Discussion Books

Remove this Banner Ad

I was a big fan of the Dexter series, but don't think I'd make it to the books.

I'm just finishing the Michael Chugg bio 'Hey you in the black t-shirt'. It's not a bad read, doesn't hold much back which is good. I also got the Bubble for the bday a couple of weeks ago. I also have the Neil Young bio to start, plus a few other war books, etc.
 
Luke Reinhart's "the Dice Man" and Kurt Vonnegut Junior were my favourites while growing up. I think my 2 favourite books ever were "The World According to Garp" (and a lot of what Irving wrote) and "Mists of Avolon"
 
I'm only about 80 pages into The Bubble, but it's a v.good read

No disrespect to the great man, but even only 20 pages in it is more insightful that R.Harvey's biography (auto? ghost writer? whatever. you know what I mean)
 

Log in to remove this ad.

bubblegoose said:
I was a big fan of the Dexter series, but don't think I'd make it to the books.

I'm just finishing the Michael Chugg bio 'Hey you in the black t-shirt'. It's not a bad read, doesn't hold much back which is good. I also got the Bubble for the bday a couple of weeks ago. I also have the Neil Young bio to start, plus a few other war books, etc.
Click to expand...

I liked the books, but the tv series lost me after season one.

I'm reading:
Quantum theory cannot hurt you - sort of a "don't be scared of science book". It's scary
A year on the punt - guy quits city job, travels to country tracks, meets characters, gets smashed, punts, writes book. worth the punt
Black Crow - For the "mcleod turns nasty of tyson edwards etc"
The thieves of Baghdad - a us marine's personal interest in seeing how much treasure was looted from the baghdad museum after the fall of saddam. very very interesting. worth a look as it's not "brow beating macho" and filled with interesting bits and pieces on what it was like in iraq at that time.
 
krusden said:
I liked the books, but the tv series lost me after season one.

I'm reading:
Quantum theory cannot hurt you - sort of a "don't be scared of science book". It's scary
A year on the punt - guy quits city job, travels to country tracks, meets characters, gets smashed, punts, writes book. worth the punt
Black Crow - For the "mcleod turns nasty of tyson edwards etc"
The thieves of Baghdad - a us marine's personal interest in seeing how much treasure was looted from the baghdad museum after the fall of saddam. very very interesting. worth a look as it's not "brow beating macho" and filled with interesting bits and pieces on what it was like in iraq at that time.
Click to expand...

I can't manage to read more than one book at a time! :p
 
IllBeTheJudge said:
I can't manage to read more than one book at a time! :p
Click to expand...
me either!

krusden said:
I liked the books, but the tv series lost me after season one.

I'm reading:
Quantum theory cannot hurt you - sort of a "don't be scared of science book". It's scary
A year on the punt - guy quits city job, travels to country tracks, meets characters, gets smashed, punts, writes book. worth the punt
Black Crow - For the "mcleod turns nasty of tyson edwards etc"
The thieves of Baghdad - a us marine's personal interest in seeing how much treasure was looted from the baghdad museum after the fall of saddam. very very interesting. worth a look as it's not "brow beating macho" and filled with interesting bits and pieces on what it was like in iraq at that time.
Click to expand...
cool, thanks Krus, some cool sounding ones there
 
IllBeTheJudge said:
I can't manage to read more than one book at a time! :p
Click to expand...

well in regards of the books I:
- read very quickly.
- have picked books that are pretty easy to read. The only exception being the quantum theory one.

BG - they are an eclectic bunch to say the least. I've waited for "a year on the punt" and "the thieves of baghdad" for a number of years and they've been worth it.

Another i recently read was: a very rude awakening about the night the japanese midget subs attacked sydney harbour.

I'd also like to get the michael chugg book sometime soon.
 
To all considering reading the mcleod biography.

Don't.

It is the biggest load of wank i have read in a while. it has more wank than the james **** biography (although I don't know if it is as bad as tom harley's bio which is meant to be pretty wanky).

Unlike ****'s bio, it doesn't talk about footy hardly and paints mcleod as a superman. harps on over and over how he is the greatest indigenous player EVER (polly farmer and wanganeen say hello), and he comes off as a nasty prick. Unloads on ayres, edwards, hewitt, the handling of the edwards tiff, craig, the media, 5aa, graham cornes. it's everyone else's fault except his that anything went wrong ever.

Says nothing about the footy to a large extent and large portions are unreadable.

Journalistic style is lazy to say the least.

avoid like the plague.
 
krusden said:
To all considering reading the mcleod biography.

Don't.

It is the biggest load of wank i have read in a while. it has more wank than the james **** biography (although I don't know if it is as bad as tom harley's bio which is meant to be pretty wanky).

Unlike ****'s bio, it doesn't talk about footy hardly and paints mcleod as a superman. harps on over and over how he is the greatest indigenous player EVER (polly farmer and wanganeen say hello), and he comes off as a nasty prick. Unloads on ayres, edwards, hewitt, the handling of the edwards tiff, craig, the media, 5aa, graham cornes. it's everyone else's fault except his that anything went wrong ever.

Says nothing about the footy to a large extent and large portions are unreadable.

Journalistic style is lazy to say the least.

avoid like the plague.
Click to expand...

Didn't even know he had a book out. :eek:

To top it off its probably TL;DR anyway.
 
I have just finished reading The Bubble, and thoroughly enjoyed it (mostly)

A couple of things struck me, though maybe some are just because I don't read biographies, or this kind of book all that often

1. It was refreshing to get the perspective from someone inside the club, that wasn't a player. Seemed to get a more well rounded view of how things were/are

2. I thought Misson was quite detailed and forthcoming with details. You don't often get this much insight into what has taken place to get Player X right to play, or that he had this injury, and so on. Also, details about not such strictly football related matters, like Judge Joey

3. I was quite apprehensive when getting close to the end of the book! I didn't really want to go back through the Grand Finals :eek:

4. I can't believe we delisted Robert Eddy. He got the match ball after the prelim, having busted his hand or arm in the QF, busted his jaw in the prelim, still played both GFs ... see ya later Eddy. OK, we re-rookied him but sheesh, what a tough business

In the process of moving house so the choices are now somewhat limited as to what to read next!
 
Update: the tom harley biography isn't as bad as i have been led to believe.
makes an interesting point about the 2004 preseason cup and believes that thomas shouldve embraced it and got "the winning feeling".
its actually quite interesting as its about leadership as a whole and not that much about football
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

bubblegoose said:
I'm reading 'The Changi Brownlow by Roland Perry' & it is a ripper. Very well written, not football specific so accessible to a broader audience. Really delves into the Aussie spirit, the times back then & doesn't sugar coat some of the Japanese atrocities.

The main character / focus of the book is Peter Chitty, he played a couple of games back in 1936 for St Kilda. There is one mention of a team mate of his called Heyne - it's inferred team mate was at the Saints, but I can't find any record of another Heyne playing for the Saints, it's a distinctive name so it pricked up my interest.
Click to expand...

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/112353/default.aspx


THE AFL has paid tribute to Peter Chitty, who played two games for St Kilda and won the famous Prisoner of War's Changi Brownlow.

Chitty, along with a number of other League footballers captured in Singapore's notorious Changi prison during World War II, started a football league with a best and fairest medal awarded.

After the final between Victoria and The Rest, which was watched by 10,000 prisoners was won by Victoria, Chitty was awarded the best and fairest medal. The medal became known as the Changi Brownlow.
 
Finished reading a book called The Brass Verdict which was meh

But am excited about what I'm reading now, called Traitor. It's about this early draft pick who became captain of his club, then turns his back on ... hahaha, not really

It's about a NZ WWI soldier who was in about the same place as a Turkish (yet Surfi) doctor, when a shell blasts above them and they both end up in hospital and become friends. The soldier helps the Turk escape from a pow camp. I must have read 40 or more pages on my train trip this morning, and has me gripped in it's tight little net of "what happens next". It's emotional stuff. Highly recommended :thumbsu:
 
Two others I have read are the brad Johnson bio which is worth a look and also the Wayne Bennett bio "don't die with the music in you" which is great. It's another leadership sort of book crossed with laconic humor and is really good.
About to start "the aquariums of pyongyang" which is about north Korean prison camps
 
Kozivan said:
Kingkiller Chronicles anyone?
Amazing books these.
Click to expand...

sounds like fun
I had to look them up and found the author's site, and this piece at the top of a synopsis:
My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as "quothe."

I'm still waiting to figure out how to pronounce "quothe" :p

I have finished The Traitor which I think you need to read fairly quickly (ie. don't let a week go by without picking it up) as my interest in it waned over time. Not sure why, but for some reason I wasn't enjoying it as much at the end as I was at the beginning. It was still enjoyable, however

I am now 2/3 way through "Blossoms and Shadows" by Lian Hearn, set in mid 19th century Japan (towards the end of the samurai and Shogun eras). This is the fifth book of Lian's I have read, all based in Japan. Whilst this one is stand-alone, the previous 4 were part of a series that I just loved so picking this up was dead cert.

Very enjoyable and uncomplicated read, and now I am traveling to/from work by train, easy to read every day!
 
IllBeTheJudge said:
sounds like fun
I had to look them up and found the author's site, and this piece at the top of a synopsis:
My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as "quothe."

I'm still waiting to figure out how to pronounce "quothe" :p

I have finished The Traitor which I think you need to read fairly quickly (ie. don't let a week go by without picking it up) as my interest in it waned over time. Not sure why, but for some reason I wasn't enjoying it as much at the end as I was at the beginning. It was still enjoyable, however

I am now 2/3 way through "Blossoms and Shadows" by Lian Hearn, set in mid 19th century Japan (towards the end of the samurai and Shogun eras). This is the fifth book of Lian's I have read, all based in Japan. Whilst this one is stand-alone, the previous 4 were part of a series that I just loved so picking this up was dead cert.

Very enjoyable and uncomplicated read, and now I am traveling to/from work by train, easy to read every day!
Click to expand...


I've read Across the Nightingale Floor which I assume is one that you've read, which was book one of a trilogy but is now book two in a series of five, I think? But i also think Hearn might have said that you should still read nightingale floor first then the other two and then go back to read the first.

I always intended to read the others but never got around to it... also, did you know that lian hearn is the one and same Gillian Rubinstein who wrote Galax Arena, which I read as a wee lass... interesting fact I think...

Currently reading That Deadman Dance which just won the Miles Franklin, or one of those awards, but as I'm only about 10 pages in can't comment much further than that...
 
Just finished Hotel Babylon, not a bad read. Bought a whole swathe of books from all the bookstores closing, just need the time to read them.
 
I've finally got into the Millenium trilogy.

Finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Pretty full on stuff!

About 80 pages into The Girl who Played with Fire.
 
currently reading:
Amexica - entertaining story on the borderlands trouble and the narco issues in the us/mexican border.
Pogues biography - a whisky soaked bio of a criinally underrated band IMO
HW Tillman omnibus - 7 books collected from the legendary mountaineer
a pelican in the wilderness - interesting story on hermits etc and their origins

of the four the best is amexica so far :thumbsu:
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Discussion Books

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top