"What are you reading?" Topic

This board would be about books you are reading now or just finished reading.

Military dress of the Peninsular war by Martin Windrow and Gerry Embleton. It's from 1974 and is a great resource book.

"The Rebecca Code: Rommel's Spy in North Africa and Operation Kondor" by Mark Simmons.

In The Rebecca Code, Mark Simmons reveals the story of Operation Kondor and its comedy of errors and how it was foiled by Major A.W. ‘Sammy' Sansom of the British Field Security Service. It is a tale of the desert, of the hotbed of intrigue that was 1940s Cairo, and the spy who was to send his reports using a code based on Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca.

Too busy painting to read much right now. Just reading orders of battle for various ACW battles as I paint.

I just ordered the 9 issue DC run of Flash Gordon.

Also reading The Gospel of Gabriel.

Rules-wise: War Rocket by Hydra is about to send me down another rabbit hole.

Achilles

Having read on what forum the question was asked and the answers given so far I would say the people love the idea of a 'What are you reading right now' message board on TMP.
They're already filling the bookshelf…

Reading? Like from a printout or something?

Yet another Kim Newman vampire book. I needed some light relief after Beevors "Russian Civil War".

The War in the Vendee by George Hill
Always wanted to know about the Catholic response to the Revolutionary oppression of the Church.

The Goal.

Just for fun, I ran the journal back a week.
AD 100--a two-volume Avram Davidson collection.
In Search of Dr. Watson
A Murder of Magpies (Judith Flanders)
Long Shadows (Jodi Taylor)
On the Marble Cliffs (Junger)
Where was Rebecca Shot? (Sutherland)
Bits of Fortescue's History of the British Army

A certain lack of focus, I should say.

Just finished Worlds of Arthur by Guy Halsall and Killing Napoleon by Jonathon North.

Currently reading The invisible emperor by Mark Braude and about to start To conquer and to keep by Yuhan Kim.

I would support a board like that although books can be posted in the *media section of many other boards.

For example TMP link

But wait there's this in the TMP Plus
TMP link

Anyway here's what I'm actively reading this week. The later suggested on TMP
Tastes Like War, A Memoir. by Grace M. Cho

African Founders, How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals
by David Hackett Fischer

bio about Doniphin.

" Marlborough's Other Army" by Nick Dorrell and " Mons" by John Terraine.
The latter book was part of a collection of about 2 dozen Pan Military History. paperbacks given to me by a lady clearing her father's house, as he has had to go into a care home. I think most of them were written in the 1960s, so more modern research may make some of them " out of date", but they are a good read. Finished one on Jutland a couple of weeks ago, written by Captain Donald McInytre, who commanded convoy escorts in WW2 very successfully, so a thing or two about naval tactics.

Currently reading "The Siege of Loyalty House" by Jessie Childs, about the siege(s) of Basing House during the English Civil War.
Just finished re-reading "To the Gates of Richmond" by Stephen Sears.
Will probably start a fantasy trilogy next, "The Eyes of Tamburah" (Archives of the Invisible Sword Book 1) by Maria Snyder.

I would welcome and support such a board.

Last of the Mohicans, the original.

Now:

Six Frigates (origin of the US Navy)
The Skeptic's Guide to the Future (critique of the future as the past saw it and implications on how we see it)
Hellboy and the BPRD

Just Finished:
βατράχια (Frogs, ancient Greek satire)
How to Lead

The British are Coming by Atkinson.

I usually have 3 or 4 at a time that I'm reading. Currently:

Revolutionary Roads, Bob Thompson

Dark Waters, Starry Skies, Jeffrey Cox

Mastering the Art of Command, Trent Hone

Legion Versus Phalanx, Myke Cole

Audio Books just finished
War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
The Mexican American War- Captivating History
The Mexican American War- Hummel, McElroy and Childs

Recent Reads
SAGA v2 Core rules
Regimental F&F Mexican American War Variant rules
Regimental F&F Mexican American War scenario Palo Alto

Culloden, edited by Tony Pollard.

I just finished Culloden, by Trevor Royle.

I also have a book on the 1745 campaign of Marshal Saxe that I've started, but stopped for the two previous books.

Eric

I am reading the Del Rey composite Conan books (IE all the original) Robert E Howard stories.

Just finished Fred Anderson's A People's Army.

There's also this section on TMP
TMP link

The new board being proposed would be an ongoing thread that would end up falling off the homepage of many members as I understand it.

Been slowly reading David Walder's Nelson, it's very good just been busy doing other hobby stuff.

"A Long & Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton On Through Kennesaw Mountain to The Chattahoochee River May 5 – June 18, 1864" by Stephen Davis
"All The Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign From Peeachtree Creek To The City's Surrender July 18 – September 2, 1864" by Stephen Davis
These two are nice overall all summaries of the Atlanta Campaign, but Castel's book on it is better. Author definitely isn't a fan of Joe Johnston and speaks of the redeeming features of Hood and how Hood has been misrepresented in how he handled the second half of the campaign. Author never eludes to what Johnston should have done except withdraw once his positions were flanked during the first half of the campaign.
Finished rereading "The Traveler" by John Twelve Hawks yesterday and am currently rereading its sequel, "The Dark River." Given these were written 16-17 years ago, they are amazingly relevant to current surveillance technology, especially how China has utilized it. Did miss out on the use of drones.

I'm illiterate. I just look at the pictures.

So I recently finished David McCullough's "John Adams" and I am now halfway through James McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom."

Current – Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy. A novel, not a history book.

Previous – three different Jack Reacher novels back-to-back

Great book on the 3rd Armored Division during WWII:

The Panzer Killers
THE UNTOLD STORY OF A FIGHTING GENERAL AND HIS SPEARHEAD TANK DIVISION'S CHARGE INTO THE THIRD REICH
By Daniel P. Bolger

Highly recommended.

The currently reading pile consists of:

Roy Boss, Justinian's Wars
Jonathan Sumption, Trial by Fire
Warren Treadgold, The Middle Byzantine Historians

"The Miniatures Page" obviously!

In this strange place I met a Hound with a thousand faces who followed me to my secret garden.
Now that it's Pentecost, I got inspired and study Hunter Thomas famous poem.
I also need to confer about it with one of my daughters, a budding English and American studies major.
My thanks, doc.
:)

As it happens, inspired by another topic on TMP: What makes something a wargame?,
I'm currently studying 'Rules of Play – Game Design Fundamentals' by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, MIT Press (2003).
and 'THE GRASSHOPPER – Games, Life and Utopia' by Bernard Suits, broadview press 2005
The Grasshopper is a little hidden gem, highly recommended, if you're interested in why people play games.

Now, I am also currently skimming
'Rules: A Short History of What We Live By' by Lorraine Daston, Princeton Univers. Press 2022.
In addition, I'm reading a couple of interviews with the author and reviews of the book.
Of course, it is irresistible for me, to read a cultural history of 'Rules' mentioning Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Kuhn, and dealing a bit with 'algorithms' and 'artificial intelligence'.
Yet I'm not far and rather at a loss with the introduction of the terms 'thick' and 'thin' rules and maybe superficial knowledge of Theoretical Computer Science.
Perhaps a broad sweep in a rather short book, with about 380 pages.
But I will see into it.
On the plus side, she is the wife of Gerd Gigerenzer, a German author whom I value, and critic of Daniel Kahnemann whom I also value.
Gigerenzer has done some interesting research on 'risk', 'heuristics', and 'cognitive fallacies' as adaptive responses to a world of uncertainty.
Oh, and not to forget it's a book that was asked about in another TMP thread:
On the Nature of Rules
Where I came aware of it.

Ups, almost forgot The Department of Truth

The comic assumes that reality is literally highly subjective and depends on the beliefs of big numbers of people.
The more people believe in it, the more real it becomes, displacing the previously prevailing reality, including its past and the memory of it.
That the 'right' truth prevails is, of course, a question of power.
This is what 'The Department of Truth' takes care of in the U.S.
The Soviets had their own 'Department of Lies', but as we know, they lost in the war against our reality.

Deep State, Lee Harvey Oswald, Satanic Panic, Black Hats, White Hats, the truth about Area 51 revealed along the way, and a few leftover Soviets mourning the loss of their "Truth/Reality."
Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

Sounds dreadful.

Update on some of my reading: the DC Flash Gordon disappoints. Almost nothing happens in the first issue. Plus they kill off Zarkoff in the crash on Mongo!! And Flash is something of a jerk. Ugh.

Gospel of Gabriel on the other hand is pretty good!

Just finished Scott O'dell's 1966 Newbery Honor book The King's Fifth.
A historical children's/YA* novel set during the time of the Conquistadors, it features a young protagonist caught up in Coronado's quest for the Seven Cities of Gold. Good book and a quick read, and offers some possible scenario ideas for skirmish gaming.

*Ages 12 and up, really; it's not gory, but there's a lot of violent death involved, as one might expect. On par with a Sutcliff book.

George Forty's Tank Warfare in WWII. First hand accounts from Allied and Axis soldiers. and David Farland's Runelords series.