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What are you currently reading? v2

The Guest Cat by by Takashi Hiraide.

It's translated from Japanese. Such an intimate book about relationships and social norms in Japan. Very descriptive, subtle and beautifully executed.

I love Japanese culture and literature - I miss that country. Its an archipelago like Scotland but weirder :D
 
Continuing conversation from another thread, now in this more appropriate one:

We're talking about books we bought/acquired recently, so fuck it, that's on topic. ;) But maybe the book thread would be better, if mods want to tidy up... *shrug*

Beevor's D-Day book is a sprawling epic that goes into more detail than you'd think possible. Which is a good thing. :D Just a "minor" detail about the layout of the French countryside (i.e. "bocage") explains so much about why the Allies found it so difficult, murderous and time-consuming to break out and get the Jerries on the run. That's just a tiny part of a great book. Enjoy.

That Armageddon book looks familiar, and so does the subject matter. I'm gonna take another look and remind myself if I've read it. If not, I'll order it - cheers! Looks right up my street. The way the Germans mobilised towards Total War is fucking insane and makes our efforts here look like we were just playing at it (in comparison, of course).

I do find it horrifically interesting that Churchill lobbied the Americans & Russians hard to delay D-Day, so the Russians would have no choice but to pour millions of lives into the eastern front meat grinder, making the war shorter and less destructive to the Allies when we did eventually invade. We were on the right side, no doubt, but Churchill had to make some pretty dodgy calls that were morally questionable. (And I'm glad he did...)

And yeah... the Americans didn't too badly out of the whole deal (apart from the lives lost, of course) - I mean the country as a whole in the postwar period. Lots of money was made out of the whole deal. Pity FDR went and died.

Ah well. :D

You sound one of the most informed people I've ever had the pleasure of conversing with on the subject. Beevors D-Day does go into a tremendous amount of details, you're right and that's what I like about it. Same with his books Stalingrad and Berlin. Berlin in particular gives a harrowing account of how German civilians were treated by the advancing Red Army juganought. Specifically the terrifying number of rapes and the unimaginable fate of the poor German women. In some ways though, given how the Germans had behaved in the East during the early stages of Barbarossa in '42 and '42 this was probably to be expected but by no means excusable.

Hastings book as I mentioned tried to compare the actions and philosophies of the western allies of democracy versus the German and Russian armies who were raised by dictators. While the western nations would not have been able to sanction the sheer volume of casualties taken by the Red Army or Wehrmacht nor emulate the shear brutality of these two forces. We needed the Russians to be like this in order to win the war and defeat the Germans through attrition but this is the nature of an army of citizen soldiers from a democracy and while it was necessary (for the Russians to be like that) for us in order to win we should be rightly please that the western allies didn't fight as "well" as the Soviets or Germans in that sense.

I also find it fascinating (as I think you do) how a sane, intelligent people like the Germans fell so thoroughly for Goebbels propaganda machine that implicitly allowed the wholesale slaughter of millions and their faith in their Fuhrer when it was obvious that he was insane. I think the German culture of that era to follow orders no matter how stupid has something to do with it. It's also interesting that by 1943 Churchill was dead against any plot to kill Hitler since hr felt we were much more likely to win the was with him in charge than someone else due to his massive incompetence (I know he had onset early Parkinsons by this point but I wonder how much his daily methamphetamine injections administered by Dr Morell contributed to his mental collapse).

Well I could debate this all day with you mate. Perhaps you would like to continue by PM sometime?

Nah, fuck PMs. :D It'd be great to have others contributing, if they're interested or have book recommendations for anyone.

What you're saying about "Armageddon" doesn't sound too familiar now, so I've just ordered it from the library. I might see it in January sometime, it's currently nestling in some sleepy village library about 10 miles away.

I thought you were saying that you hadn't read Beevor's D-Day yet, so that's cool. His Berlin Downfall book is a stunning piece of work and was the first I'd read of his. (Presumably you've seen the film "Downfall" too?) (Ah shit I've gone off topic already. ;))

Here's another one I loved - have you read it?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Thir...&keywords=albert+speer+inside+the+third+reich

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And finally... have you seen this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_War
 
No I have ready Beevors book. It's in my bookcase but I often re-ready his books because they are so good. Have you ready his book Stalingrad? The battle for Stalingrad is one of my favorite (there I go using that word again - haha!!) of WW2 due to the complexity of it and the fact that the Germans had it won then lost it. Also Hitlers stupid idea to break the 6th army away from the drive to the Caucuses just to capture Stalingrad for his own egotistical reasons (it was hardly strategic). The more you read about Stalingrad the more you want to read. it's fascinating.

You'll love Armageddin mate, it's an excellent book. I've got it here in front of me now.

I haven't read Inside the Third Reich thoroughly but I have sort of speed read in in the library. I think I'll get that out on Monday. Speer is an interesting character isn't he? "the nazi who said sorry" as he was dubbed after Nuremberg (although it has recently come to record that he may have knew a long more about the holocaust than he made on" Still, it spared him the noose and he's not the first person to "embellish the truth" in a court room - haha!!

I've just finished reading "The SS - A New History" - by Adrian Weadle. It's a good book that tries to separate fact from fiction surrounding the SS and the Waffen SS in particular (it turns out that they were not ALL the tremendous fighters that they were made out to be. I find it also interesting how a people like the Germans who put such stock in law and order could churn out such a band of murderers, thugs and just plain evil bastards as the SS. They were the embodiment of evil in so many cases. I bought this book with the task in my mind of working out how this could be? How the people could have allowed this?. Anyway I wont spoil it too much for you in case you read it someday..

No I haven't seen that movie in the link but I think I'll check it out...looks interesting.

Another topic I'm building a bookshelf with books on is Afghanistan. From the first British battle there in the 1800s to the Soviet invasion, the subsequent civil wars through to the current trials and tribulations in Helmand today. The phrase "history repeating itself" comes to mind!
 
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It was the phrase "favorite period of war" that someone questioned you about, and that's what my insensitive clod remark jokingly referred to. Definition: someone who makes a seemingly innocent remark but still offends somebody. That's also why I stuck a jolly big green smiley next to my "insult" =D
 
OK. In any case I apologise for calling you an "arsehole". I'm big enough to say sorry for that as I shouldn't have said it as it's wrong to call someone that regardless of whether or not you feel they have slighted you...so...I am sorry for saying that, it was wrong.

I assumed you were implying that my interest in WW2 and my finding the period fascinating was insensitive and I was of the impression that "clod" mean the same as "clot" i.e. idiot/buffoon.

Anyway I don't want to get into an online fight.

I took your remark out of context, resented you implying that I was suffering from "roid rage" - even though I've been off steroids for 6 months and roid rage is generally accepted as being a media invention. But I digress, I shouldn't have called you that and I'm sorry
 
Ummm... englandz. You definitely misinterpreted what lurching said and thus over-reacted. I didn't know what he meant either.

And anyway, we'll have no fighting here. THIS IS THE WAR ROOM!!! :p ;)

edit: just saw the above post. cool. :)
 
And my apologies for lame clumsiness (though I'm glad I'm past the point of apologizing for my non-funniness) :eek:

I finished The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes earlier this year, a great read. I found it very absorbing, not too technical/Alamos-centric. The perspective of "Jewish scientist" working from out of the US in 44-45 is quite fascinating and paints a different political picture than I had in mind, surprising how the discussion of ethics of this new form of warfare was given a quite low priority for years.
 
Back to the topis in hand....

"Dunkirk" - By Hush Sebag-Montefiore (yes that's his actual name) is just about as definitive account of the last 1940 campaign by the BEF in France and the Dunkirk evacuation (there was even a BBC documentary made of this book shown over several parts called (rather unimaginatively) Dunkirk.

Another personal favorite is Arnhem - Jumping the Rhine 1944 and 1945 - By Lloyd Clark (the Sandhurst lecturer who is often featured on WW2 documentaries). This one not only covers the Market-Garden operation which has been covered endlessly elsewhere but also Montgomery's 1945 crossing of the Rhine which has had much less publicity even though it was the largest airborne operation of all time (even bigger than D-Day or Arnhem) in that it included the US 82nd and 17th Divisions as well as the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions as well a numerous other airborne support elements....Would highly recommend it.
 
And my apologies for lame clumsiness (though I'm glad I'm past the point of apologizing for my non-funniness) :eek:

I finished The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes earlier this year, a great read. I found it very absorbing, not too technical/Alamos-centric. The perspective of "Jewish scientist" working from out of the US in 44-45 is quite fascinating and paints a different political picture than I had in mind, surprising how the discussion of ethics of this new form of warfare was given a quite low priority for years.

You don't really have anything to apologies for mate as it was me that was in the wrong. I hope we can forget it and be friends in the future.

The Manhattan project and related areas are fascinating to read about. The whole thing is cloaked in intrigue - Jewish exiles from Germany building a bomb that was initially intended to be dropped on Germany itself. The brilliant minds involved. Einstein's letter to FDR. Klaus Fuch and the subsequent spying scandal.....just the general uncertainty of what they were dealing with. I mean they had no idea really, there were even bets that when they tested it, it would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the earth and all living things on it (but they tested it anyway - LOL!)
 
You don't really have anything to apologies for mate as it was me that was in the wrong. I hope we can forget it and be friends in the future.

The Manhattan project and related areas are fascinating to read about. The whole thing is cloaked in intrigue - Jewish exiles from Germany building a bomb that was initially intended to be dropped on Germany itself. The brilliant minds involved. Einstein's letter to FDR. Klaus Fuch and the subsequent spying scandal.....just the general uncertainty of what they were dealing with. I mean they had no idea really, there were even bets that when they tested it, it would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the earth and all living things on it (but they tested it anyway - LOL!)

sounds reminiscent of the media fuss about the black holes generated in the Large Hadron Collider...

also, I wonder how the world would be if they DID drop the bomb on Germany.

140531202238-1-hiroshima-peace-memorial-horizontal-gallery.jpg
 
Wow - what a beautiful picture!

Re. your question though, I'm not sure..... I mean what do the epicenters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like today 70 years on? Haven't they pretty much recovered?

Plus if you've ever seen those areal pics of Berlin after the surrender, there is barely a single building left untouched, it had to be built up almost completely from scratch again. So other than background radiation levels high enough to give you a "healthy" tan in December, it might look almost the same,
 
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On the subject of Hiroshima, I read this one recently:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shockwave-C...115585&sr=8-1&keywords=countdown+to+hiroshima

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Fascinating stuff. Lots about the initial testing of the first bomb at Los Alamos, and then the countdown to actually using it for the first time in anger, detailing the political background and all the logistics required to get it all the way over there, bringing the plane back safely. There is a dual-narrative going on, with the other half set amongst the ordinary people of Hiroshima itself. Pretty grim but very interesting.
 
Another one I've just read and while not technically a war history book is Weapons Grade - Revealing The Links Between Modern Warfare and Our High Tech World - By David Hambling.

It's about things that began life as classified military projects but ended up revolutionising our civilian lives.

Things like:-

The V2 rockets
Modern computers resulting from code-breaking machines in WW2 and how things like the internet his it's beginning in projects like the DARPA net
DVDs resulting from attempts to make laser death rays
Vortex rings and non-lethal police crowd dispersal systems

Robots, hypersonic flight, SCRAM jets, nanotechnology, quantum computing etc etc.. all these things start out in the classified black world and end up in the civilian world as everyday things familiar to all of us like microwaves ovens, Velcro fasteners....even the T-shirt...all military inventions.

The book is fascinating. Obviously the military has funding to develop and trial things that would be prohibitively costly for civilian firms.

Anyhoo - highly recommended :)
 
The Musicology of Record Production (Zagorski-Thomas 2014). Very interesting stuff for those who like to make tracks.
 
Blindsight by Peter Watts - probably mentioned here last time i read it, but just read it again as the sequel just came out (and the old memory's a bit shit). A dark sci fi first contact story that touches on a whole range of fascinating stuff - some transhumanism, lots and lots about psychology (references to sacks, persinger, metzinger), consciousness/sentience, neuroscience, multiple personalities, even a vampire element (but done in a believable, hard s.f. way). Like i said loads of stuff - bleak in outlook; thinking-person's sf (though not particularly hard to read).

Bloody brilliant - now i can start on the sequel Echopraxia (though i'm getting fritjof capra's new book for crimbo, so i might do that first)
 
It was a little review like - there's much more than that in it though, that was the point, and nothing i said was a spoiler (the vampire's introduced in the first few pages). I'll try and keep it shorter in future though sir ;)
 
uh huh, so whats the biggest book you have on your rshelf that youve read in entirety then, felix, sorry the big boy colouring books dont count





nor do textbooks, religious tomes, dictionaries, atlas or the like. not the time or place for your obscene publications either im afraid
 
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