Books Are Gems

Shadz: thanks for flagging up Harlan Coben: I picked up his 'Darkest Fear' in a charity shop in Wiveliscombe when visiting the equine son and heir, plus Jeffery Deaver's 'The Bone Collector' - although I saw the film, I think you often get a richer sense of the story through reading. I've started 'Darkest Fear' and particularly enjoy the Jewish humour of the hero, Myron Bolitar (although I keep thinking it should be Bolivar), even though it's a thriller. Nice to have levity alongside a dark story - I think that's where I eventually found Cornwell's heroine too bloody earnest and po-faced, and Gerritson's is similarly humourless, unless it's to make rather over-feministic wisecracks.
 
I am halfway through State of Denial, and as I am based in USA for a while it is giving me loads of Ammo to provoke some of the square headed brethren among them. ( Not that I like to provoke.)

Mrs AC asked me what I was reading and I replied that it was a bit like 'porn for Brian Hartigan.
 
Originally posted by krizon@Feb 17 2007, 11:36 PM
Shadz: thanks for flagging up Harlan Coben:
Should have been paying attention to this thread earlier, Jon - I have recommended him ages ago on here and if you'd only said, there are most of his books in a cupboard chez moi that you could have taken on !!
 
Sorry, Pee! Cwedit where cwedit is due - although Shadz is also reading Coben.

Good to know for when I'm allowed to visit again, Songy. :) Although I don't mind picking books up at such bargain basement prices, and for good causes.
 
I'm about to order 'Our Horses In Egypt' from Amazon. It was reviewed in the Sunday Telegraph (I think), and got quite a good write up. This is the synopsis courtesy of Amazon, it's a book I think a few of you may find interesting:

Philomena, fat and lazy when she is requisitioned from an English field at the start of the First World War, sails for Egypt with the territorial regiment, the Dorset Yeomanry. She serves faithfully, charging the dervishes in the Western Desert and enduring the privations of Allenby's great campaign in Palestine. She recovers from wounds to swelter through a summer in the Jordan Valley. She takes part in the triumphant advance on Damascus - only to be sold off in Cairo among the 22,000 horses left behind by the War Office after the Armistice. By 1921, the forceful Griselda Romney, a war widow - in the author's "Hound Music" she was a child - has discovered that her old hunter, Philomena, could be still alive. With her six-year-old daughter, and of course Nanny, Mrs Romney sets out to Egypt, to find Philomena and to rescue her..."Our Horses in Egypt" depicts the work of a troop-horse in the Army - and of exotic Cairo, in political unrest - as meticulously and exuberantly as "Hound Music" recreated the milieu of Edwardian fox-hunting.
 
I'm reading the follow up to "The Rosary Girls" at the moment and it's very good. Looking forward to starting on the follow up books to "The Straw Men" as well.
 
I'm now reading "Tricks of the Mind" by Derren Brown. It's fascinating, and I fully intend to try out some of the suggested experiments inside (badly, I am sure!). The human mind is indeed a complex thing, and he seems to have such an understanding about how it works and of people's instincts and reactions.

I always thought of myself as not being particularly suggestible, however I was called up on stage by Derren Brown at our local theatre during his "Something Wicked" tour. He had me sit there with Zener ESP cards (the ones with symbols on, you know the star, circle etc, like at the start of Ghostbusters). I had a set and he had a set, his were already laid out in order and turned face down. I then had to lay mine out to match his.

I did so exactly. I have absolutely no idea how he did that, how he persuaded me which one I should choose. I was sat feet from him and yet I cannot recall any movement he made or words that he said to sway my judgement about what I should pick next. And he knew exactly when I had made up my mind each time, before I lay the card down.

It was very strange and very interesting!
 
So, nothing to do with the big mirror placed behind you, purr, showing him the cards as you picked them up? :suspect:
 
Absolutely nothing like that at all. His cards were already chosen and laid flat and face down on the table in front of him. I then chose my cards and laid them opposite his face up.

There's no funny business with this guy, he's just a genius at manipulating the mind. I'm glad I'm not his girlfriend :)
 
I agree wth everybody, sadly. I say sadly, because my books have take over my life! Help. I am now moving house and have to pack all of them. Attempted to think about selling. giving away but only made small dent in stacks of books. And, whilst taking some to local charity shop I came back with more! I love old books and find so many of them oddly still most relevant today.

Am reading Monksfield due to some peeps from TH telling me it was great, and it is.

Also not exactly a crime thriller but reading a book about our blood and how the new microbiologists can tell what state our health is in and how certain foods, drink and life issues effect us. It is quite amazing. The guy takes photos of the results after people eat, drink or carry out a days work. The blood clumps together in some instances and looks disgusting and after a detox type day or good nights sleep it looks fresh and glowing.

Last book, as I tend to have at least 3 on the go - is one about water crystals. It is the theory that water holds vibrations and the crystals it will form according to events or pollution show what has happened in the water. Crystals from polluted lakes are ugly and scary looking, whereas ones from clear fresh water which has had good thoughts given to it are beautiful. A bit weird, but seems to carry scientific backing now.

What I ought to do is work in a libray then I could read all day!
 
I'm reading Brian Bates' 'The Real Middle Earth - Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages.' Despite its slightly naff title it's quite an interesting account of spiritual belief in Britain and north west Europe throughout the first Millennium focusing primarily on the Saxons, Celts and Norse mythology. Its different to what I would normally read but a refreshing change too.
 
I've got three boxes so far packed full of books - I have too many!!!!

Michael Marshall is very good - on the third book in his Straw Men trilogy and enjoying it a lot.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Mar 1 2007, 07:11 PM
I've got three boxes so far packed full of books - I have too many!!!!

I feel as if I've got three rooms! We really must be ruthless and get rid of some.
 
Ah, but it only comprises a fraction of the collection & there's at least a box load that is being moved on!
 
I must've sold/donated around 500 books during the moves from Staffs. to Sussex and then the moves within the county. Sadly, dealers dump your beloved friends and gems into black trash bags and offer you about 'twenny quid ter clear the lot'. Anyone who calls in a second-hand book dealer will have illusions about nice clean editions shattered, and don't even think of trying to flog them anything like the Reader's Digest abridged books or the Encyclopedia Britannica! (Not that I had either, but they are unsaleable.) Even popular books are discarded ("got three of them in the shop already"), so be prepared to still be left with a libraryful!
 
There's a good second hand bookshop in Irish Town [Gib] Kri that don't worry about whether or not they've already got copies of the books in stock - he'll take anything. He'll take CDs, DVDs & videos too which is always handy.
 
I take it you don't do car boot sales in Gib, Shadz? :laughing: Current going price at the boot sales for a vid here is 50p, and about £1-3 for CDs. Books 20p. Good luck!
 
I'd get more than that going to Irish Town Kri!! Quick and easy - turn up with a load of books, get paid for 'em. Easy really! :D
 
:angy: We pay a fortune for everything in the UK, and when it comes to selling on, it's always 'nah, no call for that nowadays, luv!' If I ever move again (God help me!), I'm lugging all my tosh over to Gib!
 
Is Irish Town in Gib anywhere near Little Italy or Chinatown in Gib? Or is it on the Little Saigon side?
 
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