372 replies to this topic

[artcinco]

Recently did Ernest Cline's READY PLAYER ONE which was a huge blast of 80s nostalgia porn. Spielberg is doing a film of it.

Now onto Cline's follow up ARMADA. These are both light, geeky fun. The audio books are done by Wil Wheaton who does a great job.


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[Its Cousin]

Interesting.  Have you read Karen Armstrong's Holy War?  It's been a while, but if I recall one central thesis was that the anti-Jewish sentiments found in 20th Century Europe (and thus the roots of today's Mid East conflicts) were rooted in the Crusades.

 

I haven't. I usually read more 20th Century stuff, but I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

Read a novel(I don't read many). It's a story of the Civil War told through Traveller's(R.E. Lee's main mount) perspective. It was actually pretty decent.

 

In the middle of a biography of Horatio Nelson. I've read biographies of Wellesley and Packenham, so I guess this, sort of, covers the marine aspect of the Napoleonic Wars from the British side of things. I guess I should read something of the French to even out my biases???

[Its Cousin]

You know how, sometimes, you hate finishing a book because you know how it ends? That's how it was with the Nelson bio. He was a flawed man with a big heart, and a fucking naval genius. The battle of the Nile and Trafalgar was a paradigm shift in naval warfare that left the Brits in absolute control of the seas for over a hundred years.

 

Lord Nelson: The Immortal Memory

[freedom78]

You know how, sometimes, you hate finishing a book because you know how it ends? That's how it was with the Nelson bio. He was a flawed man with a big heart, and a fucking naval genius. The battle of the Nile and Trafalgar was a paradigm shift in naval warfare that left the Brits in absolute control of the seas for over a hundred years.

 

Lord Nelson: The Immortal Memory

 

How's it written.  I don't read a lot of history, though I've found it can be of two vastly different types.  The type I hate is overly detailed, down to minutiae, and incredibly dense.  History very commonly suffers from the disease of dry, uninteresting writing, which is a shame, because most people could use more of it, including myself.

[Its Cousin]

That dry overly detailed stuff is what I like. You will probably like it as it lacks a lot of that detail. It's only 390 pages with the index.

 

edit: guess I should add the I'm reading a history of the 101st Airborne's operations during Market-Garden, now. It was written by one of the participants, and they guy knows his stuff did the research, but he isn't great writer.

 

Hell's Highway: A Chronicle of the 101st Airborne in the Holland Campaign

 

I almost picked up a bio of Truman this morning(the one written by his daughter). I might go back and get it???

[Its Cousin]

I tried to finish that one on the 101st during Market-Garden, but it was torture trying to get through it, so I gave up about halfway through it. It was essentially a collection of anecdotes that followed the format of "and xxxx wrote this about yyyy:..".

 

Reading a biography of George lV, now... an interesting guy that loved to party.

[Its Cousin]

Finished the bio of George IV, and continuing with the Napoleonic period picked upped and read a copy of "The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophen and the Downfall of Napoleon- a history of a ship of the line, 1782-1836".

 

Hell of a book! It follows the history of the second most famous ship of the Napoleonic Wars from its construction to its ignoble end in a breaking yard. It was at the three main naval actions during the wars seeing action alongside Nelson at The Battle of the Nile(being dismasted and nearly destroyed after the fall of its captain and all but one of the lieutenants) and Trafalgar were it lost its mizzen and main masts, and its captain. And was the ship to which Napoleon surrendered.

 

https://www.goodread...e_Billy_Ruffian

 

Reading a history of the Cathars, now. It's a bit dry, but fascinating.

[artcinco]

Cline's Armada was OK. Not as good As READY PLAYER ONE.

 

Doing King's NEEDFUL THINGS on audio book. Tried reading it a couple decades ago and stopped in the first 100 pages. Thing is phone book length. Hoping the audio keeps my interst. Read by the author himself who isn't bad.

[freedom78]

Cline's Armada was OK. Not as good As READY PLAYER ONE.

 

Doing King's NEEDFUL THINGS on audio book. Tried reading it a couple decades ago and stopped in the first 100 pages. Thing is phone book length. Hoping the audio keeps my interst. Read by the author himself who isn't bad.

 

Man, I read Needful Things a LONG time ago.  I remembered liking it, though.

[Kujo]

Loved "Needful Things" been a long time.

A friend wrote one a few years ago that I'm finally getting around to reading "The Misfit Tribe"

[Mr. Roboto]

She's a real kook that one ^^^ and a dirty birdy. Just sayin'...

 

Is the book any good?

[Its Cousin]

Finished "Stalin's General: Georgy Zhukov" the other day. I guess most of us are aware of Zhukov's stunning victories at Moscow stopping the Germans, Stalingrad sending them in retreat, and Kursk breaking their backs, but I had no ideal that his defeat of the Japanese Sixth Army at Khalkhin Gil in the summer of '39 led the Japs to abandon a move on Siberia, and instead focus on the Pacific, and hence, Hawaii.

The book could've put more detail in tactics, especially his final push on Berlin, but I guess that was beyond its scope. Damn good read, though.

In the middle of "The Way To The Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continent". I've read several books on the Corps of Discovery, but it was long ago. This one goes into great detail about the logistics and diplomacy that went in to making the trip. I like it, and it fits in with Napoleonic shit I've been reading, of late.

[Its Cousin]

About halfway through "The Bible, Rocks, and Time: Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth". It was written by a couple of Christian geologists and details the history Christian scholarly thought on the subject, the modern regression by Young Earthers, and the evidence, from a scriptural point of view, for evolution and an ancient planet.

 

If you want to smack down a creationist using the Bible, read it.

 

https://www.amazon.c...e/dp/0830828761

[Its Cousin]

Damn! Ursula K Le Guin died today.

[freedom78]

Damn! Ursula K Le Guin died today.

 

That's too bad, but she was almost 90.

 

I read The Left Hand of Darkness...didn't really do much for me.  Maybe a bad choice to start with?  I'd be happy to have a recommendation.