Flip Martian

I think our TV came with 2 pairs of glasses. Must admit not really used them much. Seen one or two films in the cinema in 3D on a big screen but as MrCat said - whether they're worth seeing in 3D depends on whether they were filmed in that format or not. It works ok on tv but I always think some things are out of focus in 3D - the overall picture seems sharper in 2D to me.

I'm amazed Amazon haven't got an Australian site as well - they have UK, US, Germany, Canada, several other country specific ones.

I tried listening to 1 in the car once - big mistake, I couldn't concentrate on it as I was too busy watching the road. Conversation with my wife in the car I can handle - can't listen to someone telling a story though.

I have quite a few...as a kid I had access to some books that were my Dad's when HE was young - a Roy Rogers annual and some Toby Twirl books - the TT books stayed with me and now sit in my antiquarian bookcase. The Roy Rogers annual got lost many years ago, with younger siblings etc - but I found the same one on ebay so have that in my collection now. 1 more - when I was 10, I remember visiting my Grandad's house in Kenya - he had 60s Pan James Bond novels and I used to read them while over there (we went for a month at a time). I guess I was quite an advanced reader at the time... Anyway, I saw 1 or 2 60s copies in a book stall for a pound each and bought those - and now have a complete set of late 50s/early 60s Pan/Great Pan Bond novels. I love the covers from that time, they're so well done. None are that valuable but that wasn't the point.

I don't think I've ever clicked on an ad to go to Amazon or wherever. If I was reading here, I rarely think "need to go to..." at that particular moment. To be honest, I rarely even notice advertising banners, I guess I just blank them out if its not what I'm reading at that moment on the page.

Shock horror, sometimes Amazon isn't the cheapest. Sometimes Wordery has the same item cheaper but more often with used books I use Abebooks and find a seller there, or eBay occasionally. Mostly Abebooks though. I did vote for Other, Amazon, Wordery and Book Depository (although I've only bought from them via Amazon, I think).

Ooh, useful. Thanks, I've saved that page

Agreed - I used to hate dark when younger.

None at all but at some point you'd need shower gel or something, surely...

Haha! Yes, sounds like my efforts too

I can't offer any advice ( I read mostly non fiction) but welcome to the forum!

I like dark chocolate, and prefer it to milk these days. I generally stick to 72% or so, I find anything stronger is ok for 1 or 2 squares but no more than that. Which I suppose is a good way of not eating too much chocolate...

My tastes are fairly specific so I doubt anyone would spend the time buying me what I want (unless they went in my LibraryThing "books wishlist" So amazon vouchers would be fine for me, I can get my own then

Mulled wine would be nice - the nights are so cold already! haha. Doubt I'll get there until the New Year but its the only one within an hour's drive I've yet to visit I think, so it is on the list

Looking back on my Facebook "memories" over the last week or 2, this is the first year in some time I haven't had a stinking cold at this time! Of course, not being on the usual commuter train to work and mingling with loads of people probably has a lot to do with that but I take the positives where I can! Feeling very laid back and relaxed but not "christmassy" as such. Looking forward to having my wife home over xmas - she started working as "occasional" help at a day care centre and has ended up working 4 and 5 day weeks for the last few weeks. So it will be nice to just relax and spend some time together.

Hiya, welcome

Thanks Ian, hope you enjoy them I'm the same with fiction, don't know why!

Just finished my latest book. A longer review but then its quite a long book. Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell by Tom Bower Tom Bower is a really good writer - I have another of his books, Broken Dreams (about corruption in Football), which i really enjoyed. I saw this book in a charity shop for a pound, saw it was written by Bower and thought "I bet that might be worth reading". And it is. At the same time, its quite an annoying book. Why? The subject slightly, but more the egotistical, self absorbed and vain people that inhabit his world. Few (well, none, actually) come across with any redeeming features. Cheryl Cole, Paula Abdul, Will.I.Am, Louis Walsh (actually he's not quite as bad as some), Sinitta and his other exes that he keeps as friends by seemingly giving them houses, cars and holidays. All pretty unpleasant people more concerned with their own "status" and place in their gilded world. Even David Walliams in a brief cameo comes across as clingy and insecure and desperate for approval; Sometimes I just had to stop reading as some of the characters were coming across so badly. Cowell is incredibly vain and insecure; also far too bothered about money than is healthy for anyone. Would I want even a small percentage of his money? Of course. Would I want to be that kind of person to get it, loaded with his vanity and insecurity? No... To be driven so much by the desire to make money and get revenge on business partners he felt had cheated him in some way, is ultimately pretty unhealthy. Success was not enough. Achievements were never enough - its always working on the next thing that interested him. In his favour, he clearly works extremely hard at what he does and is very focused. He also likes dogs and supports many charities, so clearly he's not completely a "bad person". Does he give a tinker's cuss for anyone else? Not many people no. 1 example: he spent millions changing a multimillion dollar mansion in LA, upsetting his neighbours with months of disruption (while he lived elsewhere) and he's quoted as calling THEM the neighbours from hell because they dared to complain. He seemingly has very few friends, preferring to confide in a small network of trusted exes and fellow rich people. Clearly he's very good at what he does and for many years found it hard to delegate, so ended up working long long days. But he's also a master manipulator - constantly feeding nonsense stories to the press to improve ratings, while bending his press chums ears to keep out any unsavoury stories about him (bad publicity is only welcome if its on someone else, clearly) - at least until this book was originally published and serialised in the press. He also constantly seemed to engineer tension between the judges on his shows, as it makes "better tv". So while its not all fixed and scripted, its definitely engineered that way - the animosity is real. Bower has gone to great lengths in his research - Cowell (to his credit) was well aware of the book and met with Bower several times to answer questions and agreed not to have any editorial say over the book at all - so fair play to him for that. If you like X Factor or any of the *insert countryname*'s Got Talent shows, or have even a slight interest in what Cowell does or what makes him tick, this is a great read about him, his world, and on what goes on to put those shows together. They don't rely on people coming for auditions by the way - they also have teams scouring the country, the internet, youtube etc for likely possible people, who are then persuaded to come along for audition. They don't just rely on getting awful people in front of the camera - they work very hard to find people with the possible star quality as ultimately that gets the ratings up - and makes him far more money. X Factor is a machine designed to find talent, that he and his companies can then sell to make millions. He doesn't have much to do with the winners - they're ultimately product and when they stop selling he doesn't give them a second thought. They make money too - but ultimately he and his companies make far more from them. Fascinating book, well written and excruciatingly well researched. An eye opener into how shows like that are created - not just his but The Voice and other shows; all fake and manufactured, with contestants and audiences manipulated for maximum effect. And just how vain (and awful) tv people can be, however you see them come across in interviews. And how people with that much money live. And about Cowell himself. Millions watch those shows regardless. Rather glad I don't; I don't much care for being manipulated.

Hi Alex; I see from your post on page 1 that you read the Bobby Moore biog. Can you remember what you thought of it? I noted you gave it 3/5. I only ask as I came across his autobiog from the 60s the other day online and googling that led me to finding out about the one you listed. You have quite a range of reading material! I have many of the Poirot novels here - old paperbacks inherited from my Nan - that I have yet to have a go at. Not really one for fiction but loving the tv series, I thought they'd be worth a go.

Hiya, welcome!

Hi! Thanks for that, I'll add it to my "to find" list The Kuper book is interesting - especially the more uptodate later articles (the 2nd one on Wenger, especially). But ultimately its a collection of articles that could have been put together a bit better for the book, I think. Still, once again it was one of my £1 charity shop finds, so not complaining. Did make me think I should try Kuper's other books. Cheers for commenting!

I can understand that. My going to work bag did get a bit silly at 1 point. I used to have a Sony PSP if I fancied playing a game on the train, my ebook reader (when it was new) and my mp3 player. Even now (or at least, last time I was working) I still had an mp3 player but also have a book and an ipad. I rarely travel light...

Or heat, or lighting... Well, if they're at ALL interested in old books, then you would be doing them a disservice by NOT taking them, I think... Very self sacrificing of you...

Soldier Five: The Real Truth About The Bravo Two… by Mike Coburn And here it is...The 3rd book written about the Bravo Two Zero mission by one of the ill fated 8 man patrol. It seems a great shame, after reading this, that Andy McNab and Chris Ryan (who wrote the other) have benefited hugely by their previous tales of the mission (which were rather embellished) and that this may well be largely ignored - "who needs yet ANOTHER book about it?" indeed. And yet this is a book the MoD spent £7m of taxpayers money and 5 years of legal proceedings trying to stop getting published. Why? Because it reveals the awful cockups by the military which led to their predicament - and ultimately to the loss of 3 of the men on the patrol. It is also far less tarted up with vivid descriptions of firefights than the others - much of which didn't actually happen, apparently. Ultimately, as per the original McNab book (I haven't read Ryan's nor do I intend to as that too has been discredited), this is a tale of failure. A patrol dropped in the wrong place, with no transport (there wasn't enough to go around); with the wrong information on where to go in the event things went wrong; with the wrong radio frequencies given to them, which meant when they needed a particular comms system it wouldn't work; yet more comms equipment which failed, and when they WERE able to get out a short message about their plight to request rescue (or at the very least, working radio equipment), the powers that be decided not to do anything. They were also told by their OC (officer in charge) to head for the Syrian border should there be trouble - contrary to what the military orders actually were (head in the opposite direction to Saudi Arabia). Coburn's story is told in s straight forward fashion, not pulling punches but not whingeing either. He also puts the record straight on the reputation of 1 of the men who died - virtually branded a coward in Ryan's book (one can only guess to give it a USP with the book buying public at the time). There's also a section on his legal fight to get the book published, and the various underhand ways the MoD tried to stop him. Of any of the Bravo Two Zero books, this to me would seem to be the one to get. The real eye opener is the inability of those behind the scenes to actually be organised, equipped and able to get on with the task at hand without screwing things up. It's an eye opener for that reason - I'm naturally a pacifist, myself; but if this is indicative of how we conduct wars overseas, then God help the poor sods being sent away to fight for their country...

Two books from the Iraq war, sadly one is far better known than the 2nd, despite them being about the same subject matter. First, the more famous one... Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab I'd never read it. I know its popular and everyone's heard of it...but I never read it. But I found a hardback copy for a quid (got to love the Age UK shop in Wolverton!) and thought I'd give it a go. Ultimately its the story of a failure - a mission that went wrong immediately and their attempted escape from it. It's well told, its very readable, very descriptive and the dialogue throughout is mainly believable. Sadly however, a quick google will expose this for being a rather embellished version of the truth. Maybe the publishing company wanted it "sexed up" or something. The descriptions of his interrogation are very visceral and real sounding - but if any person was beaten and kicked for quite as long, and quite so many times as th author claims in this book, they would surely have been even more worse off than he was (as injured as he was); possibly dead or maimed. Unless he truly is the hardest man in the universe... No doubt much of it happened - it just seems to have been exaggerated a bit - as was when they were compromised, apparently (the way its told they take out Iraqi after Iraqi before escaping). So despite being very readable, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as its impossible to know now which bits are real and which were made up... After 1 or 2 other books were written about the same mission, there came another written much later, with the aim of writing an honest account...