Between the sheets with Cookiemonster.

No, not like that!

I popped into Eason today while the shopping was being done. I don't like Eason for books at all, give me give me Hodges Figgis any day.

However as choice of shops was limited Eason it was.

I bought Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence for €22.00 down from €36.00 and also got DC Confidential by Chris Meyer for the low low price of €18.00 (the book had no price label on it and they could only find a price for the paperback, they wanted to charge me €28 for it but I refused and haggled it down to the paperback price). And I'm looking forward to getting into both of them.

But only after I finish Stephen Colbert's I am Americia (And so can you).

cookiemonster wrote:

No, not like that!

I popped into Eason today while the shopping was being done. I don't like Eason for books at all, give me give me Hodges Figgis any day.

However as choice of shops was limited Eason it was.

I bought Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence for €22.00 down from €36.00 and also got DC Confidential by Chris Meyer for the low low price of €18.00 (the book had no price label on it and they could only find a price for the paperback, they wanted to charge me €28 for it but I refused and haggled it down to the paperback price). And I'm looking forward to getting into both of them.

But only after I finish Stephen Colbert's I am Americia (And so can you).

IMHO - Age of Turbulence is interesting but you paid 18.00 euros too much for Meyers' bitch-fest - very disappointing - but I wont give away the details.

Edo wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

No, not like that!

I popped into Eason today while the shopping was being done. I don't like Eason for books at all, give me give me Hodges Figgis any day.

However as choice of shops was limited Eason it was.

I bought Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence for €22.00 down from €36.00 and also got DC Confidential by Chris Meyer for the low low price of €18.00 (the book had no price label on it and they could only find a price for the paperback, they wanted to charge me €28 for it but I refused and haggled it down to the paperback price). And I'm looking forward to getting into both of them.

But only after I finish Stephen Colbert's I am Americia (And so can you).

IMHO - Age of Turbulence is interesting but you paid 18.00 euros too much for Meyers' bitch-fest - very disappointing - but I wont give away the details.

Really? Ah hell. I thought it might be interesting at least.

I also forgot to mention I bought Bremer's book - My Year In Iraq. I expect to be out of breath from much guffawing.

cookiemonster wrote:

Edo wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

No, not like that!

I popped into Eason today while the shopping was being done. I don't like Eason for books at all, give me give me Hodges Figgis any day.

However as choice of shops was limited Eason it was.

I bought Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence for €22.00 down from €36.00 and also got DC Confidential by Chris Meyer for the low low price of €18.00 (the book had no price label on it and they could only find a price for the paperback, they wanted to charge me €28 for it but I refused and haggled it down to the paperback price). And I'm looking forward to getting into both of them.

But only after I finish Stephen Colbert's I am Americia (And so can you).

IMHO - Age of Turbulence is interesting but you paid 18.00 euros too much for Meyers' bitch-fest - very disappointing - but I wont give away the details.

Really? Ah hell. I thought it might be interesting at least.

I also forgot to mention I bought Bremer's book - My Year In Iraq. I expect to be out of breath from much guffawing.

Sorry CM - it is interesting in a strange kind of a way - but if this is an insight into the mindsets of Britains most important diplomats (ie to the USA) - then I'm not surprised the British Empire fell as fast as it did - they dont make em like they used to.

If there was a mod around (Mod!) you'd be slapped on the wrist for writing thread titles that promise far more than they deliver...

anyway, since I'm lowering the tone anyway with the above comment (leave now if you're a serious politics-head, I'm going to mention the f- word) I might as well admit cheerfully that all of my recent purchases have been fiction.

A Cure for all Diseases by Reginald Hill
Ritual by Mo Hayder
- any other crime junkies out there?

Also The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai for some culture

What Was Lost is Ryan Tubridy's bookclub choice for this month and I've decided to give that a whirl.

My own book club has chosen Tell No One by Harlan Coben which I am not enjoying much, though I've read almost all of his other books.

And another book club I'm involved in is reading Ruinair by Paul Stafford - the Ryanair book. Looking forward to that - after Reginald Hill.

I've never been part of a book club.

It's great fun. I set up ours about this time last year because I wanted to be in one so we meet at my house on the first Wednesday of the month, eat and talk books. There are nine of us from all walks of life - 6 women and 3 men. Everyone gets a chance to choose a title.

We've had everything from Tobias Jones' The Dark Heart of Italy to Kim Edwards dire novel, The Memory Keepers' Daughter which I got away without reading for that group. However I had to read most of it when it was chosen for the other club which is more of a review panel thing than a club, really.

Some books work well for discussion, others don't. Lucky by Alice Sebold created a lot of discussion, as did The Reader by Bernard Schlink but Italy didn't really work in our group because I suppose we're mostly readers of fiction and not politics and there was little common critical ground. Good book though.

Join one.

I have awful boring taste in book though, I can imagine the groans from the other when it's my turn to pick.

Oh, BTW, What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard looks great but Eason didn't have it.

A lot of the books that have been suggested at our group have been met with a groan - or worse, silence, but it's the perogative of the person to choose. I have a notion that after suggesting The Gathering for January I may never be allowed to choose one again at my own kitchen table - it was a tie between that and the Jimmy Carter book you recommended to me before. His day will come.

You could try a radio or online bookclub and see what you think but it's nowhere as good.

Kate P wrote:

A lot of the books that have been suggested at our group have been met with a groan - or worse, silence, but it's the perogative of the person to choose. I have a notion that after suggesting The Gathering for January I may never be allowed to choose one again at my own kitchen table - it was a tie between that and the Jimmy Carter book you recommended to me before. His day will come.

You could try a radio or online bookclub and see what you think but it's nowhere as good.

I dunno, I've never seen anything from the Richard and Judy book club that too my fancy.

cookiemonster wrote:

Oh, BTW, What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard looks great but Eason didn't have it.

I have "Why Europe will run the 21st Century" by the same lad. Pretty interesting stuff, it converted me from a Euro-pessimist to a Euro-optimist.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

Oh, BTW, What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard looks great but Eason didn't have it.

I have "Why Europe will run the 21st Century" by the same lad. Pretty interesting stuff, it converted me from a Euro-pessimist to a Euro-optimist.

I've read a lot of the papers and research he's done. He's really quite an interesting chap. I've read that book too, but I've been a gushing Europhile for years now so it just made me worse. 

cookiemonster wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

Oh, BTW, What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard looks great but Eason didn't have it.

I have "Why Europe will run the 21st Century" by the same lad. Pretty interesting stuff, it converted me from a Euro-pessimist to a Euro-optimist.

I've read a lot of the papers and research he's done. He's really quite an interesting chap. I've read that book too, but I've been a gushing Europhile for years now so it just made me worse.

He works at the Centre for European reform, doesn't he? I remember seeing the book above in the window of Eason's of Blanch about 5 years ago. I admit to doing a double take when I absorbed the meaning of the title. I inevitably skimmed through it in the shop before making an honest tome of it and buying it. Changed my view completely on Europe. It lead me to buying the "United States of Europe" by TR Reid. Much the same material, but presented by an American makes it more resonant.

I might be tempted to get this book. I think the EU is a disaster with sinister consequences that will soon become more apparent

How can consequences become apparent, aren't consequences by their nature already apparent.

Why do people say, the consequenes of this action may not become apparent for years.

Hold on, I'll go ask them.

I might be a while.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

Oh, BTW, What Does China Think? by Mark Leonard looks great but Eason didn't have it.

I have "Why Europe will run the 21st Century" by the same lad. Pretty interesting stuff, it converted me from a Euro-pessimist to a Euro-optimist.

I've read a lot of the papers and research he's done. He's really quite an interesting chap. I've read that book too, but I've been a gushing Europhile for years now so it just made me worse.

He works at the Centre for European reform, doesn't he? I remember seeing the book above in the window of Eason's of Blanch about 5 years ago. I admit to doing a double take when I absorbed the meaning of the title. I inevitably skimmed through it in the shop before making an honest tome of it and buying it. Changed my view completely on Europe. It lead me to buying the "United States of Europe" by TR Reid. Much the same material, but presented by an American makes it more resonant.

Nope, Mr Leonard has moved onto a reasonably new Think Tank called the European Council for Foreign Affairs, whose mailing list I'm on. He also has the odd article published in Progress and the Guardian, among others.

www.ecfr.eu

* edited for bad joke due to exhaustion! *

18 Euro for DC Confidential?! - is about, what, £12-13-very-ish stg? Jeez, blooming expensive over there!

Atticus wrote:

18 Euro for DC Confidential?! - is about, what, £12-13-very-ish stg? Jeez, blooming expensive over there!

You've no idea, I could have bought it from the US and had it shipped over for less than that but I do like book shopping as a physical past time. I haven't started it yet.

I also haven't started Richard Crowley's No Man's Land nor have I finished Marc Coleman's The Best Is Yet To Come which I think I may have permanently misplaced.

Atticus wrote:

18 Euro for DC Confidential?! - is about, what, £12-13-very-ish stg? Jeez, blooming expensive over there!

Thanks for the update on Mr Leonard, btw. Much obliged.

cookiemonster wrote:

I also haven't started Richard Crowley's No Man's Land nor have I finished Marc Coleman's The Best Is Yet To Come which I think I may have permanently misplaced.

You haven't misplaced it. Sidewinder stole it from you in the hope you'd join the bears on P.ie. It's part of their devious plan. Beware!

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

I also haven't started Richard Crowley's No Man's Land nor have I finished Marc Coleman's The Best Is Yet To Come which I think I may have permanently misplaced.

You haven't misplaced it. Sidewinder stole it from you in the hope you'd join the bears on P.ie. It's part of their devious plan. Beware!

I wonder if he stole my nail clippers too?

cookiemonster wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

I also haven't started Richard Crowley's No Man's Land nor have I finished Marc Coleman's The Best Is Yet To Come which I think I may have permanently misplaced.

You haven't misplaced it. Sidewinder stole it from you in the hope you'd join the bears on P.ie. It's part of their devious plan. Beware!

I wonder if he stole my nail clippers too?

I'm wondering too.