probably take another six months or more to finish though...
- Tales from Earthsea Ursula K Le Guin - Just continuing on from the wonders of the Earthsea books
- The Book of the Bivvy, Ronald Turnbull - I know it's required reading around here, thoroughly enjoying his writing so far.

Also have a couple of issues of The Land magazine to catch up on

Jim just reading... just your thread

I've got a mind to pick up a copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest again following last week's bikepacking trip.
I need to consider whether I was mad to get into bikepacking or if bikepacking has made me mad There's a correlation there somewhere I'm sure

psling wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:45 pm I've got a mind to pick up a copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest again following last week's bikepacking trip.
I need to consider whether I was mad to get into bikepacking or if bikepacking has made me mad There's a correlation there somewhere I'm sure

This was the first book that I read after I saw the film. And as good as the film was, and it was very good, the book was simply better.

My bookshelf is full of the books I first read in the 70s and 80s. I read 2 or 3 books a month and I only hang onto books I will re-read. In the past 10 years, the only ones I've not donated to the village library have been by the remarkable Bill Bryson and a few travelogues from unknown writers.

Honestly. What am I missing? Who are the seminal writers these days? What has been written in the past 20 years that will usurp Catcher In The Rye or Lord Of The Flies in the GCSE and A-Levels.

TheBrownDog wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:00 pm
Honestly. What am I missing? Who are the seminal writers these days? What has been written in the past 20 years that will usurp Catcher In The Rye or Lord Of The Flies in the GCSE and A-Levels.

All the Light We Cannot See is a real high point of modern literature for me. Wonderful book. Won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015.

Another couple of recent winners:

The Underground Railroad (Colston Whitehead) could well make its way onto school curricula given its subject matter.
The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) is unlikely to get near schools given its subject matter

Long overdue an update of this thread.

Starting with the thread title and working backwards, The Book of Trespass, that paragon of the Bearbones literary cannon. Enough people had told me that I should read it (mainly on here) that I stopped waiting for a copy to appear in my lap, and went to the LBookS and bought a copy. As expected, it's pretty angering, and depressing - despite all the evidence of the huge unfairness in the ownership of land in this country, you suspect that the masses (and who listens to them anyway?) would just shrug it off with "that's the way it was back then", etc. You can almost hear the Daily Mail quoting him out of context. But it's unexpectedly enjoyable in the playful way it's written. It would have been so easy to write 200 pages of bile aimed at the establishment.

It made an excellent follow up to Robert Macfarlane's The Wild Places which was also thoroughly enjoyable. I also finished Cairngorm John, the memoirs of John Allen who was a long-serving leader of the Cairngorm MRT. Unsurprisingly, he's got some stories to tell. I had to leave it downstairs to dip in and out of though, because I found reading it at bedtime wasn't helping me to sleep easily (but seriously ).

Just finished Monolithic Undertow and am now starting on A Cheesemonger's History of The British Isles.

Whilst mooching round Salts Mill last weekend i came across this classic, what it lacks in literary prose it makes up in pictures

https://www.impressions-gallery.com/eve ... d-patrick/

Just started reading Cal Flyn's 'Islands of Abandonment: Life in the post-human landscape'. It's a subject area that's right up my street, and from what I've read so far I really like her approach and the seemingly incongruous mix of catastrophe and hope.

Currently reading https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midlife-Cyclis ... 024&sr=8-1

It is targeted towards competitive riders but even as a somewhat mediocre cyclist, I'm finding it interesting and relevant, as I approach a certain age.
Have taken a few things on board, and will hopefully be able to extend my active years by a little bit

just started re-reading Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon in an efort to find my mojo which has evaporated of late.

Just been to the library for the first time in about a year. Most remiss of me. Need to get back into the habit. Bit greedy, took seven out:

"Escape By Bike: Adventure Cycling, Bikepacking and Touring Off-Road" by some bloke who rode and tarped his way from London to Hong Kong.

Also:
"The Order Of Time" by Carlo Rovelli. Just need time to read it. Time's an illusion so that shouldn't be a problem .
"Around The World In 80 Trains". Usual sort of travelogue malarkey I guess, but "Traveller Book Of The Year 2019" apparently so there we go.
"Science Of Discworld 4". Pratchett & Cohen. Top up my rusty science again in a fun way.
"Islander: A Journey Around Our Archipelago". Travels to ever-smaller islands round Britain and seeing what's going on there.
"Slow Trains To Venice". More armchair travelling.
"Dubliners". James Joyce. Spose I'd better balance the above out with a bit of cultcha.

"River Spey Canoe Guide" by Nancy Chambers was for some reason in pole position on the "Recommended" table. I expect Mr Barter has it in his back pocket as we speak.

I keep getting tempted away up the hills by the snow Reg

Finished A Cheesemonger's History of The British Isles this morning and passed it onto our local baker. He stocks some cheese in his bakery, a few of which were mentioned in the book, he's also a cyclist. Started on Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind The New Science of Psychedelics.

Boab wrote: ↑Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:49 pm Finished A Cheesemonger's History of The British Isles this morning and passed it onto our local baker. He stocks some cheese in his bakery, a few of which were mentioned in the book, he's also a cyclist. Started on Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind The New Science of Psychedelics.

I've no problem changing my mind, I wish, I could just stick to the original plan!

Just finished James Rebanks' English Pastoral. Unlike his first book which is mostly autobiographical (and also a good read), this quickly gets quite philosophical/political, and it has to be said somewhat depressing, but it's over of those books that you immediately think "everyone needs to read this". Got me thinking about food, diet, and the economics of it even more.

I started rereading Simon Armitage's All Points North on the train on the way to see him live in West Yorkshire, having first read it maybe 15 years ago. I'm going to have to finish it (again) now

I started rereading Simon Armitage's All Points North on the train on the way to see him live in West Yorkshire

I'm forever going back to re-read All Points North - it's full of hilarious observation. Have you read 'Little Green Man'?. If not, you should.

"Early Riser" by Jasper Fforde. Utterly bonkers, and I am so chuffed that I am actually reading a book I was given for Christmas by my best friend who has impeccable taste...it's just that I've been struggling to make time to actually read real books these past few years...

'A snickers twin pack', he said. 'You'd be surprised how quick comfort food can reorientate their moral compass. I've seen a hunger crazed man-eater subdued to the mildness of a capybara in only eight Tunnock's Teacakes.'

boxelder wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 10:48 am

I started rereading Simon Armitage's All Points North on the train on the way to see him live in West Yorkshire

I'm forever going back to re-read All Points North - it's full of hilarious observation. Have you read 'Little Green Man'?. If not, you should.

No, but having ended up re-reading All Points North all the way through, I agree, and will be off to buy some more of his books.

A guy who I was in high school has just published his 2nd crime fiction book, based in west yorkshire. John kennedy, (DI Ashcroft series) The Kill Chain.
. He won a gold dagger award for crime fiction....
Warning it contains graphic observations of dry wit.

My sister went out with him & is expecting her free copy

For the crest of us...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trauma-Pool-Jo ... B08JVDYJ8F.

The latest issue of the Cadw magazine - interesting piece about the slate industry this month.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 10:50 am The latest issue of the Cadw magazine - interesting piece about the slate industry this month.

Ta for that, will get me lad to pick one up

'The Power of Geography' by Tim Marshal. I'm keen to reset my view of geopolitics - especially the UK's place in it - so that I can make sure my kids don't fall into the 'Britain First/Bulldog nation' b*ll*cks that gets fed to them these days.