When did you last read a good book whilst living in Thailand?

[AlexRich]

4 minutes ago, Mansell said:

A great book is The Knife Man by Wendy Moore. About the father of modern surgery, a Scot who changed many things about operations in a time that blood letting was considered the answer for every malady. If you have had surgery then your life was probably enhanced or saved by this doctor. Many of the internal body parts were named by this doctor and are still used today. 

The author did a great job writing about a very complex man and an extremely complicated subject involving not only human bodies, but also animals. It takes place in a time when the doctor paid for newly buried bodies for his research to be dug up from graveyards. His work dissecting the bodies had to be done quickly because of the heat and no refrigeration or ice available in those times. Fascinating man changing the medical profession in many ways.....remember this was a time when barbers also did surgeries, hence the red and white barber's poles. Great read.

I hope it wasn’t Burke or Hare, Edinburgh body snatchers?

[billd766]

If you like fantasy with a slightly twisted sense of humour try reading the Terry Pratchett Discworld series/ there are over 40 novels and I am on #32 at the moment.

 

Also there is a Charlaine Harris series, Dave Duncan has several books, Cleo Coyle has quite a few in series, Patrick O'Brian has a good series if you like stories about the Royal navy in the 18th century, S M Stirling has a great series about what happens when the modern world dies and the is no electricity, Naomi Novik has a good series if you are into fantasy, Bernard Cornwell has an excellent series pf books in the late 17th and early 18th century about British soldiers, soldiers, Terry Goodkind and Nelson DeMille have a great series each.

 

[KiChakayan]

25 minutes ago, AlexRich said:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez also wrote a non-fiction book called “News of a Kidnapping”, about the victims of kidnapping in a South American country. A good read.

"Love in the Time of Cholera" is equally exhilarating. A great movie too.

[Suradit69]

Below, one of quite a few books now available that demonstrate the reality of colonialism and the absence of truth in earlier portrayals of life under colonial rule, when the colonialists and their naive editors were the only ones (creatively, selectively) producing the history of that era, as a form of politically correct whitewash .

 

Unfortunately most such books have not yet made it to Kindle publication, which is a necessity for me now due to failing eyesight, and the numerous hardcover examples I had did not survive a recent move, but this book is an example of revised, realistic history that I find fascinating when compared to the propaganda taught us when we were in school.

 

Both the behavior of the colonialists and the cover-up of what they did make risible the claim of some posters on TV that countries from which farang come are in any way civilized.

 

Quote

 

Colonial Justice in British India: White Violence and the Rule of Law (Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society) Paperback – December 15, 2011

 

Colonial Justice in British India describes and examines the lesser-known history of white violence in colonial India. By foregrounding crimes committed by a mostly forgotten cast of European characters - planters, paupers, soldiers and sailors - Elizabeth Kolsky argues that violence was not an exceptional but an ordinary part of British rule in the subcontinent. Despite the pledge of equality, colonial legislation and the practices of white judges, juries and police placed most Europeans above the law, literally allowing them to get away with murder. The failure to control these unruly whites revealed how the weight of race and the imperatives of command imbalanced the scales of colonial justice. In a powerful account of this period, Kolsky reveals a new perspective on the British Empire in India, highlighting the disquieting violence that invariably accompanied imperial forms of power.

 

 

[masuk]

17 hours ago, edandpranee said:

Mitchner, Anthony Gray, James Cavelle, Wilbur Smith, James Patterson, Eric Lustbader, Nelson Demille, John Grisham, 

Brad Thor, Jack Silkstone, Clive Cussler, Anne Rice and Ken Follett are some of my favorite authors I've read while in Thailand.  I might also add altho I forget the author"The girl with the Dragon Tattoo"  it's the first of 4 books.  I read on a Kindle and download my books from Amazon

 

 

(Millennium #1) An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

[Moonlover]

Yes, Papillon was an amazing and inspiring read.

 

A brilliant none fiction book I read and reread recently was 'Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan' by William Dalrymple.

 

This book graphically chronicles the first Afghan war in the 1840s, including the infamous 'Retreat from Kabul'.

[cracker1]

I read a book or two each week and based on your enjoyment of Papillon, I would recommend "Shantaram"

[steve73]

The Tomorrow File by Lawrence Sanders.  Written in 1975, and set in a dystopian future of 1998.  Much of his "predictions" are only now coming true, and yet the naiveté of other technology is amusing.

If you like sci-fi like Brave New World, or Stranger in a Strange land you'll enjoy it.

For more mainstream Reacher type novels, I see no one has mentioned Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series.... thoroughly engrossing.  Or try James Rollins' "Sigma" novels if you want to enjoy a bit of "new technology" (similar to some of Michael Crichton's stuff).

Sapiens, as mentioned earlier is brilliant.  I need to find his follow-up..

[ghworker2010]

On 5/8/2019 at 11:00 AM, GarryP said:

Hiiasen is great. He's got a great sense of humour and written some hilarious novels. I like the others too, with the exception of Patterson who seems to now be riding on his name as a "co-author" for other writers. Perhaps a good way to get new writers published, but it is riding on his name and they are not all as good as the earlier solo works he wrote.

 

Reading The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh. Must admit it is an acquired taste and not for everybody.  

which Hiiasen book do you recommend?

[ghworker2010]

On 5/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Lacessit said:

I read books at the rate of one every two days, always have done. Mystery, sci-fi, adventure, biographies - it's all grist to the mill. I revisit favourite authors. 600 books currently on my Kindle.

James Lee Burke, C J Box, Lee Child, Frank Herbert, Eric Flint, Robert Dugoni, John D. MacDonald, Frederick Forsyth, Kerry Greenwood, Ben Aaronovitch, John Grisham, Maurice Druon, Dick Francis, Scott Pratt, Steve Martini, William Diehl, Trevanian, John Buchan, Irving Stone, Ken Follett, John Steinbeck, Arthur C Clarke, Allen Drury.

Wilbur Smith. Geoffrey Jenkins.

Is that enough? I have more.

please answer the OPs question. 1 book.... cannot put down. which is it?

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, ghworker2010 said:

which Hiiasen book do you recommend?

I liked pretty much all of them. Just haven't read his latest yet.

 

Basket Case and Nature Girl were good.

[JimmyTheMook]

[StreetCowboy]

Getting back to the OP's comment, on the advice of someone on this forum I read "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka.  You might find The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi more relevant, interesting, and perhaps as thought-provoking. 

 

If not, you can't go wrong with Ivor Cutler.

Edited May 9, 2019 by StreetCowboy

[gk10002000]

Wow.  Last book read while there?  2007, a biography of quotes from Gandhi.  I was there during Songkran in Pattaya, and pretty much stayed holed up in Flipper lodge and the pool during much of the day to avoid too much of the madness.

[StreetCowboy]

On 5/8/2019 at 10:41 PM, Mansell said:

I don't read much fiction mainly because it isn't well written. An excellent book is, A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester.

About the time when people only had fire etc to live by......some fascinating insights into that period.....things like, back then villages didn't have names, it could be called the village by the stream and by the Oak tree. Nobody ventured very far from their homes, and when young men went off to war and tried to return home they couldn't find the place because there wasn't a real name and they didn't know much about the area etc and were basically lost.

That's the most thought-provoking post on the thread so far.  

 

I've tried to go back to pubs I knew well once, but could not remember the name or the street.  I am guessing it is more distressing when you can't find your wife or family.  I think that is one of the more unlikely elements of the story in the film "A Knight's Tale"- could he really remember his way through the warrens of London back to his home after ten or more years away since he was a young boy?

 

I'm just hoping the postcode system has not changed when I next go back

 

S

[CGW]

On 5/8/2019 at 8:38 PM, pgrahmm said:

Pet peeve is buying something on the go, like in an airport store, & discovering 20 pages in that I've already read it....

Done that! "clever" marketing they change the cover and you think you haven't read it ! 

[StreetCowboy]

On 5/8/2019 at 11:03 PM, AlexRich said:

I hope it wasn’t Burke or Hare, Edinburgh body snatchers?

Everybody's gotta learn some time

[Nyezhov]

Gravitys Rainbow for the umpteenth time

[AlexRich]

1 hour ago, StreetCowboy said:

Everybody's gotta learn some time

By The Korgis ... but I also liked the more recent version by one of the Corr sisters.

[sunnyboy2018]

I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. Unputdownable

[soalbundy]

I'm currently reading "the little prince" in Thai. I was using it to improve my sons Thai reading skills after being ensured that he now reads English perfectly. It so fascinated me that I am now reading it myself for pleasure.

[RocketDog]

If you like fiction bordering on current reality regarding the rise of the surveillance state and how the Internet and computers aid/resist it the Cory Doctorow has a number of fascinating fiction  works.

He also has a short nonfiction presentation that he gave to Microsoft regarding the harm caused by using DRM (DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT) to control copyrighted material therby dictating even the equipnent such material can be viewed in even for legitimate buyers.

 

Little Brother & Homeland are a  2 part series about a hacker/computer savvy character using his skills to resist the smothering of democracy by American Homeland Security. It's easy to slide into as DHS is already clearly out of control in my home country. I guess I should now call it my country of origin.

So it's actually more truth than fiction.

Unauthorized Bread is about net-connected home appliances that serve their manufacturers' interests more than their owners'.

 

Greg Bear is also a prolific sci-fi author with many thoughtful works.

Michael Chricton (Jurassic Park) has a lot of good stuff too.

 

I'm also currently re-reading Isaac Asimovs 'Foundation Series.'

 

I spend a few hours every day reading, but then I did that when I was in my home country too.

 

Reading is stimulating and educational compared to staring into the empty abyss of a television screen and passively letting it subliminally program your conciousness. (In my utterly useless opinion if course.)

[Odysseus123]

I have just finished reading 'Vietnam,An Epic Tragedy-1945-1975" by the renowned British military historian Max Hastings.

A very grim tale indeed.

Also kudos to the poster who mentioned James Lee Burke.Two of his novellas are stand outs for me.

'To the Bright and shining Sun'

'Lay Down my Sword and Shield'.

[ghworker2010]

On 5/8/2019 at 12:35 PM, billd766 said:

I have about 10,000 ebooks that I have collected over the years and I am slowly filing into last name, first name and category such as novels, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who, cookery. There are far more books than I can read in my lifetime. I am reading Caesar by Colleen McCullough at the moment on my Lenovo tablet using FBreader app downloaded free. It is some 1,5xx pages long.

 

please name 1 excellent book that you could not put down bc it was so good

[billd766]

1 hour ago, ghworker2010 said:

please name 1 excellent book that you could not put down bc it was so good

Caesar by Colleen McCullough

 

S M Stirling Change 01 Dies the Fire

S M Stirling Change 02 The Protectors War

S M Stirling Change 03 A meeting at Corvallis

S M Stirling Change 04 The Sunrise Lands

S M Stirling Change 05 The Scourge of God

S M Stirling Change 06 The Sword of the Lady

S M Stirling Change 07 The High King of Montival

S M Stirling Change 08 The Tears of the Sun

S M Stirling Change 09 Lord of the Mountains

 

Almost any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books and Terry Goodkind books.

 

Edward Rutherfurd books. Russka, The rebels of Ireland.

 

Bernard Cornwell Scoundrel

Bernard Cornwell SeaLord

Bernard Cornwell Stormchild

Bernard Cornwell Wildtrack

Bernard Cornwell Crackdown

Bernard Cornwell Grail Quest 01 The Archers tale

Bernard Cornwell Grail Quest 02 Vagabond

Bernard Cornwell Grail Quest 03 Heretic

 

I first started to load Ebooks into my Lenovo on 01 November and by 25th April I have loaded 321. Probably I have dumped 40 or more as I wasn't keen on them but the are still in my Elibrary.

[sharktooth]

Get yourself a kindle a Dropbox account and I’ll give you 6,000 books.

[Nyezhov]

27 minutes ago, sharktooth said:

Get yourself a kindle a Dropbox account and I’ll give you 6,000 books.

what format are they in? Epub or Kindle specific

[tutsiwarrior]

3 hours ago, sharktooth said:

Get yourself a kindle a Dropbox account and I’ll give you 6,000 books.

 

a generous offer indeed...

 

yeah, you got a listing for yer collection? maybe use WORD to alphabetize by author or title...I got a whole lotta digital books that I can't read because they offend my fine tuned/intellectual sensibilities and would hate to duplicate...I got a kindle and the format is .mobi but you can convert anything with calibre...

 

one reads different things for different purposes...I've been reading a lot of the Michael Connolly Harry Bosch series not because I like detective novels but for the vivid descriptions of Los Angeles...the underbelly with the low life bars, the whores and the taco trucks, the homesickness is gloriously excruciating...

 

 

[gamb00ler]

It's been many years since I read fiction but I do remember enjoying several James Clavell novels.  Shogun, King Rat, Noble House Tai-Pan, Mila 18....

 

I probably didn't read a book for 35 years.

 

DJT got me started reading again so I could try and figure out how the US political situation got so messed up.  It's all Newt's fault    LOL.

 

Now I've moved on to non-fiction history books with a science slant such as Origin Story and currently Guns, Germs and Steel.

 

IMHO, eBooks are the way to go.

 

 

 

[sharktooth]

On 5/10/2019 at 6:25 PM, Nyezhov said:

what format are they in? Epub or Kindle specific

Mobi and some pdf