For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
#1722199
Aviation/non aviation/fiction/non-fiction.

I'm listening to audiobook of Patrick Robinson H.M.S Unseen - a sub/spy novel.

Thoroughly enjoying it - very much a surprise to have various places I know extremely well in the book....A815/Loch Fyne/Creggans Inn :D
#1722215
Loads of podcasts and audio books.

Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense - Rory Sutherland (hat tip to whoever gave the RS heads up a week or two ago)
More Bedtime Stories for Cynics - Nick Offerman
Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe? - Geoff White, Bernard P. Achampong
The Enchiredion & Discourses - Epictetus
Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself - Rich Roll :?

After ordering Cameron’s autobiography audiobook it occurred that I’m a bit light on former PMs so I’m treating it as a box set project starting with Thatcher. Cameron might get a look in by new year if I’m really unlucky. :lol:
#1722222
eltonioni wrote:Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense - Rory Sutherland (hat tip to whoever gave the RS heads up a week or two ago


You're welcome.... :oops:
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User avatar
By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1722227
I adore Bryony Gordon and have followed her column in Sunday Telegraph Stella Magazine for years, through her early relationships and her descent into alcoholism and drug abuse to a happy ending with husband and baby daughter.

I used my recent holiday trip (I only seem to open a book on holiday nowadays ) to catch up on 'The Wrong Knickers' and am now reading 'Mad Girl' in which she fleshes out her story with complete candour, highlighting how sanitised her columns were.

A must for anyone or with friends struggling with the demon drink.

Peter :wink:
#1722237
Reading: Skybound by Rebecca Loncraine - if you love flying you will love this book, it evokes the beauty of flight and the fantastic freedom that we are lucky enough to know. Seriously, read this book, it is very well written and is one of the few books that have made me feel as though I was airborne whilst sat in a coffee shop reading. There is a sad aspect to the story but it is gloriously positive throughout.

Listening: Made in America by Bill Bryson, read it years ago but just listening until his next book, The Body, comes out in a few days time.
#1722299
eltonioni wrote:Loads of podcasts and audio books.

..
The Enchiredion & Discourses - Epictetus
..


.. in English or (not the easiest) Greek ? :roll: :)

for myself:

books:
very rarely, almost only 2nd hand and oldish aviation books serendipitously found in 2nd hand bookshops, fiction and nonfiction

magazines:
aviation (Flyer, LAA, AOPA), and any foreign GA ones I spot while overseas
motoring association (free with membership),
'The Oldie' (recommended: well-written bitesize articles by authors with 'hinterland', and a slightly challenging crossword)

newspapers:
'The Times' on Saturday, for the 'Listener' crossword. 'Reading' the rest takes me most of the next week. Must-read columnists: Caitlin Moran, Melanie Reid, Matthew Parris; much of the rest skimmed or skipped

Listening:
R4 available in every room, usually on mostly as background noise at mealtimes, but a bit more attention on some (usually news or history) topics. Must-listen: almost only Archers, and 'news bulletin' parts of 'news magazine' programmes eg 'Today' (better since Humphrys left, not difficult :evil: ); a (very) few of the 1830 'comedy' programmes. Radio Gloucestershire (on catch-up 'Sounds') if they're doing a feature on JAM (gratifyingly often :thumright: )
#1722307
kanga wrote:
eltonioni wrote:Loads of podcasts and audio books.

..
The Enchiredion & Discourses - Epictetus
..


.. in English or (not the easiest) Greek ? :roll: :)

English. :lol: Despite having this chap as my classics teacher (and John Cornwell for economics - lightening can strike twice) I managed to learn and retain even less Greek than Latin. I was a terrible languages student, really, really terrible (7% in French was one notable exam) but the love for the wider subject has never gone away and took me into architecture and ultimately what I do now for a living despite being a very (and I mean very) common boy and man. There's something very fulfilling about hearing what other people think and testing your own ideas against it and those teachers are probably to blame more than any long dead philosopher, but the ancients did leave some cracking tomes behind. :thumleft:
#1722364
eltonioni wrote:.. having this chap as my classics teacher (and John Cornwell for economics - lightening can strike twice) ..


Privilege indeed! :thumright:

<Continuing drift :oops: >

.. despite having used much more Modern Greek (and Italian) since leaving formal education than I did Classical (and Latin) during it, I find I can still read both of the older ones almost as easily. And I have my own grandfather's Liddell and Scott and his Lewis and Short, and find I have occasion to consult them fairly regularly. Unlike modern language dictionaries, they hardly need updating, of course :)

</>
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#1722377
It's a very long time since I read classical Greek and I wasn't any good even then so I would probably mix up the Greek alphabet with the phonetic one. The Latin isn't so bad but chances to practice are few and I usually need help these days if there's anyone listening who might know more than me. Romanus in domus est. :)

I've been enjoying so many audiobooks recently that I'm trying the Enchiridion that way with an older translation by Thomas Higginson. By way of modern comparison, last year I tried to get through Jordan Peterson's much shorter list with his "12 Rules For Life" book (still need to be down wid da kidz) and gave up after four of his attempts at cod homespun advice dressed up as classical thinking. Once Epictetus is done with I'm heading back to the biggies ; Seneca, Virgil, Homer, Garnett.
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