Honourable mention also to Beyond Retribution - overcoming war and conflict in Latin America, Africa and Asia and what constitutes justice and the balance between vengeance and peace. 

Also the always popular Hite Report - sexuality updated. I've just noticed that my copy of Jackie Oh! has not been returned to me - it's by far my favourite hatchet job celebrity biography.

Do we have a book group? Maybe there should be one.

A lovely room and a varied collection. Most of mine are Sci-Fi, Travel, Cold War stuff and Reference with a few classics and some rarities that I inherited from my Father.

cosmictanya wrote:

I've just noticed that my copy of Jackie Oh! has not been returned to me - it's by far my favourite hatchet job celebrity biography.

Do we have a book group? Maybe there should be one.

Never lend anything!
I had a great book of Roger Deans artwork which cost me a few bob, leant it to someone, forgot who now......probably been chucked out.

Zarniwoop wrote:

A lovely room and a varied collection. Most of mine are Sci-Fi, Travel, Cold War stuff and Reference with a few classics and some rarities that I inherited from my Father.

Have you read Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher? It's very good. Funny. Sad. She's a goddess to Star Trek fans isn't she? 

For Cold War I turn repeatedly to The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire - Volkogonov trawled KGB archives etc to produce a comprehensive overview and I must've read it every couple of years since 1999.

Actually that's reminded me of another unreturned gem - Siberian Dream, a girl in Communist Ulaan Bator who grows up to become a New York model, via China and Moscow during the Soviet collapse.

No I know, I am very wary of lending books. I think not giving them back to someone who loved them enough to share them with only you is a mark of scum. I've been burned several times by that, and would never dream of doing it to anyone.

My most grievous loss was a handwritten manuscript by a Welsh nun, describing her sexual awakening with various labourers in the valleys and her subsequent decision to glorify Christ through org*sm. Gone - lent with love, and lost.

Zarniwoop wrote:

A lovely room and a varied collection. Most of mine are Sci-Fi, Travel, Cold War stuff and Reference with a few classics and some rarities that I inherited from my Father.

Biographies are my passion. I'd like an entire wall of biographies in my library. Stalin, Versace, Jackie, Diana, Wallis Simpson, Yves Saint Laurent, Katherine of Aragon, Mary Stuart, Marie Antionette, Ayatollah Khomeini, Audrey, Marilyn, Beau Brummell by Kelly, Mr Nice, Dowager Empress Cixi - all excellent. 

Biographies of places also. Sitting here now I see Jerusalem by Sebag Montefiore and that is absolutely excellent. Athens by Meier also fab. Gotham by Burrows and Walkace is so huge I haven't finished it. Israel by Gilbert ought to be mandatory in schools.

Shah of shahs is beautiful. Written by Kapuscinski. Considering the geopolitical  implications for us all and for the Cold War, its very good. Russia by Martin Sixsmith also - am I imagining things or did he used to do the news?

Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, Versace Vulgar Favours - the hunt for Andrew Cunanan, and Ireland's Independence 1880-1923 by Walsh are also books I'd recommend to all.  Foreskins Lament is very touching. Morocco That Was. Male Nudes by Seidner.

You have to keep classics. When We Were Very Young by AA Milne is a battered testament to my lovely grandparents. I gave my Each Peach Pear Plum to my half niece and regret it. There's a lot of art books here my son scribbled on as a kid.

Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes may appeal to you if you haven't already read it. So many wonderful books. Breakfast At Tiffany's - I prefer the film to be fair. Russia, America, The  Bomb and the Fall of Western Europe might appeal to your Cold War sensibilities.

Too many to list and so many more waiting in shops to find their home. I really do find Toppings completely excellent as far as bookshops go. Make your way along to your nearest one and have a wonderful and welcoming time.

I sneer at both of your puny book collections.



I've nearly as many Penguin Modern Classics as you've got libraries put together.

I read a book once. It were green.

After getting those 900 books out of the house I still have another 900 on the shelves.

I need to get rid of at least 1,000 rekids.

Spoiler alert: Won't happen.

1000? That must be some kind of rec-hoard!

Spin on it! At 33.3r

Nightjar wrote:

I sneer at both of your puny book collections.



I've nearly as many Penguin Modern Classics as you've got libraries put together.

Stands to reason - being of a certain age, you've had several more decades to collect things.

cosmictanya wrote:

Zarniwoop wrote:

A lovely room and a varied collection. Most of mine are Sci-Fi, Travel, Cold War stuff and Reference with a few classics and some rarities that I inherited from my Father.

Biographies are my passion. I'd like an entire wall of biographies in my library. Stalin, Versace, Jackie, Diana, Wallis Simpson, Yves Saint Laurent, Katherine of Aragon, Mary Stuart, Marie Antionette, Ayatollah Khomeini, Audrey, Marilyn, Beau Brummell by Kelly, Mr Nice, Dowager Empress Cixi - all excellent. 

Biographies of places also. Sitting here now I see Jerusalem by Sebag Montefiore and that is absolutely excellent. Athens by Meier also fab. Gotham by Burrows and Walkace is so huge I haven't finished it. Israel by Gilbert ought to be mandatory in schools.

Shah of shahs is beautiful. Written by Kapuscinski. Considering the geopolitical  implications for us all and for the Cold War, its very good. Russia by Martin Sixsmith also - am I imagining things or did he used to do the news?

Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, Versace Vulgar Favours - the hunt for Andrew Cunanan, and Ireland's Independence 1880-1923 by Walsh are also books I'd recommend to all.  Foreskins Lament is very touching. Morocco That Was. Male Nudes by Seidner.

You have to keep classics. When We Were Very Young by AA Milne is a battered testament to my lovely grandparents. I gave my Each Peach Pear Plum to my half niece and regret it. There's a lot of art books here my son scribbled on as a kid.

Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes may appeal to you if you haven't already read it. So many wonderful books. Breakfast At Tiffany's - I prefer the film to be fair. Russia, America, The  Bomb and the Fall of Western Europe might appeal to your Cold War sensibilities.

Too many to list and so many more waiting in shops to find their home. I really do find Toppings completely excellent as far as bookshops go. Make your way along to your nearest one and have a wonderful and welcoming time.

An impressive reading list, far more varied than mine.
I will have to up my game.

Road of Bones is very good. By Fergal Keane. I have my grandfathers copy - actually I bought it for him because he was at Kohima...

'Outnumbered ten to one, the defenders fought the Japanese hand to hand in a battle that was the most savage in modern warfare..inflicting on the Imperial Japanese army the worst defeat in its history...they [British and Indian] called the road back to Burma the 'road of bones' as friends and comrades committed suicide or dropped dead from hunger in the jungle'. 

It's a very moving and comprehensive account. My grandfather only read about it and spoke about it in the last couple of decades of his life - he said Road of Bones was the best account he'd ever read. 

Highly recommend if 20th century war is a genre of interest.

Actually, for lesser told perspectives on the war, Coco Chanel by Madsen is very thorough and well written. She had quite a horrible life really, and seems rather sociopathic but her wartime activities/contacts and ruthless success in business are fascinating. And she had the perfect death - rich and old and kind of bored after doing everything she wanted, she was chauffeur driven into the setting sun to her suite at the Ritz to be injected with a massive dose of morphine.

cosmictanya wrote:

Stands to reason - being of a certain age, you've had several more decades to collect things.

“When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not"

Any progress? What do you think of new builds?

I don't know why but I've somehow agreed to go and see one, or rather the site of one. It might be nice to have minimal upkeep to be concerned about. There's always a floorboard or a bit of plaster in here that needs fixed. Apparently you can dictate the interior a little if you get in pre building. This model is six bedrooms, four of them e/s. That seems excessive. If the fifth and sixth bedrooms were taken out along with two of the adjoining bathrooms then I'd be able to have all my wardrobe under the same roof as me, off my own bedroom suite. The remaining e/s bed/bath as a guest one, and the two bedrooms without would be perfect for my son, and his daughter/him when she isn't there.

There again, it's probably a very bad time to be doing any such thing. It feels a bit like the last remaining support post of the entire economy is just waiting to be put out of its misery.

I was just now looking online at a cosy little square semi in Bearsden, with a driveway and shiny black railings. But it looked a bit too respectable for me.

I don't despise new builds, but from my observations the people who buy them seem to be on tight margins, and that tends to mean selfish behaviour - vans parked in front of your house and so on. I've had my fill of those kinds of neighbours.

After 2 months of walking back and forth to the storage unit, my house is now tidy enough for the estate agent to look at.

So if I can pluck up enough courage, I'll phone them on Thursday and get this sale on the road.

It's a matter of urgency, I'm afraid I'm going to end up getting sectioned if I stay here much longer with the selfish neighbours.