What are you currently reading ?

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

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Steve J

The Austrians were neutral, but did 'threaten' Russia at points over Moldavia and Wallachia, the area where the Danube was crossed. News to me but lots of great gaming opportunities there methinks :).

Duke Speedy of Leighton

They did come into the war, as a neutral...  ;D
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Terry37

Just finishing the fifth book in the Millennium series about Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The whole series is awesome and some of the best mystery I've ever read. With each book I find that at about the last hundred pages or so that it is impossible to put down. Stieg Larson wrote the first three and submitted them all at the same time, suffering from a heart attack shortly after so he never saw them published. David Lagercrantz wrote the follow on novels, which is also three books, with the final of his books to be released later this year. I know these are not necessarily gaming or military books, but I have loved every one! I have also enjoyed all of the movies made from the books.

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

steve_holmes_11


Steve J

Clausewitz's 'On War - a very short introduction' by Michael Howard.

fsn

I'm re-re-reading "White Gold" by Giles Milton. It's about an Englishman named Pellew taken into slavery in Morocco in the early C18, and (as they used to say) what befell him.

I've just got past the bit where he was sent on a slaving expedition. His guide was blind, and found his way about the Sahara by smelling the sand.

Anyway, Milton describes some of the depredations of the Barbary corsairs. I am frankly gob-smacked that three ships raided Iceland for slaves. Seems a long way to go ... past a lot of other potential slaves.

This would normally pass me by, wargaming wise BUT someone had to go and release an Indian Mutiny range. I'm looking at some of them and wondering if they would proxy for Barbary corsairs.  :-\ 
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!

Chad

Just started reading 'Austerlitz 1805' by Goethe. Pity Pendraken
do not do this period except Austrians. Plenty of scope for varying sizes of games
and extendable into 1806 and 1807.

KTravlos

Finished two books

1)Ottoman Maritime Wars 1416-1700m by Svat Soucek. A very good general survey of the maritime wars of the Ottoman Empire in its expansion period. In general a honest account. The author does criticize both Charles V and Suleiman the Magnificent of being myopic strategically. He also attacks those interpretations of Ottoman naval operations in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Red Sea as a sustained campaign, instead arguing that they were not well thought, opportunistic forays with no strategic value. There is something really terribly awesome about the decision of the Venetians to give the Ottomans hell in the Cretan War, after two centuries of accepting losses.

2) Demetrios Gounares, Marianna Christopoulou (in Greek). A good general survey biography of an important political player of Greek politics 1900-1922, the executed Prime Minister Demetrios Gounares. He comes out as a tragic, but not innocent figure. A great progressive potential devoured in the fires of the First World War, political division he played a role in bringing about, and then personal vehemence. Lesson: Never let your hate blind you. Never.

fsn

"The Fighting Captain: Frederic John Walker RN and the Battle of the Atlantic" by Alan Burn.

The story of Johnnie Walker and his war against U-Boats.

Well written, and moves along at a great pace.

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!

Noktu

My company is sending me to build some new Google Server buildings over 100km away from my town.

So I was wondering if there are any interesting books that I could "listen" to while driving to work?

kipt

Finished "Combined Arms in Battle Since 1939" a US Army Command and General Staff College Press book.  In 1934 "Infantry in Battle" was published describing infantry actions in WWI by officers who had served in the war.  Nothing more was done until the staff of the Combat Studies Institute decided to publish an updated version.

This book has 36 chapters, each describing a combat action from WWII to Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm.  These are not all US Army actions, describing German offensives, Russian defensive's, Israeli  combat, Egyptian engineers, the US - Panama Crisis and many others.

A worthy addition to "Infantry in Battle" done 80+ years ago.

kipt

Finished "Gettysburg Magazine" July 2019, issue 61.

Articles include:
The Rookie Wolverines: The 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry at Gettysburg,
In Defense of Captain Samuel Johnston.  (He was the engineer Lee sent to scout the Union left flank the morning of day 2.)
Lee vs Landscape: A Ridge Too Far, Over Ground Too Open?  What Early Commentators, Including the Comte de Paris, Said about the Topography of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Captain William H. Murray: Story of a Maryland Confederate Officer.

Plus several others.  Always an interesting read; issued twice a year.

lowlylowlycook

Just got in "Ethiopian Patriots: Forgotten Voices of the Italo-Abyssinian War" by Andrew Hilton.  Seems to be a series of interviews and should be interesting. 

Duke Speedy of Leighton

One of Our Submarines by Edward Young, Commander, DSO, DSC, RNV(S)R
Penguin 1000.
First read it when I was a teen, picked it up from my dad's bookshelf.
Damn well written book and a really good read.
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Leman

Gone back to Michael Embree's book on the 1866 campaign in Germany. Specifically interested in the exploits of the Bavarian army. As it includes descrtiptions of company level actions a good inducement to paint up some Bavarians in field cap.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!