Whatcha reading?

[Silent Majority]

Just got Warren G Harding and then it's all done. Wrapped up.

I've read one book on Harding, an older one called The Available Man. Read it in the late 80s, so I can't offer an opinion on its value, but if you're having trouble finding a Harding bio, there you go.

(I have a bit of a soft spot for Harding in that he was a bit of an amiable dunce who rose on his good looks and desire and ability to please. That is, he wasn't actively malicious, but a willing dupe (tho he was undoubtedly a racist and a womanizer, but hardly unique in that regard). And he never had a false impression of himself, admitting that he wasn't fit to be president and never should have even been nominated let alone be elected. Years later, Arthur Schlesinger Jr said that Harding was fondly remembered by millions as the worst president in the history of the republic.)

Great. I'll read it this month. I remember him from a book I didn't finish about Teapot Dome and the Coolidge book I read. It'll be fun.

[Silent Majority]

80) The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company - Robert Iger. Audiobook. I've got in the habit of playing a business oriented audiobook for my morning walk into work, with either history, biography or fiction for the walk home. It gets me in a good state of mind for the office and means I can bullshit and cosplay as a high powered executive which has made my superiors at work take note. It helps in my pathetic quest for a promotion and I do have to supervise a team at the moment and I wanna do it well. So I go for entertainment and tech stuff, is my plan, drawing on confidence and buzzwords from a context I actually find interesting. Sigh. Business. Anyway, quite enjoyed this. Iger's tenure took Disney from the doldrums of Eisner's bunker days to taking over Pixar, Lucasfilm and Fox. Interesting supporting characters like George Lucas, Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs make small, surprisingly candid appearances.

[Dr. Medulla]

80) The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company - Robert Iger. Audiobook. I've got in the habit of playing a business oriented audiobook for my morning walk into work, with either history, biography or fiction for the walk home. It gets me in a good state of mind for the office and means I can bullshit and cosplay as a high powered executive which has made my superiors at work take note. It helps in my pathetic quest for a promotion and I do have to supervise a team at the moment and I wanna do it well. So I go for entertainment and tech stuff, is my plan, drawing on confidence and buzzwords from a context I actually find interesting. Sigh. Business. Anyway, quite enjoyed this. Iger's tenure took Disney from the doldrums of Eisner's bunker days to taking over Pixar, Lucasfilm and Fox. Interesting supporting characters like George Lucas, Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs make small, surprisingly candid appearances.

That's a radically new paradigm, brimming with synergistic possibilities. Maximizing the possibilities will require bold leadership and team members buying into this proactive vision plan.

[Silent Majority]

80) The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company - Robert Iger. Audiobook. I've got in the habit of playing a business oriented audiobook for my morning walk into work, with either history, biography or fiction for the walk home. It gets me in a good state of mind for the office and means I can bullshit and cosplay as a high powered executive which has made my superiors at work take note. It helps in my pathetic quest for a promotion and I do have to supervise a team at the moment and I wanna do it well. So I go for entertainment and tech stuff, is my plan, drawing on confidence and buzzwords from a context I actually find interesting. Sigh. Business. Anyway, quite enjoyed this. Iger's tenure took Disney from the doldrums of Eisner's bunker days to taking over Pixar, Lucasfilm and Fox. Interesting supporting characters like George Lucas, Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs make small, surprisingly candid appearances.

That's a radically new paradigm, brimming with synergistic possibilities. Maximizing the possibilities will require bold leadership and team members buying into this proactive vision plan.

Let's blue sky this one for a while.

[Kory]

80) The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company - Robert Iger. Audiobook. I've got in the habit of playing a business oriented audiobook for my morning walk into work, with either history, biography or fiction for the walk home. It gets me in a good state of mind for the office and means I can bullshit and cosplay as a high powered executive which has made my superiors at work take note. It helps in my pathetic quest for a promotion and I do have to supervise a team at the moment and I wanna do it well. So I go for entertainment and tech stuff, is my plan, drawing on confidence and buzzwords from a context I actually find interesting. Sigh. Business. Anyway, quite enjoyed this. Iger's tenure took Disney from the doldrums of Eisner's bunker days to taking over Pixar, Lucasfilm and Fox. Interesting supporting characters like George Lucas, Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs make small, surprisingly candid appearances.

That's a radically new paradigm, brimming with synergistic possibilities. Maximizing the possibilities will require bold leadership and team members buying into this proactive vision plan.

My company traded our vision plan for a keg of Duff.

[Dr. Medulla]

New audiobook (hat tip to Kory):

Looking thru TOC, there's a good variety of contributors, like the last volume. I'm expecting that the two books should set the standard for how scenes are documented and remembered.

[Silent Majority]

81) Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock. Paperback. I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome. This one's about a fucked up guy who time travels to Jesus times and finds Jesus to be a dude with severe learning difficulties and someone needs to fill the role. Like all my favourite fiction - it's short. I love endless books of things that happened but my patience for an author's imagination, their lies and trickery, is limited. I found this to be powerful and easy reading. The main character's psychology and South London setting rings true, as does Palestine in AD29. Recommended.

[Dr. Medulla]

I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome.

Well, now you've spoiled it!

[oliver]

I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome.

Well... you did say

[Marky Dread]

81) Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock. Paperback. I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome. This one's about a fucked up guy who time travels to Jesus times and finds Jesus to be a dude with severe learning difficulties and someone needs to fill the role. Like all my favourite fiction - it's short. I love endless books of things that happened but my patience for an author's imagination, their lies and trickery, is limited. I found this to be powerful and easy reading. The main character's psychology and South London setting rings true, as does Palestine in AD29. Recommended.

I know him from his work with Hawkwind. Many years ago in the 80s he wrote his book "The Great Rock n Roll Swindle". Being the Pistols fan I am I bought it.

I didn't have a clue what was going on in that book.

[Silent Majority]

81) Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock. Paperback. I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome. This one's about a fucked up guy who time travels to Jesus times and finds Jesus to be a dude with severe learning difficulties and someone needs to fill the role. Like all my favourite fiction - it's short. I love endless books of things that happened but my patience for an author's imagination, their lies and trickery, is limited. I found this to be powerful and easy reading. The main character's psychology and South London setting rings true, as does Palestine in AD29. Recommended.

I know him from his work with Hawkwind. Many years ago in the 80s he wrote his book "The Great Rock n Roll Swindle". Being the Pistols fan I am I bought it.

I didn't have a clue what was going on in that book.

Didn't know he had worked with Hawkwind. Will give those tracks a listen at some.

[101Walterton]

81) Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock. Paperback. I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome. This one's about a fucked up guy who time travels to Jesus times and finds Jesus to be a dude with severe learning difficulties and someone needs to fill the role. Like all my favourite fiction - it's short. I love endless books of things that happened but my patience for an author's imagination, their lies and trickery, is limited. I found this to be powerful and easy reading. The main character's psychology and South London setting rings true, as does Palestine in AD29. Recommended.

I know him from his work with Hawkwind. Many years ago in the 80s he wrote his book "The Great Rock n Roll Swindle". Being the Pistols fan I am I bought it.

I didn't have a clue what was going on in that book.

Never judge a book by looking at it’s mother!!
I bought the Cash Pussies single 99% Is Shit because Sid was on the cover. The cover was better than the single.

[Marky Dread]

81) Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock. Paperback. I've been meaning to get into Moorcock for years. Puns welcome. This one's about a fucked up guy who time travels to Jesus times and finds Jesus to be a dude with severe learning difficulties and someone needs to fill the role. Like all my favourite fiction - it's short. I love endless books of things that happened but my patience for an author's imagination, their lies and trickery, is limited. I found this to be powerful and easy reading. The main character's psychology and South London setting rings true, as does Palestine in AD29. Recommended.

I know him from his work with Hawkwind. Many years ago in the 80s he wrote his book "The Great Rock n Roll Swindle". Being the Pistols fan I am I bought it.

I didn't have a clue what was going on in that book.

Never judge a book by looking at it’s mother!!
I bought the Cash Pussies single 99% Is Shit because Sid was on the cover. The cover was better than the single.

I used to own that but I knew it was just a couple Sid samples of interviews with Judy vermorel. I don't mind the single Alex Ferguson plays guitar from Alternative TV if I remember.

[Silent Majority]

82) To the Devil A Daughter - Dennis Wheatley. Audiobook. I first heard of Wheatley through the excellent Hammer adaptation of his book The Devil Rides Out. I read most of that novel a few years ago and found it good fun. This one is half a hate read, with bits of Boys Own, Black magic and wholly unconvincing dialogue and women. The story is told in heaping of long exposition mixed with dashes of mad supernatural homunculi fed on human blood by evil Deacons. Wheatley is a massive reactionary and sees all of the twentieth century's progress as the work of Satan, actual Satan. He reminds me of a wordier Ian Fleming. It's like an overlong Dr Who serial or a dull 1930s action film, and despite everything the story did keep me involved.

[Silent Majority]

83) Puckoon - Spike Milligan. Audiobook read by the author. A genuinely laugh out loud funny novel. One of Bowie's favourites. It's set in a fictional village as the boundary between the North of Ireland and the Free State is implemented and how the horrific racial stereotypes deal with the border. There's a pub in which two feet of the bar is in the United Kingdom where beer is a little cheaper so all the punters squeeze into that area and IRA men who bury coffins of dynamite on British soil. Written in 1963 with Milligan at the height of his powers, I would say this is the equal of the people he'd influence, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Much better than the war memoir I recently read where I found the line between amusing anecdote and exaggerated surrealism distractingly and annoyingly thin. This is sheer old fashioned whimsy.