The Pickled Egg Library

[CitroJim]

My girls know exactly what I love to read

One of my birthday presents from them

Can't wait to read it but saving it for when I'm on holiday next week...

Own Work

A worthy addition to the PE Library I believe...

On a related theme, a good friend gave me these bike-themed bookends for my birthday...

Here they are with by cycling books...

Own Work

[Hell Razor5543]

I have just re-read (after getting it last month) "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. I think it is a 'keeper'. It meanders around a lot, there are bits that are dark (sometimes a bit horrific), some that are pornographic, but it is very clever and highly engrossing. It has won numerous awards (Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX and Locus). I will put the starting premise under a spoiler tag (although I do not think it would spoil anybody's enjoyment and anticipation of the book).

Spoiler: show

It is set in the USA in modern times (although, for explanation reasons, there are sections from historical times). There are, loosely speaking, two groups of Gods (those who came over with the settlers, and those who have been created in the modern era). These two groups are in conflict with each other, and it appears that the conflict is escalating.

[CitroJim]

Sounds a good book James

Pleased to see a further addition to this library!

I'm currently reading this and it is astoundingly excellent; highly recommended and Bryson at his very best



Picked it up in hardback for 99p in a charity shop...

Along with Jessica Ennis-Hill's Bio and a couple of books dealing with the history of the Tour de France...

A good haul

[Hell Razor5543]

I think "American Gods" is a book you could read, Jim. It is not as dark as "Dark and Cloudy Skies", it is intriguing, intelligent, and (allowing for the subject matter) realistic. It is a reasonably long book (around 650 pages), but it does work well. Ideally anybody who wants to read it should try and get hold of the 2004 edition, as Neil Gaiman continued to work on it even after it was first published (and the 2004 version is supposed to be his preferred text). He has done this before;

"Neverwhere" was initially written in 1996 for the British market, was then adapted for the American market, and finally (in 2000) the two versions were merged and adapted to produce his preferred version. I would also recommend "Neverwhere"; it is set in London, but there is a "London Below" where those who have dropped out of normal society have fallen into "London Below", as it were. There are clever plays upon locations with London; amongst other things there is an Angel called Islington, an Earl who holds court on a London Underground train, a gentleman called Old Bailey communicates with corvids, and trades information, and I wonder if you can guess the name of the person who does metal working for the denizens of "London Below"?

Spoiler: show

Hammersmith!

[CitroJim]

I think "American Gods" is a book you could read, Jim.

Sadly James, it's fiction and contains conflict so unfortunately the latter very much puts it out of court for me

A real shame as it really limits the books I can read now. About the only ones I can get through are either narratives of high and epic adventure or biographies of people who are involved in epic adventures...

They must be strictly non-fiction.

The books I've recently spoke of illustrate my choice perfectly...

On a topical note from a few weeks back I really enjoyed this:

[NewcastleFalcon]

Interesting Literature comes in all shapes and forms and there is always room in the library for a "coffee-table" browse.

Only six pages, that's one drink's worth of interest surely! What better to browse than a.......

1931 car sales brochure!

Here's the cover to whet your appetite

The choice based on this real life spot yesterday in Thirsk and reported up on the Classics Thread.

nfalcon own work

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Not quite out yet, but perfect for a browse in the snug!

Simon Jenkins-Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations



Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

That's one I'll definitely be after Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

The Pickled Egg library welcomes the Pickled Egg punter to come in armed with their own library books.

In the age of the internet, perhaps the good old library is forgotten, but what a tremendous resource they still offer.

This little site helps find books in libraries, as well as for sale

https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=wiki ... 0954998165

I have pre-loaded it with the A-Z of British Coachbuilders and a NE postcode

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Neil, that's a cracking site A great find!

I've just ordered a couple of books from Postscript. I shall report on them in due course...

One is a history of cycle lighting and the other is about St. Pancras Station..

Postscript Books

Postscript Books

A bit of winter reading for me...

[CitroJim]

I received the above two books today from PostScript and they are magnificent

Neil, you'd love the cycle lighting one. It's chock full of period photos and adverts for lamps and their accessories... The book is very large format. I was expecting a little book but it's massive!

The St. Pancras Station one is a wonderful history from building the original, it's rise, fall into dereliction and rebirth as the London Eurostar terminal. It too is full of the most wonderful pictures.

So happy was I that I bought two more books today:

Postscript Books

This one as I have a deep interest in codes and cyphers and what went on at Bletchley Park...

And this one should be a good read too... Hopefully full of lovely period photos and adverts again...

Postscript Books

All these books are very lowly priced for what they are. PostScript seem to specialise in selling off stocks of interesting obscure, eclectic and specialist books.

Their website psbooks.co.uk is well worth a browse

As a regular customer I now get their monthly catalogue through the post...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Neil, you'd love the cycle lighting one. It's chock full of period photos and adverts for lamps and their accessories... The book is very large format. I was expecting a little book but it's massive!

I'm sure I would, those adverts are often worth the ticket price themselves never mind the content!

On a lamps theme, there is a very interesting cafe serving excellent food called the Drift Cafe just behind the dunes near Cresswell on the Northumberland Coast. It always has interesting books/magazines/bric a brac to mooch around.

On a previous visit I picked up a couple of these for £3.50 each



On our most recent visit the interesting things were the Miners' lamps, although original, at £100 ish each, they were never going to be an impulse purchase. One in particular made by Patterson of Gateshead could well have had a family connection. Bit of research and I find out there was quite a dispute in relation to the "invention" of the miners' safety lamp. In one corner you had Sir Humphrey Davy, and in the other none other then George Stephenson, and you had Davy Lamps and Geordie Lamps!

So from the Newcastle University archive I will place in the Pickled Egg Library (limited appeal Section ) this interestingly titled article Sir Humphrey Davy’s Harmful Emissions

[CitroJim]

That cafe sounds magical Neil I'd be very happy there - as long as they do a decaff soy latte of course

I love that Practical Motorist magazine Especially the cover picture... Wish magazines still had covers like that...

Going to have a read up on dear old Humphrey and his emissions in a bit

[NewcastleFalcon]

That cafe sounds magical Neil I'd be very happy there - as long as they do a decaff soy latte of course

One other thing that caught my eye amongst the bric-a-brac was a box containing sets of old playing cards interesting in their own right for the cover art on the card backs. Reminded me of my grandma's sideboard drawer and hence to playing card games on her portable card table with the green beize cloth top.

Of course you could happily play "Canasta" with a couple of decks of cards without having a proper box set with "Canasta" on the top, but lying amongst the packs was one such box. We used to play all sorts of different games with the cards as well as building towers out of them.

Regards Neil

[bobins]

Although not a technical manual in any way, shape or form, Confessions From Quality Control by Rich Duisberg is a good laugh and an interesting insight into the world of car manufacture from the 1990s. It's not a large book by any stretch of the imagination, and could easily be read in the snug of the PE in the course of an evening and a few stouts. And yes, PSA cars do feature in it It also goes some way to identifying why quite a few cars were.... errrr..... rubbish Quite unexpectedly, Rover feature in it quite a bit. Who'd thunk it, eh ?

Confessions From Quality Control - Own Work