What are you reading right now?

[Randy Cornhole]

At the moment I am reading 'Three men on the Bummel' the follow up to one of my all time fav's 'Three men in a boat' by Jerome K Jerome...

[BaaBaa.]

HHAD

[Guess]

HHAD

Yes of course, that was going to be my answer but you got there first.

The strange thing is that am am also min the middle of reading 1421 (for the second time) and agree 100% with what Lomu has said. However it demonstrates that history as we have been taught is far from the truth. people do not want to attempt to answer questions when they have absolutely no idea of the truth so they just accept what the already have been taught

Another good book that is available in Thailand is Jared Diamond's , Guns, Germs and Steel.

Not history as such but anthropological hypothesis. gripping stuff with a superb insight as to why the world we know has become what it is.

Other stuff is 9/11 related with a focus on Mossad's involvement which has now become accepted by the US media which to a large part run by Jews. They is least one new web site appearing every day on this subject.

Other god stuff is the killing of Pablo Escobar (from the author of Black Hawk Down) ans Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. The best and most vivid account I have read about this horrific battle that is probably the worst the world has ever seen. It makes Enemy at the Gates look like a Romance.

[STEVE G]

Some good stuff there Guess, we’ve obviously been visiting the same book shops! Being back in Luxembourg I get most of my books here from a shop that specializes in foreign literature and on a whim I bought William Goldings-Lord of the Flies which I’m rather enjoying; I hadn’t seen a copy since I was at school.
As for 1421, I enjoy reading it even though it seems a bit far fetched; I can accept Australia and the East coast of Africa, but I think crossing the Atlantic is going too far. I also find it convenient that despite exploring the whole world, they supposedly missed out Europe, the one place where they would definitely have been recorded into written history. That said, it’s still a well written book, even if the whole thing turns out to be bunkum!

[lomuamart]

I'd have to read 1421 a second time. I was so engrossed first time round that some assumptions made by the author, that I thought might be suspect, were in the back of my mind, but I just wanted to keep turning the pages rather than thinking about them too much.
Having just finished "Surviving the Sword" by Brian MacArthur, I think I'll put historical books away for a while. That was truely harrowing - all about prisoners of the Japanese 1942-45.
There's hardly a page that I read that didn't result in my putting the book down for a minute or two and reflecting. It took a while to get through.
Just some of the things that stood out for me were the following:
A British prisoner getting a "Dear John" letter from his girlfriend - two years after it was written. She'd decided to marry his father!!!!!! and signed the letter off as "Mother". The chap was already so sick, that it was the straw that broke the camel's back and he died 2 days later.
The Brit who returned home, having survived it all to a family that had thought him dead for 3 years. His father didn't recognise him and all the returnee said was "It's me, Dad. Your son. I'm OK. I've come home".
And the fact that retribution towards the Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean guards was not as bad as might have been expected after liberation. The prisoners had seen it all. They didn't need to stoop to those depths themselves.
Plus the fact that the liberators simply couldn't understand what these people had gone through. The prisoners found that their healthy colleagues lost interest in their stories after a short while. They were that horrific.
I havn't given anything away about the book. It's not as if it has some kind of fictional plot about it. Every page will make you think. Based around diaries that were written by the prisoners during their captivity (upon pain of death), the author has simply inserted other historical data.
A painful read and certainly not for the fainthearted or those who cry easily.

[BaaBaa.]

Has anybody read very thai?
Worth buying?

[huahinsimon]

I'm reading Thailand Fever, just finished Private Dancer,

HHS

[ianjames]

I finished reading the excellent "Coroner's Lunch" by Colin Cotterill, so lately I'm reading " Thirty Three Teeth" by the same author.

[Guess]

I'd have to read 1421 a second time.

And I think you may find a third read will be necessary as evidence is coming in all the time. I suspect that the web site (as in the book) only publishes positive evidence.

I agree with STEVE about the Atlantic crossing sounding a bit unlikely but they did take the shortest possible southern crossing route from Africa to South America. But that in itself make me suspicious. That must have been an unbelievable piece of luck if they found that route by chance especially as Columbus took a completely different and much longer crossing 70 year later. Surely gossip among the navigators would have reached Europe by then that there was a very much shorter route to another land mass that was not China.

As for Europe it was already know to the Chinese from at least the time of the first Mongol advances into Europe. The Europeans were the first to hold back the tide of the Mongols and the Chinese would probably not have dared landing there.

The later, although much longer, Pacific to the West Coast of America voyage in a missing two months is possible but would required a lot of luck with the weather and a serious loss by attrition.

Anyway check out the web site for more maps and some new evidence.

http://www.1421.tv/

[lomuamart]

On a nautical theme, I've just started re-reading Lord Jim. That's going to be "good fun". I'd like to get get hold of more Conrad books.
I noticed in the book that "1421" had a website - thanks for the link, Guess,

[STEVE G]

Lomu wrote:

I'd like to get get hold of more Conrad books.

I have one that includes Heart of Darkness and a collection of short stories that I'll try to remember to bring out next time; Lord Jim is the finest though, in my opinion.

[lomuamart]

I'd appreciate that, STEVE G.
"Lord Jim" is sitting on the table. I've read the introduction but I reckon I've got to be in the right mood to read the book again. Just looking at the map brings back memories.
And there's Youth, Heart of Darkness, Typhoon, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes and The Secret Agent (which I had to study at school - I've never read it again but I should).

[JimmyGreaves]

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/wh ... 57-15.html

[Chas]

Maybe I should start a new thread, but the discussion of 1421 seems to be a secondary theme here and my comment is a personal one, not necessarily a discussion starter or in need of further comment.

I just want to register that I object to the cultural hubris implied in the statement that ANYONE "Discovered" the New World.

The New World at that time and long before that time was already home to some of the most incredible cultures and civilizations ever to exist on this earth. The "New" World was really an old world, inhabited from Alaska to the tip of South America by millions of people speaking thousands of languages living in a natural world they respected and following their own complex cultural ways.

How can we use the word "discover" ( to see for the first time) for the experience of coming ashore there from China, Italy, Denmark or wherever and finding people living in cities with culture as worthy as our own? (I happen to like the term "visit")

As you might guess, I am no fan of Columbus either. ( Columbus Day in the US ought to have been abolished long ago) His "discovery" brought death and destruction to millions. Nothing I want to celebrate!) .. Now I have to read 1421 to see the results of the Chinese visit. Sounds very interesting!!

As for what I am reading right now: The Interpretation of Murder by Rubenfeld. A nice mystery involving Freud and turn of the century New York. I can recommend The Falcon of Siam by Aylwen. . a very nice historical look at Thai culture and Thai ways.

[bradders]

I'm reading Thailand Fever, just finished Private Dancer,

HHS

Hi HHS

Will you kindly advise if "Private Dancer" has now been published? I recall a few years ago the author was seeking a Publisher and, at that time, the book was only available on a website.

If the latter still applies can someone provide the website address - thanks!

"Thailand Fever" is an interesting title - is it a good read and where could I find it? I'm living in Duabi so 'certain' publications may be difficult or impossible to get hold of here!!

Thanks in advance for your help!!

***********************************************

LOMU: I can imagine "Surviving the Sword" must have been a VERY difficult and deeply depressing read as you stated!

I recall many years ago in the UK when I was representing a company. A potential customer opened his front door sat in a wheelchair. He looked around me and saw my Japanese company car and said: "if your company support Japan you can go now, I was a prisoner of war and they put me in this wheelchair!!"

It was a thought provoking drive back home!! There but for the grace of God go you and I - how lucky we were not to have been one of those unfortuneate souls!!

bradders