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You are a bunch of well read lot so . . . . .
bi22le - 14/11/21 at 10:41 PM

I confess. I read what I need to. My dad has always hated the fact that I have never read for fun. I'm 39, I grew up with games consoles so I never had that void.

I changed jobs recently (a really exciting job that one day ill post about as I have shared a lot of my career progression on here) and now sit on the train for 80mins each day. I fancy reading something.

Now, I hated history in school mainly because it was boring king Henry VIII stuff, not modern history. And as such I have MASSIVE gaps in my knowledge that annoy me. So with this I would like to start reading books. Firstly maybe about modern history and the political landscape, and if not then wizards, warlords and all things to escape from this capitalist Dogma.

Recommend me some books!!

Mike Wood - 14/11/21 at 11:03 PM

Hi

It depends what you are interested in.

How about ‘The History of the Countryside’ by Oliver Rackham, or ‘Build and Fly Your Own Plane’ by Robert Lowe, or ‘Road & Rally Source Book’ by Allan Staniforth, or ‘Cosworth - the search for power’ by Graham Robson or if you want some recent political history ‘Great Hatred, Little Room’ by Jonathan Powell. Some fiction too.

Join your local library, if there still is one and pick up a selection of books every week or two, either when (if) they open late one night in the week or Sat mornings. Is this your local library: https://local.kent.gov.uk/kb5/kent/directory/service.page?id=VpTiviu6G0Q ? Browse the shelves and ask the staff for recommendations and borrow some books - for free.

If you want to buy books, you can get secondhand from charity shops or Amazon sellers, as well as supporting your local book shop when buying new.

Your family will probably be delighted to buy you book tokens for Christmas!

Books are like CDs - some people lend theirs, others do not; do not be offended if they do not.

Cheers
Mike

[Edited on 14/11/21 by Mike Wood]

[Edited on 14/11/21 by Mike Wood]

[Edited on 14/11/21 by Mike Wood]

[Edited on 14/11/21 by Mike Wood]

bi22le - 15/11/21 at 12:45 AM

I have a couple of Allen Staniforth books on chassis design which were really good reads, as an engineer it helped me understand the dynamics of the different materials and forces in action while stomping around a track.

You say it depends on what I'm interested in. I outlined a couple of areas but really I don't mind. I guess there are many books out there that regardless of interests, they are just great reads.

A few years ago I read 1984 while on holiday, I can certain see why people reference it today.

SteveWalker - 15/11/21 at 01:00 AM

If you want history, but in a more fun form, you could try Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. While fictional, the background of each book is based on particular battles and events of the Napoleonic wars and at the end, there is always a section detailing what is historical fact, what has been made up, the details of the area and what can be seen there today.

sebastiaan - 15/11/21 at 07:44 AM

This is also a pretty good read. At least I found it insightful when I read the 1st edition.

https://www.bookdepository.com/Africa-Richard-Dowden/9781846277030?ref=grid-view&qid=1636962221407&sr=1-2

Mr Whippy - 15/11/21 at 08:24 AM

tbh you'd learn far far more and in a much more enjoyable way by just watching the many excellent documentary's on Youtube

Most trains have Wifi but if that's being pulled down by everyone else you can subscribe to Youtube and download their vids to your phone or tablet, then with a pair of ear buds, your train journeys will be over in no time and you'll know more than when you went on

swanny - 15/11/21 at 08:42 AM

See if the library can get hold of Denis Jenkinsons "The racing driver" its amazing.

car fettler, journalist, racer, Sterling Moss's navigator for the 1955 Mille Miglia. Talks about how really quick drivers work. Fascinating. I could read and over and over again. Its seen as a must have for any petrol head bookshelf. He also spent all of time on his cars and lived in a house without running water or electricity. He'd have been a member on here!


If your want to ease yourself into reading there are some books I've read recently that are science based, that are broken up into neat chapters that you can dip into.

Factfullness by Alan Rosling - Brilliant for myth busting and proving that some of our assumptions about the world are totally wrong. He's done talks to gatherings of worlds leaders and found they were less well informed than bunches of chimps randomly choosing answers to his questions!

59 Seconds: Think A Little, Change A Lot. Neat bits of science, psychology about all sorts of odd things like why we are happier scientifically whenr using a pencil, than a pen

History wise it might depend where you have travelled or what you are into to give you a hook into a particular area. I was blown away the first time i visited Pegasus Bridge. And as a result I've re-read Stephen E. Ambroses book on that several times.

WW1 &2 there are lots of books called something like "Forgotten Voices" There are dozen of them put together from testimony of those who were there by the imperial war museum. Hard not to get into them when you are effectively hearing first hand.

jollygreengiant - 15/11/21 at 09:04 AM

For Sci-Fi, you could look at almost anything by Asimov, (pebble in the sky, foundation, currents in space, etc), OR, Heinlein (Starship Troopers etc), OR, Frank Herbert (Dune, & series etc)

For swashbuckling heroic type novels, Eric Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo), C.S. Forrester (The Hornblower series),
OR, more modern type you could try Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt series of novels two of which were made into films, but the books were much better, as always).

Good reading fun type books, Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe, OR, The Book Of Herioc Failures.

For fantasy, Tolkein (The Hobbit, then, Lord of the Rings).

Or Just pick a book up that you ARE curious about and start reading it, you will soon know whether you like that one or not.

nick205 - 15/11/21 at 09:14 AM

Awesome to hear a person getting into reading books!

I go to bed early to get more reading time.

I didn't enjoy reading much as a child/youth. Other things to do.

As an adult I love it. I've even gone back and read books I was supposed to read at school, but didn't bother (All quiet on the western front).

Over the past few years (since a head injury) I've got into biographies/autobiographies of people I've ad an interest in. Some are fantastic, some are pants - depends on the person and the writer I guess.

In summary go for it. If you've got the time to be reading the read.

ianhurley20 - 15/11/21 at 10:33 AM

Most libraries support an app called Libby (Library) which I have on an android tablet. I can download up to 6 books at any one time for 21 days each and seemingly unlimited magazines for 14 days each. I can take out a book, if I don't like it return it, I can do it at 3am if I want, the tablet is small so takes less room than a book. If I forget my reading glasses I can increase the size of the text. Go through a dark tunnel on a train or read in bed without a light no problem. Want to listen to music at the same time use my downloaded music with headphones etc etc.
The tablet itself is a 7" Teclast from amazon and cost less than £60, had to buy my wife one as well

David Jenkins - 15/11/21 at 11:44 AM

I am also a keen Libby user - I hardly open a 'real book' these days, even though I read several books a week.

nick205 - 15/11/21 at 11:45 AM

quote:
Originally posted by ianhurley20
Most libraries support an app called Libby (Library) which I have on an android tablet. I can download up to 6 books at any one time for 21 days each and seemingly unlimited magazines for 14 days each. I can take out a book, if I don't like it return it, I can do it at 3am if I want, the tablet is small so takes less room than a book. If I forget my reading glasses I can increase the size of the text. Go through a dark tunnel on a train or read in bed without a light no problem. Want to listen to music at the same time use my downloaded music with headphones etc etc.
The tablet itself is a 7" Teclast from amazon and cost less than £60, had to buy my wife one as well



Sounds a good call.

My Mum is an avid tablet reader, switching from books to her tablet around 4-5 years ago. She enjoys it for similar reasons.

My sister-in-law gave me a Q magazine digital subscription a couple of years ago for Christmas. I tried it on my Samsung smartphone, but the screen was simply too small so I didn't read it while commuting (bus/train) really. Ended up reading on my tablet in bed.

HowardB - 15/11/21 at 12:33 PM

depends on your preferred style of reading - I found that librarians a great source of guidance and borrowing books

For owning books then charity shops are great (extra Low cost)

nick205 - 15/11/21 at 01:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by HowardB
depends on your preferred style of reading - I found that librarians a great source of guidance and borrowing books

For owning books then charity shops are great (extra Low cost)



Another top tip there.

Charity shops are a great source.

I've also found my local dump (Household Recycling Centre as they're now called) another great source. Plenty of readers take the books they've read there. You can usually pick a book up for 50p to a £1. Takes some time to search through what they've got there as noboby categorizes them in any order.

Some people take their old CDs/LPs there too.

Simon - 15/11/21 at 03:54 PM

Sci fi - Peter F Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds, Neil Asher, Arthur C Clarke, Asimov, Herbert
Fiction - Michael Crichton - did Jurassic Park but his books are brill
Cussler is good fun as mentioned
Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett
Vince Flynn wrote (better) books about a chap called Mitch Rapp in similar vein to Lee Childs Jack Reacher series. Vince F no longer with us but they are still being ghost written
David Baldacci

Then there are (auto)biographies etc etc

ste - 15/11/21 at 06:45 PM

Get onto podcasts. The British History Podcast is very good and there are some great true crime ones too. Easier than reading books on a train as the headphones drown out annoying people too. Plus, it's free

hellbent345 - 15/11/21 at 09:25 PM

Lots of good mature suggestions above, however for just an enjoyable read, get Harry Potter. And Game of Thrones. You won’t learn owt, but they are enjoyable reads. Haven’t done a lot of reading myself for a while but for example I probably read the earlier HP books more than 10 times each. You’ll read more if it’s fun
I’d recommend getting any book as a paper version or a dedicated tablet as it’s too easy to get distracted by other things otherwise (ie if you have kindle app on your phone) and then it’s just a slog to keep dipping in and out.

JMW - 15/11/21 at 09:28 PM

If you like the suggestion upthread of the Hornblower series by C S Forester, then consider also the Aubrey Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brien, starting with "Master and Commander". Wonderful evocation of the world of the Royal Navy in Napoleonic times.

BenB - 15/11/21 at 10:22 PM

All I can advise is don't read on the toilet- causes terrible piles.
I only read on holiday and then it's either Cussler or Jack Reacher.
Good thing with either is if I nod off while reading I'll have read basically the same plot before

jps - 16/11/21 at 06:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22leFirstly maybe about modern history and the political landscape, and if not then wizards, warlords and all things to escape from this capitalist Dogma.

Terry Pratchett will cover a bit of both (and subtly, or not so subtly, echoes lots of other literature too). I would recommend the ‘city’ books as a starting point, ‘Guards, Guards’, ‘Men at Arms’ or ‘Night Watch’ are good as police procedurals, ‘Raising Steam’, ‘Going Postal’ and ‘Making Money’ all give an interesting spin on technological development.

I would say that Modern history/political landscape literature depends on your leanings/interests, the authors will have their own leanings and their writing will reflect that. Btw I’d consider anything from c. 1890 onwards to fall into ‘modern’, at least across Europe given the two World Wars. Personally I find history of the areas I’ve lived in to be very interesting, especially how big events/ changes played out in the places I’ve lived.

I really enjoyed a book called ‘Black Diamonds’ by Catherine Bailey which is about a massive stately home called Wentworth Woodhouse just outside Barnsley and how the Labour Govt vindictively destroyed the estate during WW2 under the pretence of mining coal for the war effort. But really it’s about the social/political change in Britain in the first half of the C20th.

‘The Bodies in the Beach’ was good too, about an alleged German land invasion on the Suffolk Coast during WW2. Both weren’t the best written books I’ve ever read, but because I could identify with the content, knowing both places very well, they were fascinating.

But equally, John Simpson’s autobiographies give great global insight into world political history over the last 50/60 years.

Other recommendations I’d make: Robert Harris has written some really good ‘alternate history’ fiction which cover 20th century politics (Fatherland, Archangel, The Ghost), John Le Carre’s spy novels are fantastic.

jollygreengiant - 17/11/21 at 08:20 AM

one further piece of advice, IF you have seen a tv Series or Film that you have enjoyed, then most of them have been or were created off of successful books. So, find the book or book series that they were based on and start reading. It is not difficult it just takes a little googling.

The books are WAY BETTER than the films that were based on them.

[Edited on 17/11/21 by jollygreengiant]

nick205 - 17/11/21 at 10:36 AM

quote:
Originally posted by jollygreengiant
one further piece of advice, IF you have seen a tv Series or Film that you have enjoyed, then most of them have been or were created off of successful books. So, find the book or book series that they were based on and start reading. It is not difficult it just takes a little googling.

The books are WAY BETTER than the films that were based on them.

[Edited on 17/11/21 by jollygreengiant]



Without a doubt the books outdo the film/TV efforts every time for me. Often best to read the book before the film/TV effort appears IMHO. There;s certainly films that where I've read the book beforehand and then found the film a let down. I guess human imagination is far better than the screen!

James - 17/11/21 at 01:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le

Now, I hated history in school mainly because it was boring king Henry VIII stuff, not modern history. And as such I have MASSIVE gaps in my knowledge that annoy me. So with this I would like to start reading books. Firstly maybe about modern history and the political landscape, and if not then wizards, warlords and all things to escape from this capitalist Dogma.

Recommend me some books!!


There's a lot of history out there!

However, what I have come to realise is that most of the dramatic events of the last 100 years have stemmed from the pissing about of Empires (British, German, French, Turkish etc.) and their leader's ambitions.

Although WW1's roots are complex and go back another 50 years or more. It was WW1 that led directly to WW2 and the cold war and it also led to the current tensions in the middle-east (which as Liverpool showed on Sunday directly affects us to this day. So my advice would be start with WW1, what caused it (rather more than an Austrian Duke being assassinated) and go from there.

Dan Snow's History Hit podcast is fantastic and covers a huge range of topics (with probably a slight emphasis on WW2).

For those interested in the current middle-east issues I can't recommend enough tracking down: Our Man in the Middle-East by Jeremy Bowen which is 25 15min episodes, starting with the Sykes-Pico agreement in 1917 or so which carved up the middle-east between Britain and France (with a ruler- ignoring ethnic tensions)) and ending up in modern-day Syria.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b08rmkcd?page=2



Enjoy!
James

David Jenkins - 17/11/21 at 03:11 PM

Finding books that you like can be quite a journey! People's opinions vary so much - some love Dune, others hate it (I'm in the first camp). I love to read Terry Pratchett's books, but others dislike them intensely - my sister-in-law hates any sort of fantasy fiction, despite me telling her that Pratchett's books are all about the real world and real lives, in a fantasy wrapper.

bi22le - 18/11/21 at 12:18 AM

I'm so glad I posted this question, thanks to everyone who has taken their time to post up their thoughts.

I want to read paperback, it will be cheaper and I much prefer holding and turning pages, it will give me a break from a screen.

It took me a while to read through the 3 pages of comments. I think I'll read through these all again and make some notes on authors. Then go from there. If I don't like a book I don't have to finish it ,right?

Final point. Terry Pratchett is out as I tried reading his books when I was a kid and struggled. With only short times available to me to read I don't want to have to transport myself too much

nick205 - 18/11/21 at 01:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
If I don't like a book I don't have to finish it ,right?



Bang on - if the books not doing it for you then leave it.

I struggled on with a few books before it finally struck me I could just put it down unfinished and start another.

TV & films are the same if it's not working for you then move on (I've fallen asleep and snored in the cinema - the downside - it's a ££ pricey sleep ).

James - 19/11/21 at 10:13 AM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Finding books that you like can be quite a journey! People's opinions vary so much - some love Dune, others hate it (I'm in the first camp). I love to read Terry Pratchett's books, but others dislike them intensely - my sister-in-law hates any sort of fantasy fiction, despite me telling her that Pratchett's books are all about the real world and real lives, in a fantasy wrapper.


I'm a huge Pratchett fan. Have spent 20 years trying to get my missus to read them with little success. She read Guards Guards! and didn't get any further sadly!

Mike Wood - 19/11/21 at 02:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
I'm so glad I posted this question, thanks to everyone who has taken their time to post up their thoughts.

…. If I don't like a book I don't have to finish it ,right?


You are very welcome. It is great you are asking and that this forum once again comes up with positive and helpful advice.

As for not finishing stuff - exactly, this is supposed to be fun and interesting. It does make recommendations tricky as what someone finds a good read in terms of subject matter and style of writing might be dry and not engaging for others. Just like music. The best non-fiction books are those where someone can write in a engaging manner, particularly on a topic that you may not be that into or know much about. I have picked up books because they are the only source on the topic and can struggle, even if I am fascinated by the topic!

If you do come across stuff you like, post up your recommendations.

Happy reading. Do not forget good light and keeping the book at the correct distance will help save your eyes. I knackered my sight reading as a kid!

Cheers
Mike

[Edited on 19/11/21 by Mike Wood]

David Jenkins - 19/11/21 at 02:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
If I don't like a book I don't have to finish it ,right?


Absolutely! So many times I've had books recommended to me, or some pundit has announced that "everyone should read this", and when I've tried to read it I've been bored rigid within a chapter or two. A classic example (literally) is War and Peace by Tolstoy - I realised early on that I couldn't remember the long-winded Russian names of all the leading characters (or couldn't be bothered to remember them) so I didn't get too far.

Not to say that you shouldn't try and read the classics - one of my favourite books is The Count of Monte Cristo - but it's a hefty book and takes a bit of getting into. A Take of Two Cities by Dickens is another - but that is another heavy-duty book that won't be to everyone's taste. But the classics aren't compulsory! There are so many good modern authors around, but the trick is to find them amongst all the dross...

Sanzomat - 10/12/21 at 08:28 PM

Thanks for the tip regarding the Libby app. As it turns out my local library service uses Borrowbox for ebooks and Libby for magazines. I've downloaded both and now have free access to loads of books and pretty much every magazine on the newsagents shelf (notably except for Complete Kit Car but I subscribe to that anyway). Also thanks for the tip re the Mitch Rapp series - I've read the whole Jack Reacher series so was after a fix of something similar and now have one of those on my ipad for free!

Have also got some brownie points by passing on the tip to SWMBO who is also enjoying the magazine selection

Irony - 15/12/21 at 01:52 PM

Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything. Simply amazing book.

David Jenkins - 15/12/21 at 02:28 PM

I had forgotten Bill Bryson - many of his books are very funny, and educational too, in an unexpected "I didn't know that" sort of way when he's telling his stories.