What was the last book you read?

Never read the book but the film was excellent

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@Persona has seen it, too.

Wish I could watch it :pensive:

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Itā€™s on dvd, itā€™s how I see most films

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How old school :sweat_smile: I donā€™t even have a DVD player any more

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Haha I live a very retro life I only discovered Netflix when lockdown started and also I inherited from someone a whole load of classic DVDā€™s

Ah, see, now thatā€™s cheating, Jesse :wink:

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Just finished reading thisā€¦

download (8)

Iā€™ve always been fascinated by the himalayas, the peaks and Everest, that fascination turned into a bit of an obsession after visiting Nepal and spending 3 weeks trekking to Everest base camp. These days Iā€™ll read anything I can about the incredible people past and present who scale these humongous places.
This one is about Swede, Lars Olaf Gƶran Krupp who literally rode a bike to Nepal and part the way back, summited Everestā€™s South side without oxygen or the help of any sherpas. This was also a few days before the 1996 disaster where 8 people died due to bad weather that lead to the book ā€œinto thing airā€ (one of my all time favourites). An incredible story and an incredible feat.

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Do you reckon George Mallory should get more credit?

Absolutely, he led the way for everyone else and heā€™s often forgotten about when conversations about Everest are had and understandably itā€™s all about Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Sadly weā€™ll never ever find out if he and Andrew Irvine where the first men to summit Everest, because thereā€™s simply no evidence, its a nice story though.
These days though itā€™s all about Nimsdai Purja, what an incredible human being to have achieved what he has.

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Football without Borders -Chris Allen.

I got to see this man speak at a union charity day few months ago.
Really nice person who brought 2 of this team players with him who spoke of the importance of football to them as refugees.
The book revolves around the author trying to engage people in a refugee centre in Liverpool involved in non league football.
After a few initiatives with limited success they set up their own grassroots park team and enter a local League.
Covers the ups and downs and different challenges of the season and introduces some of the individuals stories of how they got here.
Sometimes funny and sometimes sad itā€™s probably a good way for people to get an understanding of some of the lives these lads have had. Also though shows another aspect of how good football can be and offer for everyone.

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Lovely review @Stroller,this is whatā€™s great about lower tier grass roots football like music it engages and transcends any prejudices and abilities so anyone can feel involved.

Itā€™s where you are fortunate in the UK, because you have all these specialist leagues and clubs for no matter what gender, sexual orientation, religion, refugee status or disability, there is something there for you which Iā€™ve not seen anywhere else in Europe.

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Iā€™m re-reading The Hobbit for the first time in 21 years and Iā€™m really enjoying it.

Very clearly a childrens book, but nicely sets the tone for LOTR which Iā€™ll be reading afterwards.

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The Warriors

One of the only times Iā€™d say the film was better (a lot better) than the book.

I genuinely had no idea this was a book lmao. If ever a narrative felt tailor made for a film itā€™s The Warriors. Like the movie is amazing but the story screams screenplay not novel.

I canā€™t imagine itā€™s a very long read? I do quite enjoy novels that play out over a short time span so I might give it a go some day.

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Yeah, the book, without going into spoilers, is a lot more sexualised, describes a younger generation of gangs, set in clearly an earlier time setting than 1979 (the filmā€™s release) and has a couple of very grim moments.

That almost sells the book! However, the language is hard to master (even a modern day New Yorker would struggle) and there isnā€™t as much fighting as in the film. The film was the epitome of cool. Even now, if you watch it as a young man, youā€™re like ā€œwowā€. The music, the imagery, the language- itā€™s an assault to the senses.

Sol Yurick has gone on record to say The Warriors wasnā€™t his finest work, either.

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Interesting write up, hasnā€™t entirely put me off but will certainly taper my expectations if I do decide to read it.

Completely agree with you about the film, absolute masterpiece.

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Thanks to @Stroller for the generosity in sending me this. Canā€™t wait to get tucked in- I donā€™t often read sporting books but canā€™t wait for this one

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Finished The Night Manager a few days ago. I didnā€™t watch the television show, but always wanted to, just didnt get round to it. So figured Iā€™d do the sensible thing and get into the book instead, as the cliche about ā€œthe book being betterā€ is nearly always true lol.

John le Carre is the boss of spy novels, and this was very good, but generally I prefer stuff set in the Cold War. But I think thays less to do with the respective quality of le Carreā€™s novels set during and post Cold War, and more to do with the ā€œfactā€ thats espionage was just generally much cooler and more interesting dueing the Cold War than afterwards lol.

I am also just generally very interested in the Cold War, itā€™s an utterly fascinating period and thereā€™s so much to read about if you wanna get into it. In the past year or so Iā€™ve listened to two books about the Cold War and then also a biography of Stalin.

I really should stop giving Amazon my money but I just canā€™t bring myself to cancel Audible, having it means I consume so much more non fiction than I otherwise would, because I do find it difficult to sit down and read a lengthy, dense history/political text, whereas listening just feels like listening to a very high quality non fiction podcast, but one written by a quality writer and serious academic, rather than some rando in his bedroom.

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What was it you liked about the Night Manager??

If you like this kind of stuff youā€™ll LOVE The Traitor and The Spy by Ben McIntyre.

Itā€™s absolutely fantastic. Non-fiction but it all reads like fiction, itā€™s just so nuts. Itā€™s about the most important Russian double agent during the Cold War who defected to MI6.

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Yeah this was always a favourite subject of mine.
Len Deighton done some good stuff on this. I always like the espionage angle but a lot of newer stuff tends to be more muck and bullets. Always the intrigue for me and British writers have more feel for the subject IMO.

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