What Book Are You Reading? Volume 9

[Agent327]

Recently reread A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526-1918 by R. Kann and Gordon by Edith Templeton.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

That sounds tasty.

 

[Masada]

The Red Pony - John Steinbeck

 

[Quackers]

Think I'll add a bit of class and sophistication to this thread:

My **** life so far - Frankie Boyle

 

[Agent327]

That sounds tasty.

Hmmm, tasty wasn´t really what came to mind during rereading. The first is a rather decent survey (though not updated after 1960 in my edition), the second was banned for "indecency" in the UK. But interesting, yes.

 

[Dachs]

Kann is all right, but yeah, badly needs updating. Unfortunately there haven't been any recent works of comparable length. Hochedlinger, for instance, is good, but basically just covers the 18th century.

 

[Shekwan]

I'm reading The Mitrokhin Archive II. Its a compilation of KGB intelligence files handed over to The West when Vasily Mitrokhin defected from the USSR in the early 1990s. It covers the KGBs attempts to foster pro-Soviet regimes in the Third World in an effort to win the Cold War. Really good reading.

Think I'll add a bit of class and sophistication to this thread:

My **** life so far - Frankie Boyle

Frankie Boyle is awesome.

 

[sophie]

Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck

I rather liked that book.

 

[Masada]

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
The Moon is Down - John Steinbeck

I rather liked that book.

So did I.

 

[downtown]

I just finished "The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity" by Richard Florida.

It was a bit North America centric but most of his premise seemed to apply globally. Mega regions, a new spatial fix, the decline of 2nd and 3rd tier cities that can't adapt and the creative class graviatating towards the mega regions. Interesting read though I'm having a hard time getting my head around how the service industry of the future needs to become the manufacturing industry of the past.

I love Richard Florida's work on Urban Centers and the Creative Class, maybe i'll check this out...

 

[Communisto]

A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs

 

[Sparthage]

Animal Farm by George Orwell. I've read it several times, but I am bored again so I'm re-reading it.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-'45 by Barbara Tuchman. I'm sort of ashamed its taken me this long to read one of her books as I like to think of myself as someone who reads a lot of history.

I'll have to grab her other stuff from the library at some stage.

 

[Dachs]

Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-'45 by Barbara Tuchman. I'm sort of ashamed its taken me this long to read one of her books as I like to think of myself as someone who reads a lot of history.

I'll have to grab her other stuff from the library at some stage.

Why read a lot of history if it's all outdated and superseded?

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Why read a lot of history if it's all outdated and superseded?

You mean Barbara Tuchman or just history in general?

I read history because it's more exciting and interesting than any fiction that I can find.

And I'm reading Barbara Tuchman because she writes well and on subjects that interest me (esp. this book on Stilwell who I'm finding to be a real inspiration personally).

 

[Agent327]

Outdated and superseded history is called historiography.

Current (re)read: The Use of Man by Alexander Tisma. Apparently originally written in "Serbo-Croatic".

 

[Dachs]

You mean Barbara Tuchman or just history in general?

I read history because it's more exciting and interesting than any fiction that I can find.

And I'm reading Barbara Tuchman because she writes well and on subjects that interest me (esp. this book on Stilwell who I'm finding to be a real inspiration personally).

I mean Barbara Tuchman. Her books were great stuff in the fifties and sixties, but history is usually progressive; newer stuff is invariably more accurate than older stuff. From what I hear (haven't read that deeply into the subject), the Stilwell myths perpetuated by Tuchman and others have helped make the historiography of the Sino-Japanese war a total mess that's only been cleared up in the last decade or two. I know for a fact that her narrative of the August-September 1914 campaigns is deeply flawed.

Outdated and superseded history is called historiography.

Um, not really, no.

 

[Masada]

Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

 

[FriendlyFire]

'IT NEVER SNOWS IN SEPTEMBER'
The German View of MARKET-GARDEN and The Battle of Arnhem, September 1944
Robert J. Kershaw

Excellent book which matches the same wonderful quality of "A bridge too far."
The germans were so very close to losing the rhur had the allies mantain momentuem of there advance for another two weeks. The Germans really were in a poor shape. There assualt guns, flak panzers and Tigers were what sealed the fate of the BAR3

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Outdated and superseded history is called historiography.