Books - What are you reading?

How does that work? If I just search for whatever and buy it, do you get a cut as long as I do it via that link?

E2a: And would it be better for you if I just got your shop to order it and send it to me?

Yep, as long as you use the link, we get a reasonable cut from the sale. But of course we get a little bit more if you order direct - if it's for something we don't already have, then drop me a message at info@pigeonbooks.co.uk and we should be able to have it within a day or two normally :)

Nice. OK, I'll order direct instead. If you have it, great, but I'm in no rush.

If you want a good doping book my recommendation is; bad blood and breaking the chain.

I bought Breaking the Chain back in 2006. I can't actually remember if I've read it yet. I think so as my brain seems to be pretty familiar with the story around it.

Bad Blood I bought in 2013 and again, don't actually remember if I read it or not.

Just finished 'A Darker Electricity - The Origins of the Spiral Tribe Soundsystem '

Fascinating read (as someone who attended loads of their parties on the early 90's). Also a great record of the events that led to the CJA (fuck the Tories) and some of the underhand tactics used by the Police.

https://velocitypress.uk/product/a-darker-electricity/

Recently restarted "Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood" by Justin Marozzi, after having to shelve it because too much real life shit got in the way. Basically a chronological history of the city from its foundation to c21, but he's spent years there and most chapters start by tying it in to life in Baghdad today.

He's a good story teller and Baghdad is almost the home of story telling (e.g. One thousand and one nights), so there's plenty to entertain. Like the bake-off scene where a random member of the public is pulled off the street into a palace and asked to judge dishes cooked by the Caliph, the Caliph's brother and the city's chief judge, without knowing which is which. Possible head-on-a-spike time, but the guy still has the balls to point at one dish (from the chief judge) and say "This guy used raw shit instead of onions".

I'm currently only at the tail end of the Islamic Golden Age and I know things are only going to get more depressing - I mean, there's the Mongols and Tamerlane to come, way before we get to Saddam. Still, would recommend.

That sounds great.

Do I lose culture points if one motivation for restarting the book is the imminent release of Assassin's Creed: Mirage? I do hope that game shows some of the, um, earthiness of c9 Baghdadi humour. Those people were blowing raspberries centuries before the English decided that was funny.

Oh I finished The Trees, Percival Everett. Loved it. It all got a bit strange towards the end, but would recommend it whole heartedly.

Motivation is fine wherever it comes from, IMO. I started War and Peace because I'm in a literary arms race with my sister in terms of who has read the longest novel.

War and Peace

Battle scenes amazing. Less enamoured of the society parts, which are a bit Russian Downton Abbey. Russian Jane Austen if feeling more charitable.

That's a bit cruel. I'm sure Joe's bike is just around the corner.

Hangover Square was good.

I can only read booze based fiction these days it seems

I can only read booze based fiction these days it seems

That doesn't really limit your reading options much.

Less enamoured of the society parts, which are a bit Russian Downton Abbey.

Nah.... Tolstoy wrote this as someone highly critical of his contemporaries. Julian Fellows creams his pants whenever he sees a signet ring.

Tolstoy wrote this as someone highly critical of his contemporaries.

Up to a point and the Fellowes comparison is inaccurate, but it's all narrated from the PoV of patricians. Platon Karatev is the most prominent prole by far, most other non-nobs being background ciphers with brief appearances, and even he is entirely reported as observed by Pierre. It's not Downton Abbey but it never comes within shooting distance of Gosford Park. I just got tired of that perspective.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

Absolutely loved it, lovely read.

@PhilswitchEngage do you have access to get in the two followups?

Yeah, fair enough. If I recall correctly, the closest Tolstoy gets to the lower classes is giving voice to a huntsman. He really had no clue what the lives of the help were like.

Bit like Orwell then!

https://archive.ph/9Ar8W

Absolutely! There's actually 3 follow-ups now - and I've got one signed copy of the newest one in at the moment if that's something that interests you?

https://pigeonbooks.co.uk/search?q=kawaguchi

Saw that “Between the bridge and the river” by Craig Ferguson was now on kindle, and remembered loving it when it came out (2007 in fact), so gave it another go

It’s mental, clever, funny, obscene. Generally fits quite well with the vibe on here

So… recommended

Are they in the shop? Will pop down one day, prob be next weekend though.

Yeah, they're pretty core lines so I'll usually keep at least one of each on the shelf. Message me a few days before if you want me to keep you anything by :)