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Anyone recommend some book titles?


Asquith Production

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What with these Thai controls just forget non-fiction and take yourself out of your self and read an exciting set of books like 'The  Spooks'  or the Sharpe books there are so many out there to enjoy without getting too serious.  Also try E books as they are much cheaper. Good luck. 

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Just finished Civilised to Death by Christopher Ryan, a great read, albeit a sombre look at the madness that is civilisation.. Best book so far this year and I am a prodigious reader (3 or more books a week)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28596619-civilized-to-death

 

Tom Neale's account of when he lived alone on an Island is one of the few books I have read multiple times  "An Island to Oneself"

http://riverbendnelligen.com/tomneale/

 

John Gray's Straw Dogs is another great read from earlier this year

https://www.amazon.com.au/Straw-Dogs-Thoughts-Humans-Animals/dp/0374270937

 

 

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5 hours ago, Asquith Production said:

Thanks Ive just finished Chickenhawk which is about a Huey pilot in Vietnam

In that vein, One Crowded Hour seems to be highly recommend, I have not read it though.  It's about a an acclaimed Aussie Vietnam War camerman, who was later killed in Thailand during one of the numerous coups.

 

Just about everyone will have seen his video footage of Vietnam and not know who took it.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/418780.One_Crowded_Hour

 

Neil Davis was the subject of the book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Davis_(cameraman)

Edited by BumGun
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32 minutes ago, Libai said:

What with these Thai controls just forget non-fiction and take yourself out of your self and read an exciting set of books like 'The  Spooks'  or the Sharpe books there are so many out there to enjoy without getting too serious.  Also try E books as they are much cheaper. Good luck. 

Thanks. I have read a lot of fiction in my time but do like to learn something from a book if I can. Will have a look at the spooks books though.

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22 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Z-Library is good to browse if you don't quite know what you're looking for.

Hadn't heard of Z-library before.    It sure looks interesting. 

 

But, if I understand correctly, it is based in Russia.     Is there a considerable malware risk?

 

How many titles can you download monthly for free?

 

Also, can you download mobi files from Z-library?   I don't much care for PDFs. And when I use Calibre program to convert PDFs to mobi, the result becomes unreadable, in my experience.

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Not a list of Books but very popular Authers Stephen Leather, Danial Silva,Lee Child,James Patterson they have done a load of Books just google them and take your pick, James Patterson has done a Series called Private very good,but my favorite out of these is Danial Silva his theme is the Mossad,

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20 minutes ago, BananaBandit said:

Also, can you download mobi files from Z-library?   I don't much care for PDFs. And when I use Calibre program to convert PDFs to mobi, the result becomes unreadable, in my experience.

PDF is for glossy colour publications IMHO.

MOBI, EPUB, AZW are completely interchangeable formats in Calibre.

I have a Kindle so I only use AZW.

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I keep a list of the books that I have read, but only those for which I have given 4 or 5 stars out of a possible 5.  Here are some of the nonfiction titles well worth your time:

 

1.   I am nearly finished Gwynne Dyer's The Shortest History of War.   Dyer is a military historian and his book is incredibly well researched and footnoted.

2.   Studs Terkel's Working:  People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.  Terkel is known for his oral histories, and this book is one of his best in that genre.  Other titles of his are also worth reading.

3.   Robert Graysmith's Zodiac:  The Shocking True Story of the Hunt for the Nation's Most Elusive Serial Killer.  

4.   Tracy Borman's Thomas Cromwell:  The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant.  

5.    William Shirer's  The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

6.     Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman:  A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Marking of the Oxford English Dictionary.

7.  Gayatri Devi's A Princess Remembers:  The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur.  This may be difficult to find; may have to order it hardcopy.

8.  Peter Biskind's My Lunches With Orson:  Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles.

9.   David Grann's  The Lost City of Z:  A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

10.   Brian Keating's  Losing the Nobel Prize:  A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor.

11.    Dava Sobel's  Longitude:  The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.

12.  David Grann (yet again!)'s  Killers of the Flower Moon:  The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.  "In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma." Their wealth?  OIL!   ..."One by one, the Osage began to be killed off. More and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. The newly created FBI took up the case "  under the young director, J. Edgar Hoover.  [quotes courtesy of Amazon.]

13.  Dee Brown's   Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:  An Indian History of the American West

14.   Alan Stern and David Grinspoon's  Chasing New Horizons:  Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto.

 

If I can get around to it, I will add another "missive" with the rest of the titles on my list.  I hope that you will enjoy at least some of these books as much as I did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by LarryLEB
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Anything (fiction of an historical bent) by Cormac McCarthy and James Ellroy.

Anything by Bertrand Russell.

Unreported Truths about Covid-19 and Lockdowns, Parts 1 and 2, by Alex Berenson.

 

The Age of Global Warming: A History, by Rupert Darwall.  Sceptical look at the climate "debate".

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The Sunday Smuggler by Christopher V. V. Parnell is definitely a must read in my opinion. That guy’s sense of humor is outrageous! And yeah, it’s a prison story book, but the guy is a really gifted writer and it’s not a “poor me” book that’s so typical for these types of stories. I’d definitely read that, if I was you. 
 

If you haven’t read Shantaram and its sequel The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts, yet, then I’d do that ASAP. They’re novels, but they’re based on true events that are woven into the story. Shantaram is one of the very few books that I’d wish had 200 pages on top of the 800+ it already has. That guy is an extremely gifted writer and it was a joy to read them both! As a matter of fact, I keep re-reading them about every two years. 
 

I’ve also read a lot of autobiographies of actors and musicians, etc., The Dirt by Motley Crew was an eye opener and so were Slash’s and Duff McKagan’s books. Eric Clapton’s, Keith Richard’s and Mike Tyson’s autobiographies were very interesting, too! 
 

If you’re into ancient Egypt and the Pyramids I’d highly recommend Robert Bauval’s The Egypt Code. It’s non-fiction and extremely interesting. I have nothing but respect for the ancient Egyptians, their knowledge and achievements! Great book! 

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3 hours ago, phetphet said:

Shantaram.

Black Water: By Strength By Guile. by Don Camsell.

 

Shantaram is awesome and easily one of the best books I’ve ever read. A few years back a sequel called The Mountain Shadow has been released, just so you know, in case you aren’t aware of it. Great book, too! Definitely worth buying. Can’t wait for the third part to come put! No release date on that one, yet, though. 

Edited by pacovl46
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21 minutes ago, LarryLEB said:

I keep a list of the books that I have read, but only those for which I have given 4 or 5 stars out of a possible 5.  Here are some of the nonfiction titles well worth your time:

 

1.   I am nearly finished Gwynne Dyer's The Shortest History of War.   Dyer is a military historian and his book is incredibly well researched and footnoted.

2.   Studs Terkel's Working:  People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.  Terkel is known for his oral histories, and this book is one of his best in that genre.  Other titles of his are also worth reading.

3.   Robert Graysmith's Zodiac:  The Shocking True Story of the Hunt for the Nation's Most Elusive Serial Killer.  

4.   Tracy Borman's Thomas Cromwell:  The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant.  

5.    William Shirer's  The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

6.     Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman:  A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Marking of the Oxford English Dictionary.

7.  Gayatri Devi's A Princess Remembers:  The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur.  This may be difficult to find; may have to order it hardcopy.

8.  Peter Biskind's My Lunches With Orson:  Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles.

9.   David Grann's  The Lost City of Z:  A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

10.   Brian Keating's  Losing the Nobel Prize:  A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor.

11.    Dava Sobel's  Longitude:  The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.

12.  David Grann (yet again!)'s  Killers of the Flower Moon:  The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.  "In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma." Their wealth?  OIL!   ..."One by one, the Osage began to be killed off. More and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. The newly created FBI took up the case "  under the young director, J. Edgar Hoover.  [quotes courtesy of Amazon.]

13.  Dee Brown's   Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:  An Indian History of the American West

14.   Alan Stern and David Grinspoon's  Chasing New Horizons:  Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto.

 

If I can get around to it, I will add another "missive" with the rest of the titles on my list.  I hope that you will enjoy at least some of these books as much as I did!

 

I have read Longitude and enjoyed it. So will have a look at your other recommendations. Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 7/27/2021 at 7:54 AM, Asquith Production said:

Can anyone recommend some Non-fiction books that they found  interesting.

You might not find the same items interested as I, but if Thai related...

 

A History of Thailand by Chris Baker & Pasuk Phongpaichit, Cambridge University Press

Confessions of A Bangkok Private Eye by Warren Olson, Monsoon Books

Ladyboys, The Secret World of Thailand's Third Gender by Susan Aldous & Pornchai Sreemongkonpol, Maverick House Publishers

Bridging the Gap by Kriengsak Niratpattanasai, Asia Books

Thailand Fever by Chris Pirazzi & Vitada Vasant, Paiboon Publishing

 

and the boring, but informative one...

Thai Law for Foreigners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker & Roengsak Thongkaew, Paiboon Publishing

 

Some other interesting litterature...

Oedipus and Akhnaton by Immanuel Velikovsky, Abacus

Grey Wold, The Escape of Adolf Hitler by Simon Dunstain & Gerrard Williams, Sterling

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Beigent, Richard Leigh & Henry Lincoln, Corgi Books

False Alarm by Bjorn Lomborg, Basic Books

????

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A lot of good recommendations that I need to check out.  While the majority of books I read are on my iPad I do like to read an old style book like a paperback or hardcover.  When I’m in Bangkok I usually stop at Dasa books on Sukhumvit and pick up a few used paperbacks.  I search their website for books that I am interested in but when I get there I also find some other interesting titles.

Edited by statman78
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I'd like to recommend to you, a series based around the life of Genghis Khan. It's "historical fiction", written by a terrific author CON IGGULDEN, The first book in the "Conquerer Series" (of 5 titles) is called "Wolf of the Plains". They are interesting, exciting, give great characterisation and are built around the strue stories. I love them (as I do the later "Emperor Series" on Julius Caesar). I really look forward to reading them, as they hold your attention so well. Give them a try - I'm sure you won't be disappointed. 

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have you read Mien Kompf? ???? 

 

Just joking but if you stray from history as told by others (remember it was gospel that Columbus discovered America) then I would suggest Zayne Grey, Louis L'Amour, (American Old West adventure-historically accurate but adequately embellished) Edgar Rice Burroughs (old fiction, adventure), Tom Clancy (newer fiction, adventure), J. R. R. Tolkien (dig a little, he didn't only write The Hobbit series) "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 1925, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", 1926

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I am an historian of Asian war campaigns. One of the best books which was a PHD thesis and used today at Sandhurst and Westpoint. Is 

‘Street without Joy. By Bernard Fall.

it categorizes the political and the military perspective from BOTH sides during the loss of Indochina. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the run up to the American war.

 

Next.

‘Chicken hawk’ by Robert Mason. He was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam war. Now classed as a mini classic.

There are funny times and hard times. A great book.

if you want more about the wars in Asia, please let me know as I have over 60 books that I read and have read as a historian of the region.

regards

Ben

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