Off Topic Chazz's Book Club.

Save the vinyl! I just bought Tubular Bells on cd. I never had it when it came out on vinyl. The originals are worth much more now. Your Otis Redding is on Amazon at £16.48 for the vinyl and £6.39 on cd.

 

The Otis Blue is the original mono version from 1965. A record shop offered me £30 back in the late 1970s for it. People wanted it because after Otis was killed they remastered his stuff and created a false stereo which is awful. Steve Cropper once said how annoyed he was because it spoilt the feel completely. Should have taken the money because when I moved the cover got spoilt.The CDs of that and he other vinyls I have replaced, Astral Weeks, Moondance,various
Janis Joplin albums and Loving Spoonful ones don't sound as good on CD. Trouble is to get a set up like I used to have to play vinyl would cost an arm and a leg now.

 

Don't need the leg, just the arm

 

Cue lots of long playing jokes.

 

Absolutely true. I bought a new system about ten years ago. The turntable needed refurbishing five years ago. It would have cost £375 to replace it.

 

As long as they don't give you the needle...

 

And extended ones...

 

Err Sir Geoffrey Boycott for one.

 

Well it is something to disc us.

I need to go and read up on it.

 

Current reads Tony Benn- The Last Diaries
& Naomi Kline - This Changes Everything Capitalism vs The Climate.

 

Locked down and snowed-in...

Books in the pile: The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War (Giles Tremlett); A Song For Dark Times (Ian Rankin, Rebus novel); Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures (Merlin Sheldrake); The Best Minds Of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats (Allen Ginsberg); and Into The Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest (Wade Davis).

So many books; so little time....

 

12 Rules for Life. An antidote to Chaos.
interesting

 

Just re-read Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, first (and last) read it in English Lit at school; I really enjoyed it back then but, picking it up and reading it as a worldly-wise and cynical 'older person' I've absolutely loved it, the characters just jump from the page, it really is a brilliant read.

 

Definitely. I re-read it couple of years ago either just before or just after going to Monterey, can't remember. Enhanced both experiences though.

 

I just picked up A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution. Has anyone here read it?

 

I just started, so no spoilers Tex, as I don't want to know who finally wins...

 

Spoiler

The Americans won of course

 

After several false starts I finally got through Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. Took 3 or 4 goes to get used to Mantel's writing style but once done I was hooked. Those Tudors were right bastards!

 

I think she's a great writer with a style all of her own, she's certainly not to everyone's taste, quite a few (unfairly I think) consider her to be a prime example of 'Emperors new clothes' - her family trees are always really in depth and her constant use of 'he' often confuses when more than one 'he' is in a scene. Personally, I love her prose and writing style - with two Booker prizes under her belt she must be doing something right?

 

Well thanks a ****ing lot Hat! That's spoiled that book for me. Is there a squeal where we get it back?