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Grand unified books thread

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

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mongers

Some what on the theme of books, I'm severely temped to chuck this kindle at a wall, not used much and now it's dead.  <_<
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Scipio

The Complete Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton.

Lots of plot reuse; however, still great material. Almost makes you wish you were an English Catholic in the early 20th century, like the Nolan brothers were before they time-traveled.
What I speak out of my mouth is the truth.  It burns like fire.
-Jose Canseco

There you go, giving a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck.
-Every cop, The Wire

"It is always good to be known for one's Krapp."
-John Hurt

CountDeMoney

Quote from: mongers on October 28, 2014, 07:50:04 PM
Some what on the theme of books, I'm severely temped to chuck this kindle at a wall, not used much and now it's dead.  <_<

Go back to the old Soviet method: ink printed on paper.

mongers

Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 28, 2014, 08:00:52 PM
Quote from: mongers on October 28, 2014, 07:50:04 PM
Some what on the theme of books, I'm severely temped to chuck this kindle at a wall, not used much and now it's dead.  <_<

Go back to the old Soviet method: ink printed on paper.

Yeah, I'd never especially gotten  into e-books, but this whole walled garden software and disposable hardware is annoying.

Just thinking what to do with this piece of crap:
1. repair it, requires me to buy a replacement battery and take it appart.
2. throw it at the wall.
3. right a slightly sarcastic email to amazon, no doubt getting a goodwill offer of $20 of my next kindle.   <_<
4. Give it to my aquaintence the bookseller, so he might decide to put it in a small window display, preferable with a knife throught it.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

CountDeMoney

Use it as a paperweight.  Revel in the irony.

Habbaku

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

garbon

#2407
Quote from: Ed Anger on October 28, 2014, 05:13:58 PM
IIRC, Goldsworthy has a chapter in In the Name of Rome about Julian's campaign in Gaul.

There's also his "How Rome Fell"

I'd also second Chris Wickham.

edit: Old but super detailed is J.B. Bury's 2 volume history of the later roman empire. I think it is Theodosius to Justinian though.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

garbon

Quote from: crazy canuck on October 28, 2014, 06:19:37 PM
Quote from: Queequeg on October 28, 2014, 12:09:21 PM
Anyone know anything on the late Roman Empire?  Like Aurelian, Diocletian, up to the Collapse.  Besides Heather.

http://www.amazon.ca/Fall-West-Death-Roman-Superpower-ebook/dp/B00GVG1222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414537956&sr=8-1&keywords=the+fall+of+the+west

Hmm, from looking at comments on Amazon this is the same book as his "How Rome Fell"...but perhaps got a different name in different markets?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

garbon

On a different note - does anyone know of any good books on the Soviet Union? I tried to do a bit of a search and it looks like most works either look at initial revolution or random events/leaders throughout its history. I was hoping to find something that covered a good chunk of time - like the early years or something like that.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Gups

Quote from: garbon on October 28, 2014, 08:48:18 PM
On a different note - does anyone know of any good books on the Soviet Union? I tried to do a bit of a search and it looks like most works either look at initial revolution or random events/leaders throughout its history. I was hoping to find something that covered a good chunk of time - like the early years or something like that.

You could try Orlando Fige's "A People's Tragedy" which covers 1891-1924.

He's also done a broader history 1891-1991

Robert Service has written a Penguin history from the 1890s to the present day.

garbon

Ah thanks. They both (particularly the 1st!) look fairly substantial! :D
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Savonarola

I finished reading Jeff Abbott's "Trust Me"; it's yet another thriller where a normal person gets drawn into a world of terror, deceit and ass-kicking.  The problem with this one is that the protagonist is just a graduate student.  It's not even remotely credible that he can take on a terrorist organization by himself.  The chance occurrences and dumb luck that the protagonist experiences throughout the novel is wince-inducing.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Malthus

Quote from: Savonarola on October 29, 2014, 01:11:40 PM
I finished reading Jeff Abbott's "Trust Me"; it's yet another thriller where a normal person gets drawn into a world of terror, deceit and ass-kicking.  The problem with this one is that the protagonist is just a graduate student.  It's not even remotely credible that he can take on a terrorist organization by himself. 

Exactly. Everyone knows only tenured faculty can do that.  ;)
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

The Brain

Quote from: Savonarola on October 29, 2014, 01:11:40 PM
I finished reading Jeff Abbott's "Trust Me"; it's yet another thriller where a normal person gets drawn into a world of terror, deceit and ass-kicking.  The problem with this one is that the protagonist is just a graduate student.  It's not even remotely credible that he can take on a terrorist organization by himself.  The chance occurrences and dumb luck that the protagonist experiences throughout the novel is wince-inducing.

Did you ever read LotR?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.