What book are you reading right now?
Posted by: Chillkram on 23 May 2010
I am currently reading Suetonius, 'The Twelve Caesars'.
How about you?
While taking a break from reading Nicholas Shakespeare's excellent Six Minute In May, I've been dipping in to this one from Richard Morton Jack: Galactic Ramble.
Headlined as "the fullest study of 60s and 70s UK music scene ever published, covering pop, rock, psych, prog, jazz, folk, blues and beyond!" Essentially it's a kind of encyclopaedia of UK music of the period. It's an excellent complement to RMJ's more recent book, Psychedelia: 101Iconic Underground albums 1966 - 1970, which I'm also dipping into from time to time. The best news is that while Galactic Ramble is now OOP, Psychedelia is still available...
About to start this . . .
Re-reading it since Amos Oz passed away at the age of 79. Highly recommended.
Chernobyl; History of a tragedy by Serhil Plokhy
The emphasis is most definitely on the history as he gets a number of technical facts very badly wrong, but I am not overly interested in the physics. Placing the event in an historical context is intriguing and the subsequent efforts to build WANO were a reaction to the slow realisation that radioactive plumes care not about country boundaries. Politicians appear to have learned nothing.
Another in the excellent "Object Lessons" series, which focusses on everyday objects and how rthwy have transformed our lives:
From the days of the Home Service to Radio 4, an indispensable history of this most British of institutions:
NAJB posted:Chernobyl; History of a tragedy by Serhil Plokhy
The emphasis is most definitely on the history as he gets a number of technical facts very badly wrong, but I am not overly interested in the physics. Placing the event in an historical context is intriguing and the subsequent efforts to build WANO were a reaction to the slow realisation that radioactive plumes care not about country boundaries. Politicians appear to have learned nothing.
Very much looking forward to reading this.
In the meantime I’ve just read Behave by Robert Sapolsky. It is absolutely what it says on the cover. The greatest single piece of non-fiction I have ever read.