Off Topic Book club

Love the Reacher books

 

Tom Cruise

Dunno why the hell they chose him to play Reacher, Bears no resemblance physically

Prefer the Amazon version. He makes Smug look like Peter Pan!!!

 

The series is close but no one can do reacher justice imo.

Tom Cruise is a decent actor in that type of film but just can't be Reacher. Size wise for me it needed to be one of the ex wwe wrestlers but can they act well enough? I watched the first film recently and had to laugh at the line where the police ask a motel manager if anyone who is staying who could kill a woman with one punch. She replies room whatever number, you will see!

I mean who looks at Tom and thinks any if that?

 

I’m currently reading the Durham cricket book 5 trophies and a funeral. About Durham becoming a first class county and then their treatment at the hands of the ECB for financial troubles.

 

I bet that's really interesting and will probably get you angry at how Durham were treated for financial issues yet Yorkshire get a slap on the wrist for institutional racism.

 

Just read the first one. Many thanks, good story.

 

The Throwback —. years since I last read it but your mere mention of it has tears down my cheeks just thinking of the cheese grater incident !

 

Chicken hawke is a Cany read about a helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

 

Funny you say that....he did mention a cheese grater, said he wouldn't spoil it by telling me. He was in tears laughing just thinking about it though.
Gonna start reading it tomorrow....

 

hope the grater lives up to expectations- let me know !

 

Finished Dunstan by Conn Iggulden today. Loved it, very funny and a fascinating down to earth life story of someone who later became a saint. He was quite a guy.

Going to do some bulk buying of his other books now, I really enjoyed his style.

 

I read his Genghis Khan series ages ago. That was really good.
Dunstan sounds like an interesting concept. Was it fictionalised or is it a more historical account of his life?

 

Just read "Battleship: The Greatest Fighting Ships in History"
Book by Richard Hough.

From galleon's to dreadnoughts.

 

Great author, read most of his and haven't found a bad one yet

 

I'd assumed it was fiction because I'd never heard of Dunstan and because of how colourful and eventful the story is, but there's a historical note at the end of the book and it's a true story.

As much as it can be anyway, based on ancient records as it is.

 

I know a little bit about his life, but just a few basic facts. Conn Iggulden is great at turning people's life stories in to novels so I imagine this would be interesting. I think its really interesting that someone would do that with someone like Dunstan because its usually military leaders that people focus on from that far back in history for this kind of book. Plus, I love me an Anglo-Saxon saint (I wrote a book sort of about one myself!) so this is going straight on my Amazon wishlist.

 

Yeah it was fascinating not knowing anything about him and seeing how the story unfolded, made a change from shield walls and musket loading procedure. I could see potential for a 'real life of the saints' series by him, how the stories that later became legends actually went down.

Who is your book about mate, fiction or non fiction?

 

That would probably make a really good series! There are some interesting (and weird stories) associated with some of the early saints. I can even imagine one or two of them might make good films, along similar lines to the Green Knight (have you seen that?). There's lots of bits of history that would make for good novels or films but that seem to be ignored. I reckon the Icelandic sagas would make a great TV series or film.

My book is non fiction and St Æthelthryth is the saint that its related to. We had a site where her birthplace is meant to be. It was an Anglo-Saxon cemetery and one of the graves contained some items that were relevant to her story. It wasn't her in the grave but the link is interesting.

 

Yeah I've seen The Green Knight, good film. Shows what you can do to an old tale with some creativity applied. I suppose with the saints you'd have to pick someone who wasn't too pious or it'd be a bit dull, I bet a few of them were rogues though hey.

Well done on the book mate sounds interesting, I'll give Ethelfrith a google later.

 

Yeah, you wouldn't want to pick one of the ones who spent 40 years sitting in a hut and praying but some of them would have had a few interesting scrapes!

The book has got a lot of technical information in it, so it's not really bedtime reading. You'd have to be really interested to want to read it.