Outside of ww1 and ww2 what are you reading?

[Kunikov]

I just picked up a book from the library called Black Night, White Snow: Russia's Revolutions 1905 - 1917 by Harrison E. Salisbury. So far it seems pretty interesting.

Salisbury wrote the "900 Days" book about Leningrad in WWII, at times quite boring and annoying with the numbers, but overall pretty good. A new one will be coming out soon about the Siege of Leningrad, the social and economic aspects, not military though.

[Daryl Leeworthy]

Spain's Road to Empire by Henry Kamen and a biography of Henry I (of England) by C. Warren Hollister.

[Mauser K98k]

Once the baseball season starts I'll probably go back and pick up where I left off in The Physics of Baseball by Robert K Adair, the National League's official physicist who has a great site on the subject.
And for fun I'm enjoying thumbing through 17 Watts? The Birth of British Rock Guitar by Mo Foster with a foreward by Hank Marvin.

Now those sound like two fascinating reads.

Being a Rockies fan, the physics of baseball are painfully apparent at 5280 feet.

Being a rock guitar affectionado, I'll be on the lookout for Mo's book.

[Kaan Caglar]

Right now: Kanlısırt Günlüğü-Which is "Lone Pine Diary"..(Gallipoli)
A research book with some short stories. A must read.
Cheers
Kaan

[Kunikov]

Because of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" I've gotten the book "The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ" Hopefully it'll be a good read, after reading Von Bock's memoirs and finishing up "War without Garlands" I need a break

[Chadwick]

Just finished reading Black Night, White Snow and sounds like this book is written much the same way Kunikov said the book about Leningrad was written. I really had a hard time finishing the book. Now I'm reading THe Devil in the White City about the serial killer HH Holmes and the Chicago's World Fair. You want to talk about a seriously deranged man. Holmes preyed on single young women. He built a huge "hotel" just west of the fairgrounds which covered two city blocks. Deep inside the "hotel" he had secret passages, passages leading nowhere (like a maze), trap doors, a dissection table (yes he was a licensed MD), gas chamber, and a 3,000 degree crematorium. The book is also an interesting commentary on the times and people of the Gilded Age. The book reads like a horror novel, but the real horror is that this place really existed and these murders really occured.

[Kunikov]

"Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story" Vladislav Tamarov
A really really great book, the photos are all interesting and well done, and the captions and story lines are just some of the most interesting I've ever read. It's almost like reading a Vietnam veteran's memoirs and battlefield stories, the ideas he brings about war and fighting just really make one think about what war does to people and their lives are changed. Yet, the most important fact is that these 'soldiers' were my age and younger when they witnessed their first kill and comrade's death, really just puts life in perspective for you. Highly recommended.

[Kunikov]

"Chienne de Guerre" by Anne Nivat, about the Chechen war, she is a French journalist who can speak Russian and went into Chechnya as a civilian dressed as a Chechen refugee and went around talking to many of the participants, gives you a good all around feel for what is going on, how the governments on both sides care not for the people, etc. Well worth the read to get a good sense from the other side, at least for me.

[dead-cat]

"Last Fight of the Revenge" about the english attempt to capture the spanish tresure fleet in 1591.

[Kunikov]

"Fatherland" Frederick Kempe, have to read it for my "20th century Germany" class...seems kind of interesting, about a journalists attempt to understand his (him being a German) past. Should be interesting.

[Foelkersam]

Kunikov, What do you think about Da Vinci code, is it a good one or what?

Do you read all these books in this tempo? Three books in less than a week?

Regards/David

[Kunikov]

Kunikov, What do you think about Da Vinci code, is it a good one or what?

Do you read all these books in this tempo? Three books in less than a week?

Regards/David

Da Vinci code was VERY good, VERY entertaining, read it in two days time. As for my reading habits first book about Afghanistan I finished in a day, it was a quick read around 160 pages and many were photographs, the second about Chechnya was only around 250 pages and also a quick read, 2 days for that one. This one is over 300 pages (fatherland) and I just started it, hopefully I'll finish it by sunday so I can write my book report about it, and I'm still trying to get through "Backing Hitler" at the same time as well. It depends on how big the books are and how interested I am in them, sometimes 3 a week I can do

[Matt H.]

I've just finished George Orwell's Burmese Days and Homage to Catalonia. Two rather good books, I must say. Burmese Days is written as Orwell's perspective on the British Empire (which is not favourable), but also as a running social commentary into colonial life in an obsure part of the far-flung empire (at which it is rather good). Homage to Catalonia makes for good reading if you like war correspondance or journalism. However, the sheer number of Republican factions in Spain is enough to make you stop in confusion.

Hoping to read more of Orwell, possibly The Lion and the Unicorn or The Road to Wigan Pier.

[Foelkersam]

I finished "War and Peace" [WP] by Leo Tolstoj this morning and i must say that i was heavily disappointed. I have read many books by Dostojevskij and i thaught that WP should be as good as his books. I realised that i had made a mistake, WP is very different from Dostojevkijs books, so it's not entirely fair to compare the two authors.

The negative sides of the book is that it lacks a concrete story or a intrigue. Tolstoj is not that skilled as Dostjevskij at describing a personality, i.e. you don't get to know the characters in the same way/depth.

The positive sides is that it describes the times of war and peace during that time in a good way, i don't know if it's accurate since i don't have read anything about the Napoleon wars. WP is on 1300 sides and it never gets boring, that's a very good achivement for an author. The book has a reputation to be "heavy" and that is something i don't agree with, it's long but not heavy. If you compare with Dostojevskij it's a book for teenagers.

I think it's living a bit on it's reputation, but since it is a classic i will recommend it. Next month i'm gonna read "Anna Karenina", i hope it's better.

Have a good reading time/David

PS: maybe this thread should be a sticky.

[Zygmunt]

I've just finished George Orwell's Burmese Days and Homage to Catalonia. Homage to Catalonia makes for good reading if you like war correspondance or journalism. However, the sheer number of Republican factions in Spain is enough to make you stop in confusion.

Orwell is - to me - always worth making time for. Homage to Catlonia is strange because so much of the political intrigue he describes in detail is a now-obsolete pre-cold war view of communism, and yes, it's very confusing ("POUM! POUM!")! But furthermore, the chapters chronicling his experience as a 'volunteer' in a foreign war are a worthwhile warning to anyone, and make interesting comparisons with, for example, stories from the Angolan conflict in the seventies.

If you haven't read it, Orwell's "Down and out in Paris and London" is essential. So much of it still rings true.

Other than Orwell, I recently found it interesting to read some varied views of the Falklands conflict such as "Sea Harrier over the Falklands" by 'Sharkey' Ward, and "One Hundred Days" by Admiral 'Sandy' Woodward. Considering they were on the same side, those two can't agree on much... (or don't want to admit that they agree on much...)

Zygmunt (going for coffee in Huesca)