Coulby's Book reviews

[fukyu]

Nowt to do with the BBC but this is a cracking read.

[Blott]

Nowt to do with the BBC but this is a cracking read.

do you think Foot was a spy, I am 50 50. If he wasn't he was pretty naive. 

[fukyu]

Nowt to do with the BBC but this is a cracking read.

do you think Foot was a spy, I am 50 50. If he wasn't he was pretty naive. 

Can't give an informed opinion on him but looking at his Wikipedia page I'd say no,he seems more socialist than communist,when he stood in the commons and declared the Falklands had to be retaken it was the impetus an undecided thatcher needed to send a task force.Possibly naive in some respects but seemed a decent man  rather than mendacious.

[BoroRedKen]

Nowt to do with the BBC but this is a cracking read.

Going to give that a blast. Love a good book. Recommendations welcome. TB likes his books also if i remember correctly.

[BoroRedKen]

Just read all the Richard Osman's books. Enjoyed them 

[Blott]

Nowt to do with the BBC but this is a cracking read.

do you think Foot was a spy, I am 50 50. If he wasn't he was pretty naive. 

Can't give an informed opinion on him but looking at his Wikipedia page I'd say no,he seems more socialist than communist,when he stood in the commons and declared the Falklands had to be retaken it was the impetus an undecided thatcher needed to send a task force.Possibly naive in some respects but seemed a decent man  rather than mendacious.

that was my view too. He did accept money from the Russians to pay for Tribune, but to be fair to him he told the world.

[AtomicDog]

Probably one of the funniest book's you'll ever read . . .


When Rock Star's rocked  . . . Done more in a week than some of these 'Rockers' will do in a lifetime

[tonyangelino]

Probably one of the funniest book's you'll ever read . . .


When Rock Star's rocked  . . . Done more in a week than some of these 'Rockers' will do in a lifetime

I'm halfway through reading this. Just finished Ollie Reeds biography "Evil Spirits", worth a look. His autobiography "Reed all about me" is much better but hard to get hold of.

[Blott]

The Innocent Anthropologist.


It's about 20 odd years old. It will smash all your beliefs in what we think you know compared to what we find out.


A great funny little book.

[RiversideRifle]

Read this lads

[John Trebor]

Just read all the Richard Osman's books. Enjoyed them 

Enjoyed the first two

Not read 3 + 4 yet.

[fukyu]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

[John Trebor]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

He's done some incredible non-travel books as well. Sometimes get a bit heavy but really interesting stuff.

- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Mother Tongue
- At Home
- One Summer: America 1927

and his childhood memoirs:
- The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

There's probably more but I haven't come across them yet.

[Smoggers51]

Great reads are Mawsons Will about survival in the Antatartic and also Fly For Your Life which is about Squadron Leader Stanford Tuck a WW2 fighter ace. Anyone who knows me well knows that my favourite book of all time is The Ragged Trouser Philanthropist. This book shaped my whole Union and Political beliefs.

[AtomicDog]

Probably one of the funniest book's you'll ever read . . .


When Rock Star's rocked  . . . Done more in a week than some of these 'Rockers' will do in a lifetime

I'm halfway through reading this. Just finished Ollie Reeds biography "Evil Spirits", worth a look. His autobiography "Reed all about me" is much better but hard to get hold of.

What do you think of it?
It's quite an old book I bought it on paperback when it came out.

Some of the anecdotes are funny as f***k that people say about Him. (The one about him and VIv Stanshall and the trousers)

He never had a wrap either, didn't give a f***k anytime he got money, spunked the lot

Use to sell all the Drums Premier made for him.

When I went to the V&A few year's back they had a section on 70's star's, loads of good stuff.

Had one of the Tom's off his Pictures of Lily kit in there.

Man was a legend, don't make em like they use to.

Proper Rock n Roll ⭐

🐾
🐾

[King Hellfire]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

He's done some incredible non-travel books as well. Sometimes get a bit heavy but really interesting stuff.

- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Mother Tongue
- At Home
- One Summer: America 1927

and his childhood memoirs:
- The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

There's probably more but I haven't come across them yet.

The Body is really good as well, it's similar to 'At Home' in the sense that in 'At Home' he goes from room to room describing the facts and history behind the things related to those rooms, whereas in The Body he goes from body part to body part. Some of the facts are grim, but interesting, though. For example he talks about the history of Unit 731, where during the 2nd world war the Japanese used to perform experiments on their prisoners to see how much punishment the body could withstand. They kept the victims alive during these experiments. For example, to find out the damage caused by a grenade they used to tie prisoners to stakes at various distances to the grenade and then detonate it. They used to put people in pressure chambers until they were crushed, they used to put people in ice cold climates to see how long they'd last before catching frostbite. The bloke in charge was given a lenient sentence in return for the results of these tests because although they were attained through extremely horrific experiments, they were important in helping the west understand the limits of the body.


Bill Bryson is on of my favourite authors. A Short History of Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods, and And Neither Here Nor There are my favourites.


Unit 731:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

[AtomicDog]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

He's done some incredible non-travel books as well. Sometimes get a bit heavy but really interesting stuff.

- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Mother Tongue
- At Home
- One Summer: America 1927

and his childhood memoirs:
- The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

There's probably more but I haven't come across them yet.

The Body is really good as well, it's similar to 'At Home' in the sense that in 'At Home' he goes from room to room describing the facts and history behind the things related to those rooms, whereas in The Body he goes from body part to body part. Some of the facts are grim, but interesting, though. For example he talks about the history of Unit 731, where during the 2nd world war the Japanese used to perform experiments on their prisoners to see how much punishment the body could withstand. They kept the victims alive during these experiments. For example, to find out the damage caused by a grenade they used to tie prisoners to stakes at various distances to the grenade and then detonate it. They used to put people in pressure chambers until they were crushed, they used to put people in ice cold climates to see how long they'd last before catching frostbite. The bloke in charge was given a lenient sentence in return for the results of these tests because although they were attained through extremely horrific experiments, they were important in helping the west understand the limits of the body.


Bill Bryson is on of my favourite authors. A Short History of Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods, and And Neither Here Nor There are my favourites.


Unit 731:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Watched a film on that before, grim stuff they tortured (in every sense) the Chinese POWs, can't remember what the film was called now, it was brutal like they talk about all that's been said above in it.


Didn't they try to bomb it all before they surrendered, to  try to deny it . . . Weren't a lot of the scientists given immunity in the USA, due to their knowledge of chemical warfare etc?

[King Hellfire]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

He's done some incredible non-travel books as well. Sometimes get a bit heavy but really interesting stuff.

- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Mother Tongue
- At Home
- One Summer: America 1927

and his childhood memoirs:
- The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

There's probably more but I haven't come across them yet.

The Body is really good as well, it's similar to 'At Home' in the sense that in 'At Home' he goes from room to room describing the facts and history behind the things related to those rooms, whereas in The Body he goes from body part to body part. Some of the facts are grim, but interesting, though. For example he talks about the history of Unit 731, where during the 2nd world war the Japanese used to perform experiments on their prisoners to see how much punishment the body could withstand. They kept the victims alive during these experiments. For example, to find out the damage caused by a grenade they used to tie prisoners to stakes at various distances to the grenade and then detonate it. They used to put people in pressure chambers until they were crushed, they used to put people in ice cold climates to see how long they'd last before catching frostbite. The bloke in charge was given a lenient sentence in return for the results of these tests because although they were attained through extremely horrific experiments, they were important in helping the west understand the limits of the body.


Bill Bryson is on of my favourite authors. A Short History of Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods, and And Neither Here Nor There are my favourites.


Unit 731:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Watched a film on that before, grim stuff they tortured (in every sense) the Chinese POWs, can't remember what the film was called now, it was brutal like they talk about all that's been said above in it.


Didn't they try to bomb it all before they surrendered, to  try to deny it . . . Weren't a lot of the scientists given immunity in the USA, due to their knowledge of chemical warfare etc?

Yeah, and when the news came that the war was ending in a few hours time, they killed all the remaining prisoners to conceal the evidence of what had happened there.

[John Trebor]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

He's done some incredible non-travel books as well. Sometimes get a bit heavy but really interesting stuff.

- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Mother Tongue
- At Home
- One Summer: America 1927

and his childhood memoirs:
- The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

There's probably more but I haven't come across them yet.

The Body is really good as well, it's similar to 'At Home' in the sense that in 'At Home' he goes from room to room describing the facts and history behind the things related to those rooms, whereas in The Body he goes from body part to body part. Some of the facts are grim, but interesting, though. For example he talks about the history of Unit 731, where during the 2nd world war the Japanese used to perform experiments on their prisoners to see how much punishment the body could withstand. They kept the victims alive during these experiments. For example, to find out the damage caused by a grenade they used to tie prisoners to stakes at various distances to the grenade and then detonate it. They used to put people in pressure chambers until they were crushed, they used to put people in ice cold climates to see how long they'd last before catching frostbite. The bloke in charge was given a lenient sentence in return for the results of these tests because although they were attained through extremely horrific experiments, they were important in helping the west understand the limits of the body.


Bill Bryson is on of my favourite authors. A Short History of Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods, and And Neither Here Nor There are my favourites.


Unit 731:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

I'll check that one out.
But fuck me that is grim stuff.

[AtomicDog]

It is, worse than the Nazis.
There's a few things on YouTube about it

[King Hellfire]

Bill Bryson's books are good,travel/human interest,The travel book on Australia is very good just for the facts he unearths,eg no one knows how the aboriginal people got there,they were there sixty thousand years before the first known sea bearing craft were made.

He's done some incredible non-travel books as well. Sometimes get a bit heavy but really interesting stuff.

- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Mother Tongue
- At Home
- One Summer: America 1927

and his childhood memoirs:
- The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

There's probably more but I haven't come across them yet.

The Body is really good as well, it's similar to 'At Home' in the sense that in 'At Home' he goes from room to room describing the facts and history behind the things related to those rooms, whereas in The Body he goes from body part to body part. Some of the facts are grim, but interesting, though. For example he talks about the history of Unit 731, where during the 2nd world war the Japanese used to perform experiments on their prisoners to see how much punishment the body could withstand. They kept the victims alive during these experiments. For example, to find out the damage caused by a grenade they used to tie prisoners to stakes at various distances to the grenade and then detonate it. They used to put people in pressure chambers until they were crushed, they used to put people in ice cold climates to see how long they'd last before catching frostbite. The bloke in charge was given a lenient sentence in return for the results of these tests because although they were attained through extremely horrific experiments, they were important in helping the west understand the limits of the body.


Bill Bryson is on of my favourite authors. A Short History of Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods, and And Neither Here Nor There are my favourites.


Unit 731:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

I'll check that one out.
But fuck me that is grim stuff.

Thankfully that's only a small, but interesting, part of it, the rest of the book is really good.

[Johnny Thunder]

Read this lads

Give this a go if you haven't Rife.

[Johnny Thunder]

Here's another great read.

[Ural Quntz (Moderator)]

I'm halfway through his follow up The Power of Geography.

Outstanding...

[Johnny Thunder]

I haven't started that one yet Quntzy.