ANOTHER BORING REVIEW BLOG......

....but since this is my blog, I don't care what anyone else thinks. I like the idea and couldnt give a tinker's whether there are 50,000,000 similar blogs to this.

Anyway, a collection of random 'reviews' on just about anything I get my hands, eyes and ears on.

And here are my starters for ten (english-type joke):

I just did these seven book reviews for amazon.co.uk, not sure why I posted them - I think it was the Charlie Chaplin and Tchaikovsky bios that had been simmering in my head for some years: note to self - get even with authors at some point in my life. When you read a book or go see a fillum or lsiten to music and want to rant, rail or rave to someone other than, say, your better half who couldnt care less, what can you do? Write to your local paper? Complain to Borders? Talk-back radio.....?

Here we are then:


Tchaikovsky
by Anthony Holden

2.0 out of 5 stars
Oh, get over yourself.......

Half way through this read, a voice in my head was urging the subject to stick his head in a bucket of rancid water....but instead, I chose to just close the book and get on with the rest of my life.
It was enough to turn me off his music forever! How pathetique.....



Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics
by Jonathan Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars.
A game of two halves, two teams, two goals and one football....how difficult can it be to get right?

Reading this book washed away many years of agony and frustration that has blighted this supporter of english football since 1966! At last, a voice to echo my own thoughts on the modern game; a sequel analysing every international ever played by England since 1966 would be the icing on the cake - maybe fellow long-suffering supporters could be invited to participate. This way, we could all put the boot in, which is more than most capped players ever did!
I had no idea how much of an impact english coaches had on the world game in the modern era. Is that the equivalent of football's brain drain?
I've been waiting for this book for most of my life.....



A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam
by Robert Mann

3.0 out of 5 stars
Mike Mansfield: or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb....!

A weighty tome, to be sure; but a wonderful piece of political science that unmasks the Capitol Hill deception that was the war in Vietnam. Also, a boring biography of the life and times and speeches of Mike Mansfield. Actually, this book would have been 10 times lighter without Mike Mansfield's name, speeches and press-grabs.
Reminds me of the Bob Dole scene in 'Family Guy:' Mike Mansfield, Mike Mansfield, Mike Mansfield...(ad infinitum).
Can I be honest here Mr Mann? At one (or maybe two dozen) points in the book I was secretly harbouring fantasies that the US of A would nuke Vietnam by at least page 350 so I could close the book forever and never, ever have to think about Mike Mansfield for as long as I live.
Now, I'm stuck with him in perpetuity (as I'm sure he would have wanted).


A People's Tragedy: Russian Revolution, 1891-1924
by Orlando Figes


What's a little ice-pick between friends...?

A superb book and a wonderful introduction to the history of Soviet Russia.
I'll never be able to watch '10 days that shook the world' in the same way ever again!



Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World
by Elizabeth YoungBruehl


5.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry, but who is this book about again....?

A wonderful introduction to the philosophy of Hannah Arendt - highly recommended to those wishing to pursue a voyage around Arendt's books but would like their hand held along the way.
Two gripes I'm afraid: firstly, almost every sentence and every paragraph appears to start with "Hannah Arendt....(did this)..." or "Hannah Arendt (wrote this)...." - this tic drove me to such distraction that the book became that much heavier (some creative editing may have, therefore, also reduced the number of pages?); secondly, and as much as really liked Young-Bruehl's style and the clarity of her prose, I wasnt sure whether I was the right audience for the book. Should I have been an undergraduate studying philosophy or at the very least an amateur philosopher? That many of his contemporaries found Heidegger confusing is alarming in itself (what is the point then?), but for us poor lay people, what chance is there? Suffice, and sorry to say, I skipped so many of these pages and am still none the wiser. Call me a philistine if you wish! Still, and all, a marvelous read and through it I really really miss Hannah Arendt's presence.


The Anatomy of Fascism
by Robert O. Paxton

5.0 stars out of 5 stars
A fist in the face by any other name......?

This certainly is a perfect introduction to an extremely complex subject - but I hate to admit that I did find Paxton a trifle over simplistic at times.
But if you're looking toward a literary exploration into 20th Century European tyranny, fascism and totalitarianism - then this book is an ideal starting point.




Charlie Chaplin and His Times
by Kenneth Schuyler Lynn


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful (yay for me!):
2.0 out of 5 stars
No, go on...tell us what you really think......

If I die famously, please please do not ask Kenneth Lynn to write my biography!
This is a well written poison-pen addition to the Chaplin factory of bios - and that Lynn despises Chaplin is quite obvious from almost the first few pages. No coincidence, then, that the publisher decided to use the famous 'devil' pic of Chaplin on the dust cover.
Why Lynn just didnt cut to the chase within the first two pages and tell the reader how odious a subject Chaplin was to him is beyond this reviewer! Still, I did keep on reading mainly out of pure curiosity just to see where Lynn was taking me; where he did take me was to a place I really didnt want to go.
I gave you 2 stars Mr Lynn: one star because you write quite well, and the other because the book is still on my shelf and can't bring myself to chuck it.


Still to come: dvd review....Edge of Heaven
book reviews (havent decided)
Film reviews: I have to review The Bank Job and one crap Swedish film
TV: too much to choose from, so maybe Madmen, Eastenders and more!