Today's book

[john g. 37,776]

Ha! I HAVE read a book in the last couple of months after all! Just remembered my Nicole's son published a book about freemasonry the other month and I was asked/ forced😂 to proofread the English language version for an international audience.

The book is titled " Die gnotische Geheimlehre der Freimaurer."

Not easy bedtime reading!😂

[fraufruit 42,459]

1 hour ago, AlexTr said:

In 2021, I read all of Raymond Chandler's

 

Interesting. I recommended The Long Goodbye for book club next month and it got chosen.

 

This month we're reading Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. I highly recommend it and have a feeling you would like it.

 

 

 

[optimista 5,925]

Stuff I am glad I read in my misspent youth:

Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

Vera Britten, Testament of Youth

Elizabeth von Arnim, The Caravaners

All Oscar Wilde, Somerset Maughm, Conan Doyle

All Wilbur Smith - set in Apartheid Africa, hilarious

All of the series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

The  Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

Birdsong, Sebastian Faulkes (set in WW1)

[kathdonn 387]

Vera Brittain - what a force of nature! And her daughter!

[Fietsrad 426]

I read Trivialliteratur, Groschenromane (penny dreadfuls), glad to admit that😉

..

Fantastische Fabeln by Ambrose Bierce, I am reading now, unfortunately the incomplete German translation. Some of the stories just could not be translated. One imagines that the original is much better.

[slammer 889]

8 hours ago, Fietsrad said:

I read Trivialliteratur, Groschenromane (penny dreadfuls), glad to admit that😉

..

Fantastische Fabeln by Ambrose Bierce, I am reading now, unfortunately the incomplete German translation. Some of the stories just could not be translated. One imagines that the original is much better.

Did you ever watch the series: "Penny Dreadful?" Really enjoyed it.

[Lolli 40]

I have recently read three Kristin Hannah fiction books: The Great Alone (my favourite), Four Winds, The Nightingale. Easy reading but also interesting characters. Both Four Winds and The Nightingale have historical themes (the Depression + the great drought USA and Resistance Fighters in France respectively). I got drawn in to the characters.

 

I also recently read War on the West by Douglas Murray, Trans by Hele Joyce and Prey by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

 

And now ... Watchers by Dean Koontz. Would love my dog to be like the dog in this thriller.

[Fietsrad 426]

Yes, I do find Krimis a bit sick, bloody entertainment.

 

Just read today about deaths in "real life": someone being put to death in Iran. In the UK someone was apparently killed by dogs she was exercising.

 

There are so many entertaining exciting stories where no-one is killed.

[BethAnnBitt 2,989]

35 minutes ago, Fietsrad said:

Yes, I do find Krimis a bit sick, bloody entertainment.

Then don’t read them.  No one is forcing them on you.  I myself enjoy cozies.

Quote

Just read today about deaths in "real life": someone being put to death in Iran. In the UK someone was apparently killed by dogs she was exercising.

Both of these are tragic events.  Unfortunately, tragic events happen on a daily basis.

Quote

There are so many entertaining exciting stories where no-one is killed.

👍 but that’s no reason to judge people who also wanna read about crime, war, famine, suicide, accidental death, drug overdose, … be it actual or fictional.  

[Fietsrad 426]

Do people have firewalls in their heads to keep reality separate from entertainment?

 

Seems a bit strange that females particularly like reading about killing. Males do most of the killing in real life😕

[kiplette 8,794]

Arguably reading in the news about real deaths is more alarming than reading fictional accounts.

 

People do have firewalls in their heads keeping reality separate from fiction. I had a very low tolerance of anything remotely ugh as a child and young person, and gradually this has altered, to the point where I could watch Bones without batting an eyelid. However, accidentally catching a glimpse of the SAS storming the Iranian embassy the other day whilst kid#4 was perusing Pathe newsreels was horrifying - a real dude is right in front of that window when it blows. That was awful at the time, as a youngster, and is still awful now, because it is real, even though in your head you know the script is that a baddy got his comeuppance.

 

Reading is a different thing - I happily read George Martin's Ice and Fire but when the librarian offered me one as an audio book I was horrified, and am even less happy at the thought of watching GOT. Reading allows you to skim/ignore a bit/load that you don't want to know about, so I enjoyed the sweeping grandeur of the stories without having to suffer the gruesome detail. As kathdonn says, it's not necessarily the gory stuff in murder mysteries that people are drawn to, but perhaps the landscape or the personalities (Morse in Oxford, Inspector Lynley) or the triumph of order over chaos. 

[RedMidge 6,638]

The characters in many crime novels are well drawn, and the insight into their motives can be fascinating.

Depends on the authors - and some great ones out there. I prefer reading to audio books as I can imagine how the characters sound.

[Fietsrad 426]

Firewall in the head?

 

Who remembers the mood in the UK after the Princess of Hearts died in 1997? That was real, and many many people were very sad.

[HEM 11,163]

On 6.1.2023, 20:31:18, john g. said:

... and I was asked/ forced😂 to proofread the English language version for an international audience.

 

That is a thankless task.

[snowingagain 5,437]

40 minutes ago, Fietsrad said:

Firewall in the head?  Who remembers the mood in the UK after the Princess of Hearts died in 1997? That was real, and many many people were very sad.

Yes, I remember and it drove me up the wall.  I was never a fan.   And I found myself with an acquantance I met on the street, in a major breakdown of tears, with a snot-streaked face.  Comforting her, I asked, had she known her personally?  No.  I had just flown back to London (5 months pregnant, toddler in tow) because my father had died quite suddenly.  It all felt very weird.  We did cheer ourselves up a bit, wondering if he had bumped into her and Mother Theresa at the Pearly Gates.   We  pictured him with head in hands, groaning quietly and asking himself what he had done to deserve it.

[john g. 37,776]

2 hours ago, Fietsrad said:

Firewall in the head?

 

Who remembers the mood in the UK after the Princess of Hearts died in 1997? That was real, and many many people were very sad.

I had been living in Hamburg for several years and was visiting my mum in England. On my final morning there and as my mum was making me egg and bacon, my Auntie Alwyn ( my mum's sister ) rwng the doiorbell and came in and her first words were " Diana's dead."

 

I asked her who Diana was ( thinking it may have been a friend of hers!)

 

Then I took the train to London and the atmosphere was sombre.

 

( Looking back, I feel a bit embarrassed that I didn't know who Auntie was talking about)...

[snowingagain 5,437]

I mean it was tragic.  As many deaths are.  And why she did not bother with a seat belt.  

[LeonG 14,850]

4 hours ago, Fietsrad said:

Who remembers the mood in the UK after the Princess of Hearts died in 1997? That was real, and many many people were very sad.

 

I was on vacation in Ireland when it happened and people were crying.

[snowingagain 5,437]

11 minutes ago, LeonG said:

I was on vacation in Ireland when it happened and people were crying.

They flew the flag at half mast.  I mean.   Mind you, De Valera sent his condolences to the Germans when Hitler died.which is a multitude of more weirdness.  My Irish mother in law, for reasons of her own, used to listen to the Queen's speech.  Something none of my family in the UK ever did.  One of her sons always tried to stop this by ringing her for a bit of a chat  just as it was starting.

 

I know it is cruel, but much of the outward distress reminded me of girls weeping and screaming when the Beatles, or later, the Osmonds were around.  It was a kind of hysteria.  I am not saying it was not tragic.  Just that the reaction was very odd.

[john g. 37,776]

26 minutes ago, snowingagain said:

They flew the flag at half mast.  I mean.   Mind you, De Valera sent his condolences to the Germans when Hitler died.which is a multitude of more weirdness.  My Irish mother in law, for reasons of her own, used to listen to the Queen's speech.  Something none of my family in the UK ever did.  One of her sons always tried to stop this by ringing her for a bit of a chat  just as it was starting.

 

I know it is cruel, but much of the outward distress reminded me of girls weeping and screaming when the Beatles, or later, the Osmonds were around.  It was a kind of hysteria.  I am not saying it was not tragic.  Just that the reaction was very odd.

You're triggering me! 😂

I went to a Rolling Stones concert in Great ayarmouth c. 1964 ( because I had found a 5 (?) poiund note at the beach and ny dad drove me to the concert place. Those piercing teenie girl screetches! I think one of the dongs was " it's all over now".. still a classic!

 

Never git to see the Beatlee but threw a couple of stones over a wall at queuing ticket fans in Southend! A copper saw me in my uniform and Mr Price, the headmaster at my school, gave me six if the best a day or two later!👍

 

PS: queing for the Stones' concert, a disc jockey without a shirt nearly ran me over in his car! Jimmy Saville. 😂

Forgive my spellibg. The dog Mandy us ditting on my magnifying glass!

Edit: yeah, classic, babes!!

https://youtu.be/Ur-yMil88fU