Flip Martian
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Posts posted by Flip Martian
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Hi, fellow newbie
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I don't really score my books when I've read them but I would definitely say the 2 books I've read this year by Richard E Grant are both superb. Moving, hilarious, engaging, witty and descriptively written without ever being dry. With Nails is a diary of sorts from various films he worked on. Never too cruel about anyone but he certainly knows how to take you with him and make you believe you're there observing. HIs 2nd, The Wah Wah Diaries is him documenting the creation and making of his own film (loosely based on his early life in Swaziland and the various trials and tribulations involved - he certainly doesn't pull his punches when it comes to the rather useless and ego driven producer he ended up saddled with. Again, moving, engaging and very witty. He is a very good writer.
Other than that, my other favourite has been Blessings In Disguise by Sir Alec Guinness. Occasionally a bit "lovey" but an entertaining series of incidents and character sketches from his life - from so long ago now that it feels like he's talking about another country altogether.
As for the worst...well, it wasn't the worst but apparently was apparently all made up, which for a non fiction book was rather disappointing - The Nemesis File, which purports to tell the harrowing tale of an SAS execution squad operating in Northern Ireland many years ago - their role to covertly execute known IRA terrorists crossing the border before they could do any damage. And it was, very harrowing and moving, reading about how it affected them over the time they were doing it. But then I researched it afterwards and found out it was apparently made up! So a fairly decent work of fiction but annoying that I believed any of it!
As for targets - I don't set myself any; I just read what book I feel like reading, when I feel like it. If I set targets it would get to be a chore (but that's just me).
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Thank you
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You have plenty of Batman books, I have that same edition of The Killing Joke.
I do like the old Golden Age artwork and simpler storytelling. But TKJ is a real classic, I think.
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Lovely bookcases, Flip Martian!
I see a lot of great books there.Thank you
They were a bit blurry so I'm glad you made some of them out 
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Well I can understand that; I guess I must have just been lucky up to now
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Mail order can certainly be a lottery - never had grubby books though. Unexpected rips on the DJ or more creases, perhaps...
I found 8 in an oxfam shop this morning and all were clean, 1 or 2 were unread I think. -
I bought them every six months, or every year, so I`m not too aware of quite how much money they`ve cost...
The best way. I was finding if I bought them as 2 volumes in 1 go, and I read a few pages in bed before sleep...it would take me several months before I needed the next one. I suppose ultimately they'll be worth something eventually, they're really well done (that might help next time you buy them 
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I can't smell much of anything in general, let alone on books! But I prefer new ones because I don't like the dirt/stains on old ones.
What do you do with a new book if you get it home and spill your tea on it?
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Thanks, and hello
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I had this bought for me as a present - I read it and donated it to a charity shop. I wouldn't be that cavalier with gifts normally, but this was one of the few books I've read that actually made me angry! We have some experience of addiction in our family, and I understand a lot of what he's talking about in the book. But there was no sense of wishing he'd been able to do things differently, no contrition, no "I wish I didn't have this illness". To feel sympathy for his predicament, one needs a sense that he's sorry for the things he's done, at least; the people he's hurt. By the end of the book it seemed he pretty much revelled in it, the way he'd treated his wife and loved ones. No regret at all! For that reason, I came away disliking him a lot and am reminded of it every time I see him on tv now. I couldn't get shot of the book quick enough, to be honest.
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Thanks all
Yes the money plant/Jade plant started life quite small on my bedroom window sill - its now more like a tree and we're hoping it doesn't get much bigger! The shelves are mostly hardbacks sorted first, then paperbacks. But there are a few exceptions.Little Pixie - I do love those Peanuts collections; they're so well presented. But by the 80s cartoons I was finding them less funny so I really don't know if I'll complete the collection. The 50s and 60s ones were my favourites. My OCD is telling me to complete the collection, regardless...
As my collecting has increased, so have the bookcases - 5 of those have been bought in the last 2 years. I think my wife is hoping that's IT for at least a few months...
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I think I've walked past TLRB a number of times - I work near Russell Sq and often pass by the British Museum on my way to the shops in Charing X Road. Never been in though, until now.
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Thank you
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Right, I've taken some pics of most of them. They're displaying in no particular order so...
The glazed bookcase is from the 1950s and houses the smaller of my antiquarian books, plus some assorted books from my wife and some books inherited from my Nan (a lot of old Agatha Christie paperbacks).
The one with all my comic/graphic novel collections I had made from reclaimed pine.
The 2 together are an old 1930s bookcase and a more recent pine one - some odds and ends along with my Bill Bryson collection, but my football books mainly.
Large pine one with all my biographies in - my newest one which allowed me to house the biogs in a separate case and create room elsewhere.
The other large pine one is a bit older and has my history and military collections.
The little 3 shelf in dark wood is a lovely little old bookcase I saw in an antiques place recently going cheaply - some historical odds and ends in there.
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Hello! Thank you for the welcome
Mainly memoirs and history. Quite a few related to WW1 and 2 but not exclusively. I've just started reading The Diary of a Diplomat In Russia 1917 - 1918 by Louis de Robiens - a diary kept during the Russian revolution. I quite like memoirs related to the movie business too; I recently finished Alec Guiness' first memoir and Richard E Grant's 2 film diaries which are really well written. I also read books about football, I'm a big Bill Bryson fan too. -
"All my books are in boxes and it's impossible to know where anything is! "
That would by my idea of hell
But I guess you'll be so busy on the house, you won't have much time to read. -
I used to use our library a lot - back then I didn't collect books really, just enjoyed reading them! Its only in the last couple of years I've started to buy more and collect particular things.
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Well, I'm asthmatic too but I manage to overcome it as far as books go.
I realise its not for everyone though -
Yes, the one on the other side of the road was pretty good! I wasn't exaggerating but maybe I caught W & H at a bad time - I've never been in a shop like it. The lad behind the counter was just sat reading a book - no-one else in there and I was in there about 10 minutes before I gave up. Talking of Beano annuals, the Sanctuary bookshop in Lyme Regis had a very large and very cheap selection of children's annuals when I was there in May. I resisted but I do have a few.
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I can recommend I Flew For The Fuhrer by Heinz Knoke - he was a pilot in the Luftwaffe in WW2. A fascinating account of how his experiences - dogfights, seeing friends killed, etc - changed his outlook on life and his opinions of Germany and their role in the war.
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I've been looking for a book forum - I never seem to find anything with a lot of activity (I guess people are too busy reading!
). Anyway, hello. I read mainly non fiction and visit second hand bookshops a lot (I do read new books too). I have just over 600 dotted around the house in various bookcases and I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get around to reading them all!
More info on my profile and I've been posting in a few threads already and just come across this section so just a friendly hello! -
My team is Liverpool and I've just started finding old biogs - picked up Billy Liddell's from 1960 the other day.
Stanley Matthews The Way It Was is in my collection via a used bookshop - looking forward to reading that. I also have old books by Jackie Milburn and Tom Finney.More recent - Simon Jordan's Be Careful What You Wish For is a great read - about how he took over Crystal Palace and then lost it. Obviously The Damned United is a good read but there was another book by Phil Rostron written in answer to that called We Are The Damned United - which interviews the players and goes through what was true from that era and what wasn't. Fascinating chats with the old footballers.
Broken Dreams by Tom Bower is an excellent insight into the machinations of the FA and how football worked in recent times (and more often, how it didn't). Quite an eye opener into corporate ineptitude and backstabbings.
Clark Carlisle's You Don't Know Me, But... is another good read - not a well known footballer but he had his demons. He works for the PFA now. -
I love Bill Bryson. He has such a dry sardonic way of looking at things. Agree though, with the latest book he comes across as more of a grumpy old man than he ever did before (while still being funny; I just didn't agree with him quite as much). He also did a radio series on the origins of the English language which is available as an audiobook through Audible - or at least, was. That's excellent too.
Bill Bryson
in Non Fiction
Posted · Edited by Flip Martian
Shirley, if you enjoyed this one I would urge you to try The Lost Continent, which was his first, travelling around the USA, and Neither Here Nor There, travelling around Europe. Also Notes From a Small Island which is the original tour of the UK that Little Dribbling was a sequel to.
Edited to add - not a lot of the grumpiness in either