That’s a great point, Whiskeyjack and Rake, Tehol and Bugg we mentioned before, Icarium and Mappo, those two necromancers I forget their names, Quick Ben and Kalam, Karsa and Leoman…great shout that. There’s also the Kharkanas trilogy to read, the bromance between Rake and Caladan is great too
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Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall.
Book about how the geography of each country impacts and limits countries in the world regardless of ideology and culture.
Interesting reasoning thats hard to argue against. Gives you a better understanding of the world and how situations arise.
Thought it was going to be heavier going, but the author has done a great job on a lot of complex situations being explained fluently but not dumbed down
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I finished that last year. Really enjoyed.
What bit are you on?
Middle East. Enjoyed getting a fuller understanding on everything so far. China really interesting.
Yeah, really enjoyed the bit about the geographical reasoning for the China/India battle for Tibet.
Russia was my favourite section me.
Also makes me want to try Skiing in Iran haha!
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Currently reading The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler.
Just finished this. Malcolm Gladwell is a really good writer, with the concepts he explains it all feels like a fairly light read
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
About the Everest disaster that happened on 10th May 1996. He was on an expedition for the summit of Everest as a journalist for Outside magazine to write an article about the paid for expeditions by rich amateur or “weekend” climbers as he puts it that climb to the highest point on earth with little or no real high altitude experience. He goes into detail about the events that led upto one of the deadliest days in the mountains history, the amount of human error on everyone part on the team, he also takes accountability for himself being there as a journo being a part of the reason and adding pressure to the leaders of the climb to make sure that everyone summits that day
It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, I’m a keen climber and spent some time in Nepal in my younger years trekking the Himalayas and you see lot of this stuff that goes on not just limited to Everest but other high altitude peaks in the Himalaya. it’s even worse today, you can go onto Instagram, see pictures of people climbing/summiting an you can see the bottle neck at Hillary’s step and que’s of upto 50 people in the death zone above 25,000 feet. It’s mental, bearing in mind that most of these people that do this go with a tour guide and pay a minimum of £60k, so it seems that the governments are still as greedy now as they were then.
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I’ve started to read “1984” the ironic thing is when I got to the part where the protagonist was describing a “face crime” that incident in America happened with those catholic kids 
Great book. Dont ever watch the film. Tarnishes a great read
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Killing Commedatore by Murakami
My wife gave it to me for Christmas. Murakami is probably my favorite author and Wind Up Bird Chronicle is in my top 5 favorite books. I just love the surreal world he creates. This is far from his best, but it’s a fun book so far.
Just bought the first Book of Malazan book so I’m looking forward to reading that.
What am I getting myself into here guys?
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Probably his best novel along with Norwegian Wood. A bit meandering and essentially aimless, but good fun nonetheless. Well written too in a pop culture way.
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Hopefully you like it. It’s a vast world he’s created with sooo many characters. I would suggest the following:
- Read the Dramatis Personae. You don’t have to memorize it, but it will help if you’ve read the names before.
- If you’re one of those people that has to understand where in this virtual world things take place, print out the maps. Hanging it on the wall and using yarn to connect things and places together, like you’re solving a mystery old school, murder board style is optional.
- Do not look it up on the internet. There is a huge community of people who have read the books multiple times and try as they might not to, they will post spoilers.
- Enjoy the ride.
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Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Murakami is a chap filled with melancholy isn’t he? I’ve only read Norwegian Wood. It was a pleasurable read but had some dark tones embedded in it.
The most detailed and expansive fantasy story ever told in my opinion.
The sheer volume of characters, the intertwining of different arcs and the insane intricacy / history of the world created sets it apart from basically anything I’ve ever read. It’s a marvel how these authors came up with it all. Chain of Dogs is one of the best fantasy novels ever written. The emotion I felt when reading that book was actually astonishing.
You will need to check back on names of characters as it does get confusing at times, but after a few books, you’ll remember the key charcters off by heart. You’ll also need to get a firm grip of the warrens / holds, the different types of magic and definitely the various gods within the world.
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Johan Cruyff My Turn.
Wanted to read this for a while and its fascinating from the start. Great finding out about him as a youngster and becoming part of the Ajax club.
Full of opinions on so many different aspects of the game and all aspects of the sport. Interesting reading about his spell in the states and how that impacted on how clubs should be run.
One thing that runs through out the book though is how far ahead of his time his outlook on the game was. The book is totally relevant to todays game and not just a nostalgia read.
If you like sport autobiographys read this one.
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Absolutely love that. He was certianly a big personality who didn’t just fall in line. Not to mwntion everything he did for the game.
I’ll definitely have to read it for a second time soon!
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