I was wondering if we could have a sticky thread where we can build up a list of books that sciforumers have read. It would be good if they could leave a broad synopsis and maybe a rating. :)

It doesn't matter if the book wasn't finished! If the person could just say why they weren't enjoying it, because another person might!

Mr Nice By Howard Marks - http://www.sciforums.com/images2/4stars.gif

ISBN- 0749395699

'During the mid-'80s Howard Marks had forty-three aliases and eighty-nine phone lines, and he owned twenty-five companies trading throughout the world. Bars, recording studios, offshore banks -- all were money-laundering vehicles serving the core business: dope dealing. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons of marijuana and had contact with organizations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA, and the Mafia. Following a worldwide operation by the DEA, he was busted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison at Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. He was released in April 1995 after serving seven years of his sentence. With pages of photographs, and told with humor, charm, and candor, Mr Nice is his own extraordinary story. Mr Nice has been one of the biggest-selling memoirs in Britain in recent memory, topping both the Sunday Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists. Also translated into eight languages, this edition offers American readers the first-ever opportunity to read this riveting book. "Frequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal." -- GQ "Only the Welsh could have produced ... Howard Marks.... In or out of handcuffs, he is always welcome in my home." -- Robert Sabbag, author of Snowblind "A folk legend ... Howard Marks has huge charisma. He sounds like Richard Burton and looks like a Rolling Stone." -- Daily Mail (London) "Marks weaves a fascinating story spiced with brilliant detail, far stronger than fiction." -- FHM'

Charles Fleming says: it's a highly entertaining book which should be read by everyone. It contains almost everything one looking for real action and excitement could ask for and (in my opinion) stands as a landmark in the literary world and can only give some direction to all of it's readers.

The World after Communism: A polemic for our times by Robert Skidelsky - http://www.sciforums.com/images2/3stars.gif *

ISBN- 033366292x

No Amazon review.

Charles Fleming says: I'm only at the second chapter but it's very informative and very easy to read without being patronising or missing out information. A good book for some political and ideological history as well as all round information about the world, the different political systems and the spread of Capitalism (which is interesting to know, in my opinion).

*so far. This may be edited when more has been read