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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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HisMajestyBOB

#225
July 23, 2009, 11:17:55 PM
Just finished Tuesdays with Morrie. Good book. Would probably be more thought-provoking if I was a yuppie.

Started The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell because a coworker had it lying around. Have no idea what to expect.

Also reading The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History by Don Oberdorfer. Great book on modern (post 1953) Korean history. Very in-depth, but easy to read.
Three lovely Prada points for HoI2 help

Razgovory

#226
July 23, 2009, 11:21:31 PM
I don't have any new books so I'm rereading Keegan's WWI book.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

HisMajestyBOB

#227
July 23, 2009, 11:26:22 PM
That's a good one.
Except last time I reread it, I bought Matrixgames' Guns of August.  :hide:
Three lovely Prada points for HoI2 help

Habbaku

#228
July 23, 2009, 11:49:19 PM
Spellus, are there any decent, readable books on Ottoman history (1500s+, please, not ancient history) that you can recommend to me?

Anyone else should feel free to chime in, however.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Syt

#229
July 24, 2009, 12:20:45 AM
Quote from: Habbaku on July 23, 2009, 11:49:19 PM
Spellus, are there any decent, readable books on Ottoman history (1500s+, please, not ancient history) that you can recommend to me?

Anyone else should feel free to chime in, however.

I refer you to my post above:
Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580 - Roger Crowley

It's entertaining, nicely written and made History Book of the Year 2008 in Sunday Times. It's not strictly only Ottomans, though.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

BuddhaRhubarb

#230
July 24, 2009, 01:00:14 AM
going to dive into a book on The Aum Cult (The Cult At The End Of The World) that a customer lent me after raving to me about it the other day. I get a lot of book/movie recommendations this way.

I'm also slowly re-reading John Gardner's great "Art Of Fiction". Next up in the world of fiction reading is  is "Dune"... my second attempt, tried to read it back in tha day got bored never went back. 'Til now. I hear good things.
:p

Admiral Yi

#231
July 24, 2009, 01:58:58 AM Last Edit: July 24, 2009, 02:50:38 AM by Admiral Yi
Quote from: Habbaku on July 23, 2009, 11:49:19 PM
Spellus, are there any decent, readable books on Ottoman history (1500s+, please, not ancient history) that you can recommend to me?

Anyone else should feel free to chime in, however.
Kinross: The Ottomans.

edit: I think now it's called The Ottoman Centuries.

ulmont

#232
July 24, 2009, 06:53:22 AM
The Ottoman Centuries is good, although the first quarter of the book is pre-1500s.

FunkMonk

#233
July 24, 2009, 08:13:36 AM
Quote from: Syt on July 24, 2009, 12:20:45 AM
Quote from: Habbaku on July 23, 2009, 11:49:19 PM
Spellus, are there any decent, readable books on Ottoman history (1500s+, please, not ancient history) that you can recommend to me?

Anyone else should feel free to chime in, however.

I refer you to my post above:
Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580 - Roger Crowley

It's entertaining, nicely written and made History Book of the Year 2008 in Sunday Times. It's not strictly only Ottomans, though.

Reading that right now, actually.  ;)

Also, Blood Meridian, though only a few chapters in.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

Malthus

#234
July 24, 2009, 08:40:06 AM
Quote from: FunkMonk on July 24, 2009, 08:13:36 AM


Also, Blood Meridian, though only a few chapters in.

That's one gruesome read, all right.  :lol:
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

FunkMonk

#235
July 24, 2009, 08:43:19 AM
Quote from: Malthus on July 24, 2009, 08:40:06 AM
Quote from: FunkMonk on July 24, 2009, 08:13:36 AM


Also, Blood Meridian, though only a few chapters in.

That's one gruesome read, all right.  :lol:

Don't spoil things!  :mad: :P
I read The Road last year, so I'm expecting as much.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

PRC

#236
July 24, 2009, 08:47:58 AM
Quote from: Malthus on July 17, 2009, 01:13:05 PM
Reading The Landmark Herodotus, edited by R.B. Strassler, which is pretty good - I have to conciously avoid having scenes from 300 pass through my head while reading it, though.  :D

Oddly enough, one over the top scene from that movie - tossing the Persian heralds down the well - actually occurred; the Spartans were (allegedly, according to H.) put under a divine curse for this.

The "joke" made by the Spartans was as follows: the Persian symbols of submission were the offer of earth and water. The Spartans toss the Persian heralds down the well, saying "get your earth and water from there".

I've got it as well, very good.  I'll probably pickup his Landmark Thucydides at some point soon.

Malthus

#237
July 24, 2009, 08:52:34 AM
Quote from: FunkMonk on July 24, 2009, 08:43:19 AM
Don't spoil things!  :mad: :P

I feel the shame of that spoiler fully as much as deserved.   ;)
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Malthus

#238
July 24, 2009, 08:53:21 AM
Quote from: PRC on July 24, 2009, 08:47:58 AM
I've got it as well, very good.  I'll probably pickup his Landmark Thucydides at some point soon.

Me too - and I'm not as familiar with Thucydides.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Queequeg

#239
July 24, 2009, 01:31:33 PM
Quote from: Habbaku on July 23, 2009, 11:49:19 PM
Spellus, are there any decent, readable books on Ottoman history (1500s+, please, not ancient history) that you can recommend to me?

Anyone else should feel free to chime in, however.
Osman's Dream is recent and supposedly excellent. 
QuoteDon't spoil things!
The only way one could spoil Blood Meridian is if one took a lot of meth and watched The Proposition.  It is a truly amazing, fucked up book.

Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."
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