• What are you reading now?

Posted: **Mon Jan 13, 2025 11:34 pm**

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Mon Jan 13, 2025 11:07 pm I didn't buy it...... and I've not found it anywhere else

I reckon there's a whole new thread on offer there Phil. "Things I was so close to buying, didn't at the last second for some unfathomable reason, and regretted it ever since".

My two starters-for-10 are somewhat obscure, and from several decades ago and never rectified unfortunately.

1. A large slate salad bowl for sale in, I think, the old Gloddfa Ganol slate mine visitor centre at Blaenau.

2. A vinyl copy of "20 worst ever records" compilation LP in a second hand record shop in Amsterdam. Actually started taking it to the till but inexplicably took it back to the shelf. Had specifically chosen it because it included "Paralysed" by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (*).

(*) Don't say I didn't give you fair warning: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=viK3i0fRD ... b3dib3k%3D

Posted: **Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:01 pm**

Ah good find there, almost a C&W take on death metal

Generally not buying something and then regretting it is better than buying something and regretting it....

Posted: **Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:36 pm**

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:01 pm Ah good find there, almost a C&W take on death metal

Unbelievably David Bowie reputedly named Ziggy Stardust after him, as he was a big fan!

Posted: **Tue Jan 14, 2025 1:49 pm**

Finished and enjoyed The Land in Winter.

Finally got me a copy of Guy Shrubsole's The Lie of the Land, which as expected is very good so far, but a fair bit is stuff I knew already, but he's a good writer synthesising a lot of information and detail very well.

Posted: **Wed Jan 22, 2025 9:16 pm**

Just coming to the end of Running Free by Richard Askwith, of Feet in the Clouds fame. The central theme is basically "move to the country, stop running on the road, timing yourself, racing, buying stuff, etc." he's basically our Reg but for running

It's all stuff I broadly agree with, and I'm sure many on here would too, but it does come across a bit dogmatic. Those in the know will be unsurprised to learn he's an exponent of barefoot shoes.

But despite that, I'm quite enjoying it. It links together some interesting running-adjacent scenes like drag hunting (not trail hunting!) and hashing.

Posted: **Thu Jan 23, 2025 6:40 pm**

I read those two Askwith books some years ago, agree with your take.

This week I have read The Satsuma Complex but Bob Mortimer and am now about half way through Gone Fishing that he wrote with Paul Whitehouse. Not too taxing and enjoying them.

I was under the weather on Monday and Tuesday and it turns out I have shingles and just gone on the pills. I feel awful today and my face looks more of a mess than usual.

Posted: **Thu Jan 23, 2025 7:00 pm**

Enjoying this currently.

Posted: **Thu Jan 23, 2025 8:56 pm**

Blackhound wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 6:40 pm I read those two Askwith books some years ago, agree with your take.

This week I have read The Satsuma Complex but Bob Mortimer and am now about half way through Gone Fishing that he wrote with Paul Whitehouse. Not too taxing and enjoying them.

I was under the weather on Monday and Tuesday and it turns out I have shingles and just gone on the pills. I feel awful today and my face looks more of a mess than usual.

If you have Spotify, you can listen to both of Bobs fiction books there, he narrates it with Sally Philips, so makes it entertaining.

Read his gone fishing book too (well, listened and was ok) and just finished Ted’s book which is frankly, a daft fictional book that is an easy going, enjoyable read

Posted: **Sat Jan 25, 2025 1:34 pm**

Simon, parts of the Gone Fishing was a bit too detailed for me and an audio version would have been better. I wasn’t aware of the Ted book but will look it up. At the moment easy reading is all I can cope with as my one eye is swollen and a fairly constant headache.

Posted: **Mon Jan 27, 2025 12:47 pm**

Really enjoying some Tristan Gooley, specifically The Natural Explorer. So much more to see and enjoy in our woodlands if you know what to look for!

Read Ray Mears British Woodland a couple of months back and really enjoyed it too!

Posted: **Sun Feb 02, 2025 5:59 pm**

Blackhound wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 1:34 pm Simon, parts of the Gone Fishing was a bit too detailed for me and an audio version would have been better. I wasn’t aware of the Ted book but will look it up. At the moment easy reading is all I can cope with as my one eye is swollen and a fairly constant headache.

I’d offer you mine but it’s gone to the extended family

Posted: **Sun Feb 02, 2025 6:02 pm**

Listened to the Last Overland, following in the footsteps of of a journey made by Land Rovers 60 odd years ago (the original book is called the First overland) travelling Singapore to London

Anyways, I was googling something about the book and found Channel four had a document on it, 4 episodes, so definitely worth watching (book is better though, much more detail)

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-last-overland

Posted: **Mon Feb 03, 2025 12:26 pm**

AndreR wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 12:47 pm offer you mine but it’s gone to the extended family

Thanks Simon, I am sure I can track down a real life or Kindle copy.

Posted: **Mon Feb 03, 2025 6:03 pm**

Strangely enough I picked up the Ted book in a bookshop today Kevin but put it back down because it wasn't written by Mortimer! No idea why I did that!!
Thoroughly enjoyed his Satsuma book though. Wasn't what I expected.

Posted: **Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:33 pm**

Been a while since I posted anything in here, some books have been read:

Iain M. Banks: Against a Dark Background
Mark Pendergrast: Uncommon Grounds
Devon Price: Unmasking Autism
Dave Eggers: The Circle
Chris Beckett: Dark Eden
Chris Beckett: Mother of Eden
Chris Beckett: Daughter of Eden
Neal Stephenson: Termination Shock
Ann Leckie: Provenance
Michael Marshall Smith: One of Us
John Scalzi: Old Man's War
Morgan Housel: The Psychology of Money
John Scalzi: The Ghost Brigades
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination
Frederik Pohl: Gateway
Roger Zelazny: Lord of Light
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma
Samantha Harvey: Orbital

Currently reading Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris.

In the vein of Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, a fierce debut about the author's decision to bike the Silk Road from beginning to end, and about the limits we place on ourselves and our natural world.

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved—to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician—had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars.

In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks: what she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. The farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within.

Lands of Lost Borders is the chronicle of Harris’s odyssey and an exploration of the importance of breaking the boundaries we set ourselves; an examination of the stories borders tell, and the restrictions they place on nature and humanity; and a meditation on the existential need to explore—the essential longing to discover what in the universe we are doing here. Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer, Kate Harris offers a travel account at once exuberant and reflective, wry and rapturous.

Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of the self that can never fully be mapped. Weaving adventure and philosophy with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world, and ultimately to each other—a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us.

Posted: **Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:03 pm**

Found this on Amazon and got the Kindle version, very intertaining so far and will surely appeal to many on here!

Amusing Adventures with a Slightly Eccentric Cyclist: Cycle Touring For Lunatics by The Piano Dentist

Fave line so far "Riding in the pi55ing rain looking for a camp spot singing The legs on the man go round and round...round and round three hundred time in a row."

Posted: **Sat Mar 29, 2025 9:03 am**

AndreR wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:03 pm Found this on Amazon and got the Kindle version, very intertaining so far and will surely appeal to many on here!

Amusing Adventures with a Slightly Eccentric Cyclist: Cycle Touring For Lunatics by The Piano Dentist

Fave line so far "Riding in the pi55ing rain looking for a camp spot singing The legs on the man go round and round...round and round three hundred time in a row."

Sounds like the chap from Keep Smiling Adventures !

Posted: **Sat Mar 29, 2025 9:09 am**

Found in the NT secondhand bookshop at Culzean Castle, Ayr .... One More Croissant For The Road - Felicity Cloake , a gastronomic ride around France ... she's annoying. Prepared to pay £34 for a feckin omelete ... obvs on an expense account ...
https://www.waterstones.com/book/one-mo ... 0008377267

Posted: **Mon Mar 31, 2025 9:31 am**

AndreR wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:03 pm Found this on Amazon and got the Kindle version, very intertaining so far and will surely appeal to many on here!

Amusing Adventures with a Slightly Eccentric Cyclist: Cycle Touring For Lunatics by The Piano Dentist

Fave line so far "Riding in the pi55ing rain looking for a camp spot singing The legs on the man go round and round...round and round three hundred time in a row."

Read some more of this over the weekend and its pretty weird in places!

Not sure I'm still recommending it now!

Posted: **Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:49 pm**

AndreR wrote: ↑Mon Mar 31, 2025 9:31 am
AndreR wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:03 pm Found this on Amazon and got the Kindle version, very intertaining so far and will surely appeal to many on here!

Amusing Adventures with a Slightly Eccentric Cyclist: Cycle Touring For Lunatics by The Piano Dentist

Fave line so far "Riding in the pi55ing rain looking for a camp spot singing The legs on the man go round and round...round and round three hundred time in a row."
Read some more of this over the weekend and its pretty weird in places! Not sure I'm still recommending it now!

Sales of said book soar ...

Posted: **Tue Apr 01, 2025 10:03 am**

Tractionman wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2024 1:22 pm Some holiday reading for me

IMG_20241230_121948.jpg

How was Mike's book?

Posted: **Tue Apr 01, 2025 4:26 pm**

Just finished this, it’s a great book

Posted: **Tue Apr 01, 2025 5:22 pm**

godivatrailrider wrote: ↑Tue Apr 01, 2025 10:03 am
Tractionman wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2024 1:22 pm Some holiday reading for me

IMG_20241230_121948.jpg
How was Mike's book?

really good, I still enjoy dipping into it in the evening, it's a nice read, the only thing I'd have liked to have seen in it are some maps of the routes, I have to read the book along with a road atlas to get a better sense of where he's talking about!

cheers,

Keith

Posted: **Tue Apr 01, 2025 5:31 pm**

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 01, 2025 4:26 pm Just finished this, it’s a great book

Well, you did better than any of the entrants this year then!!

Posted: **Tue Apr 01, 2025 8:10 pm**

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