Grand unified books thread

[Admiral Yi]

What is there left to understand about France 1940?

I enjoyed Len Deighton's "Blitzkrieg" but I think it will not meet your standards.  He was primarily a writer of spy novels.

It has some nice drawings. 

[grumbler]

The problem with trying to read doctoral theses is that getting a PhD pretty much requires that you abandon any skill you have in writing.  That wasn't always true, but any PhD thesis written in the era before writing got all the juice sucked out of it is going to be obsolete.

Brain come over to the dark side and read about the pacific War.  There's a fair few good books in that field that are fun to read and academically sound.

[The Brain]

What is there left to understand about France 1940?

I enjoyed Len Deighton's "Blitzkrieg" but I think it will not meet your standards.  He was primarily a writer of spy novels.

It has some nice drawings. 

I don't know enough about Allied war plans and the reasons for them, or whether or not there was a realistic way to stop a German victory against France in 1940.

I read Deighton's book many moons ago. It was one of my sources when I did a major report (specialarbete) on the fall of France in 12th grade. The teacher said it was the best specialarbete she had ever seen. I asked her if she could put that into writing. She said no.

[The Brain]

The problem with trying to read doctoral theses is that getting a PhD pretty much requires that you abandon any skill you have in writing.  That wasn't always true, but any PhD thesis written in the era before writing got all the juice sucked out of it is going to be obsolete.

Brain come over to the dark side and read about the pacific War.  There's a fair few good books in that field that are fun to read and academically sound.

Thanks, g-dude. My "ooh, shiny!" attention span will probably wander into the Pacific again reasonably soon.

[Sheilbh]

What is there left to understand about France 1940?

I enjoyed Len Deighton's "Blitzkrieg" but I think it will not meet your standards.  He was primarily a writer of spy novels.

It has some nice drawings. 

And some pretty good cookbooks

[Admiral Yi]

I don't know enough about Allied war plans and the reasons for them, or whether or not there was a realistic way to stop a German victory against France in 1940.

I read Deighton's book many moons ago. It was one of my sources when I did a major report (specialarbete) on the fall of France in 12th grade. The teacher said it was the best specialarbete she had ever seen. I asked her if she could put that into writing. She said no.

Did it set you specially free? 

[The Brain]

I don't know enough about Allied war plans and the reasons for them, or whether or not there was a realistic way to stop a German victory against France in 1940.

I read Deighton's book many moons ago. It was one of my sources when I did a major report (specialarbete) on the fall of France in 12th grade. The teacher said it was the best specialarbete she had ever seen. I asked her if she could put that into writing. She said no.

Did it set you specially free? 

Too soon. This was in 1994.

[Admiral Yi]

For some reason my experience buying Hillary Mantel at Barnes and Noble popped into my head.  I asked the clerk to do an author search on Teh Wolf Hall trilogy, and he asked me how to spell wolf.

[grumbler]

For some reason my experience buying Hillary Mantel at Barnes and Noble popped into my head.  I asked the clerk to do an author search on Teh Wolf Hall trilogy, and he asked me how to spell wolf.

  There are a number of ways to spell that sound.  Wolf, wulf, wolfe, wulfe, woolf, etc.  Only one way to spell "the," though, AFAIK.

[Maladict]

The question is why a Barnes and Noble clerk had to do a search for one of the best selling authors of the decade.

[grumbler]

The question is why a Barnes and Noble clerk had to do a search for one of the best selling authors of the decade.

  You really think today's store clerks can name the top-selling authors of the decade?

[Sheilbh]

The question is why a Barnes and Noble clerk had to do a search for one of the best selling authors of the decade.

  You really think today's store clerks can name the top-selling authors of the decade?

This is one of the reasons why I think Waterstones survived (and is doing pretty well in the UK - started turning a profit again over the last 4-5 years) and Borders collapsed. Waterstones hire people who are into reading - so there's stuff like no central "corporate" list of recommendations, it's shaped by the staff in the store. Borders just employed bored teenagers

[Maladict]

The question is why a Barnes and Noble clerk had to do a search for one of the best selling authors of the decade.

  You really think today's store clerks can name the top-selling authors of the decade?

I had a moment of weakness, and hopeful thoughts. 

[Oexmelin]

This is one of the reasons why I think Waterstones survived (and is doing pretty well in the UK - started turning a profit again over the last 4-5 years) and Borders collapsed. Waterstones hire people who are into reading - so there's stuff like no central "corporate" list of recommendations, it's shaped by the staff in the store. Borders just employed bored teenagers

Daunt, the man assumed to be responsible for Waterstones' turnaround, has been put in charge of B&N. We'll see if that has an impact.

[grumbler]

This is one of the reasons why I think Waterstones survived (and is doing pretty well in the UK - started turning a profit again over the last 4-5 years) and Borders collapsed. Waterstones hire people who are into reading - so there's stuff like no central "corporate" list of recommendations, it's shaped by the staff in the store. Borders just employed bored teenagers

The ironic thing is that working at the original Borders in Ann Arbor was quite a prestigious gig, precisely because you had to know your books to get a job.  They paid above-market rates because they wanted customers to come in not just to find books, but to get personalized book recommendations.

When the original Borders brothers got bought out, all that went out the window.  As you say, they just started hiring clerks to stock the shelves and ring up the purchases.