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Books - What are you reading?


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Posted

I'm reading "Sopwith Triplane Aces of World War 1", from Norman Franks, and I got "Sopwith, the Man and His Aircraft" (might be next).

Posted

I just finished what may be my favorite book of all time:   'Hero' by Michael Korda, a biography of T.E. Lawrence.   So yes, very much about WW1.   But what Lawrence did after the war was the most interesting part of the book.   HIGHLY recommended.  

unreasonable
Posted

Something completely different - although it does go back to the Plato discussion in a round about way - is "All the Kremlin's Men" by Mikhail Zygar a Russian independent journalist, ( ie not one of the usual Yank neocons that like to opine on subjects of this nature).

 

If you want to know how and why Russia has turned out how it has over the last couple of decades I cannot find a better read.  Interesting, funny and sad.  Impossible to discuss at length here due to the forum sensitivities, but for anyone interested in geopolitics I cannot recommend it highly enough.

  • Thanks 1
Posted

I don't have enough free time these days, and what little me time I have I usually like to spend as much of it geeking on my PC as I can get away with.

 

I recently discovered Audio Books, and I listened to all the "Expanse" novels on my daily commute to work. Currently waiting for the next novel in the series to be released.  If you like sci fi, then i cannot recommend the Expanse highly enough.

[CPT]Pike*HarryM
Posted

californiacoastaltrails.jpg

Posted
On 7/27/2018 at 2:33 PM, CanadaOne said:

 

 

I think I'm on my fourth copy of that book. I'd lend it out, never get it back, buy it again, lend it out, never get it back, wash, rinse, repeat.

 

No one gets the copy I have. :angry:

 

I read it back in the day.

Makes a decent fly swatter. :)

Posted
11 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

I read it back in the day.

Makes a decent fly swatter. :)

 

If you can handle the ____________, I would have thought you understood every word of that book. Ii understood more of the book that the _________.

 

I thought it was a great book. ?

Posted
1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

 

If you can handle the ____________, I would have thought you understood every word of that book. Ii understood more of the book that the _________.

 

I thought it was a great book. ?

 

I understood every word. I’ve read his stuff, Kaku, Green...

I prefer an author that can speak his language but isn’t afflicted with his blinders. Not saying the other two authors I mention qualify in that respect either.

Posted
23 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

I understood every word. I’ve read his stuff, Kaku, Green...

I prefer an author that can speak his language but isn’t afflicted with his blinders. Not saying the other two authors I mention qualify in that respect either.

 

Interesting. Tell me about the blinders, not exactly sure what you mean.

Posted

Can anyone recommend a good WW1 airplane fighter novel for me to read?

 

Thanks, Stumble.

Feathered_IV
Posted

I enjoyed Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson when I was younger.  These days however I find myself wishing for some slightly abridged versions of his books...  Preferably ones with all the magic mushroom dad jokes removed.

 

If that fails, there is always Biggles of 266.  :happy:

  • Like 1
Posted
28 minutes ago, Stumble said:

Can anyone recommend a good WW1 airplane fighter novel for me to read?

 

14 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

I enjoyed Goshawk Squadron

 2nd'ed.

 

I'd also heartily recommend Saggitarius Rising by Cecil Lewis. Not a novel; he was a 56 Squadron pilot, but boy, oh boy, can he write. The first line in SR is high in the running for best book openings ever:

 

“There are fortunate men to whom life is a continuous developing pattern, whose education leads them on to a career that carries them, almost in spite of themselves to a place in the world from which, as their powers desert them, they withdraw to ease and seclusion, and whose final demise is as quiet and completing as the full stop at the end of a long and well-constructed sentence.”

 

 

Posted

I'm re-reading "Walden", by Henry David Thoreau. Truly one of the great books.

 

Like some other books, it's not so much that you read it, past tense, but that you are reading it.

Posted
2 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

"Walden", by Henry David Thoreau

I could never get along with Walden.

HDT want's to 'live deep' and get away from society, so he moves a mile down the road, pops into town for dinner like 5 nights a week... 

Posted
3 minutes ago, Diggun said:

I could never get along with Walden.

HDT want's to 'live deep' and get away from society, so he moves a mile down the road, pops into town for dinner like 5 nights a week... 

 

I hear ya.

 

But I've lived in the big city, and alone in the boonies (no running water for five-years), and I found Walden a wonderful and insightful read. I still do.

Feathered_IV
Posted

@Stumble

 

Actually, Winged Victory by Victor Yeates is another one you had best look out for.  It is ostensibly fiction, but written by someone who was really there.  Perhaps as a way of writing about things the author could not admit to feeling himself.  The fear and feeling of isolation.  The loneliness of a condemned young man.  The only other two books I've seen that equal it are From the City, From the Plough by Alexander Baron (reading it now) and the heartbreakingly lonely And Some Fell on Stony Ground: A Day in the Life of an RAF Bomber Pilot.  An unpublished manuscript found among the personal possessions of the late Leslie Mann.

  • 1 month later...
Bremspropeller
Posted

Does anybody know any news about Christer Bergsröm's plans on re-vitalising the Black Cross Red Sta series? Volume 4 was supposed to come out this year, but I haven't heard any news on it for quite some time...

http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/bc-rs/

 

I'm currently also waiting for the re-print of "Luftwaffe face au débarquement" which is supposed to be published shortly.

https://www.editions-heimdal.fr/en/pre-orders/76-la-luftwaffe-face-au-debarquement-9782840484646.html

Posted

I am currently reading The Roman Way by Edith Hamilton. It is a great book for incite on the every day lives and culture of the ancient Roman people.

Posted

I’ve finally started out on the Discworld series. It’s been a long time coming, and I must say that I’m having a good time.

 

517UdroKvTL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Posted
22 minutes ago, Finkeren said:

I’ve finally started out on the Discworld series. It’s been a long time coming, and I must say that I’m having a good time.

They're a damn good read all right, I especially like those concerning the character Sam Vimes and the Nightwatch.

Bremspropeller
Posted

Anybody have volume 4 of Chris Shores' "Mediterranean Air War" yet?

Posted

Currently reading finnish version of Richard Freiherr Von Rosen memoirs, "Panzer Ace" book.

Posted

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  • Upvote 1
Posted

James Lee Burke is very good.

 

Posted (edited)

Just a couple to keep me going........

Books1.JPG  

 

 

 

 

And a few more!!!!

 

Books2.JPG

Edited by JG5_Schuck
  • Upvote 2
Posted
On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 2:51 PM, Wolf8312 said:

I'm reading 'to lose a battle france 1940' by Alistair Horne,  . . .

 

I have that book but haven't gotten into it very much. This winter I'll read it.

 

I read two of his other books, "What Price Glory" about Verdun, and "The Fall of Paris" about the Franco-Prussian war. Both were excellent, he's a fantastic write.

 

"What Price Glory" was one of the best WWI books I've read, and I've gone through about twenty or thirty.

Posted
9 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

 

I have that book but haven't gotten into it very much. This winter I'll read it.

 

 

Yeah its a great book but rather tough to get into at first as it deals alot with the political undercurrents responsible for frances destabalization durring that period, and can seem rather removed from the war itself at times, though it is still interesting to understand these factors. Picks up dramatically when it starts getting closer to the actual invasion though.

 

Have you read the blitzkrieg Legend? I don't care much for the title and its misleading implications but the book itself was one of the best concerning the war on france in 1940.

  • 2 weeks later...
9./JG27golani79
Posted

Started today with Spitfire on my Tail.

IMG_20181117_125843.jpg

  • Upvote 1
Posted

About to start Paradise Lost. Been wanting to read it for a while.

 

Tried to find a copy with larger print ($8 used) but no luck. Gonna need my glasses, a good light, and patience.

  • Upvote 1
  • 1CGS
Posted

Still pushing through with Guns of August - about 75% of the way through.

 

In the meanwhile, I picked up a copy of America's Hundred Thousand this week. Never knew it would be as thick as a phonebook!

Posted

Lend-Lease and Soviet Aviation in the second world war by Vladimir Kotelnikov. 540 pages!

Posted

Picked up Crime and Punishment at a very cool used book store in Montreal. Going to read it after Paradise Lost.

 

And the prose in Paradise Lost is like eating a gallon of Haagen-dasz per page. It's beyond lusciously rich.

  • Upvote 1
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

If you liked the Rudel´s book, you must read this one ...

 

Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot (Helmut Mahlke).

 

You are in the cockpit while reading the book and feel part of the action. I love it!

:soldier:

 

71NPypHr-pL.jpg

Edited by 15[Span.]/JG51Spartan
  • Like 1

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