Books and literature recommendations

[Gob]

New books / authors you would like to recommend.

Tired of the endless tarmac and Little Chefs, and keen to see more on his travels than the tail-lights of the car in front of him, Robbie Coltrane has set himself quite a challenge. Instead of scaling the Himalayas, trekking across the Antarctic or hacking through the Brazilian rainforest, he has decided to explore strange and exotic areas that are somewhat closer to home.
Armed only with a map, an inquisitive mind and one of his favourite classic cars - a Carmen-red drophead Jaguar XK150S - he ventures off the beaten track and on to the B-roads of deepest, darkest Britain.

Travelling from London to Glasgow in search of the impressive, the eccentric and, sometimes, the downright ridiculous, Robbie's journey takes us through stunning countryside into the heart of Great Britain. From wing walking in Gloucestershire and bottle kicking in Leicestershire to pigeon fancying in Sunderland and ale brewing in Stirling, Robbie delves deep into our local communities to uncover strange festivals, inspirational people and treasured traditions that reveal exactly what it is that makes our country so incredible, so bizarre and so, well, British ...

[rubato]

Is that Michael Moore?

yrs,
rubato

[Crackpot]

Pure derivative crap.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Maybe the 2007 TV series which spawned the book would be better. It's a bit old, Gob?

[Lord Jim]

he ventures off the beaten track and on to the B-roads of deepest, darkest Britain.

I believe that's been done...

[Gob]

Maybe the 2007 TV series which spawned the book would be better. It's a bit old, Gob?

Got the DVD of teh TV series Meade, But!

The book goes into far more detail and is far more a "personal journey" for Coltrane. The book is exponentially better.

Now reading and loving;

Rob Young investigates how the idea of folk has been handed down and transformed by successive generations - song collectors, composers, Marxist revivalists, folk-rockers, psychedelic voyagers, free festival-goers, experimental pop stars and electronic innovators.

In a sweeping panorama of Albion's soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp; the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd; the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Shirley Collins, John Martyn and Pentangle; the bucolic psychedelia of The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and Pink Floyd; the acid folk of Comus, Forest, Mr Fox and Trees; The Wicker Man and occult folklore; the early Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals; and the visionary pop of Kate Bush, Julian Cope and Talk Talk, Electric Eden maps out a native British musical voice that reflects the complex relationships between town and country, progress and nostalgia, radicalism and conservatism.

[Gob]

It began with an accidental daytrip to an intriguingly awful resort on the Thames Estuary, and ended 3,812 miles later: one man's journey through deep-fried, brownfield, poundshop Britain, a crash course in urban blight, deranged civic planning and commercial eccentricity. Following an itinerary drawn up from surveys, polls, reviews and lazy personal prejudice, Tim Moore goes to all the places that nobody wants to go to - the bleakest towns, the shonkiest hotels, the scariest pubs, the silliest sea zoos. He visits the grid reference adjudged by the Ordnance Survey to be the least interesting point in Britain, and is chased out of the new town twice crowned Scotland's Most Dismal Place. His palate is flayed alive by horrific regional foodstuffs, his ears shrivelled by the 358 least loved tracks in the history of native popular music. With his progress entrusted to our motor industry's fittingly hopeless finale, he comes to learn that Britain seems very much larger when you're driving around it in a Bulgarian-built Austin Maestro.


Yet as the soggy, decrepit quest unfolds, so it evolves into something much more stirring: a nostalgic celebration of our magnificent mercantile pomp, and an angry requiem for a golden age of cheerily homespun crap culture being swept aside by the faceless, soul-stripping forces of Tesco-town globalisation.

I keep having to put it down as I'm laughing so hard.

[Sean]

Would you like an audiobook copy of 'Dave Gorman Vs The Rest of the World' Strop?

[Gob]

Yes please!

[Gob]

Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating and Nothingness

Martial arts and philosophy have always gone hand in hand, as well as fist in throat. Philosophical argument is closely paralleled with hand-to-hand combat. And all of today’s Asian martial arts were developed to embody and apply philosophical ideas. In his interview with Bodidharma, Graham Priest brings out aspects of Buddhist philosophy behind Shaolin Kung-Fu — how fighting monks are seeking Buddhahood, not brawls. But as Scott Farrell’s chapter reveals, Eastern martial arts have no monopoly on philosophical traditions: Western chivalry is an education in and living revival of Aristotelian ethical theories. Several chapters look at ethical problems raised by the fighting arts. How can the sweaty and brutal be exquisitely beautiful? Every chapter is easily understandable by readers new to martial arts or new to philosophy.

[Andrew D]

The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World 1788 - 1800 by Jay Winik. He puts together the Pugachev Revolution in Russia, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Kosciuszko Revolution in Poland in the greater context in which they occurred. He is also a great storyteller.

(Had I been the editor of the book, I would have put various sections into a more chronological order. But that is only a minor criticism.)

[Gob]

Black Vinyl, White Powder
by Simon Napier-Bell



Charts the amazing fifty-year history of the British music business, where bad behaviour is encouraged, and where drugs are sometimes as important as talent.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
by Simon Napier-Bell,



Simon Napier-Bell was the manager of the Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Japan and Wham! And co-wrote ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ for Dusty Springfield which is one of the funniest books you will read.

[Gob]

[dales]

I checked this one out at the county library. A very intersting read from the days of yore. Lots of info on the SoCal drug scene back in the day.

[Gob]

I may have a look for that one Dales, I love the social history of the 60's and 70's.

[dales]

Many references to SoCal which might not come across, their travels to Pakistan for hash is tittilating, references to Hawaii, Europe as well. Al back in the day.

Highly recommended, Gob.

[Crackpot]

On a recommendation by a friend I started my first manga Death Note I'm on the 4th "book" and it's just getting better.

Synopsis:

A death god "loses" his notebook on the human world giving whoever may find it the power to kill anyone by writing their name in the book. The book is found by Light Yagami a "better than average" student who decides to yes the book to shape the world into a utopian society by killing criminals. Enter L a detective out to solve the murders creating an intriguing game of cat and mouse

[Gob]

Currently enjoying this greatly.

Cod, Mark Kurlansky’s third work of nonfiction and winner of the 1999 James Beard Award, is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack.

What was the staple of the medieval diet? Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic people with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were legendary.

In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world's folly?

http://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-Fis ... 0140275010

[Guinevere]

If you liked Cod, you'll also enjoy Salt, and then I recommend the Dean of the natural world/history/sociology essay -- John McPhee -- my favorite writer of all time.

[Gob]

Cheers G! I've read salt, but for some reason, (my recent return to fish eating?) I'm liking Cod more.