Michael Moore is an interesting one. Self-important, self-publicizing, certainly arrogant - but the points he makes are generally good ones (and vaguely disturbing). It's his delivery that's questionable - as well as the irony that he's a successful businessman who likes slagging off big business.

Tried to get through Richard Dawkins, The Evidence for Evolution but it just didn't really keep my attention. Half way through rereading 'In the Name of Rome' by Adrian Goldsworthy with 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' by Peter Heather to follow. Bit of light reading to follow - have John Connollys The Whisperers lined up

Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. Yes, I am a child.

turned 30 a few months ago and belatedly resolved to: 1) beat my personal bests in situps/min, pushups and mile run; and 2) read more. there's just too much of a knowledge and culture gap that accumulates between someone who reads in their spare time v one who doesn't.

starting off light with after dark by murakami. think i'm gonna do something non-fiction next. any recommendations? i'm thinking something history, business or economics-related, but not fluffy stuff like gladwell or freakonomics.

Historical:

Persian Fire by Tom Holland (account of the Greco-Persian Wars..interesting comparison to todays situation of superpower versus rogue state)

Rubicon - the last days of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland (covers exactly what it says on the cover. Very good read)

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer (account of a German soldier during last years of WWII

Selling your Father's Bones by Brian Schofield (account of how America made war and then exploited the Nez Perce Native Americans)

Shake Hands with the Devil by Lt Gen Romeo Dallaire (account by the UN Commander of the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the genocide. Hard read in ways, but along with the documentaries based on the book, definately my favourite non-fiction book. Impossible remain emotionless while reading it or watching the doc)

On that note, also try:

Rasputin: the final word by Edward Radzinski and

1812 Napoleon's fatal march to Moscow by Adam Zamoyski.

I just read Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts. It's a historical fictionalized biography about Robert Rogers that deals with the french and indian war, and later on the attempt to discover the sea route through the Arctic ocean that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

It can be a bit hard to track down but if there's a big library nearby they probably have it. It's a brilliant book.

this thread makes me feel dumb. thanks for all the recommendations.

IG, rubicon sounds like it would have a lot of relevance to today as well, decline of the american empire and all that.

Even moreso if the commander of the Pacific Fleet were to suddenly decide to sail to Los Angeles and train a few gigatons of nuclear armament on Hollywood, I suppose

Getting through stuff at a mile a minute Rtc.

I just read "The Pig Did It" at the behest of my boss - 'twas an ok comic novel set in Ireland. A little bit like screenplay material for a Hugh Grant / Colin Firth comedy so I wouldn't necessarily recommend. 7/10.

To keep that light-hearted, frivolous vein pumping along I then read "Johannes Cabal the Necromancer" by Jonathan Howard. I don't normally read comic fantasy (I loathe Terry Pratchett) but that was pretty funny in places. One of those books that has a very clever joke about every two or three pages, and the rest of it you can take or leave. Not quite black enough either. 6.5/10.

In fact both of those books sort of made me wish I was reading Flann O'Brien instead.

Next up: back to serious and/or challenging. Either "The Parallax View" by Zizek or "Anathem" by Stephenson.

Sounds like a decent shilling shocker.

Just started The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq. He also directed a film version of it which I saw at a festival last year, and quite liked. Think it's about an Armageddon of which the only human survivors manage to turn themselves into a long-lived race of sentient plants.

If this book is anything like Atomised it will be full to bursting of affectless sex and perversion. But with more science fictional aspects. Atomised wasn't bad but at one point if the main character had another wank I was going to have to throw it out on principle.

You know the type of book I'm talking about though!

Just finished Armageddon by Max Hastings about the final year s of the war in Europe 1944-45

Well written and balanced (in that he highlights atrocities carried out by the Allies which tend to be left out of conventional histories).

When you actually read about the clash of personalities within the English/US camps, not to mention the appeasing of Stalin, it's a wonder they actually won the war as quickly as they did.

Not sure I buy the whole bombing Dresden wasn't a war crime though. The deliberate targeting of a civilian population surely has to be defined as one. Hastings tries to excuse it by saying they pretty much deserved it for allowing the Nazis to thrive but imo that's a harsh opinion (while understandable).

Going to get his book on the Korean war next I think

I've missed this thread.

I dropped a few lines about Kenneth Roberts' masterful Northwest Passage earlier. I've spent most of the winter since tracking down the rest of his historical fiction books. I've got all of them now, apart from two that are very hard to come by. The man was a bloody genius. I particularly liked Arundel, which was a detailed account of Benedict Arnold's expedition that precedeth the battle of Quebec, and it's sequel Rabble in Arms that dealt with the battles of Valcour Island and Saratoga as well as the creation of the first colonist fleet.

Currently reading or about to start:

Michael Cunningham, By Nightfall
William Gibson, Zero History
Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors
Michael Bracewell, England is Mine: Pop in Albion from Wilde to Goldie (re-read)

The last book is a brilliant critical survey of English pop from the 50s onwards by reference to its antecedents in art, novel-writing and poetry. Highly recommended to anyone who likes their pop English (a lot of you I'm sure), it's a page-turner and contains a lifetime of talking points.