Grand unified books thread

[Sheilbh]

Just finished The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-century Miller:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cheese-Worms-Cosmos-Sixteenth-century-Miller/dp/0801843871

Possibly the best history book I've ever read.  It's remarkable.

[MadImmortalMan]

I just started reading Kitchen Confidential. He promises to piss off everyone in the celebrity chef/pop food community. We'll see.

[Sheilbh]

I just started reading Kitchen Confidential. He promises to piss off everyone in the celebrity chef/pop food community. We'll see.

I think his writing style's a bit over the top but Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook is very, very good

[The Brain]

Started reading Game of Thrones. It's good so far. NSFW though.

[Habbaku]

Currently reading that.  The British are some funny bastards when they go to war, especially when they don't get their way.  Choice quotes from one Major General James Pattison, about manpower issues and other such concerns :

On the lowering of standards (accepting Roman Catholics, younger and older, shorter and leaner, criminals, etc., into the Army) : "[H]ard times, indeed, and great must be the scarcity of men when the Royal Artillery is obliged to take such reptiles."

On the Irish : "[wish the Irish newcomers] again in the bogs from whence they sprang."

Lamenting over the newest batch of recruits : "[D]espair that only five of a recently arrived batch of 178 drafts and recruits had spared [me] the pain of looking at them by deserting or dying en route."

On the denied request for carbines for his troopers (who were universally shorter than regulations called for) : "I will try how far the strength of these diminutive warriors is equal to carry muskets cut down."

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Reading Ondaatje's "Divisadreo". having a bit of a tough time getting into it. Moreso than any of his previous books. But I was more engaged in the last sitting. It may get better.

[The Brain]

Finished Game of Thrones and will start on Clash of Kings. The books are awesome. All these gallant knights and fluttering standards have me in a queer mood. I keep daydreaming about Ser Jaron coming up to me on his white charger and picking me up like so many extra pounds and riding off with me into the sunset.

[Josquius]

I just read the Jumper book for some reason. Rather good despite being aimed at 16 year olds. The film really has very little to do with it.
I;m a bit dissapointed though that so many ideas I thought I'd come up with were written here 20years ago.

[Drakken]

Currently reading this 700-long book about the History of the Ottoman Empire, in French, bought on a whim at 80 $CAN. I've just reached the part about the fall of Constantinople. Pretty good read so far, and a nice introduction to the beginning of the Ottoman rise under Osman and Orkhan. Not a lot of historical analysis as of yet, though, although it takes its information both among Western and Oriental sources. A good introduction to the history of the Infidels until now.

As an aside, that siege is so deserving of a movie treatment one day, I'd even beg Ridley Scott to do it. I want to see Constantine XI hack through a rioting mob of Janissaries like it was Thermopyles all over again.

[Barrister]

As an aside, that siege is so deserving of a movie treatment one day, I'd even beg Ridley Scott to do it. I want to see Constantine XI hack through a rioting mob of Janissaries like it was Thermopyles all over again.

You need to read The Fall of Constantinople by Steven Runciman (title and spelling are from memory).

[Admiral Yi]

Used up some Christmas gift cardage to buy "Little Known Wars of Great and Lasting Impact" by Alan Axelrod and 7 novels by Jane Austen.  The first looks a tiny bit cartoonish, more a collection of Strategy & Tactics articles than a book, but it does cover a lot of wars I know zilch about.  The 7 novels by Austen are in a fancy leather bound edition that clearly bombed during the Christmas season and the bookstore was dumping for $20.  Also put an order in for The Good Soldier Whatshisname.

[jimmy olsen]

Used up some Christmas gift cardage to buy "Little Known Wars of Great and Lasting Impact" by Alan Axelrod and 7 novels by Jane Austen.  The first looks a tiny bit cartoonish, more a collection of Strategy & Tactics articles than a book, but it does cover a lot of wars I know zilch about. 

Which wars does it cover?

[Admiral Yi]

Which wars does it cover?

I've already read through Queen Boudicca's revolt, the German peasant revolt of the 16th century, the Bar Kochba revolt, skipped the Genpei war (too confusing), currently reading about the Boyar's revolt.  Maybe 20 all told.

[Admiral Yi]

While browsing yesterday I came across a new biography of Joe McCarthy (presumably a favorable one).  On the cover was a blurb from Ann Coulter: "the best book since the bible."

[Lettow77]

Russia, 1762-1825: military power, the state, and the people
and Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution

Dry stuff, and I fear the latter is written by a crypto-communist or at the very least someone soft on the reds, but its a subject I need to expand my knowledge of.