Grand unified books thread

[Scipio]

Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest.  Entertaining zombie-airship-steampunk American gold-rush novel set in Seattle in the 1870s.

[Syt]

I have started on Roberto Bolaño's "2666". Not very far yet. Sections so far are short, with a sudden 4 or 5 page monster sentence in between.

[Queequeg]

Is anyone reading Malthus' Aunt's latest?  Was a huge fan of Oryx & Crake, though it freaked me the fuck out.

[Barrister]

Is anyone reading Malthus' Aunt's latest?

With all due respect to Malthus,

fuck no.

[CountDeMoney]

Is anyone reading Malthus' Aunt's latest?

No. If I want to be emasculated, I'll get a girlfriend.

[Malthus]

Hey Sty, what did you think of Europe's Tragedy?

Am I Sty? And do you mean the book about the Thirty Years War?

If yes, then I must say I liked it. It is very detailed, starting by explaining the organisational structure of the HRE, the religious compromise of Augsburg from 16th century and how the conflict smouldered on from there. One of his main points is that while religion played a major part in the TYW, most of the time it was used as a means to further dynastic agendas (e.g. the Bavarian elector being keen on acquiring the Palatinate, France and the Scandies meddling to become power players in HRE politics etc.).

The book also covers to some depth the adjacent conflicts - Swedes in the Baltics, Transylvanian insurgents, the fight for the Spanish Road through Switzerland, and of course the Dutch struggle against the Habsburgs; plus the economic/financial intricacies of all the bargains.

A whole chapter is devoted to the development of military technology and doctrine during the era (close to the start, so it's not covered much later during the conflict itself). The military campaigns are recorded in sometimes tiresome and confusing detail, and who marches with how many troops for where to where. A detailed map is found at the front and back ends of the hardcover book, though (even if for some weird reason the Danish founded town of Glückstadt is presented on the North Sea coast instead of on the lower Elbe river).

I got the book for under 19 GBP in a promotion from Amazon.co.uk and consider it one of my best book buys this year or last.

Thanks - I'm reading it now and finding it a terrible slog - I want the Cole's Notes version I guess, because I simply can't keep all the figures straight - there is much (to me) meaningless detail. I guess it is good to know that "... Werth lead 3,700 men over the frozen Rhine to take Speyer on 2 February ...", but the analysis of the importance of this often gets lost in the mass of confusing detail. Mostly one gets the impression of armies acting much as swarms of locusts, wandering around Germany, occasionally fighting each other while trying and usually failing to get paid ...

Part of the problem is that there is a reason books on the 30 years war are uncommon in English - it is a confusing mess, laking in any sort of straightforward narrative. Though I do think the writer could have used a strict editor. Part of the problem I think is that this writer doesn't have the gift of making his narration sing. 

[HisMajestyBOB]

Among other things, I've been reading this AAR that Berkut linked to in the WitP thread. It's pretty enjoyable: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2238110&mpage=1&key=

And it appears to be ongoing still, though I'm only up to page 14. His format is pretty cool, cool enough to overlook the various spelling and grammatical errors.

[Syt]

Hey Sty, what did you think of Europe's Tragedy?

Am I Sty? And do you mean the book about the Thirty Years War?

If yes, then I must say I liked it. It is very detailed, starting by explaining the organisational structure of the HRE, the religious compromise of Augsburg from 16th century and how the conflict smouldered on from there. One of his main points is that while religion played a major part in the TYW, most of the time it was used as a means to further dynastic agendas (e.g. the Bavarian elector being keen on acquiring the Palatinate, France and the Scandies meddling to become power players in HRE politics etc.).

The book also covers to some depth the adjacent conflicts - Swedes in the Baltics, Transylvanian insurgents, the fight for the Spanish Road through Switzerland, and of course the Dutch struggle against the Habsburgs; plus the economic/financial intricacies of all the bargains.

A whole chapter is devoted to the development of military technology and doctrine during the era (close to the start, so it's not covered much later during the conflict itself). The military campaigns are recorded in sometimes tiresome and confusing detail, and who marches with how many troops for where to where. A detailed map is found at the front and back ends of the hardcover book, though (even if for some weird reason the Danish founded town of Glückstadt is presented on the North Sea coast instead of on the lower Elbe river).

I got the book for under 19 GBP in a promotion from Amazon.co.uk and consider it one of my best book buys this year or last.

Thanks - I'm reading it now and finding it a terrible slog - I want the Cole's Notes version I guess, because I simply can't keep all the figures straight - there is much (to me) meaningless detail. I guess it is good to know that "... Werth lead 3,700 men over the frozen Rhine to take Speyer on 2 February ...", but the analysis of the importance of this often gets lost in the mass of confusing detail. Mostly one gets the impression of armies acting much as swarms of locusts, wandering around Germany, occasionally fighting each other while trying and usually failing to get paid ...

Part of the problem is that there is a reason books on the 30 years war are uncommon in English - it is a confusing mess, laking in any sort of straightforward narrative. Though I do think the writer could have used a strict editor. Part of the problem I think is that this writer doesn't have the gift of making his narration sing.

I agree with the campaigns being confusing, especially as armies seem to "warp" at times. "Why is her moving from there? Wasn't he at X?"

Where the book does shine is when highlighting the politics (though the amount of Georgs, Michaels, Ferdinands and such can make those also rather confusing). I mostly breezed through the campaigns and cherished the political side (like the Brothers' Feud, Counter Reformation, etc.) and had a good time this way.

[Malthus]

I agree with the campaigns being confusing, especially as armies seem to "warp" at times. "Why is her moving from there? Wasn't he at X?"

Where the book does shine is when highlighting the politics (though the amount of Georgs, Michaels, Ferdinands and such can make those also rather confusing). I mostly breezed through the campaigns and cherished the political side (like the Brothers' Feud, Counter Reformation, etc.) and had a good time this way.

Yup, the political side was a real education. The straightforward war-of-religion impression is definitely long gone, he's very good at teasing out some of the more self-interested motivations. The problem for me is that I am still confused about how the Holy Roman Empire was supposed to work.

[Syt]

The problem for me is that I am still confused about how the Holy Roman Empire was supposed to work.

I guess that this topic would fill another two tomes, most of it being petty legal bickering and infighting. So it might suit a lawyer.

[Syt]

This page may offer some help, though.
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/hre.htm

[Malthus]

The problem for me is that I am still confused about how the Holy Roman Empire was supposed to work.

I guess that this topic would fill another two tomes, most of it being petty legal bickering and infighting. So it might suit a lawyer.

Either that, or gain an understanding of why yer average middle european seemingly preferred having their homelands ravaged by multiple starving mercenaries for decades to yet another round of legal wrangling. 

[The Minsky Moment]

The problem for me is that I am still confused about how the Holy Roman Empire was supposed to work.

Why do you assume that it was supposed to work?

[Malthus]

The problem for me is that I am still confused about how the Holy Roman Empire was supposed to work.

Why do you assume that it was supposed to work?

I had a suspicion that someone would post something like this. 

[Razgovory]

Been reading Beevor's D-Day battle of Normandy.  CdM would approve of the very critical look at the British army.  Apparently different fighting arms didn't like to support each other very much.  Infantry wouldn't help the engineers dig holes and engineers wouldn't pick up their rifles when people were shooting at them.  Also way to much tea drinking.   He has very high praise for the Canadians.  He made an interesting claim that 3% of the casualties suffered by the 115th infantry regiment were due to friendly fire from a Texas national guard unit who had a bad habit of shooting anything that moved.