Book thread

Oh man! I feel for you..just a bit Originally Posted by Camille

Aw...thank you, darlin'! Good to see you back, BTW!

If you really want to read about football and organized crime you need to be reading the horrible stuff (ever seen the films, "Rise of the Footsoldier" and "essex boys?" - both interconnected and um..very grittytrue stories from the 80's and 90's). Google Carlton Leach. Originally Posted by Camille

I've been wanting to track those down. The ICF were some heavy cats. They used to carry "business cards" that they would leave on the faces of their victims after they laid them out, "Congrats! You've just met the ICF." A trick they stole from my Dad's old Special Forces unit in WW2.

There's a ton of "football hooligan" books. Most of them are crap. Among the best I've read are Bill Buford's, Among The Thugs & Colin Ward's, Steaming In. Soul Crew is pretty good but I can't recall who wrote it.

The Fix has more to do with gamblers getting players & refs to affect the outcome of games. The guy actually has some good information...just not enough for a book. So, he repeats a lot of stories that are already in the public domain & repeats himself more than I care to read. He may be a decent investigator but he's an atrocious writer.

Ahhhh but ATL...the BEST part of book shopping for me is going in for one and coming out with a stack that you stumble across. It's just not the same doing that on Amazon lol. Sit with a coffee, browse a few pages...buy or don't buy. Love it. I can see the appeal of Amazon though if you know what you want...definitely convenient as you said Originally Posted by Camille

I used to just love killing an afternoon in a good bookstore as you describe. I still do that...just not as often or with as much joy. Somewhere along the way the bookstore got all jumbled up with study hall & the office. Drives me up a wall!

"The Average American Male" by Chad Kultgen. It was gifted. I'll report back

C Originally Posted by Camille

The hell with that! Run right out & pick up, The Below Average American Male. Then come back here & explain me to me!

. I also highly recommend Liar's Poker, written by Lewis back in the late 1980s. Originally Posted by CaptainMidnight

Magnificent book; for those who liked it I suggest Barbarians at the Gate about the fight to take over RJR Nabisco

Aw...thank you, darlin'! Good to see you back, BTW!



I've been wanting to track those down. The ICF were some heavy cats. They used to carry "business cards" that they would leave on the faces of their victims after they laid them out, "Congrats! You've just met the ICF." A trick they stole from my Dad's old Special Forces unit in WW2.

There's a ton of "football hooligan" books. Most of them are crap. Among the best I've read are Bill Buford's, Among The Thugs & Colin Ward's, Steaming In. Soul Crew is pretty good but I can't recall who wrote it.

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

True enough! "The rise of Foot solider" is only briefly about football hooliganism..the rest..and more frightening part is about organized crime. It's not about game rigging though. To be fair though Sis, I'm not surprised that anyone thinks there is game rigging going on especially after some of the atrocious and verydubious reff'ingg debacles of the last World Cup

C xx

The hell with that! Run right out & pick up, The Below Average American Male. Then come back here & explain me to me! Originally Posted by Sisyphus

'Aint nuttin below average 'bout you!

C

Some very interesting sounding literary works in there.
Thank you for sharing everyone..looks like a trip to borders is in order.
Books are one of things I don't like buying online...love a good browse in a bookstore.
If anyone has any recommendations of other biographies by modern day explorers (of any kind..not just limited to Artic and Antartic) I would be very grateful for suggestions. I'm particularly interested to read about archaelogical digs or something of that nature. Or any interesting WWI reads..fiction or otherwise. I've read "Intimate letters.." and also the war diaries of Douglas Haig...but I'm open to others and from any perspective/nationality.

Thanks and hugs

Camille xx Originally Posted by Camille

Hi, Camille,

I just finished "The Lost City of Z" by David Grann. Great read about a British explorer Percy Fawcett lost in the Amazon in the 1920s looking for ruins of a lost civilization.

As far as WWI, I'd highly recommend "Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain. This autobiography eloquently chronicles the destruction of a beautiful generation of youth by the brutality of war.

Or any interesting WWI reads..fiction or otherwise. I've read "Intimate letters.." and also the war diaries of Douglas Haig...but I'm open to others and from any perspective/nationality. Originally Posted by Camille

Good Afternoon, Camille;

On the origins of The Great War, there is probably nothing better than Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August" for the realpolitik and Robert K Massie's "Dreadnought" for the arms race that made war almost inevitable.

However, for me, I find it difficult to read most books about The Great War as there is little in them other than endless slaughter, even in the lesser known areas of the conflict, such as Italy or Africa. I am more interested in reading about the fallout from the conflict, much of which we are living through now. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire bequeathed us Bosnia, Kosovo and Sarajevo. Whilst the end of the Ottoman Empire and good intentions like the Sykes-Picot treaty brought into being artificial constructs such as Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iraq.

In all of the reading I have done about the period, I can only recall one book that brings a smile to my face when I think of it. "Mimi & TouTou go forth".

Good reading
Cyclops

Happy diver..thank you for those. They sound exactly the type of thing I am looking for. Added to list

Cyclops, I agree (about WWI texts). One of the books I mentioned is actually a collection of dairy entries, journals and letters have been put together by authors. They are the thoughts of both armed forces personnel and civilians of all nationalities...from the start until the of the war. It's actually very interesting. It's by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis and is called, "Intimate Voices from the First World War." Granted, not much about the aftermath...but seeing the whole thing unold through the eyes of someone involved in quite extraordinary.

Camille x

I just received the book Report to Greco - Nikos Kazantzakis and have just started reading it. A spiritual journey of sorts. Has been an interesting read so far.. Originally Posted by arianne

a good book, IMO. not excellent but still good and worth reading. And the english translation is quite well done.

An old favorite of mine is Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay Originally Posted by CaptainMidnight

a classic; an excellent book.

I'm going to need to take out a loan at this rate. So many intriguing choices on here.

So many intriguing choices on here. Originally Posted by Camille

if you need still more ...


Robert Baer: See No Evil (excerpt: pt. 1 pt. 2)


Victor Ostrovsky: By Way of Deception
Victor Ostrovsky: The Other Side of Deception

Over the past few months, I've read 8 books by Lisa Gardner and enjoyed them all immensely. She's a great author if you enjoy shows like Criminal Minds and CSI.

I read mostly non-fiction, especially biographies & memoirs but also a lot of anthropology and health & nutrition.

Just finished The Operator (Tom King) about movie/music mogul David Geffen. Also Sex, Time and Power, How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (Leonard Shlain) is a fascinating read. And if you curious about the many, various toxic chemicals found in every day products like carpet, bedding, electronics and kitchenware, try Slow Death by Rubber Duck but be prepared to live in fear of your own home for a while (it might be trying to kill you).

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Dante Alighieri Originally Posted by Mr.Oneeye

This wonderful sig made me read a book I wanted to read since quite some time.
(also to improve my passive italian language skills)

Dino Buzzati: Un amore

At least the italian original is IMO fantastic! (and it's clear that it's very autobiographical)


FYI, an amazon.com review:

"Milan, 1960. A fifty year old man, single and with a comfortable economic position, goes to a brothel. There he meets a new prostitute, about twenty years old, called Leide, to whom he becomes immediately smitten (despite the fact that she is not, in his own words, particularly attractive). They become lovers, he falls for her obvious lies, he spends a lot of money on her, despite knowing that she sees a lot of other men. He knows he is being taken by a fool by her, but he just can't cut his ties to Leide. As time goes by, Leide increasingly humiliates him with her behavior. The plot is not terribly fresh, and the protagonist even quotes the Blue Angel to explain his predicament. But this potent book (originally written in 1963, and a best seller in Italy at the time) ought to be better known today. Italian Author Buzzati (1906-1972) is in my opinion incredibly underrated as he was one of the most important European authors of the 20th century."

http://www.amazon.com/love-affair-Di.../dp/B0000CMIX3

another excellent and quite obscure book for those who read german...

Oswald Wiener: Bouvard und Pécuchet im Reich der Sinne. Eine Tischrede.
http://www.scheidegger-spiess.ch/fullinfo.php?id=182

(it's in a way a dinner conversation about wine, wine industry, the meaning of life and in a way a supplement chapter to Gustave Flaubert's well-known: Bouvard et Pécuchet)