On Saudi Arabia, Karen Elliot House
Which book are you reading now? Volume XI
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Borachio
Way past lunacy
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Tao Te Ching Lao-Tzu
1.
TAO called TAO is not TAO
Names can name no lasting name.
Nameless: the origin of heaven and earth.
Naming: the mother of ten thousand things.
Empty of desire, perceive mystery.
Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.
These have the same source, but different names.
Call them both deep -
Deep and again deep:
The gateway to all mystery.
(I can see I'm going to have trouble with this.)
1.
TAO called TAO is not TAO
Names can name no lasting name.
Nameless: the origin of heaven and earth.
Naming: the mother of ten thousand things.
Empty of desire, perceive mystery.
Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.
These have the same source, but different names.
Call them both deep -
Deep and again deep:
The gateway to all mystery.
(I can see I'm going to have trouble with this.)
Oruc
Reactionary
I just finished Storm of Steel, not sure what i'll read now.
Interesting choice. What'd you think?
Oruc
Reactionary
I thought it was quite dry in the beginning or I suppose the very concise writing style took some getting used to. Once I got used to the style I found the whole thing fascinating, a few things stood out like his brief interactions with locals which suprising to me at least seemed rather friendly (course they didn't have much choice I guess). Also as the years wore on he talked about the difference in supplies with British artillery being able to fire for longer and with greater intensity and the time they captured a trench which had much better rations then their own.
Alot of the names of places escapes me i'm afraid, so I have a hard time picturing where he is as he's moved around alot. In the chapter titled "The Great Battle" (which I assume that last big german offensive) after pushing through the British lines they were turned back by their own artillery who, apparently, had been given orders to fire at full extent of their range and he couldn't push into this some village.
His perspective on the war was new for me, being brought up on the how it was pointless war with brave men lead by idiots, he didn't care at all about why the war was being fought and was mostly in high spirits until after the "Great Battle" and during his last offensive.
Good read though, I still need to read the introduction actually.
Finished Imperial Spain, which is an older work on the history of the Castillan-Aragonese union up to the civil war between the rival claimants of Felipe V and Carlos III. Since it is somewhat older, it is a heavily focused heavily on political and economical events, which I find refreshing every once in awhile.
I was a little concerned with the discussion around mass currency inflation due to New World precious metals hypothesis (as far as I know today, this hypothesis is largely discredited), but the work at least acknowledged this was a contentious area of research when it was written. I appreciated the inside look at the political structures of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castille, which had differing levels of local control over how the monarch could raise funds or troops from his different domains, and the impact this had on foreign policy.
Next up on my reading docket is a book I've been looking forward to since I saw it on The Daily Show (I think--it was a televised interview somewhere): Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff. It discusses what happens to the British loyalists after the American Revolution.
I was a little concerned with the discussion around mass currency inflation due to New World precious metals hypothesis (as far as I know today, this hypothesis is largely discredited), but the work at least acknowledged this was a contentious area of research when it was written. I appreciated the inside look at the political structures of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castille, which had differing levels of local control over how the monarch could raise funds or troops from his different domains, and the impact this had on foreign policy.
Next up on my reading docket is a book I've been looking forward to since I saw it on The Daily Show (I think--it was a televised interview somewhere): Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff. It discusses what happens to the British loyalists after the American Revolution.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
Who's the author of this "Imperial Spain" book?
Sorry 'bout that, I usually put more data on the books in my posts. Don't know why I didn't on that one.
The full title is Imperial Spain: 1469-1716 by J. H. Elliott, my edition is a second printing from 2002 with an updated foreword and notes but the original release was in 1963.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
I'll look it up.
Yeah, the book's really something for comparing and contrasting the perspective of a Frontsoldat on the war with the image you get from Lost Generation chutney or Remarque. Frequently you'll see both In Stahlgewittern and Im Westen nicht neues assigned in the same course, unless the professor sucks, in which case you only get the latter.
The segment of society that Jünger represents and represented can be a bit opaque to the sort that holds up Im Westen nicht neues, The Things They Carried, and the like as the natural response of the average person to war. Like O'Brien or Remarque, Jünger fulminated against the mistakes of his commanders; unlike either, he did not carry that into a general attack on the basis of the military-political establishment and the entire idea of fighting in general, but rather viewed it as sort of an iterative process: just fix this, and we can do it again and do it right and win. These are the kinds of people that supposedly never existed after Versailles, but who magically reappeared just in time for 1939 and a new war. You know, the people who actually fight. Sigh.
That last great offensive was, yes, the German 'spring offensive' of March 1918. Jünger was at that time a lieutenant in the 111th Infanterie-Division, part of the Seventeenth Army. His unit was near the extreme northern end of the German general offensive, and as it would happen the further north it got, the harder for the Germans it was to attack. In addition, Seventeenth Army leadership had not implemented the new artillery tactics - the Bruchmüller and Pulkowski Methods - that were used by the troops further south. So when Jünger's division attacked Vraucourt, one of the villages near the suburbs of Arras (Arras being a main anchor of the British line and a key defensive bastion), the artillery just kept shooting at maximum range all throughout March 20 and 21 instead of displacing forward to continue to support the offensive, as the artillery further south did.
Anyway, it's awesome to see someone else reading that sort of thing. Good stuff.
It's one of the few extended histories of the Habsburg Iberian monarchy in English, and has a somewhat exaggerated reputation because of that lack of reasonably recent competition. I'm not sure how somebody with regular access to actual Spanish literature would view it.
Actually, JoanK, if you have regular access to the Spanish literature, would you mind comparing it to the field and telling us where the good stuff is? I could put my pathetic 5 years of middle- and high-school Spanish to use and get another book to read.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
I wish I could, but these days I read much less than I used to, now I'm stuck with classic sci-fi (reading the Foundation Trilogy, as said above iirc, and gonna read Dune after that), and I wouldn't know where to start. I mean, I'm sorry but I can't see myself doing that, sorry.
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
A New History of Southeast Asia by M.C. Ricklefs et al. Good enough read, but considering it's a complete history of half a dozen nations it doesn't cover topics too deeply. A decent introductory text to its subject.
1889
Mayor of H-Marker Lake
Just finished Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel Drezner. It was pretty funny (dry humor I think they call that). However it was only about 120 pages, just a snack really, and I am in the mood for something more substantial. I'd really like a history of Europe say 1945-1968 Anyone have a recomendation?
sophie
Break My Heart
Finished City of Thieves; short, sweet, and sometimes pretty funny. Not much else to say about it.
Of course, the main library here has just about all the books I want to read checked out or not available (Battle Cry of Freedom
), so I decided to go with Carthage Must be Destroyed. Its not the time period I really want to get into at the moment, but Carthage has always seemed pretty interesting, so learning more couldn't hurt.
Of course, the main library here has just about all the books I want to read checked out or not available (Battle Cry of Freedom
), so I decided to go with Carthage Must be Destroyed. Its not the time period I really want to get into at the moment, but Carthage has always seemed pretty interesting, so learning more couldn't hurt.
Mango Elephant
Deity
It's funny how I was reading that in the library today and then I saw this and the gay Saudi Arabia thread. If my own mother turned out to be a Saud, I wouldn't be surprised.
I'm reading Outliers; A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson; and The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christy. My brother's a rabid fan of Bill Bryson but I can't understand why. To me he seems really dull. This is the third time I've tried to read a book by him.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Bill Bryson has a very British sense of humour, despite being American, so he may read as quite dry if you're not on the right wavelength.
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