What are you currently reading ?

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

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Fenton

Quote from: FierceKitty on 16 March 2014, 03:12:47 PM
I've always been taken with Macchiavelli's deathbed scene:

Priest: My son, do you renounce the devil and all his works?
Macchiavelli: Father, this is no time to be making enemies.

Almost worth becoming a Catholic to have a parting shot like that to look forward to.

I always thought that quote was attributed to Voltaire
If I were creating Pendraken I wouldn't mess about with Romans and  Mongols  I would have started with Centurions , eight o'clock, Day One!

Ithoriel

If one believes Wikipedia, they give the following account of Voltaire

"The accounts of his deathbed have been numerous and varying, and it has not been possible to establish the details of what precisely occurred. His enemies related that he repented and accepted the last rites given by a Catholic priest, or that he died under great torment, while his adherents told how he was defiant to his last breath. According to one story, his last words were, "Now is not the time for making new enemies." It was his response to a priest at the side of his deathbed, asking Voltaire to renounce Satan."
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FierceKitty

Damn. I'd rather have an Italian say it. But it's none the worse in French.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Ithoriel

Quote from: FierceKitty on 16 March 2014, 11:29:04 PM
Damn. I'd rather have an Italian say it. But it's none the worse in French.

This forum really needs a "like" feature :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

FierceKitty

It seems on further inquiry that it may have been neither of them, and possibly only a joke. Reality is letting us down, folks.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
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Hertsblue

Begun Kohima 1944 by Chris Brown - one of the Battle Story Series. Slightly disappointed to find that Mr Brown seems to think that Kohima is in Burma....  :o
When you realise we're all mad, life makes a lot more sense.

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burnaby64

Regarding Voltaire's death-bed, the fullest account I've come across is that in  'Death and the Enlightenment', John McManners, OUP, 1981, pages 265-9. He argues convincingly that Voltaire wanted to be buried according to the rites of the church, to avoid scandal and because he felt that he had a duty as a royal official and a member of the Academy to do so. However, he did not want to disown his writings or recognise the divinity of Christ or the efficacy of the sacraments. He received the absolution, which was needed for the burial to go ahead, from a somewhat naive priest whom he then refused to see again. His nephew recorded everything in proper legal form in case a law suit ensued on his death forbidding the burial. 'He paid tribute to social decencies, the institutional framework of morality and the traditions of his nation.' When asked towards the end if he recognised the divinity of Christ his reply was 'Laissez-moi mourir en paix'--'Let me die in peace.'

Fenton

Quote from: FierceKitty on 17 March 2014, 03:43:41 AM
It seems on further inquiry that it may have been neither of them, and possibly only a joke. Reality is letting us down, folks.

Who does one apply to to get a history rewrite ?...I was thinking Hollywood but that might be too expensive, any other suggestions?
If I were creating Pendraken I wouldn't mess about with Romans and  Mongols  I would have started with Centurions , eight o'clock, Day One!

Fenton

Just in the middle or reading ' The Man who died  laughing' by Tarquin Hall, books are about an Indian private detective Vish Puri and his detective agency, well written and funny, and the crimes are nicely thought out with lots of Indian background flavour to the novels..Recommended
If I were creating Pendraken I wouldn't mess about with Romans and  Mongols  I would have started with Centurions , eight o'clock, Day One!

FierceKitty

Quote from: Fenton on 17 March 2014, 11:16:47 AM
Who does one apply to to get a history rewrite ?...I was thinking Hollywood but that might be too expensive, any other suggestions?

What a question for a wargamer to ask! What's our hobby all about?
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

burnaby64

Just completed 'Her Privates We' by Frederic Manning, published 1929, a fictionalised memoir of the author's time as a 'gentleman ranker' on the Somme in 1916. I was very impressed by the way it gave a voice to the ordinary tommy (the original edition had to be published privately because the language would have been censored otherwise). The experiences of battle and of the pointless shuffling about behind the line are both very vividly presented. A remarkable piece of work.

cameronian

Yes I liked it too, bit bleak; have you read 'The Advance to Mons' ?
Don't buy your daughters a pony, buy them heroin instead, its cheaper and ultimately less addictive.

Techno

Past few weeks....Listened to ....
"Guns in the gallery" by Simon Brett.....OK (ish)...A tad 'twee'.
"How the light gets in" by Louise Penny......Loved that one ! (About political and police corruption in Canada.)
"When will there be good news" by Kate Atkinson......Bit disappointed with that one in the end.
"Alexandria" by Lindsey Davis (again).....Great stories, great characters in this series..
Currently listening to "Found wanting" by Robert Goddard....A 'conspiracy theory' mystery type fiction, about the death of the Russian Royal family......Jumps about a bit too much....rather a daft plot line..... but reasonably entertaining.

I wonder what the library van will have on board today. ;) .....Some more Lindsey Davis, I hope.

Cheers - Phil.

Ithoriel

Currently reading "Ides of April" by Lindsey Davis. Albia Flavia has taken over the family profession from Marcus Didius. Having been enormously fond of Marcus and Helena I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it but I've been pleasantly surprised.
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data