What Are You Reading

[Feraud]

I recently finished "It's Superman!" by Tom De Haven.

Now I have never read a novel based on a comic book character but this story was set in the mid thirties and it caught my interest. The story is brilliant, the characters, except Superman, human and flawed and honestly it made me want to watch the old Fleischer serials all over again.

A great read, loungers, go out and get this!

Have you read- Men Of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book? A very good read about the early days of comics.
You can preview it here-
http://books.google.com/books?id=_K...&resnum=6&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[rue]

Put aside the book I was reading to read The Great Gatsby. I finished it in one day. The book is much better than the movie, like everyone said, but it also helped me understand the characters better.

 

[Geiamama]

I'm reading Moab Is my Washpot by Stephen Fry and dipping in and out of Your Garden In War-Time by C.H. Middleton, mostly when I feel like I should be gardening but the urge to sit and drink tea becomes too much.

 

[Harp]

Commuter train reading: Oct/09 issue of Black Belt magazine.
Bruce Lee's Gung fu/jeet kune do evolve; also knife/counter blade concepts.
Beats the New York Times- excepting the Arts-Theatre section.

 

[WH1]

Bagombo Snuff Box; a collection of early short stories from Kurt Vonnegut
They were written very early in his career for magazines like Cosmo and Redbook. I have been a big fan of his novels since I took a Vonnegut class in college, "breakfast of champions" being my favorite, but these early short stories are a different side of his writing very crisp, intelligent and humorous. Particularly good ones are "Der Arme Dolmetscher" about his experience as a German interpreter during WW2 and "Unpaid Consultant" which somewhat captures the optimism of the 1950's with a twist. After reading this one I am going to go back and reread some of his novels.

 

[Harp]

Kurt Vonnegut
After reading this one I am going to go back and reread some of his novels.

Slaughter House Five, w/o a doubt V's best.
_____________________

In the batter's cage: The John Boyd Roundtable; edited Mark Safranski
Loupe the LOOP.

 

[Isis]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Actually a re-read, it is one of my favourite vampire novels ever.

 

[WH1]

Slaughter House Five, w/o a doubt V's best.
_____________________

In the batter's cage: The John Boyd Roundtable; edited Mark Safranski
Loupe the LOOP.

Haven't seen this one where did you get this?

Boyd is a particular interest of mine due to his influence on Marine Corps development in the 1980's and on.

I just read "When Sun-tzu met Clausewitz (the OODA Loop and the Invasion of Iraq) by Daniel Ford interesting essay on Boyd.

 

[WH1]

Found it on amazon and ordered it for the kindle. next on the reading list.

 

[Harp]

Haven't seen this one where did you get this?

The Cork&Kerry pub.
(James Joyce compared to Celine; and Boyd's name surfaced.)
Ghengis John and thinking beyond the spear point.
My kind of soldier.
PM can fwd Todd, no problemo.

 

[Harp]

Found it on amazon and ordered it for the kindle. next on the reading list.

Have heard that Boyd's star may have fallen somewhat due to a lack of discipleship
among the newly commissioned officer ranks; including USMC; also, his perspective is not
being pursued at the War College level. ??????

 

[WH1]

Have heard that Boyd's star may have fallen somewhat due to a lack of discipleship
among the newly commissioned officer ranks; including USMC; also, his perspective is not
being pursued at the War College level. ??????

Unfortunately that is a distinct probability imo we are seeing a tendency to move towards centralization in operations with a push by higher HQ (division and MEF staffs) to Command/Control platoon size operations due to the technologies available. Ironic thing is I am reading Jon Hoffman's excellent biography on Chesty Puller. Puller had a distinct hatred of HQ's staffs and made it known. He like Boyd was scary to the establishment but much loved by the grunts.

 

[Diamondback]

Parshall and Tully, Shattered Sword--if you have even the slightest bit of interest in what really happened at the Battle of Midway, you MUST read this book. I'm actually using it as a blueprint for a wargame Memorial Day Weekend...

 

[Harp]

Ironic thing is I am reading Jon Hoffman's excellent biography on Chesty Puller. Puller had a distinct hatred of HQ's staffs and made it known. He like Boyd was scary to the establishment but much loved by the grunts.

Chesty Puller and John Boyd; doubtful that they ever met,
but what a pair of Aces out of a deck all too often stacked by deuce orthodoxy.
Bye-the-bye, is the improved MK318 5.56m open-tip tip-top w/M4?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Parshall and Tully, Shattered Sword--if you have even the slightest bit of interest in what really happened at the Battle of Midway, you MUST read this book. I'm actually using it as a blueprint for a wargame Memorial Day Weekend...

Great read. I hit the jackpot today at a model kit collectors' show:

The U-Boat: The Evolution and History of German Submarines by Eberhard Rössler
(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1989)
I'd been looking for this book for years!

Spitfire: The History by Eric B. Morgan and Edward Shacklady
(Stamford, Lincolnshire UK: Key Books, 2000)
A whopping, copiously illustrated 650 page tome that tells the full technical, design and manufacturing history of the Spitfire based on original documents and exhaustive primary research.

P-36 Hawk Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 86) by Lionel Persyn, Kari Stenman and Andrew Thomas
(Botley, Oxford UK: Osprey Publishing, 2009)

Gunships: The Story of Spooky, Shadow, Stinger and Spectre by Wayne Mutza
(North Branch, MN: Specialty Press, 2009)

Focke-Wulf Ta 152: The Story of the Luftwaffe's Late-War High Altitude Fighter by Dietmar Harmann
(Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1999)

Pfadfinder: Luftwaffe Pathfinder Operations Over Britain, 1940-45 by Ken Wakefield
(Stroud, Gloucestershire UK: Tempu, 1999)
I got this one to replace a battered well-worn copy.

 

[Bernie Zack]

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. This book is HILARIOUS! I've been to New Orleans about a dozen times, and I love how he describes the geography and portrays the characters.

 

[Corto]

"The Long Route" by Bernard Moitissier... Crazy Frenchman sails around the world in a race, and after he does the most dangerous bit (rounding Cape Horn singlehanded in a yacht) he decides to something very unexpected... The sailing nomenclature is a bit beyond me, but good read none the less.

 

[Giftmacher]

I didn't know that many scans of Life magazine from 40's and 50's are on Google books. I will start to read them all

 

[Mario]

I just finished reading John Irvings 'Last Night in Twisted River'. What a great book. Irving's stories are so ripe with life, full with wonderfully idiosyncratic, even erratic characters. I absolutely love his books. 'Son of a Circus' was great, too.

I always loved T.C. Boyle's work as well but by now I get the feeling that he's trying too hard to go down in history as one of America's great writers. Just before Irving I read Boyle's 'The Women', the story about Frank Lloyd Wright. It's ok but there are so many passages that do nothig for me. I'm afraid that he's loosing his touch...

 

[FaldaDavis]

Just started The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen. Its really good!