What are we reading?

[bob48]

Its a super place, and not many miles from where I live. Spent many a happy hour in there, I can tell you.

[Martok]

Finally finished McCullough's biography on John Adams today.  As expected, it was very well-written.  I (sadly) struggle to get through non-fiction works most of the time, so the fact that I was able to not only read the whole thing but enjoy it as well is a pretty monumental achievement in my book. 

Next up is my annual reading of Steven Pressfield's Tides of War.  I was playing a little of my Athens campaign in Rome II: Wrath of Sparta yesterday, so I'm definitely in the mood for it.  :) 

[Gusington]

^How is Tides of War?

You should now also watch the John Adams series from HBO. I actually have it on disc if you would like to borrow it...I could ship it to you. It's great.

[Airborne Rifles]

Agreed, John Adams is a great book and a really good series.

I'm currently reading Catastrophe 1914, about the first few months of WWI. Epic. I had no idea the first months of the war were also the bloodiest.

[Gusington]

They were? That doesn't sound right. Especially compared to Verdun, the battles of the on the Eastern Front...the Somme.

[Airborne Rifles]

In terms of intensity, number of soldiers killed per day, apparently the later battles don't come close. It makes sense, all the armies were still attacking in dense columns with little tactical nuance.

[Gusington]

Ok...per day and intensity, but not total casualty numbers.

[Airborne Rifles]

Max Hastings said it! Not me!  :)

[mirth]

I'm currently reading Catastrophe 1914, about the first few months of WWI. Epic. I had no idea the first months of the war were also the bloodiest.

Great read. I really enjoy Hastings' work.

[Gusington]

I love me some Great War reading...been looking to get Catastrophe 1914 for a while.

[Airborne Rifles]

I'm really enjoying it. Actually bought it as an audiobook to listen to while I run.

[Gusington]

What kind of new ideas does it bring to Great War study?

[Airborne Rifles]

Nothing earth-shattering. He says the point of the book is to try to blend the political, social, and military narratives of the lead-up to the war and the first few months. I think he does it pretty well.

He does make the case that Austria was responsible for starting the war, and that once Austria started it Germany was the only country that could have stopped it. Ergo, Germany and Austria bear responsibility for what followed, which as I'm sure you know is somewhat of a break with previous historiography of the conflict.

He focuses a lot on how minor the BEF's contribution was to the initial weeks of fighting compared to all the continental armies and how poor their high level leadership was.

He also argues that even though Joffre made huge bloody mistakes in the opening weeks of the war, he was actually the only senior commander of any of the belligerents who kept his head through the entire initial campaign, and the victory of the Marne truly belongs to him.

Anyway, that's what I've got so far. About half way through.

[JasonPratt]

Considering that Russia backed Serbia to stand against Austria, the next potential stop to the war would have been Russia I think, not Germany per se. Without their support, the Serbs would have been forced to the negotiation table.

(Admittedly I'm speaking from my mediocre experience of reading about WW1 and watching docs, and from my vast experience of refusing to back the Serbs as Russia one time while playing Darkest Hour. ;) )

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, the epic Harry Potter fanfiction known as Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality finally concluded (with a probable epilogue to be released much later) in late March, though I only found out now during a scheduled check on its progress. I had been holding back from catching up on the latest chapters last year, so now I'm prepping to start over from scratch and zip through the whole thing again to the end so I have some possibility of keeping plot hints in mind as I round the corner into the final stretch.

The whole thing can be downloaded as one massive pdf (with book-like formatting, a cover theme, etc), or as a set of pdf 'books' (seven to match the original series, with somewhat similar names, all clocking around 400 pages), or in some mobi and epub formats, here at the HPMOR site. (Also features links to the original Reddit texts plus author commentary along the way, mostly missing in the pdfs so far.)

Those who like me love it but didn't know it's finished yet, will rejoice.

Those who love the HP movies and/or books (I've only watched the series, and 'like' it more than love it), will probably love this, too.

Those who hate the HP movies and/or books, might actually like this. All the basic stuff is there (and tons of minor details from the original series), but it's written MUCH more cleverly, by someone who's more of a geek than JK Rowling, and even a grog in his own way. (A majorly huge subplot of the book involves a professor deciding to promote tactical wargame skirmishes between factions in each year, so we get sparring fights with HP-world magic by kids who love Warhammer, rather than quidditch matches, though I think those are still going on -- just not important to the plot in any way.)

Instead of the series spanning seven years of school through to graduation, it only spans one year (and maybe the following summer, not sure). So in book/film terms the whole thing takes place during Harry Potter and the Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone. But because of the basic concept, the plot moves along a lot faster for the time spent: the Voldemort problem is all resolved that first year. (To be fair, even in the first book it was basically all resolved; there was no reason or way really for him to come back for more books. ;) )

The basic concept for those who don't know, could be called this: what if the vast majority of the characters were mostly refusing to hold (what story tropers call) the Idiot Ball (even when at first they seem to be doing so)? -- and as a more specific example, what if Harry Potter's aunt had married a loving scientist, and so Harry was raised from a baby to maximize his potential before going to Hogwarts?

Another big change related to be basic concept: what if Voldy didn't have a stupid way of making himself immortal, and was farrr more subtle about dealing with the world?

No kidding: this ginormous novel (or novel-set) is like cheescake for geeks, especially sciency geeks.