What next?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

So I've read about 14 books this January, if I've counted right. And once I've finished the history book I'm reading I will bookless again.

It's my birthday soon, so I'm hoping a might get a book token. I refuse to buy fiction because so much of it is rubbish, so please recommend some lovely history or other non-fiction books. Nothing too dense but nothing too lightweight either please. :)

[MumOfMissy]

A book I thought was brilliant was "Anything Goes: A biography of the roaring twenties" by Lucy Moore. Packed with true stories of gangsters, socialites and silent movie stars, the glittering rise and fall of the Twenties and those who revelled in their excess. Highly recommended. Biog/Auto Biog I also enjoyed Kenneth Williams Diaries, Rupert Everetts Red Carpets and other banana skins, Speak Memory by Vladimir Nabokov (his gilded childhood in Russia).

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Have read the Nabokov. The Roaring Twenties one sounds perfect, thank you. :)

[gailforce1]

Blimey Remus 14 books this January? And we have'nt got to the end of the month yet! How do you manage to read so much? Kindle? No TV?
I am in serious awe!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

:) We've got a TV but I hardly ever watch it. Some were re-reads (The Hobbit and LOTR) and one was a Terry Pratchett which is pretty much the work of an evening! And I'm a very fast reader - too fast, probably. I gobble them up, spit them out and move straight on to the next one! :)

[CoteDAzur]

I just knew this had to be another Remus thread

OK, I may have mentioned some of these to you before, but if you want to stay with non-fiction:

Miracles Of Life - J G Ballard's autobiography (starting with his childhood internment in Japanese prisoner camp in Shanghai that later became the book & film "Empire Of The Sun")

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami (regardless of what you think about his fiction, this is good. It is sort of an auto-biography in parts, focusing on his awesome running)

Istanbul: Memories and the City - Orhan Pamuk (I can't remember if we talked about Pamuk at all, but he is at his best when he talks about Istanbul)

My Stroke Of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor (She was a 37-year-old brain scientist when she had a stroke and observed from the inside what happens when your brain functions shut down one by one, knowing exactly what was going on in her brain. It is a fascinating read and very informative, especially the parts where she describes the stroke and how she managed to get help when she couldn't even recognise letters and numbers. It gets a bit new-agey towards the end, but it's a small price to pay for this "insight" imho)

[CoteDAzur]

Also, I want to recommend:

Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino (It's not non-fiction, but has no plot and just talks about many imaginary cities, all with women's names, descriptions of each take one or at most two pages, so I think you will be OK with it in your current state of disillusionment with fiction)

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Dp has got 'Empire Of The Sun' and the 'Running' one, so I'll have a go at both of those. The Istanbul one sounds interesting too, though I'd prefer to wait until I have a hope in hell of actually going there.

Dp would like the stroke one - I'm not clever enough for stuff like that. :)

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Oh I've just read 'Stranger In A Strange Land' btw. LOVED the first half and then got a bit bored once they all started just shagging all over the place. :)

[CoteDAzur]

Yeah well the indiscriminate shagging (I think) has a point in that book. Try Heinlein's later books like Time Enough For Love (which is pretty good, actually) and its sequels and you won't believe the number and variety the guy shags - his identical twin daughter/clones (Lapis Lazuli & Lorelei Lee), his personal computer who manages to become a woman (Minerva), his adopted daughter (Dora), not to mention his own mother (Maureen) with whom he falls in love after travelling back in time (don't ask ).

[CoteDAzur]

Empire of the Sun is fiction. I'm recommending the guy's autobiography, where he also talks about his own childhood which was the inspiration for that fictional book.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Must admit I'd be happy enough if I never, ever read about shagging ever again. :)

Yep I know you're on about his autobiography, but dp owns 'Empire' so I'll start with that and if I like it, I'll try the other.

[anonymosity]

I agree about the Italo Calvino - almost reads as philosophy, in places.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Thanks, Anon.

I don't want to have to work really, really hard on a book though, as reading is my down time. Is it going to be too heavy for me? I'm not stupid but I am impatient!

[gailforce1]

Don't know if this book might interest you Remus but on my to read pile is Anne de Courcy's The Fishing Fleet Husband Hunting in the Raj.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Thanks, Gail. That's exactly the sort of thing I like.

[CoteDAzur]

Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities isn't a difficult read and you certainly won't have to "work for it". It is quite dreamy, actually. Beautiful in its imagery, almost visual. I think you will like it.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Thanks Cote.

More please folks! :)

[anonymosity]

I agree, Invisible Cities is not at all heavy, but a beautiful read.

[CoteDAzur]

Would you be interested in reading a Carl Sagan book?

I have read all his books (I think) a very long time ago so details are a bit fuzzy, but his last book Demon-Haunted World is pretty good iirc.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Never heard of him, Cote. Tell me more please!

[CoteDAzur]

I remember you are about my age so you must have heard/seen/read him at some point. He was an astronomer & astrophysicist at Cornell University and used to do a TV series called "Cosmos" iirc. He also has a huge book called Cosmos.

I first read & was hugely impressed by The Dragons Of Eden. It is mostly about the brain and is fascinating, especially where it talks about split-brain patients (whose left & right brains can't communicate). This book was published in late-'70s, though, so probably not the most up-to-date book on the subject you can find.

Carl Sagan's Cosmos is also brilliant. Although both are on scientific topics, they are written for laymen. I read these two books in my early-twenties, so I'm sure you can read & enjoy them now.

Demon-Haunted World is probably his least scientific, most populist book. It talks about a variety of subjects. I fondly remember his discourse on UFOs and horoscopes He is a great orator and not at all preachy like Richard Dawkins can be.

Sagan has also written Contact, which was later made into a film starring Jodie Foster and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Afaik, that is his only fiction book. It is better than the film but I can't say that it is one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Nope. Never been much of a TV watcher, so lots of people/things tend to pass me by tbh. Will keep him in mind, thanks. Don't forget that I am very easily bemused by Science though! :) Bill Bryson's Short History was brilliant but there were entire paragraphs, even in that, which eluded me.

[CoteDAzur]

I think you will find Demon-Haunted World to be an easy read. That is where I learned that the Church only admitted Galileo was right in 1992 and got my best lines on astrology & horoscopes

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Cheers. :)

[CoteDAzur]

Your DH might also be interested in Born To Run, which I just started reading last night.

It is about the author's research on the tribes of people who run hundreds of miles in a day with no apparent problems nor injuries. I think it will go into how they run - without Nike Airs etc and so landing on the middle of their foot rather than their heels.

He writes well and it's fun to read.