Grand unified books thread

[Syt]

I picked up Dante's Divine Comedy, though. I was looking for an edition that had its annotations as footnotes, and finally found one.

Which one did you get?

"New translation by J.G. Nichols". It was the only English one on the shelf, and I already have a copy in German.

[The Brain]

Finished The Battle for China. Essays were decent and the book generally made sense. Anyone interested in the Sino-Japanese war of 37-45 and who doesn't read Japanese or Chinese should definitely take a look at it.

[The Brain]

I recently got a new delivery, including the following.

Evans and Peattie, Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics and Technology in the IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY 1887-1941.

Peattie, Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941.

Finished Kaigun. A very nice read. Recommended if you're interested in the IJN. I'm not an expert though so if there were any major errors I didn't spot them. Proofreading wasn't bad, but could be better.

[mongers]

I'm reading a book*!!  :gasp: :faint: 




*don't worry it's only a small one.

[Queequeg]

Anyone else read 2666?

[The Brain]

I recently got a new delivery, including the following.

Evans and Peattie, Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics and Technology in the IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY 1887-1941.

Peattie, Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941.

Finished Kaigun. A very nice read. Recommended if you're interested in the IJN. I'm not an expert though so if there were any major errors I didn't spot them. Proofreading wasn't bad, but could be better.

Finished Sunburst. It's essentially the longer version of what they put in Kaigun, so it's nice, but not essential if you read Kaigun and don't have a special interest in the naval air arm.

[mongers]

Nice coffee-table book of WW2 maps, mainly operational and with British bias since it's from the public records office. Good detail in some of the maps, won't teach you much, but can be picked up on amazon for pennies:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Historical-Maps-Europe-Michael-Swift/dp/1856485730/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0F6ZQWAFM117VBT0PH5E

[Capetan Mihali]

I've never read any Nabokov.  So I got a single-book trilogy of Nabokov out from the library: Lolita, Pnin, and Pale Fire.

Pale Fire is the one I'm most interested in, but I felt I should start with something more straightforward, so Lolita it is. 

I obviously knew what it was about, and had even seen the movie some years back, but I'm finding it more disturbing than I would've thought.  I can deal with very explicit details in child sex cases and not really be very affected by it, but getting inside the head of the guy is just another trip entirely, especially with the wonderful language drawing you further and further in.

[Syt]

I didn't find Lolita as difficult to stomach as Josephine Mutzenbacher, a book long banned in Germany, and then put onto the "It's art!" pedestal. It's a book from ca. 1900 with an unrepentant Viennese prostitute recounting her sexual adventures between the ages 6 and 14 and includes lots of explicit child sex and incest. (Friends bought me the book when I went to Vienna as a joke gift, knowing that it was a book about sex, but not what kind of sex.)

Lolita is much better written and psychologically interesting. H.H. is a good example of the smart, educated beast who can't control his instincts.

[Admiral Yi]

Just read a review (the second) about Timothy Geitner's book.

How much would youse guys figure the Wall Street bailout cost the US?

[Sheilbh]

At the time or since?

[Admiral Yi]

Yes.

[11B4V]

Next on the list;


Ghost Soldiers (The Cabanatuan Raid)

Shadows in the Jungle (Alamo Scouts)

No Holding Back: Operation Totalize

[crazy canuck]

Ghost Soldiers (The Cabanatuan Raid)

I really enjoyed that book.  Very well written.

[Scipio]

Binging on Walker Percy in preparation for the inaugural Walker Percy Weekend in St. Francisville, LA.

http://www.countryroadsmagazine.com/miscellaneous/walker-percy-festival

Currently reading The Last Gentleman, with The Thanatos Syndrome and Lancelot ahead of me. The Moviegoer was a slong, for the first time in the dozen or so reads I've had.