ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Jeff:Isn't having a library card very much in keeping with the minimalist, clutter free lifestyle espoused in the books?
Oh definitely Last book I read was 'When the sea calms' by Jorn Lier Horst. It's a story of three crimes that turn out to be connected in an unexpected way. Nicely written crime novel in the William Wisting series.
Vähintään yhdeksänkymmentä prosenttia suomalainen!
beocool: Jeff:Isn't having a library card very much in keeping with the minimalist, clutter free lifestyle espoused in the books? Oh definitely Last book I read was 'When the sea calms' by Jorn Lier Horst. It's a story of three crimes that turn out to be connected in an unexpected way. Nicely written crime novel in the William Wisting series.
I just downloaded his novel "Dregs" for my Kindle, so will check him out. The thing about trying to find the owners of several severed feet in the description piqued my interest. There's a novel in the Lyndsey Davis Falco series, about a Roman PI during Vespasian's time, called "Three Hands In The Fountain" where he investigates murders after they keep finding odd body parts in fountains and aqueducts. What was interesting about that one is that the person assigned to help him in the investigation is Frontinus, who was curator of aqueducts under Vespasian and wrote two books I've read, "Aqueducts" which describes the system and history, and "Stratagems" which is a collection of military strategies and tactical stories.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Cleviebaby:Like Graham, I share a love of SAABs and I’ve just ordered the book he recommended. Cleve
Cleve
BeocoolSounds like a good read. The automotive landscape is surely a poorer place with Saab gone. I'm sure you've read 'A man called Ove' by Fredrik Backman. I have and totally enjoyed it. They made a movie too, which I also watched a couple of years ago. Slightly different from the book, but also very enjoyable. With Saab gone and you being a strong advocate of the brand I'm wondering what are you driving right now?
Cleve: Hope you enjoy the book! It's beautifully produced. (But written 20 years ago by someone of a younger generation than us!)
Frerke: I reluctantly gave up on my last Saab 9-5 estate, mainly because it was a diesel, and the emissions control equipment (common to many makes besides Saab) was a nightmare for reliability, diagnosis and repair. Now driving a petrol Mazda 6 Sportwagon. Really nice car with wonderful handling. However, nowhere near the capacity of the Saab because, instead of being box shaped it has a nicely swept rear end which makes it more like a combi or hatchback than a true estate.
Graham
beocool:Sounds like a good read. The automotive landscape is surely a poorer place with Saab gone. I'm sure you've read 'A man called Ove' by Fredrik Backman. I have and totally enjoyed it. They made a movie too, which I also watched a couple of years ago. Slightly different from the book, but also very enjoyable. With Saab gone and you being a strong advocate of the brand I'm wondering what are you driving right now?
Yes, I should have added to that last post that I had read A Man Called Ove, but have only seen the film trailers. I'll have to look for a DVD again.... the last time I looked it had still to be released for the U.K. market.
vikinger:Frerke: I reluctantly gave up on my last Saab 9-5 estate, mainly because it was a diesel, and the emissions control equipment (common to many makes besides Saab) was a nightmare for reliability, diagnosis and repair. Now driving a petrol Mazda 6 Sportwagon. Really nice car with wonderful handling. However, nowhere near the capacity of the Saab because, instead of being box shaped it has a nicely swept rear end which makes it more like a combi or hatchback than a true estate.
Mazda is an interesting brand. I haven't driven one lately, but I hear lots of good stories about their latest line up. Also they're still independent, even though they make the Fiat 124 Spider and work together with Suzuki for their smaller cars and Toyota for hybrid technology. And if I remember correctly Ford still has 2% of the shares.
But being independent pays of: Mazda has developed interesting technology (Spark Controlled Compression Ignition) and more is on the way. Their design is also their own thing. Mazda makes clear choices and those will not be to everybody's liking, but it makes their products more valuable to a certain type of buyer, I reckon. There relatively small, but I hope they will be able to keep independent for a long time to come.
I agree completely about Mazda, they've been unique since the days when they first introduced the Wankel rotary engine. A friend of mine in college had an RX2 coupe with the rotary, what a blast that was to run around in. My wife has a 2001 Miata MX-5, the perfection of the idea of a two seat sports car that the British did for so long with mixed results. Hers is now 19 years old, well over 90,000 miles, and still runs well and has had remarkably little go wrong with it, it's been amazingly reliable. My ex boss at one company had an RX8 and then a MazdaSpeed 3, both were very quick and fun cars.
So, I guess Mazda still goes their own way a bit, thankfully in this world that's become a sea of uniformity and boredom. Which is also why I truly miss Saab.
Jeff: I agree completely about Mazda, they've been unique since the days when they first introduced the Wankel rotary engine. A friend of mine in college had an RX2 coupe with the rotary, what a blast that was to run around in. My wife has a 2001 Miata MX-5, the perfection of the idea of a two seat sports car that the British did for so long with mixed results. Hers is now 19 years old, well over 90,000 miles, and still runs well and has had remarkably little go wrong with it, it's been amazingly reliable. My ex boss at one company had an RX8 and then a MazdaSpeed 3, both were very quick and fun cars. So, I guess Mazda still goes their own way a bit, thankfully in this world that's become a sea of uniformity and boredom. Which is also why I truly miss Saab.
Technically NSU introduced the Wankel rotary engine to the consumer market in 1964; the car in question, the NSU Wankel Spider had a one rotor engine of 498 cubic centimeters capacity.
The Mazda Cosmo came out in May 1967 with a two rotor engine. Mazda did however introduce their first Wankel rotary engine in 1964 as well at the Tokyo Motorshow. In 1965 Mazda built 20 prototypes for their development team and 60 prototypes for their dealers to test.
There is no denying however that Mazda did an enormous amount of development on the Wankel rotary engine.
Back to books again: I've read 'The obstacle is the way' by Ryan Holiday. It's basically a guide to change ones behavior towards challenges using Stoic philosophy. The book is divided into three parts:
In the book the author gives lots of examples of how these issues have been dealt with in the past by great leaders. It's easy to read and to the point. I liked it and as a result I'm now reading 'Ego is the Enemy' by the same writer.
I remember NSU was first out with a Wankel powered car, but I've never seen one, not that I'd ever do so outside a museum. I remember at one time Suzuki had a rotary motorcycle, and Mercedes had a version of their C111 supercar/testbed with a 6 rotor Wankel if I recall. Mazda stuck with that engine for a long time despite some issues, rotor tip seal wear, mileage/emissions issues, etc. Sad to see it go, lord would that thing rev.
Stoic eh? I much prefer the Epicurean approach to life. Apparently Herculaneum was a center of Epicurean philosophy before Vesuvius wiped it out.
The C111 came in different versions. There were cars powered by a four rotor Wankel engine, five cylinder diesels and the last one had a V8.
I think Norton had a Wankel powered motorcycle as well.
There are a couple of more manufacturers who experimented with the Wankel: Citroën teamed up with NSU and the GS Birotor and M35 were made in small numbers. The CX war meant to have a two or three rotor Wankel engine as well.
GM had the Aerovette prototype. Funny thing is that Holden (GM only recently discontinued this brand) delivered the Premier model to Mazda who placed their own rotary engine in it and then sold it as the Mazda Roadpacer.
It's not widely known, but Alfa Romeo had a Wankel engine program as well, which was killed off in oil crisis of 1973. Apparently they never had any intention of putting the engine into production.
I remember the C111 was a test bed for various engines and such. Interesting details about other Wankel implementations. I remember I went to the 24 hours of Daytona the first year the RX7 debuted. The exhausts ended in a megaphone, not even a straight pipe. It didn't take that long until they amended the rules making them put mufflers on them, the rotary without a muffler was loud, kind of the sound of a two stroke chain saw motor from hell. I remember reading they were measured at 133 dBA at 100 feet at full throttle, when they came into the pits they would stuff a glass pack muffler in the megaphone and hold it on with springs attached to eyes on the back of the car so they could hear the driver.
The sound was obnoxious as can be, something about not having valves made it sound very two stroke like. I remember we were trying to sleep on the infield that night, and you could hear where each of the two cars shifted gears all the way around the track. We'd listen to them come around the track and just cringe when the cars approached where we were parked. And with two cars they managed to stay about equally spaced around the track so it was about impossible to sleep. I thought my eardrums were going to meet in the middle when they drove by.
Sad to see the engine not still in use though, it had personality.
Just finished 'Ego is the enemy' by Ryan Holiday. Holiday's earlier book 'The obstacle is the way', is about external obstacles. The title of 'Ego is the enemy' is a dead giveaway: this book is about internal obstacles.
I totally enjoyed it.
Next book I've read is 'Small homes, the making of bouwEXPO Tiny housing Almere' Written by Jacqueline Tellinga. The title is self-explanatory. It describes a project of 16 tiny houses that were build on a 1,400 square meter lot. There's a chapter about the ideas competition at the start, the issues with building codes, a description of each of the houses and a review of four of the inhabitants along with some trends in society.
It has a little over 300 pages, but there are lots of pictures and the text is both in Dutch and English, so you can go through this book quickly. A good read with some clever design solutions.
Saab came up recently in this thread. So I decided to loot the library and came back with these. A book about the final episode with Victor Müller, a book about the Saab history in general, a book about Saab and in the Netherlands and a childrens' book in which a Saab plays a major part. Reviews will follow soon.
beocool: Next book I've read is 'Small homes, the making of bouwEXPO Tiny housing Almere' Written by Jacqueline Tellinga. The title is self-explanatory. It describes a project of 16 tiny houses that were build on a 1,400 square meter lot. There's a chapter about the ideas competition at the start, the issues with building codes, a description of each of the houses and a review of four of the inhabitants along with some trends in society. It has a little over 300 pages, but there are lots of pictures and the text is both in Dutch and English, so you can go through this book quickly. A good read with some clever design solutions.
That sounds interesting. Certainly there's a major trend towards small houses. Whether that lasts or not is open to question. In my experience, while I can see the allure over an apartment or such, and the lure of the affordability, I like space. I lived in a smaller house before here, and having more large windows onto a big yard and big rooms that don't make you feel claustrophobic is nice. Takes careful design in a small house to not let it feel like a prison cell.
Look forward to the Saab reviews!
beocool: Saab came up recently in this thread. So I decided to loot the library and came back with these. A book about the final episode with Victor Müller, a book about the Saab history in general, a book about Saab and in the Netherlands and a childrens' book in which a Saab plays a major part. Reviews will follow soon.
Look forward to your reviews Frerke.
Did you know that Kurt Vonnegut, best known as the author of Slaughterhouse 5, was an early Saab dealer in the US at Cape Cod?
He didn't do too well with those early two strokes because he claimed that drivers couldn't deal with concept of needing to put a pint of oil into each tank full of petrol. See the article at:
https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/MSADA-AUGUST-Vonnegut-single-pages.pdf
vikinger: Look forward to your reviews Frerke. Did you know that Kurt Vonnegut, best known as the author of Slaughterhouse 5, was an early Saab dealer in the US at Cape Cod? He didn't do too well with those early two strokes because he claimed that drivers couldn't deal with concept of needing to put a pint of oil into each tank full of petrol. See the article at: https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/MSADA-AUGUST-Vonnegut-single-pages.pdf Graham
That's an interesting thing, Graham. Didn't know that at all, will read the article asap. BTW you slightly misspelled my name, it's Freerk. Even here in the Netherlands it's difficult for people to spell, since my name is Frisian and not Dutch
I've read the first of the Saab books. It's 'Tien dagen in een gestolen auto' by Anna Woltz. The title would translate to 'ten days in a stolen car'. I was really surprised to see this book come in my search result, which was 'Saab'.
The protagonist is 11-year-old Camilla, who is a rather unusual girl as she hates babies and loves cars. She is sent to Sweden by her mother to stay with friends for a holiday. Once she leaves the ferry she is picked up by her friends Jason and Ben. The car turns out to be a Saab 96 convertible. In the book it's mentioned that Saab never made a convertible 96. The car turns out to be stolen, which explains the title. To make matters worse, there is a shrieking baby in a moving box in the back seat. Jonas and Ben manage to persuade Camilla to get in and then a road trip to the north of Sweden unfolds.
For such a short book (160 pages or there about) it's remarkably complete: The personalities of the main characters are well described, the way the plot unfolds with some interesting twists and a little information about Sweden and some of the habits and customs of its inhabitants.
I doubt if there's an English translation available, but even though this book is aimed at ten- to twelve-year-olds, in my opinion it's a good read. It certainly is better than some short novels aimed at adults that I've read.
beocool:That's an interesting thing, Graham. Didn't know that at all, will read the article asap. BTW you slightly misspelled my name, it's Freerk. Even here in the Netherlands it's difficult for people to spell, since my name is Frisian and not Dutch
Freerk apologies! Too much battling with the substitutes that the iPad tries to put in instead!
vikinger: beocool:That's an interesting thing, Graham. Didn't know that at all, will read the article asap. BTW you slightly misspelled my name, it's Freerk. Even here in the Netherlands it's difficult for people to spell, since my name is Frisian and not Dutch Freerk apologies! Too much battling with the substitutes that the iPad tries to put in instead! Graham
No worries Graham
Never knew that about Vonnegut. Interesting. Back in college I knew a woman who had a Saab Sonett II, freaky little car. Really cool and unique. Although for really weird, my high school rifle team coach drove an Ogle SX1000!
Jeff: Never knew that about Vonnegut. Interesting. Back in college I knew a woman who had a Saab Sonett II, freaky little car. Really cool and unique. Although for really weird, my high school rifle team coach drove an Ogle SX1000!
An Ogle SX1000! I know of it, but I don't think I've ever seen one in person. Then again my high school didn't have a rifle team
Second book in my Saab-quartet is 'Saab, meer dan een merk' (English transaltion: Saab, more than a brand) by Ton Lohman. Ton Lohman is a journalist who has been in the classic car scene for a long time. He's published a few books and has been a contributor of 'het Automobiel'.
This book sums up the history from the transition from planes to automobiles to the last Saab 9-5. Every model gets it's own chapter including the rarer cars like the Saab-Lancia 600. At the end are three chapters about rallying, photo's of special Saabs and Saab clubs around the world.
I learned a few things here and there, for example about the Saab 60, a version of the Saab 96 unique to the UK I never knew existed. Another one is the Saab 98 that didn't make it into production. However, overall there isn't that much information in the book. no interviews, not a register with technical information at the end, just a few simple facts about each model at the end of each chapter.
The title Saab, more than a brand suggests at least a more in depth review of what makes this brand so special. Also some of the photos in the book are not that professional. It's a book worth reading if you don't know anything about Saab, or if you want to collect everything that's been written about it, otherwise I'm afraid this book doesn't add much.
Time for book number 3 now: 'Saab in Nederland' (no points in guessing this would translate to 'Saab in the Netherlands') written by Onno Walgien.
Sounds like the last book was very good. I truly miss Saab, as I've said the automotive world is a poorer place without them. My sister-in-law has a Hyundai Elantra. It's a fine little car, it's been quite reliable, it's comfortable, has just about every accessory and luxury goodie you'd want (leather, heated seats, climate control, etc., everything my Acura had) and is, well, if not a stunningly fast or fun car to drive it's unoffensive, does nothing really wrong or to call undue attention to itself. And it's boring as can be.
When I took her shopping for this car back in 2013, we drove Nissans, Fords, Toyotas, etc. all in the same vehicle class, and they all felt remarkably alike and all were boring. They all were decent transportation appliances, but that's all they were, appliances, a term which I don't think ever applied to Saabs.
The world gets more and more homogenized unfortunately.
I've not had much time to read lately and am behind, still on the Pancho Barnes book. Interestingly, her grandfather was one of the first balloonists in the US, he was the man who started the use of balloons for reconnaissance of troop movements in the US Civil War, they'd float above the battlefield tethered and using a telegraph to send reports. Of course he said he got shot at by his own side as much or more than by the Southern army. It's from him she apparently got her first taste of aerial adventure.
I miss Saab too. They were distinctive and we already lost enough interesting car brands. Another thing is some brands decided to turn their idiosyncrasies down a little too often. It's understandable since car manufacturing is about economies of scale these days, but still.
There's never been a Saab in my family, but I remember the cars of some of the people I knew: the head of my secondary school drove a 96 V4. His 96 was special as it was one of the last 300 made. They must have been popular in the Netherlands as half of the 300 were sold here. These were all metallic blue with alloy wheels and a brown interior. It had different seats as well, borrowed from the 99.
My biology teacher had an early dark blue 99 with chrome grill. On my way to school I passed her house and saw her husband's brown 900 every now and then. One of my dad's friends had a couple of 900's and later 9000's as well.
There are still two 900 classics close to where I live. Both look rather tired now and I hope they deserve the TLC they need to keep them on the road in the future. I still hope to drive one of those one time and listen to the typical Saab turbo burble.
Just finished the last book of the Saab-quartet: ‘Saab over de kop’ (which translates to ‘Saab belly up’ written by Maarten van der Pas and Robert van den Oever. De subtitle is ‘De nederlaag van Victor Muller’ (which translates to Victor Muller’s defeat).
I followed the end of Saab with great interest at the time, but so far never read this well written book.
Victor Muller is a dealmaker and a natural optimist. He owns Spyker, a small manufacturer of sports cars. Before Saab, Spyker invested in a formula 1 team. The idea was to put Spyker on the map (as the saying goes: win on Sunday and sell on Monday) and then sell the shares with a profit.
He was able to get people aboard his vision and invest, but the next step actually managing a formula 1 team and eventually win races is quite another thing. It all ended in tears, personal losses for Muller and even bigger losses for the investors.
History sort of repeated itself with Saab. Muller saw opportunities where others didn’t and he was able to convince his partners. The underlying idea here was that Spyker could gain from the Saab deal and ultimately this would pay off in hard cash for Muller.
But reality was different from his vision: there were a lot of stakeholders: Spyker, Saab, GM, European Investment Bank, the Swedish Government and Riksgälden (the Swedish National Debt Office). This wasn’t so much a problem during the time he acquired Saab, but later on in the process it turned out that the stakeholders didn’t necessarily have the same goal. Furthermore it complicated and slowed down the decision making process.
Also Muller highly underestimated restarting and running Saab. The company relied on the new 9-5, but it sold in too little numbers, which resulted in a serious lack of cash. Suppliers and workers weren’t paid on time, production stopped. In the end there was no other option then to file for bankruptcy.
There’s a good article ‘who killed Saab Automobile? An obituary of an automotive icon’ written by Matthias Holweg of Cambridge Judge Business School and Nick Oliver of the University of Edinburgh Business School where you can find out more why Saab didn’t make it. Link to it here: https://issuu.com/cambridgejbs/docs/who_killed_saab_automobile
My next read was 'Death deserved' (original title: Nullpunkt) By Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger. Both of them are very good crime writers in there own right, Lier Horst is known for the William Wisting novels (of which I read about 5) and Enger for the Henning Juul series (I read all 5 of them).
'Death deserved' is the first in a new series with police officer Alexander Blix and celebrity blogger Emma Ramm as the main characters. You don't notice that the book is written by two authors, the style is consistent. Chapters are short, the plot unfolds nicely and the characters become 'alive'.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes Scandinavian thrillers.
Looking forward to the translation of the sequel 'Røykteppe'.
'The Japanese House' by Noboru Murata and Alexandra Black. A book with great photos. Accompanying texts are short and a little superficial, but this is a coffee table book, so it doesn't really matter. For deep knowledge on the subject you need to look elsewhere.
beocool: 'The Japanese House' by Noboru Murata and Alexandra Black. A book with great photos. Accompanying texts are short and a little superficial, but this is a coffee table book, so it doesn't really matter. For deep knowledge on the subject you need to look elsewhere.
I have that book! As you say, short on text but long on stunning photos, which in many ways works to illustrate the concepts better than text. I need to dig out my architecture/design books again, I am redoing the library and need inspiration. Somewhere I have a book on media design that has a lot of stunning, , albeit dated (tech wise), rooms with electronics integrated in them, integrated into custom cabinetry. This had a big influence on my first house. I was house poor and the B&O pizza box systems were too pricey, so I had a custom cabinet built with cutouts for components and a lot of storage for records and CDs.
I need to find that book again and remember the title.
Hope you find that book again soon. I'm reading a classic right now: 'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse.
Just finished 'The Briefcase' by Hiromi Kawakami. The main characters are 38 year old Tsukiko, and her former school teacher, which she calles Sensei. Both characters are lonely, but enjoy each others company. The book itself is quite uneventful, but nicely written with subtle hints of the changing seasons and quite a few peculiar details of everyday situations, which makes the characters come alive.
"No middle name' by Lee Child. I borrowed it from the library for my dad to read. Sadly he passed away before he could read it.
The book is a collection of 11 short stories and a novella in the Jack Reacher series. I'm sure my dad would have enjoyed it. I know I have.
Sorry about your father beocool. I lost mine 25 years ago and still miss him.
Lately I've not been reading anything book-wise, seems like I'm always reading the news. I really need to get back to books, if only for my mental health.
beocool:"No middle name' by Lee Child. I borrowed it from the library for my dad to read. Sadly he passed away before he could read it. The book is a collection of 11 short stories and a novella in the Jack Reacher series. I'm sure my dad would have enjoyed it. I know I have. Vähintään yhdeksänkymmentä prosenttia suomalainen!
Jeff: Sorry about your father beocool. I lost mine 25 years ago and still miss him. Lately I've not been reading anything book-wise, seems like I'm always reading the news. I really need to get back to books, if only for my mental health.
Thanks Jeff, much appreciated I think reading is beneficial in many ways. Hope you find a good book soon.
Duels:I’m really sorry to hear about your Father. I’ve also just finished a Lee Child book, this one was called Blue Moon. Out of the 25 or so that he has written I have one more to go.
I’ve also just finished a Lee Child book, this one was called Blue Moon. Out of the 25 or so that he has written I have one more to go.
Thanks, Duels I know my dad liked the Jack Reacher books. The library here has most if not all of them. Only trouble is there closed because of Corona, but they have some ebooks as well. Might have a look into that as soon as I run out of traditional books. I'm now reading 'Osama' by Chris Ryan.
Thanks for the recommendation Duels. I've downloaded "The City And The City" to my Kindle. Also have downloaded " Popular Music From Vittula." I definitely need to stop reading the news, how many different ways to you need to read that the sky if falling?
Jeff:Thanks for the recommendation Duels. I've downloaded "The City And The City" to my Kindle. Also have downloaded " Popular Music From Vittula." I definitely need to stop reading the news, how many different ways to you need to read that the sky if falling?
beocool:I'm now reading 'Osama' by Chris Ryan.
Finished. This is a typical Chris Ryan book: the plot is moving fast with lots of action. No subtlety whatsoever in this book. The real trouble with books like these is that they seem like a recycled version of the one that came before. That said it does touch on the subject of PTSD: The protagonist is level-headed at first, but then suffers from this disorder and seems less likable. I'm no expert on the subject, but it must be hard to write about this.