What are you currently reading ?

[Luddite]

I've got a few things on the go actually.

Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps - Barbera and Allan Pease

A compilation of the Dying Earth novels by Jack Vance

And yesterday i bought a bunch of comic books:

Missionary Man (read)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1990s (next up)
John Carter: Warlord of Mars
Kingdom: Call of the Wild

[Chad]

A History of the Indians of the United States

Never realised that the broken promises, land grabs and general destruction of so many tribes occurred so much earlier in the US history than I thought.

Chad

[Sandinista]

WRG's Armies of Fuedal Europe, Sicily may be the area for my Saga forces to play 

[Nav]

an over 600 page book on Napoleon Bonepartes Napoleonic  wars

[Nosher]

'This thread...'

[Raider4]

Live & Let Die by Ian Fleming.

Which is an eye-opener about which language was deemed acceptable in the early fifties, I can tell you.

Suffice to say, I doubt it would be published today . . .

Cheers, Martyn
--

[Hertsblue]

Kursk- the Greatest Battle by Lloyd Clark - told from both points of view, with many first-hand anecdotes (and, yes, German machine-gunners did fire the MG42 from a standing position with the weapon on the number two's shoulder. Necessary to be able to see over the standing wheat.)

The Skinner by Neal Asher - Spatterjay is not a planet I would willingly visit!

Lancaster - the Second World War's Greatest Bomber - Leo McKinstry's follow-up to his Spitfire and Hurricane.

[Gennorm]

The Peninsula War by Charles Esdaile.

[Malbork]

Tannenberg by Denis Showalter - excellent narrative of the opening of the 1914 campaign on the Eastern Front.

Re-reading August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn for another take on the same thing and inspiration to purchase hordes of WWI Pendraken figs.

Traitor's Blood by Michael Arnold - to get me ro finish my ECW armies.

The End by Ian Kershaw - fascinating if unevenly written account of the end of the war from the German perspective.

[Luddite]

Missionary Man
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1990s
John Carter: Warlord of Mars
Kingdom: Call of the Wild

All read.

Missionary Man - not bad
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1990s - excellent as ever
John Carter: Warlord of Mars - um...
Kingdom: Call of the Wild - interesting ideas but felt like a prologue

Also finished all 16 volumes of the Walking Dead (vol 17 on order).  Excellent

Not sure what will be next...

[Techno]

I've been listening to "The Burning Land" by that nice Mr Cornwell, while I've been pushing the putty about.....
I loved it !!
Cheers - Phil.

[OldenBUA]

A bit tough going, but an interesting read: "Einführung in das Kriegsspiel". Subtitled "Wegweiser zur Lösung von Kriegsspielaufgaben für Offiziere des Beurlaubtenstandes aller Dienstgrade sowie für jungere Offiziere des activen Dienststandes".

Basically a 'how to' guide for playing the Kriegsspiel games of the Imperial German Army. How to write your orders, and what is the best method to tackle a given situation (advance/retreat/attack/defense etc). Published in 1913, and therefore much is written with the FPW in mind. The scenarios for example, while talking about a 'blue' and 'red' army all take place in the Alsace-Lorraine area, and a contemporary map is included that shows a part of this.

Reading this really gives you an idea where all the (old-school) wargames rules derive from.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sounds really cool.
How detailed is the map?

[OldenBUA]

Scale 1:100.000, based on the 'Landesaufnahme' of 1884. Similar to this one:



This might give an idea why it's tough going, the whole book is in old gothic 'Black letter'.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nasty!
What a brilliant find though, do you think you would ever play it 'for real' or is it a research piece?