What are you reading right now?

[Dowly]

Just finished the Winter War (the book the movie is based on). If you've seen the movie, check the book aswell. Whole lot more stuff in it that didnt make into the movie.

Now starting the book my dad gave me on Christmas called Heroes of the Winter War: 105 days of glory - 105 legends.

[Sailor Steve]

Staying in line with the book I just read on philosophy, I'm just starting to read Plato's Dialogues. Big book, but interesting so far.

[seaniam81]

Currently reading The Commodore by C. S. Forester. I'm really looking forward to finishing up the whole Hornblower series. It's been a great read.

[Sailor Steve]

Yes it is. I recently finished rereading the entire series for the umpteenth time.

If you didn't know, here is a site with the three short stories that never made it into the books, plus a biography of Forester and some entertaining stuff about his personal relationship with Hornblower. Especially fun is Ballade To An Old Friend.
http://www.scaryfangirl.com/Once%20Again5thNetVer.pdf

I'm working my way through my Christmas present from the wife "The masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1850" by James lees , There's a couple of other books I'm going to get that do the same thing for the fitting and arming and the construction of English warships from the same period.
It's not Light reading though - The thing weighs nearly 2 Kilo's

quick review http://modelshipworld.com/phpBB2/vie...860+james+lees

[Stealth Hunter]

Now working on Manfred von Richthofen's autobiography, Der Rote Kampfflieger.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay.

Fantasy novel. Do any of you read fantasy?

[frau kaleun]

Does Terry Pratchett count?

[Torvald Von Mansee]

You know, I've never actually read Pratchett? I understand he's fantasy, though.

[frau kaleun]

Apparently he started (the Discworld series at least) with the intention of doing a parody of all the really bad sword & sorcerer books that were being written after the Tolkien books got so popular lo these many years ago, when publishers were looking around trying to cash in on that with anything and everything they could find.

Personally I'd call him the greatest English-language satirest of our time, but I think that's something that developed over the years.

Most of his books could be considered fantasy just because of the setting. Create an imaginary world full of wizards and trolls and just about every other fantastical creature you can imagine - albeit with many a twist on the stereotypes so prevalent in the genre - and, voila, that's the category you get put in more often than not. But they are that and sooooo much more, I think.

And IMO they're also LOL funny. So much so for me that his dead-on commentaries on the human condition never drop on me like an anvil but tend to sneak up on me while I'm busy laughing. And like a lot of really great sci-fi/fantasy fiction, his books use the imaginary world and its "unreal" creatures to make some very sly observations about the real world of everyday human behavior. Chances are even his most "fantastical" characters and situations will start to ring very true the more you get to know them. You can read his books for the fantasy aspect, or just for a good laugh if they work for you that way, but there's a lot more there to be had as well.

My recommendation for anyone who wants to give him a try is to start somewhere at least a few books into the DW series. They are all pretty much stand-alone books, you don't have to read them in order to enjoy them, but most of the major characters appear throughout the series and there is a lot of character development which is fun to watch if you come in when it's just getting underway.

If you start with the first few books, well, to be honest I don't think he'd quite hit his stride yet as a writer and you can be a little more forgiving of that if you've already gotten hooked by reading some of the later books. Mind you, they're still worth reading and very entertaining, but IMO just not on the same level with what he starts to achieve a few volumes into the series.

Have you read any of Neil Gaiman's books? Not the graphic novels, but the "book" books, lol. He and Pratchett co-wrote a novel some years back which is quite good, called "Good Omens." Based on what I've read of Gaiman's, he's the closest comparison I could make although Gaiman seems to be a bit darker than Pratchett usually is. Pratchett gets into some pretty deep stuff but I find him far more lighthearted about it.

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!

[frau kaleun]

Just finished up the last in Donald Burgett's series of WWII memoirs, Beyond The Rhine; the books were a great read, particularly if you're a Band of Brothers fan. Burgett wasn't part of the famed "Easy Company" that featured so prominently in the book/miniseries, but another company in the same regiment - nice to read something that broadens the picture somewhat on the accomplishments and escapades of the 506th as a whole.

Also sped through Terry Pratchett's latest over the weekend - Unseen Academicals, in which the wizards of Unseen University field the most unlikely "foot-the-ball" team in the history of teams, fields, feet, and general unlikeliness. Not quite as mesmerizing as the Discworld volumes I'd list as my all-time favorites, but great fun nonetheless.

[Shearwater]

Wayne Hughes, Fleet Tactics. Theory and Practice.
Finally got my copy

Finally getting around to reading The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by one Ulysses S. Grant.

[Sailor Steve]

Just started the collected writings of Thomas Paine. Fascinating stuff, as he fights the American Revolution with words and ideas.

[edit] I've read Common Sense, all 13 chapters of The American Crisis, and am now about one quarter of the way through The Rights Of Man. Paine had some amazing insights into the nature of Liberty and how it can be achieved. Edmond Burke ("The only thing needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing") wrote a 350+page book trashing the French Revolution, and Paine, who was made an honorary French citizen and allowed to vote in their Parliement, really took Burke to task over it, claiming that Burke had no clue what he was talking about.

Fun reading so far.