What are you currently reading ?

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

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Womble67

Quote from: paulr on 29 March 2018, 08:21:31 PM
What are the other symptoms of this affliction :(

Lol I like it

Take care

Andy
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cameronian

Well I won't be reading any more Bernie Gunther novels ... Philip Kerr is dead  :o  :'(
Don't buy your daughters a pony, buy them heroin instead, its cheaper and ultimately less addictive.

Steve J

Monmouth's Rebels; the Road to Sedgemoor 1685 by Peter Earle.

So far an excellent read, with lots of useful background info on the politics and the general situation in the run up to Monmouth's landing. All good stuff for some planned games using the excellent FK&P rules, plus forays into Baroque and maybe Pike & Shotte.

Leman

Aetius and Arthur in preparation for some Saga action with my 10mm Britons and Picts, both forces of which are ideal for the Hadrian's Wall outpost campaign in the back of the book.
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kipt

Finished "Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation" by Earl Hess.  I found this book great and really enjoyed it.  If you want to know the methods of transportation of men and supplies in the ACW, this is the book.  By inference it can be used for other horse and musket periods as well (with obvious differences, see below).  Hess does briefly discuss European logistics after the ACW (who didn't really look at the means, methods and experience of the Americans).

The chapters are:
The Logistical Heritage
Quartermasters North and South
The River-Based System
The Rail-Based System
The Coastal Shipping System
Wagon Trains
Pack Trains, Cattle Herds, and Foot Power
Troop Transfers
Targeting Steamboats
Targeting Railroads, Coastal Vessels, and Wagon Trains.

I had used Creveld's "Supplying War" a long time ago when I made my Empire Campaign System rules.  This book validates what I had assumed at the time but it would have been nice to have then.

Good book.

Leman

Boxed off A and A and now reading The Men Who Would be Kings in prep for a NW Frontier game with a mate's 28mm. Very likely to look at the Naval Landing Party aspect using PP Sudan stuff, as so few figures required, for my own dabbling.
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fsn

"Hoplites: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Greek Soldiers Who Revolutionized Infantry Warfare" by Charles Rivers Editors on the Kindle.

It's a pallet cleanser of a book. Only 72 pages  it gallops through the concept of a hoplite, the Persian wars through to Alexander.

Nothing earth shettering, but full of pretty pictures. I shall keep my eye out for similar volumes as low priced introductions. I see they have volumes on The Austro-Prussian War, Suez Crisis and the Myceneans for £1.99 or less. 

As an introduction to the subject, it's quite fun and engaging. Think Osprey rather than Oman.

Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

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cameronian

Quote from: fsn on 11 April 2018, 08:08:05 AM
"Hoplites: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Greek Soldiers Who Revolutionized Infantry Warfare" by Charles Rivers Editors on the Kindle.

It's a pallet cleanser of a book. Only 72 pages  it gallops through the concept of a hoplite, the Persian wars through to Alexander.

Nothing earth shettering, but full of pretty pictures. I shall keep my eye out for similar volumes as low priced introductions. I see they have volumes on The Austro-Prussian War, Suez Crisis and the Myceneans for £1.99 or less. 

As an introduction to the subject, it's quite fun and engaging. Think Osprey rather than Oman.



:o Did you say Austro Prussian ... where ?
Don't buy your daughters a pony, buy them heroin instead, its cheaper and ultimately less addictive.

KTravlos

Finished reading a couple of books

"Ordered to Die" by Edward Erickson. This is essentially the english language work giving a general survey of the military actions of the First World War from an Ottoman perspective. I think that coming in from his subsequent "Defeat in Detail" (on the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars) undermined a bit my enjoyment of "Ordered to Die". It was much more of a general survey compared to the more detail of "Defeat in Detail" and you can see how Erickson became a better author down the way. The lack of good maps in "Ordered to Die" was an issue. That said what I could see is how that book opened up a renaissance in the English language study of the First World War of the Ottoman Empire. And it is an easy read.

I also finished reading the chapters that interest me from the edited volume "War and Nationalism". A 900 page edited volume produced by the auspices of the Turkish state on the centenary of the First Balkan War I focused on the parts covering the outbreak of the war, and some of the parts on conduct (About 300 pages)

Forward: Lessons Learned from the Balkan Wars, Edward Erickson
Pretty good forward, which nicely summarizes the book and puts it in the context of his own "Defeat in Detail"

Preface: The Rise of Balkan Nationalism within the Triangle of the Ottoman, Austrian, and Russian Empires, 1800-1878, Peter von Sivers
Ok general survey of a specific view-point on how nationalism works.

Introduction: Lasting Consequences of the Balkan Wars, Isa Blumi and M.Hakan Yavuz
Ok introduction.

Part I. The Origins of the Balkan Wars
Warfare and Nationalism: The Balkan Wars as a Catalyst for Homogenization. M. Hakan Yavuz.
Terrible chapter, I did not like it at all. Too blind to other point of views.

Bulgaria and the Origins of the Balkan Wars, 1912-1913. Richard C. Hall
Great chapter.

The Young Turk Policy in Macedonia: Cause of the Balkan Wars? Mehmet Hacisalihoglu
An ok chapter, where the writer makes a case which does not lead to his conclusions.

Rebels with a Cause: Armenian-Macedonian Relations and their Bulgarian Connection, 1895-1913. Garabet K.Moumdjian
Excellent chapter

The Origins of the Balkan Wars: A Reinterpretation. Gul Tokay
Very good chapter, much superior to the Hakan Yavuz chapter.

A Micro-Historical Experience in the Late Ottoman Balkans: The Case of Austria-Hungary in Sanjak Novi Pazar (1879-1908) Tamara Scheer
Excellent chapter

The Balkan Wars in the Italian Perspective, Francesco Caccamo
Good Chapter

Part II: War as Experience and the Persecution of Change

Armies Defeated before They Took the Field? The Ottoman Mobilization of October 1912, Feroze Yasamee
Excellent Chapter.

The book has 21 more chapters, so I will probably re-visit it in the future.

With Respect
KTravlos


Terry37

I'm well into "Orbs II" by Nicholas Smith. Part of a four book series that combines the post apocalypse with sci-fi.

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

Leman

Well, given Mr Trump's current attitude that won't be far off. I'm afraid the only title he is getting from me is Mr!
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Quote from: Leman on 12 April 2018, 10:35:35 AM
Well, given Mr Trump’s current attitude that won’t be far off. I’m afraid the only title he is getting from me is Mr!

That's awful generous of you  ;) :D
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kipt

Finished "Red Sun Rising: The Siege of Port Arthur" by Reginald Hargreaves.  this is part of the Great Basttle4s of History series with Hanson Baldwin as editor.

It does a good job of the happenings at Port Arthur.  It also discusses the naval actions if briefly and the military actions to the north of the siege, but as the title says, it focuses on the siege.

Short but enjoyable.

vonlacy

Just finished The German Army at Passchendaele by Jack Sheldon, the book covers the battle from June to December 1917. It is a harrowing read as it is based on eye-witness German accounts, it makes you wonder how anyone survived the hell of Passchendaele. Interesting that some German officers rode their horses up to the the support trenches. Very informative on how the Germans fought their defensive battles and organised their counter attacks. Well worth reading.

Leman

Had a bit of a read of The Uhlan and the Phoenix, in as much as I read all of the first character and part of the second. The first one is the Uhlan,  complete with incorrect uniform for starters - blue from feet to top of schapka, trousers tucked into boots (not in 1866), no overalls issued etc, etc. But that sounds too much like bolt counter OCD, and I could have lived with that. The real downer was actually the writing style, the dead ends in various parts of the plot, the constant 'fascination' with bodily functions (which frankly I found a little disturbing), and the appalling proof reading. There was the good old metal, lead, being used a s a verb throughout; latter being rendered as later and later being rendered as latter; lack of consistency in spelling, eg on one page Bazeilles was spelt three different ways, none of them correct. I cannot recommend this book, unless of course you are into people going to the toilet.
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