Books

[Hardy]

Folks, have any of you got a Kindle or Nook??  Is it worth getting?  I'd read a lot of books and one of those could be handy to read at lunchtime in the car

Highly recommended. The only downside I can think of is the annoyance of the first question people ask when you mention you use a Kindle: "Do you not miss the feel of a book?" They seem to think you have to stop reading hardcopy books when you buy a Kindle. Why do they never ask you if you miss tea when you mention you had a cup of coffee?

[Tony Baloney]

Folks, have any of you got a Kindle or Nook??  Is it worth getting?  I'd read a lot of books and one of those could be handy to read at lunchtime in the car

As I have said before I thought I would hate not reading "a book". Got the Kindle and haven't looked back. Would recommend to anyone for novels etc.

Yea I would have been thinking along the same lines - I'm coming around though

Which one have you?  And how much are the books to download?

I have the original big one with the keyboard. Bought my ma the smaller one minus keyboard last year and there is a touchscreen option now.

Books go from free to shop prices. Most if not all the classics are free whereas you would shell out 6 quid for a Penguin Classic in the shops. I have read loads of decent thrillers etc at a quid. Some of the new mainstream books are actually a quid or so dearer than the printed option - seems a scam but you can have th new book in front of you in seconds.

Have a look on the Kindle Store for the books which you can filter by star rating, price etc.

[Billys Boots]

Folks, have any of you got a Kindle or Nook??  Is it worth getting?  I'd read a lot of books and one of those could be handy to read at lunchtime in the car

Highly recommended. The only downside I can think of is the annoyance of the first question people ask when you mention you use a Kindle: "Do you not miss the feel of a book?" They seem to think you have to stop reading hardcopy books when you buy a Kindle. Why do they never ask you if you miss tea when you mention you had a cup of coffee?

I got one about a month ago - best thing I ever did. 

[nifan]

Highly recommended. The only downside I can think of is the annoyance of the first question people ask when you mention you use a Kindle: "Do you not miss the feel of a book?" They seem to think you have to stop reading hardcopy books when you buy a Kindle. Why do they never ask you if you miss tea when you mention you had a cup of coffee?

They annoy me.
It is even more like asking you if you miss fine china when you are drinking your tea from a mug. Some of these people seem to care more what they look like reading a book than enjoying what they are reading.

Kindle is class - the only annoying thing for me is having to turn it off during take off and landing on a flight.

[Tony Baloney]

Highly recommended. The only downside I can think of is the annoyance of the first question people ask when you mention you use a Kindle: "Do you not miss the feel of a book?" They seem to think you have to stop reading hardcopy books when you buy a Kindle. Why do they never ask you if you miss tea when you mention you had a cup of coffee?

They annoy me.
It is even more like asking you if you miss fine china when you are drinking your tea from a mug. Some of these people seem to care more what they look like reading a book than enjoying what they are reading.

Kindle is class - the only annoying thing for me is having to turn it off during take off and landing on a flight.

Commonly referred to as "first-world problems". 

[Billys Boots]

Read a decent book called 'The Villa Triste' by Lucretia Grindle there over the last week - set in Florence; with a dual narrative of a police detective investigating the murder of a former WW2 partisan, with the diary of a nurse going through the occupation of Florence by the Nazis just prior to the Allied relief of the city.  Well written, but a bit long - worth a try if you like that kind of puzzle.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Villa-Triste-ebook/dp/B004QO994E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352278240&sr=1-1&keywords=villa+triste

[AQMP]

Recently started The Hunchback of Notre Dame having bought it years ago cheaply. Really enjoyable so far.
If you are so interested I would also recommend The Count of Monte Cristo as a novel to read........ none of the film versions do the book justice imo and very easy to read.

Still though the best novels I have ever read are The Godfather, Day of the Jackal and The Name of the Rose.

I read The Count of Monte Cristo about 6 months ago (I first read it about 40 years ago ) still one of the best books I've ever read. I'd also agree with you on The Day of the Jackel and The Godfather. The Name of the Rose I have read but don't really recall, but seeing as the rest of your choices are very similar to my tastes I'll give it another go.

If you haven't already done so have a gawk at the Erast Fandorin series by Boris Akunin (as recommended by Billy's Boots and Harold Disgracey (I think), I think you'd really enjoy them.

I saw the boys' recommendations of these and picked up the first two over the summer.  A bit lighter and more tongue in cheek than I expected but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

[Hardy]

I'm reading "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered he World" by Francis Wheen at the moment. It's not, as I expected, so much a tilt at astrology, feng-shui and the like (though that sort of tosh does get dishonourable mention) as a placing of political fads like Reaganomics, Blairism and Fundamentalism in the context of the swing away from Enlightenment values in recent decades towards dogmatic nonsense based on suspension of reason. Wheen's socialism lurks beneath the surface to the extent that he excoriates right-wing foolishness while going relatively easy on equivalent follies perpetrated by the left, but its still an interesting read. I don't think I'd enjoy his company, though.  The vitriol of his prose reveals a bitter and cynical man.

Anyway, this passage struck a chord. (The book was written in 2004, well before the economic collapse. Remember when it was called the "credit crunch"?)

Mark Weisbrot, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC, ... writes, 'one of the few things Washington actually did accomplish [in the Asian crisis] was to get the governments of the region to guarantee the privately held debt of foreign lenders, rather than letting the banks be subjected to the discipline of the market.' The IMF and other Washington institutions are not so much evangelists seeking to convert the world as enforcers trying to prevent developing and transitional countries from threatening the financial interests of the West.

[Billys Boots]

Hardy, have you read 'The Ascent of Money' - Niall Ferguson.  I have it lined up to read shortly and am wondering if it's worth my while - I do like Ferguson's style, but I don't like being preached to??

[Harold Disgracey]

Read that a long time ago Hardy, Wheen's biography of Karl Marx is actually quite good.

I'm almost finished The Bat by Jo Nesbø, it's the first Harry Hole book. Not bad but the character of Harry is better drawn out in the later books.

Just downloaded that book Billy's, will give it a read.

[seafoid]

I am reading "Wars of Words" about the history of the Irish language

http://www.bookshop.kennys.ie/book/IE/KON0822757/Wars_of_Words_The_Politics_of_Language_in_Ireland_15372004

It goes into the history and covers the plantation, the famine etc. Some of the history is brutal and I think the book explains quite well how things came to be how they are

[Hardy]

Hardy, have you read 'The Ascent of Money' - Niall Ferguson.  I have it lined up to read shortly and am wondering if it's worth my while - I do like Ferguson's style, but I don't like being preached to??

I haven't, Billy. Looks like you'll get there first, so let us know.

[Billys Boots]

Just downloaded that book Billy's, will give it a read.

Tell us what you think Harold!

Hardy, I read 'Empire - Niall Ferguson' about a year ago - it was an extremely interesting read although Ferguson is a big Britishness enthusiast. 

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Britain-Modern-World-ebook/dp/B00936RSAW/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1352286324&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=empire+niall+ferguson

Sorry about the amazon.com links, but the uk f*ckers won't sell kindle books to Paddies, for some reason. 

[Hardy]

Thanks for that, Billy. Yes - I don't understand why we're barred from Kindle on Amazon UK. There must be some sinister conspiracy theory that we haven't thought of.

[AQMP]

If you're into that sort of thing (as I am) I can recommend "Young Stalin" and "Stalin: The Court of The Red Tsar" both by Simon Sebag Montefiore.  The second particularly is partly a fascinating study of what Hannah Arendt would later term the "banality of evil".