What are we reading?

[Anguille]

Reading:

Fondation by Isaak Asimov...

Cheers, Anguille!  I'm in the midst of my annual re-reading of the Foundation trilogy myself.  Am currently reading the 2nd book, Foundation and Empire.

So far, i only have this one (i think. Have to check)...will get the next two as soon as i finish this one. I have an edition of '57. Great reading.

[Gusington]

The series is almost legendary. But I've only read the first book.

[RedArgo]

Foundation series is great, I just picked it up on my Kindle to replace the real books that didn't make our move to AZ.

[Gusington]

How many books are there total in the series?

[Labbug]

At first 3 books.  I think 2 prequels and 2 sequels were added later.  So 7 books for the Foundation Series.

[airboy]

The series is almost legendary. But I've only read the first book.

They go downhill fast.  You chose wisely.

[Gusington]

Thanks Labbug. They get poor, eh Airboy? Maybe I'll just reread the first again.

[MetalDog]

Reading the trilogy is required.  Then you get to make your own mind up.  However, I generally agree with Airboy.  I didn't care much for anything after the trilogy.

[JasonPratt]

Finished Churchill's followup supplementary work on the East Front of WW1, part of his The World Crisis series, earlier this week; having caught up to the 1917 revolution in his main volume at that time.

Is it necessary reading? ...eh, yes and no? It helps flesh out a lot of context preliminary to the War, and adds more detail to what was going on up to Russia's fall in 1917 (where it abruptly ends since at that point the East Front per se no longer exists). Extra information on the campaigns in the east, is much sparser, having been covered tolerably well in his main volumes; which is reflected in the prior reports I gave of where various topics arrived at percentages through the book (e.g. 1917 starts 96% through the book by linecount, and that includes end matter.)

Chugging along now at around 75% through the volume covering the end of the war (1917-1918), with the Aftermath volume still to go. The Germans just shot their final wads attempting to blast the British off mainland Europe and, failing that, to break the French lines -- rescued in a stirring portrait by the arrival of the first main American forces. (After this I plan to re-read the collected debriefing notes of German impressions of Americans during the War and the subsequent temporary occupation.)

[Gusington]

^How many pages is all of this in total? 1000s?

[JasonPratt]

Depends on the edition; the texts are arranged into volumes with some variation between printings.

The version I'm reading on Kindle (can't find my print versions, packed up somewhere apparently), totals as follows:

Vol 1 (up thru 1914): 272 pages
Vol 2 (1915): 623 pages
Vol 3 (1916-1918): 619 pages
Vol 4 (Aftermath): 465 pages
Vol 5 (East Front addendum): 517 pages

Grand total (for this edition) 2496 pages.

[Tripoli]

Depends on the edition; the texts are arranged into volumes with some variation between printings.

The version I'm reading on Kindle (can't find my print versions, packed up somewhere apparently), totals as follows:

Vol 1 (up thru 1914): 272 pages
Vol 2 (1915): 623 pages
Vol 3 (1916-1918): 619 pages
Vol 4 (Aftermath): 465 pages
Vol 5 (East Front addendum): 517 pages

Grand total (for this edition) 2496 pages.

For those who are intimidated by the size of Churchill's various multi-volume histories, I would note that he is pretty readable, especially in comparison to the typical writer of the era

[Gusington]

I am a dedicated reader but 2500 pages!! DAYUM.

[JasonPratt]

Don't worry, it's mostly politics and logistics.  >:D

Consequently, I found his (larger) History of the English Speaking Peoples, which is considerably less biographical (except when it comes to his ancestor Marlborough ;) ), more entertaining to read, just for being more narrative-driven. The World Crisis is at least 30% memos from Churchill to other people, plus at least another 10% memos from other people to Churchill.

There are some fine turns of prose along the way -- moreso than I recall in the preliminary series, actually! The themes of the Great War call forth his poetic side more often.

[Jarhead0331]

Having finished Top Gun by Dan Pedersen, I'm now reading Top Gun Days by Dave "Bio" Baranek. This is a great companion to Dan's book. Dan was a senior aviator by the time he formed Top Gun and wrote about the school from the perspective of its founder and as an instructor. Dave was a young flight officer when he attended Top Gun as a student, so his book is much more about the actual flying in Top Gun from the perspective of being in the class. Dave's book is also interesting because he was a RIO, and there is not a lot of literature out there about this critical role in naval aircraft. Finally, Dan's flying days preceded the Tomcat, whereas, Dave flew almost exclusively in them so Top Gun Days is all about the F14.

I can't tell you how rewarding it is to read about technical flying and actually understand the terminology, technology and tactics from flying DCS. I think this speaks volumes about the efficacy of this sim. Speaking of DCS, it was recently announced that Dave Baranek is working on a Tomcat campaign for DCS called Zone 5. Very much looking forward to this. I've seen some videos of him on YouTube. He even did a DCS tomcat walk around. Seems like a super nice guy.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=276338