28-03-2005 22:50									#121
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quote: I'm growing increasingly interested in WW1

It may not be exactly what you're looking for, but you should read Storm of steel by Ernst Junger. Its a novel he wrote about his WW1 experience.

	29-03-2005 10:15									#122
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How dare nobody post a picture of Brooke Burke????

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	29-03-2005 10:18									#123
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I like the picture of Brooke Burke followed by the sig: "Victory is the ONLY option."

	29-03-2005 10:20									#124
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Fitting

	29-03-2005 22:41									#125
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Today I bought:

The selected works of Marx and Engels volume 1

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and The State by Friedrich Engels

Quotations of Mao Zedong

and Collapse, by Jared Diamond.

	30-03-2005 00:20									#126
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DaVinchi's Code (english; page 108)

	30-03-2005 00:48									#127
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Tonight I will start to read Asimovs Foundation books again, I haven´t read them since I was 15 (I think). It will be interesting to see what I think about them this time.

	30-03-2005 01:14									#128
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Chugging through Discipline and Punish by Foucault (Michael this time!) and just finished Dorian by Will Self (sat) and The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks(yesterday).

Also going to have a look at Camus's The Plague, if Foucault proves too much.
Can you tell I'm sick in bed at the moment?

	30-03-2005 02:12									#129
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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and just picked up Guns, Germs and Steel, which I'm eager to get into. Having just finished Sowell's Conquest and Cultures (, btw), which seems to tackle similar ideas, I'm interested to see where Sowell and Diamond agree and disagree.

	30-03-2005 02:14									#130
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quote: Originally posted by JohnT I'm growing increasingly interested in WW1, but am having a little bit of difficulty finding a good "overview" of the conflict... the books I've looked at so far are a bit too detailed in the various troop and regiment movements for my tastes. I tried Stevenson's Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy, for example, which was called "The best comprehensive one-volume history of the war yet written." This will be a fine work in the future, but for now assumes a familiarity with the period that I, frankly, don't have.

Have you tried Keegan's The First World War? I haven't read it, but judging from Keegan's other works that I have read, it would be the place I'd start.

	30-03-2005 02:17									#131
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quote: Originally posted by Solomwi Have you tried Keegan's The First World War? I haven't read it, but judging from Keegan's other works that I have read, it would be the place I'd start.

ive read it, its pretty good.

	30-03-2005 02:18									#132
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finished Pipes.

Returned to Braudel's Civilization and Capitalism, Vol 2: The Wheels of Commerce. The kinda book I can pick up, read a bit, and put down for months. (note, ive never read Vol 1)

	30-03-2005 02:40									#133
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quote: Originally posted by Solomwi Have you tried Keegan's The First World War? I haven't read it, but judging from Keegan's other works that I have read, it would be the place I'd start.

I almost got it last night.

Instead, I got a survey of the war written by Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall, World War 1. Not a bad book, probably a little less scholarly than the Keegan (though Marshall does have the advantage of actually having served in the AEF), but to be quite blunt, the Marshall has more, and better, maps.

	30-03-2005 02:54									#134
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LOTM: I read Pipes' Militant Islam Reaches America a while back.

JohnT: Good deal. The lack of maps was one thing I didn't like about Keegan's Second World War, but I also have The Times Atlas of the Second World War, edited by Keegan, so it wasn't too much of a hindrance.

Maps definitely help immensely. I recently finished a biography of Chingis Khan that had just a handful of maps at the back. A world atlas was very helpful during the chapters discussing the various tribes and Mongol homeland.

	30-03-2005 06:41									#135
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Received Evolving the Alien by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart today. Halfway through. Slightly annoyed that someone already wrote the book I wanted to write. Very glad they did it better than I would've.

	30-03-2005 07:21									#136
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On a generally related note: If you are into military history, read ALL of Keegan's books.

	30-03-2005 07:48									#137
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Héhé, it seems I've got that Keegan book sitting on my shelf, really that good Theseus (or Solomwi)?

Well, I'll give it a go then and start immediately.

	30-03-2005 12:07									#138
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I just picked up from the library today, the first novel ever written by an American President:

The Hornets' Nest by Jimmy Carter.

	30-03-2005 12:35									#139
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Alva, I've never read anything by Keegan that wasn't articulate, informative and, perhaps best of all, highly accessible. Yes, that good.

JohnT: Just ordered a used copy of Marshall from Amazon. Looking forward to checking it out.

	02-04-2005 13:20									#140
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bump

I read "Age of Extremes" (1996) by Eric Hobsbawm yesterday. Well, that sucked. Full of commie apologism, obvious political bias among presented statistics (which used 100% credible sources like New York Times) and theoretisizing about various completely abstract -ism's which weren't defined at all (thus allowing author to theoretize about relations of different nations with a gut feeling of his own ). IMHO reading it is a waste of time.

Currently reading a Finnish book, "Kotona maailmankaikkeudessa" (2002) by E. Valtaoja, a much hyped book. Looks bad so far.

Last edited by VJ on 02-04-2005 at 13:27

	02-04-2005 13:58									#141
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I've heard a lot of complaints about age of extremes... but also that the first two in the series (age of revolution and age of capital) are quite good. Can anyone verify this?

	03-04-2005 09:58									#142
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Yes, Keegan is that good; he ranges from almost philosophical (e.g., 'The Face of Battle') to insanely detailed and yet insightful (e.g., his World War books).

Finished 'Claudius the God'... not quite as good as 'I, Claudius', but the two taken together are fabulous.

Banged out 'The Enemy', the latest in the Jack Reacher series... not nearly violent enough, and the mystery was sort of facile.

I'm going to re-read Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', and then I'm gearing up to read all of the Dune pre-quels in chronological order, although the Amazon reviews worry me that they might be a let-down.

Also considering 'Sin City' due to the almost lyrical Slate review of the movie, but I've yet to get into the graphical novel thing.