When superheroes were true gentlemen

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 is probably my favourite comic book of all time (or graphic novel as they are now known, though whats wrong with comic, it is after all comic). In fact I originally named the blog the extraordinary league of gentlemen readers, but I thought it was bit wordy for the Internet. This fantastic comic, as is par for course,was made into an incredibly bad movie. If I was Alan Moore (writer of the WATCHMEN), this sort butchery of my artistic vision would probably drive me to near insanity, until I bought another Lamborghini, and I assuaged my artistic soul. Unfortunately Moore probably lacks my base materialism and this would explain his appearance, see the following for Moores feelings on Comic Book Movies www.totalfilm.com/features/exclusive-why-alan-moore-hates-comic-book-movies. Anyway enough of the artistic graveyard which is Hollywood. Moores inspired idea is to take the Victorian Eras greatest superheroes and forming them into a Superhero group. This book is pitch perfect written in the style of a 19th century "penny dreadful" it's witty, it's clever, and packed with daring do. The story begins with our heroes all a little down on their luck. Quatermain (the hero of H. Rider Haggards novelsKing Solomon's Mines (Modern Library Classics) is found in an opium den, Griffin ( The Invisible Man
) is making the most of powers at an all girls school, and Mr Hyde (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson) is about to get butchered by a mob. Recruited by M,the head of the heroes must make battle with a mysterious east end villain. A jolly adventure ensues which will leave you wanting more, luckily for us there is more, as the adventurers reunite in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2

HATE BANKERS? You soon will - The Wolf of Wall Street & Catching the Wolf of Wall Street

If you are the kind of person who hates bankers (pretty much everyone, except bankers) then you are really going to hate Jordan Belfort. That said considering that The Wolf of Wall Street was a bestseller I would say at least most people have a love hate relationship with this kind of figure. Probably along the lines hate them nicking your money but would love to, as the blurb says, party like a rock star, live like a king. And Belfort certainly did that. I for one admire a man who embraces his own nature and runs with it, damn the apologies He's also a good example of how short of extermination / life imprisonment its difficult to hold these types down for long, From ruining companies to run away business success Belfort just keeps making money. Even Federal Charges haven't held him down for long, after ratting all his friends and associates, he segued into making another fortune refinancing home loans helping (covered in Catching the Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties, and Prison) so that people could buy that 2nd 50inch flat screen. He has now remade himself of course as a SELF IMPROVEMENT GURU! Belfort seems to have particular skill for finding the most reviled industry of the time, and thriving in them. This is probably also because that's where the money is. Which brings us to Central Tale of The Wolf of Wall Street the company he set up Stratton Oakmont Basically Stratton Oakmont was a pump and dump boiler room. Which is where you own a large block of shares in a company which is worthless, you hire a bunch of chaps to give the hard sell to your marks, ramp up the price, sell out , and then watch the company crater



As Belfort describes it his particular genius was working out that the rich have a lot more money the poor people, and thus it made more sense to steal their money. Boiler rooms have traditionally been pretty downmarket operations (the name comes from the fact that are often run out of boiler rooms). Belfort re branded his business, went upmarket and made piles of dosh. He then reinvested his ill gotten gains in Cocaine, Quaaludes, High End prostitutes and Helicopters. The last of which proved to be most dangerous. And in fact at the end of the day, and I think Belfort would agree the true moral of this tale of deceit and decadence, is never fly a helicopter when you are on Quaaludes.






If you enjoyed THE WOLF OF WALL STREET then I'm guessing you will also enjoy Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street Which has a similar protaganist, who whilst like Belfort, lacked even his small scruples, in fact he positively revels in stealing people cash, he also gets wrapped up with the MAFIA, so good if you like that genre

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

This is the tale of a man who would conquer Afghanistan, no not George bush, or Sean Connery for that matter. Its 19th-century maverick Josiah Harlan, who was the inspiration for both the former figures and others who sought there (mis)fortune in its hostile terrain. Now personally I think its two ticks against a mans sanity that he would even try to take over Afghanistan and second of all what would you do with it even if you managed the task. That said you have to give it to a fellow who's willing to give things a try. And Harlan certainly gave it a good shot. In The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan, Ben Macintyre tells a tale which sounds straight out of Kipling, not surprising as Kipling drew his inspiraton for The Man Who Would Be King from this real life story. The tale goes something like this boy meets girls, gets the shaft, decides bugger this, bugger America lets take over a country and let the fun begin. Harlan makes a pretty good attempt of it too, disguising himself as a Muslim holy man, connives his way to Kabul, recruits mercenaries and gets himself crowned king, for a while anyway. I'm a big fan of Macintyre, in particular I also enjoyed The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief
and his more recent Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal






Also worth  watching is the Man Who Would Be King which is the movie of the Kipling tale. Its a damn good film

THE SMART MONEY or how to beat Vegas

So who's the "SMART MONEY', the odds are not you. Not me either but in The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions, the story of a gambler who takes on the bookmakers and wins consistently is one of the most enthralling books that has been written on the subject. This is the true story of how Micheal Konik a sports and gambling writer gets recruited as a shill better for a secret betting syndicate known as the Brain Trust, headed by rick"BIG DADDY" Mathews. It follows Konik as he places increasingly larges sums for the syndicate, pockets big cash, has threesomes and generally enjoys the comped Las Vegas Life. Konik starts to wear under the pressure of the life, getting money out of bookies ain't always easy. But in the end Konik definitely gets the best of it, learning enough to start his own gambling syndicate. A great book, totally and entertaining and informative enough to encourage you to blow your paper thinking you can be the SMART MONEY



If you liked the SMART MONEY  and actually would like to learn a little more about gambling I would suggest also trying this book, Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street which traces the formulation of the Kelly criterion .Which if you don't at least know about, you probably shouldn't be gambling / investing (Whats the dif?) at all. This book includes tales of MIT mathematics professor Ed Thorp who earned a small Vegas fortune by "counting cards" then wrote about it in Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One, this was followed by teaming up with Claude Shannon the father of information theory to take on the Roulette tables. Again an interesting book about modern gambling pioneers who actually have managed to play and win

ANDREW CARNEGIE: INSIDER TRADING PIONEER

First up I must say this is one of the best business biographies I have read, if any historical figure fully captures the duality of man it must be Andrew Carnegie. What makes him so interesting is that so much of what he did seems so contradionary. In his David Nasaws book "ANDREW CARNEGIE" this Jekyll and Hyde nature of the tycoon is fully explored. Nasaw is obviously slightly in awe of his subject, as was I after reading this book. Nasaw manages to show the greatness of the man without flinching away from his sheer ruthlessness. From a beginning mired in Scottish poverty (the most depressing kind), insider trading rail way stocks (the social media stocks of the day) to get his first pile of cash to breaking strikes without breaking a sweat, guided by Spencer's theories of Social darwanism all the way (Fully explored in the book) Carnegie was one ruthless player. Not only was Carnegie a trend setter when it came to insider trading and destroying unions, he was the first Billionaire to redeem himself through philantrophy, setting the scene for later sainthood seeking rich guy like Buffet and Gates. In the end it all turns to custard for Carnegie but the ride is enthralling and I couldn't put the book down.