What are you currently reading ?

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

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Ithoriel

Quote from: Techno on 03 April 2019, 12:56:56 PM
I must go back and listen to those all again.

Currently listening to 'Three hands in the fountain' by Lindsey Davis. (Von was laughing at the Geordie accents some of the ancient Romans were using.....But I DO like the stories in this series.)

Cheers - Phil

The Falco series is brilliant. I think I'm in love with Helena Justina :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

fsn

I'm with you both on that one.

Falco novels are great fun.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

KTravlos

Finished the best treatment of UK policy in the Greek-Turkish war I have read.

Daleziou, Eleftheria (2002)  Britain and the Greek-Turkish war and settlement of 1919-1923: the pursuit of  security by "proxy" in Western Asia Minor.  PhD thesis.

(link: http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1578/)

kipt

Another Cornwell Saxon Tales, "The Empty Throne".  Aethelred, son of Alfred, is dying.  Our hero Uthred, supported him, but also Aethelred's sister, Aethelflaed.  Also a lover.  Off we go to shield walls, ships and Danes.

Techno

Think that was the last one I listened to/bought.

Have to say, that for some reason, I didn't enjoy it as much as the others.

Cheers - Phil

Leman

The Art of Renaissance Warfare by Stephen Turnbull is proving to be a good read (not heavy going) on the developments in warfare between 1453 (Constantinople) and 1618 (start of the TYW). So far it has done a really good job of the Reconquista, the destruction of Burgundy, the rise and fall of the Swiss pike block, the developments in siege warfare and galley warfare in the Mediterranean (going on the galleys was a civic duty in Venice, although most other navies used prisoners/slaves). Recommended if you are interested in the early part of the Renaissance.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

cameronian

Quote from: Steve J on 07 November 2018, 09:25:06 PM
Blitzkreig by Len Deighton. Picked up by chance from my bookshelf and enjoying re-reading this superb book :).

Superb book, often underestimated by the cognoscenti.
Don't buy your daughters a pony, buy them heroin instead, its cheaper and ultimately less addictive.

cameronian

Dangerous Hero, biography of Corbyn by Tom Bowers.
Don't buy your daughters a pony, buy them heroin instead, its cheaper and ultimately less addictive.

Hwiccee

Quote from: Leman on 07 April 2019, 10:57:52 AM
The Art of Renaissance Warfare by Stephen Turnbull is proving to be a good read (not heavy going) on the developments in warfare between 1453 (Constantinople) and 1618 (start of the TYW). So far it has done a really good job of the Reconquista, the destruction of Burgundy, the rise and fall of the Swiss pike block, the developments in siege warfare and galley warfare in the Mediterranean (going on the galleys was a civic duty in Venice, although most other navies used prisoners/slaves). Recommended if you are interested in the early part of the Renaissance.

This is a weak book not up to the authors usual standard - see the beginning of this article for a summary https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renaissance-quarterly/article/stephen-turnbull-the-art-of-renaissance-warfare-from-the-fall-of-constantinople-to-the-thirty-years-war-london-greenhill-books-2006-272-pp-index-map-chron-illus-bibl-3495-isbn-1853676764/38E5B0051D1B930BE93B1FABB4457046

Leman

So he got a few things wrong - big deal. Typical response of the over privileged Rees-Mog types up at Cambridge. It's main weakness appears to be that it is mainly about military rather than cultural developments. They probably object to the easy read enabling the average person to find out something about the military history of the period instead of being put off by the convoluted waffling usually found in academic books (never ceased to amaze me at university and post-grad studies how the straightforward could be sublimely complicated through academic writing - preserve the mystique by excluding the masses). So, no, I don't agree with the above.  I have found it to be a very useful book for the period I am interested in.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

KTravlos

Leman, you are taking it too hard. If I wrote a history of the greek-turkish war only based on greek sources it might be a fun book, a good book, but it is not good scholarship and may very well produce a incomplete picture. Pointing that out is not snotty.

FierceKitty

Only people who can't get in and have to settle for the Other Place sneer at Cambridge.  ;)
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Duke Speedy of Leighton

Most people sneer at Cambridge...
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

FierceKitty

As intimated above, we don't let everyone in. If you're straight and not a spy, in fact, your chances are minimal.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

fsn

I spent a week in Cambridge one day.

Very pretty, but too many bicycles and entitled prigs.

Would also benefit from a hill.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!