What are you currently reading ?

Started by goat major, 03 November 2012, 06:40:05 PM

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Duke Speedy of Leighton

I take great pride in the fact I was once introduced to the Head of Classics at Harvard by my MA in Classics supervisor with the phrase "This is Will Denham, the most lingustica incompetent person we have ever met, and he's having a pint of bitter!"

I had just got 33% in a Latin language module (pass rate was double that!).
My response was 'Oh well, that's the PhD out the window then!'

It was a good pint, and was followed by many, many more!
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Techno

I was always the first to finish a Latin exam.....And I'd have an answer for every question.....And I usually got something around 22%.

I couldn't wait to drop Latin as an O level subject.....I did Art, instead.  :P

Cheers - Phil

Ithoriel

My grasp Latin was like my grasp of French.

I could get almost full marks for foreign language into English, usually dropping a few points for doing too good a job. Apparently rendering a colloquial French phrase, say, as an equivalent colloquial English one didn't display sufficient grasp of French??!

On the other hand English into the foreign language flummoxed me almost completely.

As a result I usually scraped through exams with a mark in the low fifties.

Being at school in Scotland we did "O Levels" and then "Highers." When we came to choose Highers subjects the French department suggested I do Maths. To be fair the Maths department suggested I do French. The French department lost and as a result I have a "C" grade Higher French qualification. The Latin master was rather more persuasive and so I only have "O Level" Latin. :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

KTravlos

Beyond the depression caused by my reading of "Kerenia Koukla (The Wax Doll)" my vacation was great.

Skimming the "Class Wargames" book which is now available for free. It is not per se a wargame, but more a political manifesto but it has its interesting points and is surprisingly well written. They do take the time to explain the choices they make, and even if you do not agree politically with the group, they do make some great points.

http://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/classwargames-web.pdf

KTravlos

Here is an excerpt

"In an avant-garde homage to Takako Saito's  Liquid Chess , its infantry, cavalry and  artillery  pieces  were  represented  by  glasses  filled  with  red  or  white vodka. Honouring  Debord's  devotion  to  alcoholic  intoxication,  the
unfolding of this game was guaranteed to result in the players of North
and South becoming very drunk. Each time that they took an enemy
piece, they'd have to down the large shot of vodka in its symbolic glass. "

KTravlos

ok last post on "Class Warfare". This is a deceptively interesting book. Well worth giving a try.

Ithoriel

Got 49 pages in and found it incredibly dull and unutterably pretentious.
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

KTravlos

haha! That is the navel gazing part. It gets better when they go into the actual games/events/ludic subversions whatever (around page 100 and after I think). Of course they are pretentious! They are UK academic leftists.

Westmarcher

Quote from: KTravlos on 22 August 2017, 05:01:20 PM
Here is an excerpt

"In an avant-garde homage to Takako Saito's  Liquid Chess , its infantry, cavalry and  artillery  pieces  were  represented  by  glasses  filled  with  red  or  white vodka. Honouring  Debord's  devotion  to  alcoholic  intoxication,  the
unfolding of this game was guaranteed to result in the players of North
and South becoming very drunk. Each time that they took an enemy
piece, they'd have to down the large shot of vodka in its symbolic glass. "

Makes me wonder what tactics to use. Do you give away pieces early to make your opponent drunk then try to move in for the kill or would that be counter-productive as you might then get hammered taking his pieces when trying to make up for lost ground?   8-}  ;D
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

KTravlos

I did forget to say that I finally finished the Patrick O'Brien Aubrey-Maturin series. I believe I started reading it at some point in 2011. 20 books in 7 years is not bad. In general it took me some time to get used to his style of writing, but once I started I learned to love it. There are moments of exquisite beauty in his writing, and many memorable characters. And yet he never flinched from the reality of life and death in early 19th century society and war. I have not read any other books were death can come so sudden.

In the end the series is a masterpiece and classic. If you like historical fiction, whether military or social, or indeed scientific, or if you like good writing, I strongly recommend this series of books.

ps: not sure if I will buy 21. I had the Last Chevalier of Dumas gifted to me, and while I loved it, the fact that it was not finished was a bit of an irritant.

Womble67

I'm reading 199 days the battle for Stalingrad by Edwin Hoyt

Only got a couple of chapters left

Take care

Andy
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Terry37

I am finishing the second of three books in the Afterbright Chronicles Post Apocalyptic omnibus titled "America". This is a good read for the genre, and are well written. The series primarily takes place in the UK, but as the virus that nearly wipes out mankind is world wide, this omnibus has three books that take place in America.

Terry
"My heart has joined the thousand for a friend stopped running today." Mr. Richard Adams

Leman

Ah the usual cheery sci-fi stuff.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Womble67

Hi all I am reading Stalingrad the battle that shattered Hitler's dream of world domination by Rupert Matthews

Take care

Andy
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SV52

Still at Don Quixote, started 'The Great Sea' by David Abulafia and 'Commonwealth and Protectorate ' by Austin Woolrych.
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