Quote: MrFerry @ 8th February 2016, 8:19 AM GMTWell I recorded myself reading and this came out:
A shameless plug for your own work, which should really be posted in Critique! Please shut your cupboard though, it annoyed me.
I am reading 'Alfred Hitchcock' by Peter Ackroyd.
'All for Nothing' by Walter Kempowski. I'm beginning to worry that the Russians are coming.
An autobiography concerning Phil Collins. Apparently he bought his eldest daughter Joely a pony and named it ... Sussudio.
As the church organised trannies mud wrestling competition has been cancelled I have been forced to pick up The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.
As a foot note
I was ms Roach in my last life../ and mr Cockroach in this {Sorry it was too funny to pass up ]
"Factory of Dreams" A History of Meccano Ltd., bought for me at Christmas. A fascinating read, especially with my interest in Dinky die-cast toys.
I'm currently reading Billy Idol's autobiography: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dancing-Myself-Billy-Idol/dp/0857205609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462206830&sr=8-1&keywords=dancing+with+myself It's quite a good read so far, although certain extracts are a bit ... ugh! I'm listening to his back catalogue on YouTube at the moment - what fantastic videos he used to make ...
About the French Revolution
Fking hell
Some horrific shit went down back then!
The Queen's emotional friend, the Princesse de Lamballe, who had been held in La Petite Force, was one of the most savagely treated victims. She had been stripped and raped; her breasts had been cut off; the rest of her body mutilated; and 'exposed to the insults of the populace'. 'In this state it remained more than two hours,' one report records. 'When any blood gushing from its wounds stained the skin, some men, placed there for the purpose, immediately washed it off, to make the spectators take more particular notice of its whiteness. I must not venture to describe the excesses of barbarity and lustful indecency with which this corpse was defiled. I shall only say that a cannon was charged with one of the legs.' A man was later accused of having cut off her genitals which he impaled upon a pike and of having ripped out her heart which he ate 'after having roasted it on a cooking-stove in a wineshop'. Her head was stuck on another pike and carried away to a nearby café where, placed upon a counter, the customers were asked to drink to the Princess's death. It was then replaced upon the pike and, its blonde hair billowing around the neck, was paraded beneath the Queen's window at the Temple.
I've just finished reading Lemmy by Mick Wall. As a rock and punk fan I appear to be in the minority in that I don't really have any time for Motorhead so what my folks thought they where doing when they bought this for me for my birthday I have no idea but after reading it I have to say it was one of the most interesting reads I've ever had.
Lemmy comes across as a genuinely lovely bloke and surprisingly misunderstood. On the outside you look at him and you just see a warty hard drinking womanising speed freak but once you get to know him inside he's actually rather respectful of everyone, trustworthy and nowhere near as offensive or rock and roll as the Nolans.
Quote: Sarc @ 13th May 2016, 11:18 PM BSTI've just finished reading Lemmy by Mick Wall.
If you've not seen the docufilm called Lemmy it's well worth checking out. HMV music DVD section. It shows what a down to earth and kind bloke he was and there is a lot of him and his son together along with interviews with countless celebrity Lemmy fans like Dave Grohl, Lars Ulrich, Henry Rollins, Slash etc and footage of them all in the studio recording. Superb stuff and I'm going to have to put it on now 
I think what made Lemmy so special and what the DVD shows is how approachable he was and he never snapped at people. Anyone from kids to grannies could speak to him and he would be polite and friendly.
I'm reading Mozart's Letters Mozart's Life translated by Robert Spaethling and I worship Mozart so it's the best book I have ever picked up and I'm still on the early chapters. It starts with him at 14 on his first tour with his dad who would write to Mozart's mum frequently and Wolfgang would add post scripts to his sister. All while still writing new works. It shows what a loving son and brother he is and is very affectionate and sometimes jokingly mocking to his sister. He's exited about visiting new places and meeting people but also has a charming sense of humour that boarders on coarseness at times but is always endearing. I'm up to a new chapter where he is now 19 and is embarking on his next major tour around Europe but this time with his mother and his dad stays at home. This will be a different side of him because he's an adult now and has to take care of day to day affairs and document these in regular letters to his dad. I've not started it yet and it's not going to be the happy go lucky tone like the opening chapters because during this chapter his mother dies.
This is a good example of the opening pages:
To his mother and sister in Saltzburg (postscript)
I am also still alive and jollie as ever. And I love to travel: now I have been on the merditeranian sea* I kiss mama's hand and I kiss Nannerl 1000 times, and am
your son, Simple Simon and brother Jack
*authors note: Wolfgang spells Mediterranean as "merditeranian" because he could not resist a pun. 'merda' in Italian and 'merde' in French mean "shit" so in Wolfgang's description the Mediterranean Sea becomes the "Shit Sea".
'Fhe Green Road' - Anne Enright. Another great Irish book.
David Nixon - The Entertainer with the Magic Touch.
What a lovely man he was, and have very fond memories of watching his magic shows with my Dad in the late 50s/early 60s. 
Asterix and the Missing Scroll. The first book by the post-Uderzo Asterix team (Ferri and Conrad), Asterix and the Picts, was awful. Their second effort, the Missing Scroll, is a vast improvement. Flashes of brilliance. A bit much flat exposition and telling (rather than showing), but not a terrible read.
Martin Luther King jnr autobiography
A book on John Peel's radio shows. It's 600+ pages and I've skipped to the 80s.
Almost finished 'Dead Girl Walking' - Christopher Brookmyre. Up to his usual standard. I'm actually thinking of re-reading his books as I think I have nearly all of them