Whatcha reading redux.

[evan price]

Currently reading Harry Turtledove's "Worldwar" saga.

I get the idea that Harry wanted to see current NATO gear versus WWII theatres. Interesting concept. "Big Uglies"... heh.

Let's See, also in the middle of Keith Laumer's 'Bolo' compendium. Got two John Ringo books on deck.

For some reason I'm into alternate history books lately. Finished the first two Harry Harrison "Stars & Stripes" books, and read a bunch of Eric Flint's 1632 books.

[Aegis]

Finished the first two Harry Harrison "Stars & Stripes" books

I barely made it through the first one; the second one I gave up about 20 pages in because the dialogue was so stilted and ridiculous.

[SeekHer]

Amazon.com has some great military and history books available in their Bargain Books Dept. and I've ordered a bunch from them but via the Canadian (.ca) version which unfortunately has about a quarter of the titles listed at the US site and of course for more money...The problem is that many of the used book sellers in the USA will not ship internationally or will do so at extraordinarily high prices like $19.99 for a paperback.

I just ordered fifty two books for a total of $382.56 which includes shipping and the government's (GST) tax for about $7.41 a book.

Ten of the titles I picked up:
The Mammoth Book Of Eyewitness World War I: Over 280 First-Hand Accounts Of the War to End All Wars by Jon E. Lewis

The New Weapons of the World Encyclopedia: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to the 21st Century by The Diagram Group

The Clausewitz Delusion: How the American Army Screwed Up the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (A Way Forward) by Stephen L. Melton

Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces War in Iraq by Mark Urban

The Age of Napoleon by J. Christopher Herold

1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East
by Tom Segev — Very controversial writer breaking many Jewish myths

Crossing the River Dr. Shalom Eilati—Lithuanian Jews in the camps and the author’s flight to Palestine — He was a neighbour to my late uncle and met him a few times.

Born To Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods by Michael Wex — I have this one already but ordered it for a good friend’s forthcoming B-Day...He has a second book out as well called "Shlepping The Exile" Kvetch = complain, bitch about; shlepping (shlep) = to drag, carry by while kvetching

They Dared Return: The True Story Of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany by Patrick K. O'Donnell

Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb –- basically the start of Mossad.

[Netpackrat]

Ashamed to say I am still slowly reading The Ax Book. It's one of those that I have to make myself read, but there is a lot of good stuff in there. Despite being the son, grandson, and nephew of loggers and foresters, I have learned quite a bit from it so far. Some of the author's advocacy is kind of silly; he goes into great detail about how you don't need a saw, and you can do everything you need to do with an ax, and since your ancestors did it that way, so should you. Then later in the book he tells you everything you need to know about using the various saws, including sharpening and re-setting them. The book is full of good safety tips that will keep you alive and uninjured when working in the woods with sharp tools, and there is a lot of historical background about how and why the tools we have today evolved into their present forms.

Somewhere in the last month or two I also took a break and read "Starman Jones" by Heinlein, which was one of the last of his books that I hadn't read, and maybe the last. I forget. And also The Woodwright's Shop, Timber Frame Construction, and The Do-It-Yourself Gunpowder Cookbook.

Still in the lineup:

The Five Fingers. I need to get on with reading this so I can return it to my co-worker.

Founders, by Rawles.

The Woodwright's Guide, by Underhill.

Blacksmithing - Basics For The Homestead, by DeLaRonde.

The Complete Modern Blacksmith, by Weygers. This one looks to be particularly good. If I'd bought this first, I doubt if I would have bought the previous blacksmithing book. When one of the reviewers on Amazon said it could also have been titled, "Guerrilla Blacksmithing" I knew I had found the right book. From skimming it, it seems to be more about building tools and other practical things than objects of art.

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds -My brother snagged this from me and is reading it right now.

Not really planning on taking up any of the hobbies (particularly not powder making); I'm just interested in knowing how things used to be done.

[Highspeed]

The Complete Modern Blacksmith is a great book. If you do take up smithing then it'll help you enormously.

Must get the Robin Olds memoirs, although I'd really like to read more about Chappie James.

I'm currently reading "Reamde" by Neal Stephenson and it's great. Even though it's based around a WoW style game company ( I know very little about those online fantasy games ) he explains everything well enough so that doesn't hurt my enjoyment or understanding.
I do wish he'd stop calling a magazine a 'clip' though - it's not like he doesn't know anything about guns - it's obvious that either he's a shooter himself or has friends who are.

[Rumpshot]

...
Must get the Robin Olds memoirs, although I'd really like to read more about Chappie James.

...

Met Chappie James at a Boy Scout Camporee in 1975. Really an impressive man.

[Highspeed]

Basically, using the term that is understood by the majority of readers is more important to maintaining immersion, than technical inaccuracy which irritates a very small number of his readers.

Yeah, I can live with that.

[Highspeed]

Met Chappie James at a Boy Scout Camporee in 1975. Really an impressive man.

Wow, the Vietnam era fighter pilots were my heroes when I was kid. Chappie James got bonus hero points for having to fight his way into a cockpit at a time when his race were considered too stupid to operate an aircraft.

[Jericho941]

I try to edge "clip" out with "mag." So far this has failed to cause confusion, but my audience is... small.

[SeekHer]

Imperial Governor, by George Shipway
Eagle in the Snow, by Wallace Breem
The Three Legions, by Gregory Solon (been a while since I read this one, but I read the first two within the last two years and enjoyed the hell out of both).
You may or may not find Turtledove's Videssos cycle worth a look. I thought they were all right, 20 years ago.

Thank you for the titles.

Was actually able to pick up all three books yesterday and will start on them later next week as I've got some started that I really want to finish first.

I have quite a number of Harry's titles including those as I really enjoy his writing.

Finished reading the first two and still trying to find the third at a reasonable price...When I wrote the above I thought I had one but the online seller had just sold it.

I also stared the SPQR books and he's a damn good writer.

I finished "Roma" by Saylor and what an interesting and superbly researched book...Done along the lines of "Stonehenge" by Cornwall and "London, Paris, New York, The Forest, Sarum and Russka" all by Edward Rutherfurd--all very good reads.

I also got the first couple of books in the series of medieval mysteries by Bernard Knight, Sharon Kay Penman, Candace Robb and The Medieval Murderers and they've so far been quite good.