What are we reading?

[Gusington]

I absolutely HATE The Old Man and the Sea.

[al_infierno]

Toonces - Good luck with Ulysses.  I was an English major in college, and I tend to like "difficult" works that make me stop and think over sentences and paragraphs, but Ulysses has just been too much every time I've attempted it.  I haven't managed to get past the first 30 or so pages.  Same with Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, but I'm a good bit more motivated to try and slog through that one than since GR has a more modern writing style, and is largely about V-2 rockets in WW2.

Kurt Vonnegut was a great writer - if you enjoyed the humorous writing style of Slaughterhouse Five, you'll probably dig his other writings.  I haven't read them, but Deadeye Dick and Cat's Cradle are both highly regarded.

I know what you mean about Hemingway.  I tend to like Hemingway's short stories better than his longer novels, but sooner or later I'd really like to read For Whom the Bell Tolls out of interest of the Spanish Civil War.  I did manage to slog through the end of "The Old Man and the Sea," and the ending was well worth the ride, but boy did the last 2/3 reading feel like a hell of a slog.

I hadn't heard of Under the Volcano, so thanks for the shout there!   O0

[Lotti Fuehrscheim]

Under the Volcano is great. It is the ultimate drunk novel. Fragments of clear insight followed by loss of focus until your head spins and you pass out: never has a novel induced that feeling so clearly. I drank a lot of Mescal while reading that book, back in the days.

[Toonces]

^ That's a fantastic way of describing Under the Volcano.

I think I'm exactly halfway through Ulysses.  I'm going to finish it, if only so I don't feel any compulsion to try to read it again in the future!

[Gusington]

Just started Sturmtruppen: WWI German Stormtroopers 1914-1918 by Ricardo Recio Cardona.

[JasonPratt]

They had Stormtroopers as early as 1914? Huh! (Or maybe they didn't but the theories developed against early trench warfare in the Race to the Sea carried over later?)

[Gusington]

^Not really, but the author is saying that without the stagnation of trench warfare beginning in the fall/winter of 1914, more traditional attack formations would not soon be adopted into 'storm' formations with more modern tactics to come that went with them. Traditional Pioneer and 'Jager' troops would be the first ones to evolve into storm troops.

[JasonPratt]

Okay, that's a lot closer to what I thought.  O:-)

[Gusington]

I do like how the author connected Pioneers, Jagers and the other more traditional types of German troops to the new types. Never read that kind of connection before. Also, this is a big-honkin' coffee table sized book, which I did not know when I bought it, which makes it even more of a cool read.

[WallysWorld]

About 2/3 of the way through the final book "Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945" of Ian W. Tool's three part Pacific War series. Really interesting to read about the politics, planning and operations that happened. I especially like the sections about life on the Japanese home front. About 60% of the book is from the American side of the war.

The first two books in the series are also very good: "Pacific Crucible: War At Sea In The Pacific 1941-1942" and "The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands 1942-44".

[Gusington]

I've got Pacific Crucible on my giant 'to read' shelf.

[Sir Slash]

So I finished, "Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings" a while back and I've got to say I liked it but didn't fall in love. The author, Neil Price knows more about the Vikings than most people will ever read in a lifetime but the first 2/3 of the book is all about their mythology, customs, clothing, diet, etc., on and on. If you've ever wondered how many different ways the Vikings made bread, THIS is the book for you. It's only after that he gets to what they actually did, and then it's wrapped around the Sagas and their mythology. There's a little about Ragnor, Ironsides, Ericksson and others but not a lot of detail of who did what and when and how. Overall, it's not a bad book, but it is a bit of a struggle to get through the slow parts. My 2 cents.

[Gusington]

About to start Artillery in the Great War by Paul Strong and Sanders Marble. I can't think of anything more appropriate for Christmas Eve.

[Gusington]

Artillery in the Great War was very textbook-like. But still somewhat entertaining. Now reading The Paris Gun: The Bombardment Of Paris By The German Long-Range Guns And The Great German Offensives Of 1918 by Henry W. Miller, which is also similar but was written in 1930 so it is also somewhat archaic in its language but still...somewhat entertaining.

[Gusington]

Now reading The Kaiser's Battle by Martin Middlebrook.