THE GOONERSID BOOK THREAD
- 12thGooner
- Posts: 2398
- Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:27 am
- Location: 103117114109111107104
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Just finished reading this.
Without degradig the man himself his "lack of education" is probably the reson this is such an easy to read biography. No big words or over use of english to sound cool, he just says it like it is.
There are definate 3 phases to this book. The first being his early life and his days hustling to make ends meet (some good tips in there too regarding the psycology behind techniques), the second being his incarceration and subsequent "awakening" into Islam and the latter his days as a preacher of the 'word'.
Written by the man himself up to the point (2 weeks) before he was assassinated it starts as a biog and leans towards the diary type of book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autobiography-M ... 224&sr=8-1
Just finished reading this.
Without degradig the man himself his "lack of education" is probably the reson this is such an easy to read biography. No big words or over use of english to sound cool, he just says it like it is.
There are definate 3 phases to this book. The first being his early life and his days hustling to make ends meet (some good tips in there too regarding the psycology behind techniques), the second being his incarceration and subsequent "awakening" into Islam and the latter his days as a preacher of the 'word'.
Written by the man himself up to the point (2 weeks) before he was assassinated it starts as a biog and leans towards the diary type of book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autobiography-M ... 224&sr=8-1
- DB10GOONER
- Posts: 62220
- Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
- Location: Dublin, Ireland.
- Contact:
Reading "Black Hearts" at the moment. Investigates and tells the story of a platoon of 101st Airborne troops that went through some serious shit in the "Triangle of Death" South of Baghdad. It details the atrocities they witnessed and the constant deaths of their friends led to a rapid breakdown in command, self respect and unit effectiveness.
Four of the unit took their revenge by raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl and then murdering her mom, dad and baby sister. It's pretty graphic at times but it is made a better read by the brutal honesty of the author.
Four of the unit took their revenge by raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl and then murdering her mom, dad and baby sister. It's pretty graphic at times but it is made a better read by the brutal honesty of the author.
- marcengels
- Posts: 7208
- Joined: Sat May 02, 2009 11:12 pm
- Location: North Bank
How close is this kind of thing to a common criminal writing their story and profiting from it?DB10GOONER wrote:Reading "Black Hearts" at the moment. Investigates and tells the story of a platoon of 101st Airborne troops that went through some serious shit in the "Triangle of Death" South of Baghdad. It details the atrocities they witnessed and the constant deaths of their friends led to a rapid breakdown in command, self respect and unit effectiveness.
Four of the unit took their revenge by raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl and then murdering her mom, dad and baby sister. It's pretty graphic at times but it is made a better read by the brutal honesty of the author.
I am just wondering about the moral boundaries...
- DB10GOONER
- Posts: 62220
- Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
- Location: Dublin, Ireland.
- Contact:
Far from it on this occasion. The author isn't one of the troops involved, just a journalist that investigated the story (that the US military had initially tried to cover up but then jumped on the bandwagon when they realised it was going public). The troops involved all got life sentences and no money from the book. It is vital that all such attrocities are made public and those involved prosecuted in the hope that it may contribute to it happening less in the future (it'll never be stamped out completely, war by it's nature is a brutalising and dehumanising experience).marcengels wrote:How close is this kind of thing to a common criminal writing their story and profiting from it?DB10GOONER wrote:Reading "Black Hearts" at the moment. Investigates and tells the story of a platoon of 101st Airborne troops that went through some serious shit in the "Triangle of Death" South of Baghdad. It details the atrocities they witnessed and the constant deaths of their friends led to a rapid breakdown in command, self respect and unit effectiveness.
Four of the unit took their revenge by raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl and then murdering her mom, dad and baby sister. It's pretty graphic at times but it is made a better read by the brutal honesty of the author.
I am just wondering about the moral boundaries...
I take your point though. I think it is very wrong for a vicious little twat like Mad Frankie Frazer to profit from "writing" about how he slashed some bloke up.
- marcengels
- Posts: 7208
- Joined: Sat May 02, 2009 11:12 pm
- Location: North Bank
OK, fair enough mate. In that context then of course it should be publicised for the reasons that you state.DB10GOONER wrote:Far from it on this occasion. The author isn't one of the troops involved, just a journalist that investigated the story (that the US military had initially tried to cover up but then jumped on the bandwagon when they realised it was going public). The troops involved all got life sentences and no money from the book. It is vital that all such attrocities are made public and those involved prosecuted in the hope that it may contribute to it happening less in the future (it'll never be stamped out completely, war by it's nature is a brutalising and dehumanising experience).marcengels wrote:How close is this kind of thing to a common criminal writing their story and profiting from it?DB10GOONER wrote:Reading "Black Hearts" at the moment. Investigates and tells the story of a platoon of 101st Airborne troops that went through some serious shit in the "Triangle of Death" South of Baghdad. It details the atrocities they witnessed and the constant deaths of their friends led to a rapid breakdown in command, self respect and unit effectiveness.
Four of the unit took their revenge by raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl and then murdering her mom, dad and baby sister. It's pretty graphic at times but it is made a better read by the brutal honesty of the author.
I am just wondering about the moral boundaries...
I take your point though. I think it is very wrong for a vicious little twat like Mad Frankie Frazer to profit from "writing" about how he slashed some bloke up.
Was Frankie Frazer from Dublin?


- DB10GOONER
- Posts: 62220
- Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
- Location: Dublin, Ireland.
- Contact:
marcengels wrote:OK, fair enough mate. In that context then of course it should be publicised for the reasons that you state.DB10GOONER wrote:Far from it on this occasion. The author isn't one of the troops involved, just a journalist that investigated the story (that the US military had initially tried to cover up but then jumped on the bandwagon when they realised it was going public). The troops involved all got life sentences and no money from the book. It is vital that all such attrocities are made public and those involved prosecuted in the hope that it may contribute to it happening less in the future (it'll never be stamped out completely, war by it's nature is a brutalising and dehumanising experience).marcengels wrote:How close is this kind of thing to a common criminal writing their story and profiting from it?DB10GOONER wrote:Reading "Black Hearts" at the moment. Investigates and tells the story of a platoon of 101st Airborne troops that went through some serious shit in the "Triangle of Death" South of Baghdad. It details the atrocities they witnessed and the constant deaths of their friends led to a rapid breakdown in command, self respect and unit effectiveness.
Four of the unit took their revenge by raping and murdering a 14 year old Iraqi girl and then murdering her mom, dad and baby sister. It's pretty graphic at times but it is made a better read by the brutal honesty of the author.
I am just wondering about the moral boundaries...
I take your point though. I think it is very wrong for a vicious little twat like Mad Frankie Frazer to profit from "writing" about how he slashed some bloke up.
Was Frankie Frazer from Dublin?
![]()

He wouldn't last a day with our current gun-mad, trigger-happy, drug dealing scumbags!

- QuartzGooner
- Posts: 14474
- Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:49 pm
- Location: London
Fisk is seen by most Jews as being very Pro Palestinian over the years, and critical of Israel.olgitgooner wrote:I'm still reading Pity the Nation, by Robert Fisk.
Anyone else read it? And can the culprit who got me into it please step forward?
I have a feeling it might be DB10?
But the interesting thing with him is he stood up during the Gaza War 2008 and said that it was nonsense to describe Israeli military action in Gaza or Israeli policy to Gaza/Palestinians in general as "Genocide".
He then got accused by some Palestinian and Muslim interests as being paid off by Mossad to say that!
If people want to read more on the Iranian nuclear situation, I really recommend Ronen Bergman's "The Secret War With Iran".
It is easy to read, most should finish it inside 10 days.
Though Israeli, the author's standard and style of written English is excellent.
Again, it is an eye opener as to the sheer scale of the Iranian efforts to undermine the West, and of America, Israel and the UK's attempts to fight them in a "cold war" dating back to 1979.
Last edited by QuartzGooner on Tue Nov 02, 2010 1:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
- 12thGooner
- Posts: 2398
- Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:27 am
- Location: 103117114109111107104
Just finished reading The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking.
I was at his lecture the other week at the Albert Hall and it came with a free copy of his book. It is pretty simple to follow but its chock full of facts so it can feel like its too much information in one sitting to read more than a couple of chapters, i'm super smart so i don't get this problem
I suppose in essence its a brief background to the so far theoretical unification theory known as M-Theory.
Most of the "well known "theories are covered in the first few chapters ie Special and General relativity, Uncertainty principle the fact that at one point time was a direction, atomic phase. If your able to get your head round those this book should be quite an enlightening read.
If your a physicist or mathematician this would probably be too low brow for you.
I was at his lecture the other week at the Albert Hall and it came with a free copy of his book. It is pretty simple to follow but its chock full of facts so it can feel like its too much information in one sitting to read more than a couple of chapters, i'm super smart so i don't get this problem

I suppose in essence its a brief background to the so far theoretical unification theory known as M-Theory.
Most of the "well known "theories are covered in the first few chapters ie Special and General relativity, Uncertainty principle the fact that at one point time was a direction, atomic phase. If your able to get your head round those this book should be quite an enlightening read.
If your a physicist or mathematician this would probably be too low brow for you.
Sounds interesting. I've done physics in high school and a semester of astronomy at uni.12thGooner wrote:Just finished reading The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking.
I was at his lecture the other week at the Albert Hall and it came with a free copy of his book. It is pretty simple to follow but its chock full of facts so it can feel like its too much information in one sitting to read more than a couple of chapters, i'm super smart so i don't get this problem![]()
I suppose in essence its a brief background to the so far theoretical unification theory known as M-Theory.
Most of the "well known "theories are covered in the first few chapters ie Special and General relativity, Uncertainty principle the fact that at one point time was a direction, atomic phase. If your able to get your head round those this book should be quite an enlightening read.
If your a physicist or mathematician this would probably be too low brow for you.
Really interested in this kind of stuff (astronomy in particular...ever since I was a kid) but not enough to suffer the maths involved with studying physics full time.

- 12thGooner
- Posts: 2398
- Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:27 am
- Location: 103117114109111107104
And I wouldn't even have heard of it if you hadn't gotten a free copy at the lecture.12thGooner wrote:to be honest i wouldn't have read it had i not got a free copy at his lecture. This book is aimed at people like myself that have an 'interest' in it but no real advanced education in cosmology and theoretical physics. Its defiately worth a read.

I wish Hawking would give a lecture at my university though. If he can't then I'd be happy enough to see David Icke.

- DB10GOONER
- Posts: 62220
- Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
- Location: Dublin, Ireland.
- Contact:
- 12thGooner
- Posts: 2398
- Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:27 am
- Location: 103117114109111107104
Is that the BBC mag ? I've read a couple of them, but to be blunt i find it lacks depth , where as a similar subject in natioanl geographic would be rinsed in full. I think its a great 'did you know mag' before hitting google or a library to find out more. Plus ethically i think it should be free to all uk resisdents and cannot find it in me to further fund the bbc in such a manner.DB10GOONER wrote:you read Focus magazine, 12th?12thGooner wrote:to be honest i wouldn't have read it had i not got a free copy at his lecture. This book is aimed at people like myself that have an 'interest' in it but no real advanced education in cosmology and theoretical physics. Its defiately worth a read.
- DB10GOONER
- Posts: 62220
- Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
- Location: Dublin, Ireland.
- Contact:
I was an avid reader before the BBC took it over and dumbed it down. It was really good before the beeb got involved. Have to admit it's not as good now though...12thGooner wrote:Is that the BBC mag ? I've read a couple of them, but to be blunt i find it lacks depth , where as a similar subject in natioanl geographic would be rinsed in full. I think its a great 'did you know mag' before hitting google or a library to find out more. Plus ethically i think it should be free to all uk resisdents and cannot find it in me to further fund the bbc in such a manner.DB10GOONER wrote:you read Focus magazine, 12th?12thGooner wrote:to be honest i wouldn't have read it had i not got a free copy at his lecture. This book is aimed at people like myself that have an 'interest' in it but no real advanced education in cosmology and theoretical physics. Its defiately worth a read.
- 12thGooner
- Posts: 2398
- Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:27 am
- Location: 103117114109111107104
I didn't want to say 'dumbed down' but i agree that it reduced the interlectual rquirement for its audience, in my opinion effectively turning it into a kids magazine.DB10GOONER wrote:I was an avid reader before the BBC took it over and dumbed it down. It was really good before the beeb got involved. Have to admit it's not as good now though...12thGooner wrote:Is that the BBC mag ? I've read a couple of them, but to be blunt i find it lacks depth , where as a similar subject in natioanl geographic would be rinsed in full. I think its a great 'did you know mag' before hitting google or a library to find out more. Plus ethically i think it should be free to all uk resisdents and cannot find it in me to further fund the bbc in such a manner.DB10GOONER wrote:you read Focus magazine, 12th?12thGooner wrote:to be honest i wouldn't have read it had i not got a free copy at his lecture. This book is aimed at people like myself that have an 'interest' in it but no real advanced education in cosmology and theoretical physics. Its defiately worth a read.
For an informed view on the world try the national geographic, the content is less varied per issue but much more indepth.