What are you currently reading? v2

[felix]

OK, if the colouring books don't count, you win. (And do I actually need to spell out the little joke I was making? Surely not.)

In other news for englandgz:

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1 Armageddon the battle for Germany, 1944-45
Hastings Max
call number:940.542

Woo-hoo.

Pity they closed early today for some reason.

 

[Inflorescence]

What about this my other half was delighted with this colouring in book present last year..educational and ummm

Amazon review..

By Zubair Khan on 2 May 2014
Format: Paperback
Fantastic purchase, bought it as a gift for my two year old son, he had no idea what animals he was colouring it was hilarious.

 

[felix]

I never knew you had a 2 year old son! He's gonna grow up an odd'un.

Which is good. :D

 

[BigG]

Felix, did you manage to get hold of Armageddon then? It's a great book. I wouldn't put Hastings up there with Antony Beevor as a WW2 historian but he's still pretty good. I know lots don't like him cos of his Tory allegiances and the shite he writes for the Daily Mail but when it comes to the Second World war he knows his onions .

I think I mentioned to you once before that I always struggled to get into the Pacific Campaign in the way that I love reading about the battles in Europe but I recently re-read an old one from my bookshelf called "The Pacific" by Hugh Ambrose (Stephen Ambrose's son). There was an HBO mini-series made out of the book...kind of "Band of Brothers" style....Now there's a book I'm sure you've read....Band of Brothers...I must have read that about 10 times (it is only short ). I'm not a fan of Stephen Ambrose as I find him too sycophantic and Nationalistic.....but the subject matter is just so enthralling. A single company from the 101st Airborne fighting from D-Day, through the Battle of Normandy, Market-Garden, The defense of Bastogne during the Battle of The Bulge through to capturing the Eagles Nest at Berchesgarden right at the end of the war.

I don't think there was any light infantry company (among the Western Allies) in the whole of WW2 that fought quite as well as those chaps.

Would be interested to hear your views?

 

[felix]

Felix, did you manage to get hold of Armageddon then? It's a great book. I wouldn't put Hastings up there with Antony Beevor as a WW2 historian but he's still pretty good. I know lots don't like him cos of his Tory allegiances and the shite he writes for the Daily Mail but when it comes to the Second World war he knows his onions .

It's still sitting at the library, which fucking closed for 10 days over the festive period.

I think I mentioned to you once before that I always struggled to get into the Pacific Campaign in the way that I love reading about the battles in Europe but I recently re-read an old one from my bookshelf called "The Pacific" by Hugh Ambrose (Stephen Ambrose's son). There was an HBO mini-series made out of the book...kind of "Band of Brothers" style....Now there's a book I'm sure you've read....Band of Brothers...I must have read that about 10 times (it is only short ). I'm not a fan of Stephen Ambrose as I find him too sycophantic and Nationalistic.....but the subject matter is just so enthralling. A single company from the 101st Airborne fighting from D-Day, through the Battle of Normandy, Market-Garden, The defense of Bastogne during the Battle of The Bulge through to capturing the Eagles Nest at Berchesgarden right at the end of the war.

I don't think there was any light infantry company (among the Western Allies) in the whole of WW2 that fought quite as well as those chaps.

I haven't read any Ambrose (that I remember) but I'm extremely familiar with the Band of Brothers miniseries. I have the box set on DVD and I've watched it a few times. Fantastic stuff. And I know how you feel about the Pacific side of things, it's never really grabbed me that much compared to the European theatre. It's bad enough the players of Easy Company seeming to win the war on their own without any Allied help, and that's even worse in "The Pacific" series (which is an excellent watch too, regardless.)

I must urge you again to go and watch the German 3-part mini-series "Generation War", a.k.a. "Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter". Absolutely brilliant. If you can't find it online, I could burn it on a DVD and send it to you.

On a slightly different subject, are you interested in the Cold War too, specifically about the civil contingency planning aspect of it in the UK? Secret bunkers, ROC posts, radar stations, troop build ups, training for local government, Regional Seats of Government, the American military presence in the UK, locations of nuclear weapons, etc. etc.??

This book is one of my prized possessions:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Plan-UK-Defence-Britain/dp/0091506719

It was deleted many years ago, and after a long wait I managed to pick up a falling-to-bits copy from ebay for about £27 or something silly. If your library has a copy, see if you can acquire it.

 

[Vurtual]

I was brought up (by hippies) in thatcher's britain and the threat of nuclear war seemed imminent through my childhood (though it seemed like maggie and ronnie were the baddies who might do it to me (my parents fault for buying books like 'When the Wind Blows')) - so that book would probably feel quite nostalgic.

Wasn't there a network of nuclear bunkers around britain connected by train; with a train from under london/downing street to take the great and good to an underground town somewhere in england (i forget where) in event of nucear war. A mate actually took part in nuclear simulations in the bunker underneath the town i'm from years ago. (there was also a semi-famous 'convoy' (hippy) protest against the bunker where they actually built their own 'bunker' out of breeze blocks round the back of the council offices).

The aspect i'm interested is the 'stay-behind armies' of operation gladio, and how what started as preparations for possible soviet invasion very quickly becamse tools to subvert politics into preferred non-lefty directions using terrorism and false flags. The original stay behind armies were in britain during ww2 - they had caches of weapons and money around and in case of invasion would do terrorism against the nazis (michael foot was one of these potential 'terrorists'). They set up the same throughout europe after ww2 against russian invasions (peopled largely by fascists/ex-nazis), but nato seemingly started using them against their own people to influence politics, especially in italy where numerous deadly terrorist incidents were set up by facsists on the payroll and blamed on lefties. (sorry to patronise if you know this stuff, but it bears repeating)

I haven't read any books just about Gladio (though Bill Blum's book 'Rogue State' has a good bit on it).

(oh and despite my anti-war/imperialism and lefty/hippy pacifist(-ish) views, i do have a bit of a fondness for military stuff myself left over from an interest in childhood (my dad got me into planes as he was in the raf 'in the wawur' (before being a hippy)). I was actually more interested in cold war hardware though, and i still like playing military strategy games now (i tell myself i'm a revolutionary general or something) - (any Wargame-RD players in EADD? - that's got some heavy detail on late cold war military hardware in it (and is quite realistic compared to most))

 

[Bearlove]

Genocide of one - Not that interesting tbh. Sand is my next one

 

[Josh]

I'm reading Bad Pharma, which is perhaps not the best choice of book to be reading just a few days before I entrust my life to a bunch of medical professionals... :/

 

[felix]

Wasn't there a network of nuclear bunkers around britain connected by train; with a train from under london/downing street to take the great and good to an underground town somewhere in england (i forget where) in event of nucear war.

There wasn't a network of bunkers connected by train (if you mean by tunnel?) But there was certainly a replacement seat of government all kitted out underground at Corsham. I think it was entered via the rail tunnel at Box Hill. Never really got used though.

 

[BigG]

It's still sitting at the library, which fucking closed for 10 days over the festive period.



I haven't read any Ambrose (that I remember) but I'm extremely familiar with the Band of Brothers miniseries. I have the box set on DVD and I've watched it a few times. Fantastic stuff. And I know how you feel about the Pacific side of things, it's never really grabbed me that much compared to the European theatre. It's bad enough the players of Easy Company seeming to win the war on their own without any Allied help, and that's even worse in "The Pacific" series (which is an excellent watch too, regardless.)

I must urge you again to go and watch the German 3-part mini-series "Generation War", a.k.a. "Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter". Absolutely brilliant. If you can't find it online, I could burn it on a DVD and send it to you.

On a slightly different subject, are you interested in the Cold War too, specifically about the civil contingency planning aspect of it in the UK? Secret bunkers, ROC posts, radar stations, troop build ups, training for local government, Regional Seats of Government, the American military presence in the UK, locations of nuclear weapons, etc. etc.??

This book is one of my prized possessions:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Plan-UK-Defence-Britain/dp/0091506719

It was deleted many years ago, and after a long wait I managed to pick up a falling-to-bits copy from ebay for about £27 or something silly. If your library has a copy, see if you can acquire it.

Actually, years ago (back when I still had a family ) I received an amazing book one xmas (which I seem to have now lost), all about the cold war. I contained A whole load of original (well copies of originals) booklets and the like that were issued to families detailing instructions in the event of a Soviet first strike with thermonuclear weapons (or the H-Bomb as it was known back then) along with what were at the time classified orders detailing a response. It was fascinating stuff, I can't believe I've lost it .

I will definitely check out that book though Felix and that's an awfully kind offer to post me a DVD of that program (I'll PM you my address). Maybe as a way too return the favour you would let me post you my dog eared copy of band of brothers (I don't need it anymore - incidentally I too have the band of brothers box set which I re-visited over the xmas). I'd love to post you the book as you and Kate have been incredibly kind to me over the last few weeks

Virtual - it seems you and I have something in common after all!! You know despite our verbal sword fights over politics (and Russel Brand of all people), I think you are a nice chap and a very intelligent, informed person with whom I enjoy debating various subjects despite our often differences of opinion. I think you are a nice person, I bet we have more in common than you night think....

 

[Smoky]

The Delusion of Being Human. A bit intellectual but has some valid points.
My friend wrote the front few pages, so giving it a shot.

 

[McTavish]

Marshall McLuhan's and Douglas Rushkoff's media theory books

William Gibson's novels and right now Douglas Rushkoff's Ecstacy Club

 

[Funkadelica]

For the first time, shocking I know at my age, I'm reading The Time Machine HG Wells. Thoroughly enjoying it I must say. Need to get my self more into these classics.

 

[Vurtual]

^ i know it's going away from the classics, but there's a modern sequel to the time machine by Stephen Baxter called The Time Ships that i thought was pretty good (quite mindblowing). It starts up directly after the end of the original.

(englandgz74 - thank you i tend to work from the assumption that everyone has ultimately got everything in common (or to metaphorically abbreviate we all share the same 'soul' at a quantum level) - this pan-hippy philosophy (empirically proven to myself by myself) informs all my politics. But it takes a bit of effort to stop my self-righteousness on politics overshadowing it.)

 

[Waterfall]

On a slightly different subject, are you interested in the Cold War too, specifically about the civil contingency planning aspect of it in the UK? Secret bunkers, ROC posts, radar stations, troop build ups, training for local government, Regional Seats of Government, the American military presence in the UK, locations of nuclear weapons, etc. etc.??

This book is one of my prized possessions:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Plan-UK-Defence-Britain/dp/0091506719

It was deleted many years ago, and after a long wait I managed to pick up a falling-to-bits copy from ebay for about £27 or something silly. If your library has a copy, see if you can acquire it.

Felix, that looks like a brilliant read. Would make a good birthday present for someone I know actually. Have You ever seen "The War Game"? It was this docudrama made by the BBC on the same subject in around 1965, and I'm fairly sure it was banned from being shown for being too realistic/harrowing.

 

[felix]

Well, if you can find a copy of that book, you'll be lucky and horrified by how much it sells for. I had to set up an automated search for it on ebay and it took about three years to show up (hence me paying £27 for a tatty paperbook, which is currently held together by binder clips and a huge elastic band.)

Yes, I've seen it. Horrifying. Have you seen "Threads" yet? If not, go on, it's probably on youtube.

 

[Don Luigi]

Smear! Wilson and the Secret State

After finally starting to read Ulysses, I got five pages in and decided I wasn't in the mood for it yet. So I skipped it on the pecking order and started reading this. I'm not too far in but it's been an interesting read so far. It attempts to tell Wilson's story from a broader perspective. Wilson's had a bad rap and this goes to show what he was up against. It seems that, behind the scenes, in British political and intelligence circles, there was something similar to the post-war McCarthy witch hunts and poor Jimmy was having to battle against this.

He soon starts to crumble under paranoia and cynicism :D

I may try reading Ulysses again when I finish this, but the same thing will probably happen. I tend to buy a bunch of books at the one time so that they'll do me a few months. My reading was almost entirely dedicated to the Game of Thrones books for the past year, so it's been strange reading other authors and non-fiction again.

 

[felix]

I'd enjoy that ^ one, I'm sure. I've watched a few documentaries about the Wilson/Heath era recently, and it's quite a strange old time.

 

[Vurtual]

The 'wilson plots' is something more people should be aware of - the british watergate (but actually more serious and substantial - effectively a slow motion coup that landed thatch in power). I haven't read that book, but i've read loads of articles by robin ramsay on it and he's spot on. (Semi-related, Ken Loach's film Hidden Agenda does a pretty good 'fictionalised' account of very similar stuff)

 

[felix]

Ooh, that looks quite good. I love Ken Loach films.