What are you reading?

[Hornisse]

Phil Lynott The Rocker sounds good & so does the Tim Buckley bio.

Yeah~ Hopefully these won't lead me to believe they were murdered. 

LOL!!

[Basvarken]

The last book I read was Phil Lynott The Rocker by Mark Putterford.  I'm a huge Lizzy fan and I recommend it to anyone who dug the band.

If you dig that book, I can recommend My Boy (co-)written by Philomena Lynott.
A personal and emotional portrait by Phil's mom.

[Basvarken]

One of the books I've been reading lately is "De Helaasheid Der Dingen" by Dimitri Vermulst.

Very funny. Sometimes disgusting, sometimes moving.




They made a movie after the book too.
In English it's called The Misfortunates

[Chaser001]

Cream:  How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm by Dave Thompson

[Tuco B]

just read "the ice man , confessions of  a mafia hitman "  by philip carlo

chilling (lol)

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Humphrey Bogart The Making of a Legend by Darwin Porter

This is a gritty uncensored 500 page book that may be awfully sensationalized & is told with absolutely no class & is probly mostly untrue but it sure was riveting!

[Denis]

"The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover" by Anthony Summers. Jeez, Hoover was a Class A Asshole!

[Basvarken]

Life by Keith Richards.

Since I enjoyed reading Victor Bockris' biography on Keef so much really I looked forward to reading the autobiography.
But I'm halfway through the book and I'm getting fed up with the self content blasé egotism...

[Pilgrim]

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie - swords / fantasy stuff.  His First Law series was fantastic and this is a continuation of a sort.

[Highlander]

This thread...

(still reading up reference material - Forgotten Voices Of Burma - WWII stuff and an Avatar making of book)

[Bargeon]

The biography of Cora Crane, wife of author Stephen Crane and who, in the space of less than 10 years:

-- Left her wealthy, educated Boston family and lived on her own in NYC (this in the early 1890s, when other women her age were having their first child)
-- Married and divorced a dry goods salesnam in less than a year
-- Married into the lesser British aristocracy (a baronette) and left (but did not divorce) him after a year
-- Moved to Florida and opend a high class bordello catering to the local power brokers
...where she met and fell in love with Stephne Crane, still riding the fame of The Red Badge . . . and running guns into Cuba
-- Followed him to Europe and into war in Greece as a correspondent
-- Lived with him in England in a 15th century  mansion, complete with ghost and secret passages, a stone's throw from her never-divorced husband family's mansion
-- Hobnobbed with: HG Wells, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Lady Churchill
-- Returned to Florida after Stephen died and opend a new brothel
-- Made her one tragic mistake: married a drunk who, among other things, shot and killed her alleged young lover

Where are the Masterpiece Theatre script writters for this one? Emma Thompson and Johnny Depp  . . .

[TBird1958]

It's a light hearted tome.

"The Rising Sun (The decline and fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945)  by John Toland.
While I've read many accounts of the Pacific Thaeter this interesting because a great deal of it is from the Japanese view point with much unknown to me material about Japan's internal politics during the war.

[Highlander]

If this is a subject you'ld like to delve into deeper (major part of your history, obviously) you might like this one by a Japanese professor who worked at the Tokyo University of Education, a Dr Saburo Ienaga; the book has been published in English under several titles (mine is called The Pacific War 1931-1945) and was/is considered quite controversial - chapter 7, P.129 is the lead up to Pearl Harbour.

Considered to be one of the best publications of its kind - from a unique perspective - from the inside.



Definitely recommend it to you - absolutely no punches held back...

There is also a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the Emperor Hirohito by Herbert P. Bix (800 pages of it) which is an in-depth study of his life and upbringing, and how it changed the way Japan existed and what it became...

Simply brilliant...

If I was being honest, it would actually be quite difficult to figure out how many books I am presently reading - probably over 100 - mostly on the CBI Theatre

[Pilgrim]

One of the most interesting books I've ever read about Japan in WWII was Samurai, by Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai, written with Martin Caiden.  Incredibly gripping story of what it was like to be in the seat of a Zero.

http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Saburo-Sakai/dp/0743412834

The interesting thing I ran into when looking up the book on Amazon is that my old 60's paperback is probably worth a few bucks!  I don't know why, but the least expensive one listed was $15. 

[Highlander]

A fighter pilot that survived - rare in itself...

I use ABEBOOKS for a lot of searching too - there is often no logic to pricing; all down to what you are willing to pay - I have a copy of the first edition of Dune, with fly, the maps. the artwork and uncut but it is about 1" smaller and a bookclub edition - printed the same year and a mirror of the original - got it for about a tenth of the cost of the "bigger" copy - still looks great on the shelf...