What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

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Gusington

^Have Dividing the Spoils in my Amazon shopping cart. Need to read that soon.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Gusington

Continuing my ancient reading marathon I have begun Harry Sidebottom's third (of six) Warrior of Rome book. Fifty pages in and the writing is even better than the first two, which is saying something.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

DoctorQuest

I found a number of the original Fleming Bond ebooks on Amazon for 99 cents. Been working through "Dr. No", "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball".

Great adventure fare if a bit dated. I read the hell out of these books in my youth. They are as good as I remember. The sad part is that Fleming did his best to live like Bond and ended up dead at 56. Getting away with heavy drinking and smoking is really the stuff of fiction, unfortunately.
"Everything you read on the internet is true." - Benjamin Franklin

"Zero-G and I feel fine....." - John Glenn

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage, inventor of the alternative fact.

ArizonaTank

I decided to take the plunge on David Glantz' Stalingrad Series:

Starting with "To the Gates of Stalingrad"

Very well written for such a dense (in a good way) treatment of the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700616306/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

solops

Just got a GREAT new book "The Complete Guide To German Armored Vehicles" by David Doyle. Cheap, only $26 on Amazon.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

BanzaiCat

Quote from: Toonces on June 18, 2019, 12:05:34 PM
Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler, about the 10th time I've read it.  It didn't quite hold up as well as I had hoped...I had to sort of dumb my brain down to that of 18 year old Toonces and try to just go with the flow.

Best read at the peak of the Cold War. Doesn't hold up well but still a decent Cussler book - it's what got me into his books. The movie is even worse as far as holding up, but there IS something about that scene where Titanic is pulled in to New York.

Bardolph

#4791
The comments on Blackhawk Down led to me finding this:

http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/somalia/nov16/default16.asp


I've read the book and watched the movie but this is the original multi-media format. Shame most of the video clips are broken.

airboy

I just finished Balkan Ghosts - written just before the fall of the Berlin Wall to the early 1990s.  Very interesting, very depressing.

His thesis was that every nation, ethnic group, religion, and what-not view the borders of the Balkans as "what ever point in history we had our high water mark - plus maybe a bit more" as the "natural boundary" of nations in the region.

Having been fortunate to travel through the area (Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hertegnova, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Chezt Republic (spelling) and Greece it is a really screwed up region.  We did a Danube cruise from Bulgaria to Vienna and we have been to Turkey three times.

The number of monuments to wars not even remembered by the rest of the world (3 wars in the Balkans before WW1, every war and uprising against the Turks, and every single religious war ever) plus the casual comments by people about how much they hated (insert name - but everyone the Turks and Moslems outside the Turks and Moslems) to chance foreign visitors is amazing.  That was from our travels.

It is an interesting book - but it has its gaps.  The guy does not understand historical agriculture (Romania was a breadbasket of Rome and much of Europe until WW2 and when the Communists really screwed it up) and some other things.  Still, it gives you an excellent "slice of life" of the ethnic hatreds and ethnic cleansing that have been going on there since the 1200s.

besilarius

Airboy, that does sound good.  Have to look that up.
The Bulgarians seem to have been among the worst at claiming territory.
One of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points after World War I, suggested that peoples who had historical claims to territory they lived in, should have their own country.
The Bulgarians came to the table and said that as the descendants of the Avars, who had conquered the Balkans in the Fifth century, they had the oldest, and therefore best claim to all of the Balkan peninsula.
They were politely ignored, which only made them angrier.
"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out until too late that he's been playing with two queens all along".  Terry Pratchett.

During filming of Airplane, Leslie Nielsen used a whoopee cushion to keep the cast off-balance. Hays said that Nielsen "played that thing like a maestro"

Tallulah Bankhead: "I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late, start without me."

"When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman." — Abraham Lincoln.

"I have enjoyed very warm relations with my two husbands."
"With your eyes closed?"
"That helped."  Lauren Bacall

Master Chiefs are sneaky, dastardly, and snarky miscreants who thrive on the tears of Ensigns and belly dancers.   Admiral Gerry Bogan.

Gusington

Balkan Ghosts is one of my favorite books.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

MetalDog

I really enjoyed Balkan Ghosts, too.  A lot of info on a place I knew little about.

Just finished LotR for the umpteenth time.  Going to get back to Guns, Germs, and Steel.
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

Gusington

I have a copy of Guns, Germs and Steel that I tried to read 20 years ago...I'll try again one day.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

airboy

Quote from: Gusington on August 26, 2019, 06:57:10 AM
I have a copy of Guns, Germs and Steel that I tried to read 20 years ago...I'll try again one day.

I read it and it was interesting.  Too much on how resources hindered the politically correct people from developing and too little on how a society's philosophy of cause and effect has on development.  But it was still interesting.

Toonces

^ I gave Germs a good try a long time ago.  I agree with Airboy, it was pretty interesting.  But for me, after I got about halfway through, I kind of got the gist and shelved it for something else.  That's how I remember it anyway.

I've been thinking of giving LotR another go.  I've only read it once, and that was at least 10 or 15 years ago.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

MetalDog

I have found through the years that there are LotR people and there are those who aren't.  As an admitted fanboi, I will wholeheartedly endorse giving it another go.  If you get through it and enjoy it, it is well worth it.  The feeling of depth and epicness and import is..a joy to experience.  However, if you find your eyes glazing at the odd names and places, the bits of poetry, and the pace, you should just give up.  No shame, it's just not for you.

As for Guns, I got about half way through before I had to bring it back to the library.  I don't feel like I missed anything not reading the rest.  When i go back to the library Saturday, I think I will look for Balkan Ghosts again.
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob