Recommend a book (2 Viewers)

The Stranger in the Woods - Michael Finkel.

When he was nineteen, Christoper Knight suddenly decided he`d had enough of modern life and went to live off grid as a hermit, in a remote part of Maine, New England.

He had a back pack, a cheap tent, a torch and some very basic cooking equipment and very little food. He also had no prior knowledge of survival skills or woodcraft.

Yet somehow he managed to live for twenty seven years in the woods, by foraging, raiding holiday homes in the Winter, gradually learning survival skills as he went along and creating a fully functioning, but hidden camp in the woods, before being caught in a trap by the local police.

Despite temps getting as low as -20 in the Winter, he never once lit a fire, for fear of getting caught !!

He had no intention of ever returning to main stream life and fully intended to live in the woods for the rest of his life.

With great difficulty, the author slowly gets Knight to open up whilst he`s in jail and through a series of interviews with him narrates his story.

It`s a fascinating read, as Knight wasn`t mentally ill, or a loner, he just suddenly decided he`d had enough one day and that was that.

At 200 pages, it`s an easy read and would make a great film too.

Farmer Jim said:

The Stranger in the Woods - Michael Finkel.

When he was nineteen, Christoper Knight suddenly decided he`d had enough of modern life and went to live off grid as a hermit, in a remote part of Maine, New England.

He had a back pack, a cheap tent, a torch and some very basic cooking equipment and very little food. He also had no prior knowledge of survival skills or woodcraft.

Yet somehow he managed to live for twenty seven years in the woods, by foraging, raiding holiday homes in the Winter, gradually learning survival skills as he went along and creating a fully functioning, but hidden camp in the woods, before being caught in a trap by the local police.

Despite temps getting as low as -20 in the Winter, he never once lit a fire, for fear of getting caught !!

He had no intention of ever returning to main stream life and fully intended to live in the woods for the rest of his life.

With great difficulty, the author slowly gets Knight to open up whilst he`s in jail and through a series of interviews with him narrates his story.

It`s a fascinating read, as Knight wasn`t mentally ill, or a loner, he just suddenly decided he`d had enough one day and that was that.

At 200 pages, it`s an easy read and would make a great film too.

Click to expand...

I like the sound of that as a good read!

Joe King said:

I like the sound of that as a good read!

Click to expand...

It`s a bit of a strange read, as it almost reads like a very in depth newspaper article, turned into a book.

But still absolutely fascinating to read, especially when they find his camp.

Unruly - David Mitchell ( the comedian )

If you`re into history, you`ll find this hilarious.

Mitchell puts his own, often hilarious slant on the post Roman period of history in England, right up to the reign of Elizabeth 1st.

Mitchell is very obviously a skilled historian, who really knows his stuff and with him putting his own brand of comedy into the narration, makes it a very very funny read at times. ( He really hates King Arthur for some reason, even though he didn`t exist ! )

Reads very much like an adult, very sweary version of Horrible Histories.

Farmer Jim said:

Unruly - David Mitchell ( the comedian )

If you`re into history, you`ll find this hilarious.

Mitchell puts his own, often hilarious slant on the post Roman period of history in England, right up to the reign of Elizabeth 1st.

Mitchell is very obviously a skilled historian, who really knows his stuff and with him putting his own brand of comedy into the narration, makes it a very very funny read at times. ( He really hates King Arthur for some reason, even though he didn`t exist ! )

Reads very much like an adult, very sweary version of Horrible Histories.

Click to expand...

Any history book that describes Henry VIII as 'a bit of a c**t' is ok by me.

"We" by

Yevgeny Zamyatin​

A Russian dystopia novel written in-exile about 1920 (not pulished/released in Russia until, I think, the fall of the Soviet Union)

One number's (people are numbers, not men!) experience of starting to see how the far futuristic perfect society has its flaws.
Allegedly, it inspired Orwell's "1984" decades later.

JohnWH said:

"We" by

Yevgeny Zamyatin​

View attachment 46955

A Russian dystopia novel written in-exile about 1920 (not pulished/released in Russia until, I think, the fall of the Soviet Union)

One number's (people are numbers, not men!) experience of starting to see how the far futuristic perfect society has its flaws.
Allegedly, it inspired Orwell's "1984" decades later.

Click to expand...

It's a classic of the genre.

Four half siblings balance the mundane (internships) and the terrifying (internment) in Kevin Nguyen’s “Mỹ Documents.”--- The New York Times



I read this one over the weekend, quite a page turner.

In in a gripping modern day setting dystopia, Vietnamese-Americans are rounded up and detained after a terror attack. The political or whatever motivations behind the attacks are never really explained, but in a way it's not necessary to know. Only the public and political reaction.


The over reaction mimics back to Japnese-American internment during WWII, and which reoccurred in public angst and harrassment against Muslims (and also Sikh) immediately following 9/11. While racism and civil liberties underscores the novel, it also does an interesting job of exploring modern day capitalism and the role of big business as well as federal bureaucracy and public sentiment for and against rapidly building out detention camps to house a million citizens. As well as highlighting the absurdity of mundane "summer camp" life, how they cope, and how easily a black market contraband system gets setup to the abject disinterest from guards who are paid too low to care.

"Mỹ Documents" is a play on words, "Mỹ" means "America" in Vietnamese.

My wife is Vietnamese-American, so perhaps this gave me a bit more personal interest and insight.

But to a large degree, a consideration can be made: you could take just about any ethnoracial minority in America to replace Vietnamese-Americans in the story, and it will essentially be the same resulting story. It's overall a scary look at how so called democracies can easily slide due to fears.

The only book I've read actually published this year, I'd give it a 5 outta 5.

Just finished :

Across The Sand, the follow on to Hugh Howey`s excellent novel - Sand.

Sc-fi at it`s absolute best.

If ever there were books that should be made into a film(s), these two books would be perfect.

These books would be perfect for the director Denis Villeneuve to do in a similar vein to his two recent standout Dune films.

Couldn`t put it down.

Has anyone read his Silo books, as I may give them a go ?

(I`ve seen the tv series and thought it was just " okay " ).

I saw that Russell T Davies was promoting his new Dr Who universe drama this morning on daytime TV 'The War Between the Land and the Sea' (it was on a screen at the gym I don't watch daytime TV at home I hasten to add).

I thought it was in some ways probably somewhat derivative of Karel Capek's excellent 1936 satirical scifi novel War with the Newts (as well as perhaps HG Wells War of the Worlds).

I'd recommend you read the Kapek book rather than watch this new BBC/Disney vehicle with it's no doubt heavy woke overtones.

Captain Dart said:

his new BBC/Disney vehicle with it's no doubt heavy woke overtones.

Click to expand...

good to see you approaching it with an open mind

chiefdave said:

good to see you approaching it with an open mind

Click to expand...

It's societal programming, always has happened on the BBC & US TV.
I think many of the recent themes have had negative effects particularly on young people, I'm not out on a limb on this issue.