It's all a load of Cannonballs in here! This is the virtual Arsenal pub where you can chat about anything except football. Be warned though, like any pub, the content may not always be suitable for everyone.
DarylAFC wrote:Quite like the Chris Ryan books. "Killing for the company" is my favourite but all of them are good really. "The one who got away" is his version of events about Bravo Two Zero in Iraq. Read that when your having a crap day at work and realise that some jobs are more, shall we say, challenging Andy McNab books aren't all that though, nowhere near as good.
Sven Hassel is a good read to. Bit oddly worded because it's been translated litterally, so sometimes words are used out of order etc. Still a great read though. He's a Dane who joined the SS because Germany was closer than the UK (His words ) but didn't like it so tried to do a runner. He was caught and sent to a penal batallion, fighting on the Eastern front, Berlin and France. Basically, he' s a nutter
There's obviously Fever Pitch, the Adam's book and Merse's (Don't see where people are coming from when they say he's arrogant, I just see it as him sying what happened. Not proud, not ashamed but funny).
I agree with the earlier comment about "Fatherland", bloody amazing book
Huge Sven Hassel fan too!
I thought I was the only one tbh!
Not alot of us, went into Waterstones and asked if they had any of his books and the woman just stared blnkly for a few seconds before saying "What's one of them?"
There's a great bookstore in Dublin called Chapters and the staff are friendly and very knowledgeable. Obviously all readers. Contrast to Oireland's biggest book retailer Easons where a staff member once rolled her eyes to the heavens because my bro asked her to check a book's availability on her computer. Needless to say the bro let the bitch know what he thought of that!
Despite bookstores emplyoing mostly Uni students with thick glasses, they do employ some idiots
I went for an interview at Waterstones in the summer and one of the questions was my "Favourite book" and, at that point, I was reading Merse's book so I said that. She looked at me like I farted
I tried reading Perry Groves bio - got about 4 or 5 pages in as I recall, read about how he made the diabetic guy run around, lowering his blood sugar in the process, and thought "You twat! Do you have any idea what you did, and what the result might have been?" I'm diabetic myself, it didn't sit well with me - he could have killed the guy.
Two books - not light reading, shall we say, but worth a look
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, and
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Schriver
The Joy of Cesc wrote:I tried reading Perry Groves bio - got about 4 or 5 pages in as I recall, read about how he made the diabetic guy run around, lowering his blood sugar in the process, and thought "You twat! Do you have any idea what you did, and what the result might have been?" I'm diabetic myself, it didn't sit well with me - he could have killed the guy.
Two books - not light reading, shall we say, but worth a look
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, and
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Schriver
The Joy of Cesc wrote:I tried reading Perry Groves bio - got about 4 or 5 pages in as I recall, read about how he made the diabetic guy run around, lowering his blood sugar in the process, and thought "You twat! Do you have any idea what you did, and what the result might have been?" I'm diabetic myself, it didn't sit well with me - he could have killed the guy.
Two books - not light reading, shall we say, but worth a look
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, and
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Schriver
Hi TJOC - welcome back!
Hi DB10, thanks for the welcome back! I'm still around, glance at the forums most days (not the same as it was though), just not posting much at the mo.
The Joy of Cesc wrote:I tried reading Perry Groves bio - got about 4 or 5 pages in as I recall, read about how he made the diabetic guy run around, lowering his blood sugar in the process, and thought "You twat! Do you have any idea what you did, and what the result might have been?" I'm diabetic myself, it didn't sit well with me - he could have killed the guy.
Two books - not light reading, shall we say, but worth a look
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, and We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Schriver
Watched the film, obviously completely different dynamic to the book but quite interesting viewing nonetheless, an interesting topic to explore.
The Joy of Cesc wrote:I tried reading Perry Groves bio - got about 4 or 5 pages in as I recall, read about how he made the diabetic guy run around, lowering his blood sugar in the process, and thought "You twat! Do you have any idea what you did, and what the result might have been?" I'm diabetic myself, it didn't sit well with me - he could have killed the guy.
Two books - not light reading, shall we say, but worth a look
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, and We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Schriver
Watched the film, obviously completely different dynamic to the book but quite interesting viewing nonetheless, an interesting topic to explore.
Haven't seen the film, but with the book, I kept waiting for the wake up moment, when the horror of their eventual fate dawned on them - but it never comes, just the unquestioning acceptance of what is to happen.
DarylAFC wrote:Quite like the Chris Ryan books. "Killing for the company" is my favourite but all of them are good really. "The one who got away" is his version of events about Bravo Two Zero in Iraq. Read that when your having a crap day at work and realise that some jobs are more, shall we say, challenging Andy McNab books aren't all that though, nowhere near as good.
Sven Hassel is a good read to. Bit oddly worded because it's been translated litterally, so sometimes words are used out of order etc. Still a great read though. He's a Dane who joined the SS because Germany was closer than the UK (His words ) but didn't like it so tried to do a runner. He was caught and sent to a penal batallion, fighting on the Eastern front, Berlin and France. Basically, he' s a nutter
There's obviously Fever Pitch, the Adam's book and Merse's (Don't see where people are coming from when they say he's arrogant, I just see it as him sying what happened. Not proud, not ashamed but funny).
I agree with the earlier comment about "Fatherland", bloody amazing book
Ive read the Sven Hassel books, worth a read. Describes the Eastern Front as a nightmare
george pelecanos-anything/james ellroy esp american tabloid michael marshall smith-spares phukin fantastic book.irvine welsh-trainspotting an marabou stork nightmares avoid them game of thrones books they are shite. i think they use chris ryans books as psycholgical torture in bagram n guantanamo
Just finished reading 'The Appeal' by John Grisham. Dull, dull dull. Author of Runaway Jury which was a good read and turned into a film but this was just shite. A nothing ending to boot.
Just finished Morgan Spurlock's "Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?".
Self indulgent and a bit pointless, mostly. No new insights into terrorism or the Jewish/Palestinian conflict, or why so many Islamic countries hate the USA and the West - which apparently was the aim of his journey. Poverty, powerlessness, and injustice breeds anger and resentment, can lead to some people becoming terrorists? Who'd have thunk it, huh?
The elements of tongue in cheek comentary don't sit well with the more serious parts regarding genocide, torture, murder, and human rights abuses. The "humour" comes across as awkward and stilted.
I believe it ties into a documentary, which might be better, but the book was a bit shit tbh.
The Joy of Cesc wrote:I tried reading Perry Groves bio - got about 4 or 5 pages in as I recall, read about how he made the diabetic guy run around, lowering his blood sugar in the process, and thought "You twat! Do you have any idea what you did, and what the result might have been?" I'm diabetic myself, it didn't sit well with me - he could have killed the guy.
Two books - not light reading, shall we say, but worth a look
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, and We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Schriver
Saw the film and was a tad depressing etcetera though very observant on human behaviour etc....might give the book a go as films and their books or books and their films are rarely close or alike.
Just read "The Way of The Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman - a fir read...a bit Castaneda(ish) but definitely not as dark or spooky.
A cracking footie read is "Be Careful What You Wish For" by the ex-Palace chairman and owner Simon Jordan
As well as some highly amusing anecdotes and hilarious exchanges with other teams' chairmen and owners, he really shows up what a thick, self-centred prick the average Championship footballer is, and how underhand the whole player/agent relationship is. I've never read such an honest account of how football is run and written by a bloke who put his heart and soul, not to mention £70m of his own dough into 'his' football club.
For anyone who dislikes Steve Bruce, Ian Dowie or any of the halfwits on the board of the FA it makes for humourous reading too
SteveO 35 wrote:A cracking footie read is "Be Careful What You Wish For" by the ex-Palace chairman and owner Simon Jordan
As well as some highly amusing anecdotes and hilarious exchanges with other teams' chairmen and owners, he really shows up what a thick, self-centred prick the average Championship footballer is, and how underhand the whole player/agent relationship is. I've never read such an honest account of how football is run and written by a bloke who put his heart and soul, not to mention £70m of his own dough into 'his' football club.
For anyone who dislikes Steve Bruce, Ian Dowie or any of the halfwits on the board of the FA it makes for humourous reading too
Well worth a read
A couple of weeks ago - I was going through one of them things where even though I was tired/krackered - I just couldn't sleep, and didn't fancy reading etc, so I was listening to radio progs - and not my usual port of call - tuned into talkshyte - and Danny Kelly (well known s***sscum fan) was doing an in depth 2 hour interview with Simon Jordan - and some of the things he related anecdotes etc...made me wonder about what really goes on - as you say - especially agents and other chairman - ken bates was one - what a *word censored*! - we all already knew that but the the story SJ told was like unbelievable. (I think they can be listened to as a podcast/download anytime - they're all under a general title of Sporting Life).
Just started reading Neil Young's new Book - "Waging Heavy Peace" - early days but quite good.
Andy McNab books aren't all that though, nowhere near as good.
) but didn't like it so tried to do a runner. He was caught and sent to a penal batallion, fighting on the Eastern front, Berlin and France. Basically, he' s a nutter
