What are you currently reading ?

[Techno]

I've enjoyed listening to the series of the 'Utred books'.

Though I have to admit that the last one felt like I'd been through it all before, as far as the plot was concerned...It just seemed a little 'samey'.
Only listened to one of the Sharpe audio books (I think it was called Sharpe' Tiger.)...That was terrific.

Cheers - Phil

[Leman]

The sort of history book that assumes combat started in 1066 doesn't hold my attention to the bottom of the first page.

You should see the typical military history section in a British bookshop. Apparently a couple of chaps called Napoleon and Wellington merit two or three books, but the remaining dozens demonstrate quite clearly that military history started in 1914.

[fsn]

Have you been in Waterstones, Liverpool recently?

[steve_holmes_11]

I've enjoyed listening to the series of the 'Utred books'.

Though I have to admit that the last one felt like I'd been through it all before, as far as the plot was concerned...It just seemed a little 'samey'.
Only listened to one of the Sharpe audio books (I think it was called Sharpe' Tiger.)...That was terrific.

Cheers - Phil

What if I told you that Uthred Uthredson, Richard Sharpe and James Bond are all the same guy.
And then added that Bond is clearly a different guy in different films.

Head asplode - as they say in the memes.

[Orcs]

SPQR by Mary Beard.  Very interesting and has given me fresh insight on to Rome, its expansion and its political nuances. Fairly easy to read.

[Raider4]

What if I told you that Uthred Uthredson, Richard Sharpe and James Bond are all the same guy.

I've read the Warlord Chronicles, Azincourt and the first of the Last Kingdom books, and it is very clear that the hero in all three is exactly the same person.

Still enjoyed them though.

[Ben Waterhouse]

I've tried, really I have since the first Sharpe came out last century, but I can't stand Cornwall. It's the utterly ahistorical temperament and mores of the "heroes" that kills it for me.

[Shedman]

I must admit that I've only read one Bernard Cornwell book and that was The Fort, a novel about the Penobscot Expedition of 1779 during the American War of Independence. It wasn't brilliant and I found it hard going but it makes for a great scenario.

https://twomarshals.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-fort-muskets-and-tomahawks-scenario.html

[Leman]

I've tried, really I have since the first Sharpe came out last century, but I can't stand Cornwall. It's the utterly ahistorical temperament and mores of the "heroes" that kills it for me.

I love Cornwall and have had many pleasant holidays there. However neither Bernard nor Patricia Cornwell manage to hold my attention for very long, apart from the Warlord Chronicles. Even then, like most of his stuff, it descends into the male version of soap opera.

[kipt]

Finished book 2 and 3 of the Saxon Novels, "The Pale Horseman" and "Lords of the North", by Bernard Cornwell.

Galloping good reads with lots of sword action and interesting characters.

[Leman]

Like I said, soap opera for men.

[KTravlos]

Finished
Carl von Clausewitz "Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign" edited and translated by Dr. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle.
You can read my review here  https://phdleadhead.blogspot.com/2019/03/new-salvation-episode-and-book-review.html

Ongoing
In Print Form: Onur Yildirim "Diplomacy and Displacement: Reconsidering the Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations, 1922-1934"

In e-form: Victoria Solomonidis "Greece in Asia Minor:The Greek Administration of the Vilayet of Aydin, 1919 - 1922"
which you can find at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2934862/245618.pdf

In the pipe line: Newest Legend of Galactic Heroes novel, M.MacMillan Paris 1919, J.A.Vasquez Contagion and War.

[lowlylowlycook]

Reading The Dark Ages by Charles Oman.  I can understand the desire to show off ones erudition but I think dropping in the word poliorcetics might have been a step to far even in the year 1893.

[Ithoriel]

Is it good or bad that I only know that poliorcetics is the art of siege craft because of Demetrios Poliorcetes (Demetrius he Besieger) son of Antigonus Monopthalmos (Antigonus the One-Eyed) both major players in the wars of succession after Alexander the Great's death.

A walking encyclopaedia of arcane and inconsequential facts, that's me

[fsn]

poliorcetics 

I had two of those back in the day ... but the wheels fell off one, and the other sort of pined away.


It is a lovely word, that I shall try and add to my vocabulary.