Currently Reading

[Gibby]

[Rusty]

Damn it, I keep meaning to finish that one (I'm 6% in which I think is the middle of chapter 2). It's been so long since I read the Dawn book I'll need to read the recap again.

Currently got stuck into rereading some David Gemmell books after reading everyone's reviews here. Been possibly, 30 years since I last read any of them. They're simple yet powerful reads.

[Stormbringer]

Which Gemmell books are you reading?

[Rusty]

Currently on the Drenai Saga. Book 2. Trying to read them in published order, same as I did first time round.

[Achtung Englander]

Adults In The Room: My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment by Yanis Varoufakis

A 400 page turner of a book on how devious the EU and the IMF were in refinancing the French and German banks after the 2008 crises using Greece as the patsy. Reading this you cannot help but think Brexit was not a bad idea after all.

[Jez]

I've heard the guy who wrote it on Radio 4 talking on EU related issues especially to do with Greece. Greece needed to make changes to their own very corrupt bag but how the EU treated Greece was pretty disgusting.

His advice on Brexit was get out while you still can. I hadn't heard him specifically make this link that his book alludes to but nothing would surprise me.

[Mantis]

I find it unlikely that's his stance as he's always been a very strong critic of the EU but from a pro-reform perspective. He described Brexit as watching a slow motion car crash earlier this year.

[Achtung Englander]

I am about 40% in. It is a fascinating read and not at all dry which is what I feared. The EU and the IMF were panic stricken in 2007 that the insolvency of the French and German banks would result with the collapse of the Euro and given the ECB could not lend money directly as that is in breach of one of it laws (to avoid favouritism among the nation states) it got around this by lending Greece half a trillion Euros on the basis that the country needed bailing out (remember this is a country with the same population as London and although corrupt did not need so much bail out money) but it used the French and German banks (not the Greek banks) to broker the deal and to add insult to injury it lent the money on the condition that Greece accepted the largest austerity package in the history of finance. The EU and IMF lent the money to Greece in full knowledge the debt could not be paid off solely to refinance the French and German banks.

So like how the Bank Of England printed money and lent the British banks the money, the EU got around its straight jacket laws by using Greece as a proxy. The net result is that Greece suffered the worst economic downturns in modern history when its GDP shrunk by a 1/4 in just 2 years.

Fuck the EU, seriously and this is coming from a remainer. The fact there is no Euro Bond only goes to show that the premise of the Euro is designed solely to enhance the economy of Germany and France at the expense of the other Eurozone nations - and those idiots signed up to it.

Gordon Brown may have been a bad PM but we should kiss his arse for stopping Blair in signing up to a currency that makes no fucking sense. The Eurozone countries can set their own fiscal and tax policies independent of interest rates and monetary policy because they have no control over it. What ???. That is economics 102. You need control over your monetary policy if you need to stimulate your economy via push/pull fiscal instruments and you need control over interest rates if demand needs stimulating or suppressing. Why would you surrender that ?. To be brotherly to your European neighbour ?

[Maturin]

Currently reading The Two Towers. I just love the grandiose exchanges between everyone, like Tolkien is documenting a mythical retelling shortly after the event - as if he is filling in the gaps regarding dialogue, trying to do justice to these legends. It almost comes across like a doctrine from an unknown source at times.

Also, it's great how belligerent book-Gandalf is. The hobbits are scared shitless of him at times when he's drawing on his power - like when he sets the woods on fire and wields massive branches of flame, crushing the wolves/wargs.

[Stormbringer]

Also, it's great how belligerent book-Gandalf is. The hobbits are scared shitless of him at times when he's drawing on his power - like when he sets the woods on fire and wields massive branches of flame, crushing the wolves/wargs.

He's pretty hardcore. I like it when Legolas shoots an arrow at a wolf and Gandalf sets it on fire mid-flight. Also, unlike wimpy film-Gandalf, book-Gandalf be like: "Come on, Aragorn, ya wuss! Let's go through the Mines of Moria!" (not an actual quote ¬_¬)

[Maturin]

Aye, I'm beginning to wish I'd read the books more often over the last 20 years. It's as if my notion of the characters had been wholly replaced by the film versions.

I'm glad to be refilling my mind with the whole picture again. Still love the movies though.

Currently coming to the end of Two Towers. It's surprised me how much I'm enjoying book 4: Frodo & Sam's approach to Mordor with Gollum in tow. It's absolutely riveting; the way he writes Smeagol's split personality is genius. Some people seem to find that part of the books too slow, but there's actually a ton of deep stuff going on between the 3 of them (or 4 of them!).

[Stormbringer]

I have to admit I found the Frodo & Sam passages a bit slow on my first read-through seven years ago. Perhaps this time it I will appreciate it more?

My sons and I are currently in the Mines of Moria in the first book; it's my favourite chapter. We've just got to the bit where Frodo is beginning to sense footsteps behind them in the darkness, and is sure it's not an echo. The claustrophobic atmosphere and tension that whole section evokes is brilliant.

[The Jackal]

Currently coming to the end of Two Towers.

The way the very last page of TTT ends is one of my favourite parts of the reading experience.

It's a cliffhanger, in a Tolkien novel. Come on.

[Stormbringer]

FINALLY!

Finally I have finished Bloodstone by David Gemmell, and thus also finished the Jerusalem Man trilogy and the larger Stones of Power series that began (chronologically speaking, not in publication order) with Lion of Macedon.

Well, my goodness, but that was an incredibly boring, utterly tedious, poorly written trilogy with dull characters, dull events and a dull, overly convoluted, and ultimately unsatisfying plot. Based on these seven books I've read over the past few months, I honestly can't believe David Gemmell gets the praise he does. Then again, I've not read either the Drenai or Rigante series yet, which are usually the ones that he is praised for. I would like to read those, and I will eventually, but after "Jerusalem Man" I think I need to take a break from Gemmell. HONESTLY! I can't BELIEVE this drivel got published!

As for what I'm reading next, my wife gave me eight Kindle books for my birthday this year: the Celtic Crusades trilogy and the Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead. I am going to begin with the Celtic Crusades and I'll start the first book tonight: The Iron Lance

[Achtung Englander]

I have read 1 and half by Gemmel. The Lion of Macedon was brilliant, the second one was so shit I gave up half way. Never looked back.