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Posted: 19-10-2012 22:30 Post subject:

Two of the Opies' books on childhood turned up in a library sale today. Hurrah!

"The Lore & Language of Schoolchildren" (1959) is not too hard to find. I read it years ago. But, "Children's Games in Street & Playground" from ten years later is a bit of a rarity, I think.

Here one can learn of such innocent delights as "Hi Jimmy Knacker," "Split the Kipper," and "Knifing!"

" . . . we see who can get the other's throat first. But there are certain rules, which are, no kicking, and keep your free hand behind you."

So that's OK then! Shocked

edit: "innoncent" put right.

Posted: 20-10-2012 18:12 Post subject:

Posted: 20-10-2012 18:39 Post subject:

Posted: 28-10-2012 21:06 Post subject:

If you fancy a free read near to hallowe'en "Haunting Experiences: "Ghosts In Contemporary Folklore" is a free download book from here:

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/18/

Posted: 01-11-2012 03:14 Post subject:

Jeremy Dyson's The Haunted Book looks interesting...

Posted: 01-11-2012 09:18 Post subject:

If you enjoy reading well crafted and thought provoking short stories, I can recommend Michael Moorcock's, London Bone. It's not in print at the moment, but second-hand copies can still be had. One of which I recently bought.

It serves as a sort of companion volume to Mike's other London based works of fiction, particularly, Mother London and King of the City. Recommended as first rate, non-SF, novels of the Great Wen. By an indigenous Londoner, in exile, who still has a deep love-hate relationship with the City.

It's not set entirely in London and characters from Mike's other works sometimes make fleeting appearances, it's not even what you'd call SF, but this collection stands on its own as some rather fine, good old fashioned, stand alone, short stories.

Posted: 07-11-2012 19:17 Post subject:

The trouble with a good read is that the next book you read may seem rubbish by comparison! This has just happened to me, although often I'm lucky and the next book will be be just as interesting, but in a different way.

My good read was "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest", by Stieg Larsson. This Swedish crime novel/thriller is in fact the third volume of a trilogy, and although I hadn't read the first two books it stands up well on its own. Despite having a huge number of characters (with foreign names), they're never all together at once, so it's easy to follow the story. And it's a good long book, so even a fast reader should get the pleasure of picking it up several times for a few more chapters!

But that was followed by another crime/thriller story based on a sailing boat. But I know a lot about sailing, and it just doesn't ring true to me. A family go sailing for the first time in several years, but there's no mention of seasickness or precautions. At sea a girl goes overboard, so the skipper goes in after her! That's a big no-no! And when night comes the family all turn in, apart from the skipper, presumably, without any discussion of watch rotas, etc. There's no mention of wind speed or direction, or the course they're sailing... I could go on and on!

Not recommended by rynner! I'll give it one more try tonight, and unless it picks up a lot it'll be back to the library tomorrow! I won't give the book's title, to avoid embarassing a famous internationally printed author...

Posted: 07-11-2012 20:08 Post subject:

Not Arthur Ransome then.

Posted: 07-11-2012 21:03 Post subject:

Posted: 07-11-2012 21:50 Post subject:

Posted: 13-12-2012 20:55 Post subject:

If you are interested in cryptozoology there is a book titled "Extinct Pennsylvania animals, by Henry W. Shoemaker". This is from Hathi Trust so you may only be able to get access to it if you are in the U.S. though.

http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008595561

Posted: 12-02-2013 14:09 Post subject:

You wait seven years for a new Will Storr book, then two come along at once...

Posted: 24-02-2013 12:27 Post subject:

Charles Nicholl - Traces Remain - Essays and Explorations.

Kind of random collection - being a selection of essays, reviews and articles from the last twenty years or so - but there's plenty of interest both for those who like history, and those who like mystery.

Unless, like me, you consider all human life and the history thereof to be utterly bizarre then you would probably not describe this as a specifically Fortean read - but included is a life of John Aubrey, an account of the rise and fall of Edward Kelley, an essay about the Shakespeare authorship question, accounts of the disappearences of Jim Thompson, Colonel Fawcett and Arthur Cravan, and an essay about Charles van Onselen's The Fox and the Flies, which suggested a new Ripper suspect (tenuously, I think, but that doesn't stop Nicholl's review being interesting), so there's plenty that does fit the bill.

Nicholl is a fantastic writer and a thorough historian - I'd also hugely recommend, The Reckoning - The Murder of Christopher Marlowe and The Creature in the Map - Sir Walter Raleigh's Quest for El Dorado. And, to be honest, everything else he's written.

Posted: 17-03-2013 14:04 Post subject:

William Roughead - Classic Crimes.

Caught bookless on a job in Scotland I bought this in a rush and on a whim, not really expecting an awful lot of it - turned out to be one of the most enjoyable reads I've had for a long while.

Roughead - a lawyer and amateur criminologist - was a pioneer of that much self-abused area of literature known as True Crime (a definite candidate for the strict application of Sturgeon's Law). He was a friend of Henry James and worked with Arthur Conan Doyle in fighting the notorious Oscar Slater conviction. Notable fans of his work include Luc Sante, Dorothy L Sayers, Joyce Carol Oates, Henry James, John Buchan and FDR

The writing won't be to everyone's taste. Luc Sante, in the introduction to the new edition, describes Roughead's prose style as 'resolutely unmodern...not that it is in any way stiff, cold, musty or particularly quaint' - and I'd agree; these days I really don't get on with old-school prose, but I find Roughead incredibly readable. A keen observer - wry, critical and occasionally very funny - Roughead was not a mere narrator of proceedings, happy to simply relate the decisions of legal process. He has the gift of the great essay writer - which is to be entertaining without undermining your subject.

Most of the cases are Scottish (as was Roughead), some are historical (as in the cases of Katharine Nairn, Deacon Brodie and the West Port murders), some are viewed at a distance, and others have been observed literally from the sidelines - a product of Roughead's having attended (by his own account) every notable murder trial which took place at the High Court of Edinburgh over a period of sixty years.

Posted: 18-03-2013 22:25 Post subject:

Wow! I discovered this last weeken in the second-hand book market. It is totally fortean!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_the_Khazars

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Khazars-Lexicon-Novel-Words/dp/067972754X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363467411&sr=8-1&keywords=milorad+pavic

Highly recommended.