My personal reading list is ~500+ books in size. At this point I add things faster then I can read them. I treat it as more of a "here's something I can read" list rather then as a project to be completed.
What are you reading at the moment?
- Thread starter ngatimozart
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- #82
Sounds like my list. Mine is comprised of papers / articles as well.
My copy of Geoffrey Tills "How to Grow a Navy" arrived last week. Ten days from ordering to delivery - US to NZ is quite impressive.
buffy9
Active Member
I'm currently reading through the RAN's Sounding Papers series. I had earlier been reading through some of the Australian Army History Series ("The Hard Slog" and "The Search for Tactical Success in Vietnam"), though am trying to broaden my inputs.
I'm aware of the bias and aim to move on from it at some point, but I find the information informative anyhow.
I'm aware of the bias and aim to move on from it at some point, but I find the information informative anyhow.
Next on the list is a privately-produced book on the experiences of my Grandfather during WW1 and the period leading up to it.
He entered the RAA as a junior officer before the war started, and was stationed at Ft Queenscliff when the Port Phillip defences fired the first hostile shots by a British or Commonwealth nation, for that conflict.
He deployed with the Australian Siege Brigade, the first AIF combat unit to reach the Western Front, and finished the war as a Battery Commander with a DSO and three MID.
I’ve read some of his war diary.... often very dry. “Carried on the war as usual” . “A big shoot” can be correlated by date and position with some of the larger actions of the war, but he doesn’t make much of that. Arriving to find that “the enemy got our range, during the night” meant listing the day’s tasks. Dealing with casualties, locating spare parts, requesting reinforcements and getting guns back into action.
I knew him as an old man, who had been through both world wars. Very human, very sympathetic ... but knew when to pyt that aside to get the job done.
He entered the RAA as a junior officer before the war started, and was stationed at Ft Queenscliff when the Port Phillip defences fired the first hostile shots by a British or Commonwealth nation, for that conflict.
He deployed with the Australian Siege Brigade, the first AIF combat unit to reach the Western Front, and finished the war as a Battery Commander with a DSO and three MID.
I’ve read some of his war diary.... often very dry. “Carried on the war as usual” . “A big shoot” can be correlated by date and position with some of the larger actions of the war, but he doesn’t make much of that. Arriving to find that “the enemy got our range, during the night” meant listing the day’s tasks. Dealing with casualties, locating spare parts, requesting reinforcements and getting guns back into action.
I knew him as an old man, who had been through both world wars. Very human, very sympathetic ... but knew when to pyt that aside to get the job done.
I'm reading, The Semonovskaya Story by Lapin. It's a detailed take on the mutiny of the Semenovskiy Rgt in 1820, a precursor to the Decembrist revolt. It also does a good job of breaking down the details of military service for enlisted personnel in the Russian Empire.
After a quick look, that Vietnam War book looks quite interesting. I'm adding it to my list.
Max Blumenthal, The Management of Savagery. It's a book covering the involvement of the US with various radical groups across the greater Middle East, starting with the Mujahadeen in the Soviet Afghan war, and ending with the relatively recent situations in Syria and Libya.
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Ah the ancient Greeks. I have a copy of "Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian Wars", Herodotus, and I like Plato when he's writing about Socrates. Did have a copy of Arian's "History of Alexander the Great" but not sure where it is. Maybe my son has it. Might see if I can find a copy of Demosthenes.
For Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon (both Hellenika and Anabasis), Arian, and even Julius Caesar, I can't recommend the Landmark editions enough. If you have the money and want a collector's edition, Easton Press did Herodotus, Thucydides, and Caesar. But the contents are the same and even the regular Landmarks are great. Demosthenes is hard to find.
Moscow and Muscovites by Gilyarovskiy. It's a fantastic collection of vignettes and stories of pre-revolutionary Moscow. It preserves for us a world that is now two countries away from modern day Moscow, and Gilyarovskiy does a great job of taking us from the slums to the aristocratic hangouts.
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"Unrestricted Warfare" by PLA Snr Colonels Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui. It's an English translation of their 1999 work. This work gives a good insight into PLA and CCP military thinking.
"The Last Empire - The Final Days of the Soviet Union" by Serhi Plokhy. A work that I have just started and is quite interesting. It's a non western account of the fall of the USSR.
"How to Grow a Navy" by Geoffrey Till. It discusses the development of maritime power.
"The Last Empire - The Final Days of the Soviet Union" by Serhi Plokhy. A work that I have just started and is quite interesting. It's a non western account of the fall of the USSR.
"How to Grow a Navy" by Geoffrey Till. It discusses the development of maritime power.