Recommended Reading during Covid-19

Discussion in 'Bulletin Board' started by Watcher_Of_The_Skies, Mar 22, 2020.

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  1. Wat

    Watcher_Of_The_Skies Well-Known Member

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    Post any recommendations you like.

    For those wondering about money, the economy and what not...

    Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber
    Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations
    Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto.

    All inherently relevant.
     
    Watcher_Of_The_Skies, Mar 22, 2020
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  2. Ton

    Tonjytyke Well-Known Member

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    Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
     
    Tonjytyke, Mar 22, 2020
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  3. Spa

    Sparkfield red Well-Known Member

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    TV Times
     
    Sparkfield red, Mar 22, 2020
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  4. Wat

    Watcher_Of_The_Skies Well-Known Member

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    An excellent choice.
     
    Watcher_Of_The_Skies, Mar 22, 2020
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  5. Redhelen

    Redhelen Well-Known Member

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    My favourite book is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Quite short too.
     
    Redhelen, Mar 22, 2020
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  6. Wat

    Watcher_Of_The_Skies Well-Known Member

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    Watcher_Of_The_Skies, Mar 22, 2020
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  7. Old Goat

    Old Goat Well-Known Member

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    As we're in this for the long haul, my recommendation is the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. 47 books in all, set in a comedy-fantasy world.

    The books start out as you might expect, a rotating cast of wizards, witches, guards, dwarves, trolls, assassins, Death... all coming together in various humorous situations. As the series progresses, however, there is an increasing level of satire and social commentary. Later books include topics like war, racism, religion, sexism, social division, the industrial revolution, and pretty much everything else that we come across in our modern day world - but still set in the same fantasy setting. There's even one about football (Unseen Academicals).

    You can start anywhere, but to get the best out of them I recommend reading them in order. I'm currently re-reading the whole series and there isn't a day goes by that I cant be found tucked away in a quiet corner, chuckling happily away to myself.
     
    Old Goat, Mar 22, 2020
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  8. dreamboy3000

    dreamboy3000 Well-Known Member

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    dreamboy3000, Mar 22, 2020
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  9. Burgundy Red

    Burgundy Red Well-Known Member

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    I never read these while I was a professional nerd but now I'm retired I've decided to allow myself the luxury, albeit tempered by tackling them in French. It's painfully slow going at times, partly because the vocabulary is hardly day-to-day, but I've really enjoyed what I've read so far. I'm on book 2.
     
    Burgundy Red, Mar 22, 2020
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  10. Old Goat

    Old Goat Well-Known Member

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    I can't imagine what that must be like, reading them in French. The humour, especially the dialogue, seems to be very English, if you know what I mean. But I guess it must still work if you're enjoying them - laughter is universal, after all. :)

    And as good as the early books are, Pratchett's writing gets better and better as the series progresses. You're in for a lot of laughs.
     
    Old Goat, Mar 22, 2020
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  11. Del Rosso

    Del Rosso Well-Known Member

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    Birdsong by Sebastian Foulkes
     
    Del Rosso, Mar 22, 2020
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  12. Marlon

    Marlon Well-Known Member

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    Kyriakos ; Don Turner, true story of a Wombwell lad in occupied Greece during WW2 who escapes the Nazis and joins up with Greek. Partizans.
     
    Marlon, Mar 22, 2020
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  13. Burgundy Red

    Burgundy Red Well-Known Member

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    John Updike's Rabbit novels are a great read, following a man's adult life through 4 books and a novella, written and published roughly 10 years apart from 1960 until 2001. It's fascinating to see not just how the characters change as they age but also how society changes around them, not in retrospect but through books that were each actually written at the time they describe. I re-read them periodically, as I myself age, and I find it interesting how my own take on them changes each time.

    My favourite ever literary sentence (yes, I've got one of those) comes from Rabbit Redux:
    Spoiler alert: that's going in my funeral Order of Service. Hopefully not for a little while, though.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2020
    Burgundy Red, Mar 22, 2020
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  14. Lor

    Lordtyke Well-Known Member

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    Agreed, great set of books, I started with Dark side of the sun, then got the Colour of Magic and went from there, always eagerly awaited his next book. I like the satire and social commentary too, what an imagination he had. I am more Sam Vimes than Rincewind the wizard!
     
    Lordtyke, Mar 22, 2020
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  15. MarioKempes

    MarioKempes Well-Known Member

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    Just finished a book by Helen Forrester called Twopence to Cross the Mersey which was fantastic. I'm going to buy her other books in this series now.

    Now reading a book called The retreat of reason which is also interesting in a different way but only if you like political books.
     
    MarioKempes, Mar 22, 2020
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  16. Til

    Tilertoes Well-Known Member

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    Killing pablo
     
    Tilertoes, Mar 22, 2020
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  17. Hooky feller

    Hooky feller Well-Known Member

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    Probably read by most. But any Dan Brown . ( Better than the film's, glad I got to read em first)
    The Ragged trousered philanthropist is a must.
    Read a lot of biographies. Ricky Tomlinson's tops the list.
     
    Hooky feller, Mar 22, 2020
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  18. Mr Badger

    Mr Badger Well-Known Member

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    Two enormous volumes by Prof. Ian Kershaw.
    Hubris and Nemesis. The biography of Adolf Hitler.
     
    Mr Badger, Mar 22, 2020
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  19. lk3

    lk311 Well-Known Member

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    Insomnia by Stephen King, really hard work to start with, but once you get past first couple of hundred pages couldn’t put it down.
     
    lk311, Mar 22, 2020
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  20. Lor

    Lordtyke Well-Known Member

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    Read Pet Sematery by Stephen King, had to stop halfway, very upsetting..but a great wordsmith though
     
    Lordtyke, Mar 22, 2020
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