What are we reading?

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

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Gusington

^Your grandkids will love it!


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Dammit Carl!

Quote from: Gusington on September 10, 2021, 09:41:21 AM
^Your grandkids will love it!

"You see, Timmy, the ME-109G models were the most produced variants of alllllll the Messerschmitts."

"Wow, grandpa."  :P

Redwolf

#5522
[wrong thread]

Sir Slash

Mine would laugh at me for saying, "Mess-er Shits". Then tell Grandma I said a bad word. That's why I keep a secret stash of Snickers for bribery purposes.  ^-^
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Gusington

Do you perform a lot of self-bribery?


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Toonces

I picked up a modern translation in hardback of Henryk Sienkiewicz's The Deluge trilogy.  I've read the first two books before in their original translation but I wanted to try a modern translation.  I'm currently working through With Fire and Sword.  I dunno, call me old fashioned, but I kind of preferred the original translation.  It was more...charming I guess.
"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

Gusington

^Does that include The Teutonic Knights? Or is that a totally separate title, not part of the trilogy?


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Toonces

Totally separate title.  The trilogy is With Fire and Sword, The Deluge (in two volumes), and Fire in the Steppe.  Altogether it's probably 5000 pages of reading.
"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

ArizonaTank

Quote from: Toonces on September 10, 2021, 06:04:08 PM
Totally separate title.  The trilogy is With Fire and Sword, The Deluge (in two volumes), and Fire in the Steppe.  Altogether it's probably 5000 pages of reading.

Good suggestions. I started to read With Fire and Sword long ago, but got busy doing other things...time to revist.
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Gusington



слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Gusington

Just started the Baltimore (graphic novel) Omnibus Volume 1 by Mike Mignola  (Author), Christopher Golden (Author), Ben Stenbeck (Illustrator), Dave Stewart (Illustrator), Clem Robins (Illustrator): https://amzn.to/3lBYzri


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

ArizonaTank

#5531
Half way through "Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign" by Earl J. Hess.

This book is a good, competent telling of one of the most important battles of Sherman's Atlanta campaign. The book is of the blow by blow variety. Discussing the action regiment by regiment and sometimes down to the company level.

The Confederates had built a line of earthworks based on Kennesaw Mountain that blocked the Union advance to Marietta, Georgia, with the ultimate target of Atlanta. To take the position, Sherman attacked with three corps, making a frontal assault in columns against the dug-in Confederates in June, 1864. The Confederates stopped the Union troops cold, with very heavy Federal losses. At the same time, a fourth Federal corps, probed the Confederate left, and was able to pry the Confederates out of their position, clearing the way to Marietta. So while the battle was a tactical defeat for the Union, strategically it was just a minor speed bump.

The book is not one of the "popular" variety. It is too detailed in its description of the fighting down to the regiment / company level for that. So it would not be something I would recommend to the general reader. However, for someone wanting a serious study of the battle, the book is indispensable.

My only real complaint about the book has to do with the quality of the maps. While the book has a generous number of maps, they are often confusingly drawn, have no keys, and never mark north. I find myself looking for better maps from other sources as I read.

The book had a few points I found to be particularly interesting:
-Some Union units had Henry repeating rifles, and the Confederates prized them highly whenever they could capture one.
-By this point in the war, troops from both sides would routinely go to ground and dig-in on the defensive.
-The advancing Federal formations had great difficulty maintaining cohesion across the wooded, broken terrain, and they paid heavily for that.
-The Federals attacked in assault columns. The assault column may have worked well for Napoleon, but against dug-in rifled muskets, a column quickly collapses into a disorganized morass.

Here is the link to the book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Kennesaw-Mountain-Sherman-Johnston-Campaign/dp/1469602113/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1631897646&sr=8-1
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Jarhead0331

About 50 pages into "Storm over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War".  So far, it is a riveting companion to all the Cold War military aviation reading I have been doing over the past year or so...books about aviation in Korea and Vietnam and some of the flying legends of the era, both men and machines. The first chapter is extremely informative and concise in discussing the birth of military aviation and the evolution of its use from reconnaissance through tactical bombing, strategic bombing and air superiority. It goes into great detail on how errors in interpreting data from the major wars led to misuse and misguided theories on technological direction, training and employment of aircraft and weaponry. It then starts to talk about how the US military learned from painful lessons in the skies over Southeast Asia. All this seems to be leading up to the great lethality and success of the air war during Operation Desert Storm.

I only read it while on the toilet, so this one is going to take me a very long time to get through. It is very heavy reading too, so only a few pages at a time, which is why I am enjoying it as a bathroom reader.   
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


nelmsm


Ubercat

I never got the whole bathroom reading thing. The toilet isn't a comfortable chair. My mission is to get in and get out. Hanging out doesn't make sense to me. I'm 53 so I don't think it's just a matter of understanding when I'm older.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell