What are we reading?

Windigo · March 25, 2013, 03:13:09 PM

Quote from: Longdan on March 25, 2013, 03:09:57 PM
Would you rather go to Vulcan or Vauxhall? I can set you up with a hot date in Hobbema if you want.

I am certain you could, but I must take a pass on this generous offer...

Longdan · March 25, 2013, 03:15:14 PM

Just call it cultural anthropology with a gunfight thrown in. Party!!

Gusington · March 25, 2013, 04:54:04 PM

Do I want to know what Vulcan or Vauxhall are?

Post impressions of Embers of War if you don't mind. I am interested in Asian colonial history pre-1945, especially Vietnam.

Longdan · March 25, 2013, 05:00:17 PM

Mostly it is from the 1940's and ends in the mid 60's. We watched the rest on TV.

Gusington · March 25, 2013, 07:35:12 PM

Oh. Doesn't start after WWI?

Longdan · March 25, 2013, 07:47:05 PM

Starts in 1919 but the really important stuff happens after the Japanese are gone since that was a major interruption of everything previous.
WW2 ends around p99. Then there is 600+ pp of the rest.

Gusington · March 26, 2013, 07:30:40 AM

That's a long book. I may have to look elsewhere.

Longdan · March 26, 2013, 10:30:04 AM

Be not afraid long can equal full of knowledgey goodness stuff.

Gusington · March 26, 2013, 12:33:00 PM

I've read a few that long and if the writing is good it's ok.It's when the writing ia not so good that I get squeamish.

GDS_Starfury · March 26, 2013, 11:53:30 PM

Quote from: Longdan on March 24, 2013, 12:38:57 PM
Oh no. But I spent some time working along the Thai-Laotian-Cambodian border region in the mid '70's. Things were rather disorganised
there at that time and it was too exciting for a simple prairie boy like me. Pretty country. Don't like the food.

did you love them long time?

Gusington · March 31, 2013, 01:21:54 PM

I have begun reading Richard Connoughton's Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear, for the 2nd time. I couldn't finish it the first time 10 years ago because I felt it dragged too much but this time around it reads better. Read 50 pages since yesterday.

Silent Disapproval Robot · March 31, 2013, 01:37:45 PM

I'm reading Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway April-June 1940. I'd earlier read a novel about the Norway campaign told from the perspective of a British Sgt and I realized that I really didn't know much about the campaign at all apart from the broadest strokes. The naval campaign is fascinating and quite brutal. I didn't realize that so many ships were lost by both sides during the campaign.

Gusington · March 31, 2013, 01:41:15 PM

What kind of assets did Norway have?

Silent Disapproval Robot · March 31, 2013, 01:47:44 PM

Lots of old coastal forts and the world's 4th largest merchant fleet. The Brits really wanted the Norwegan merchant fleet. The Germans wanted a port from which they could ship out iron ore from Sweden and a way to ensure the Baltic was shielded from the Royal Navy. The French wanted a front away from France so it wouldn't be a repeat of WWI.

Staggerwing · March 31, 2013, 01:52:27 PM

It was mostly the British and Germans bashing it out among the Fjords. The Norwegians had only a few obsolete coastal defense ships and some patrol boats. The most potent naval weapons they fielded were really the shore batteries that sank one of the German heavy cruisers, the Blucher. The Norwegians actually had land-based torpedo launchers as well that they used to finish off the Blucher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Norwegian_Navy#History