Latest book received

[Prof.Witchheimer]

You're a collector. It gets in the blood.

Said Mrs.Witchheimer, too. Looking forward for the next little chat with her about my Murakami crusade. Something like this:

- Darling, what's that?
- Err..Nothing special, just another Murakami book.
- Darling!
- I'm here, sunshine!
- Darling, please stop it.
- Uh-huh.
- Darling, please dont buy Murakami books any more and everything will be all right.
- Err...yeah...I can see your point.
- Darling, I dont want any trouble and you dont want any trouble.
- Sure, you're just the best.
- Darling, do you promise to not buy Murakami any more?
- ....errr...I've just remembered that I've forgotten to switch something off in the cellar.
- Darling!
- Sorry, honey!

running away...

[Argonor]

You're a collector. It gets in the blood.

Said Mrs.Witchheimer, too. Looking forward for the next little chat with her about my Murakami crusade. Something like this:

- Darling, what's that?
- Err..Nothing special, just another Murakami book.
- Darling!
- I'm here, sunshine!
- Darling, please stop it.
- Uh-huh.
- Darling, please dont buy Murakami books any more and everything will be all right.
- Err...yeah...I can see your point.
- Darling, I dont want any trouble and you dont want any trouble.
- Sure, you're just the best.
- Darling, do you promise to not buy Murakami any more?
- ....errr...I've just remembered that I've forgotten to switch something off in the cellar.
- Darling!
- Sorry, honey!

running away...

 ::

Luckily, my wife is a book-collector herself... she doesn't quite get the gaming-thing, though....

Have I mentioned, that I work at a book-binding/distributing company? (I work as a systems consultant/supporter, but I still get the discounts, and the free-bees twice a year, when we clear out the inventory...)

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Luckily, my wife is a book-collector herself... she doesn't quite get the gaming-thing, though....

Have I mentioned, that I work at a book-binding/distributing company? (I work as a systems consultant/supporter, but I still get the discounts, and the free-bees twice a year, when we clear out the inventory...)

Some people manage it in some strange way to get to heaven alive.  :mrgreen:

[Plynkes]

Just plugging a few gaps in my Great War Osprey collection:


As usual two of the books I ordered are out of stock. I wish just once an order from Osprey would all come at once, instead of staggering in one at a time like a bunch of drunken bums. But as yet this has never happened.

Amazingly, the Austro-Hungarian book 'wastes' one of its colour plate slots with another Feldrabbiner! What is this with Osprey and their obsession with Rabbis?  

I like him though, and I think I might just have to add him to my collection. May be a slightly more tricky conversion as he's wearing one of those white and blue shawl things draped over his uniform, not sure what they call them. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for a suitable figure to use as a starting point.


Should add that the same book has a colour plate of a K.u.K. sailor, which is good to have, as I had little in the way of references for those chaps. The bad news: Stripes!

[Dan]

An Osprey title for me as well . British Home Defences 1940-45 .
A very interesting read so far.

[Malamute]

Just received this and my am I excited by this book. (I know the Alamo is not a hot topic here, but its gets me goinig :: )

[Plynkes]

Maybe not a hot topic, but surely everyone loves the Alamo. We might not get all mystical and teary-eyed about it like the Texans do, but surrounded in a fort by thousands of colourful foes with no chance of success? That's got to be a Lead Adventure staple!

It's one of those situations that just makes for great adventure (though you wouldn't want to be there in real life). Like Rourke's Drift or Camerone.

Or, for Great War fans...

Hard pressed on my right. My centre is yielding. Impossible to manoeuvre. Situation excellent. I am attacking. Ferdinand Foch.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

just ordered these and really can't wait, Chabon was always one of my favourite wirters for his "Wonderboys" and  "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay". That one promises to be great fun.

from Amazon: "recreates 10th-century Khazaria, the fabled kingdom of wild red-haired Jews on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, in this sprightly historical adventure. Zelikman and Amram, respectively a gawky Frank and a gigantic Abyssinian, make their living by means of confidence tricks, doctoring, bodyguarding and the occasional bit of skullduggery along the Silk Road. The unlikely duo find themselves caught up in larger events when they befriend Filaq, the headstrong and unlikable heir to the recently deposed war king of the Khazars. Their attempts to restore Filaq to the throne make for a terrifically entertaining modern pulp adventure replete with marauding armies, drunken Vikings, beautiful prostitutes, rampaging elephants and mildly telegraphed plot points that aren't as they seem. Chabon has a wonderful time writing intentionally purple prose and playing with conventions that were most popular in the days of Rudyard Kipling and Talbot Mundy."



and another Chabon book ordered, a sort of "book Noir"

"Like Haruki Murakami in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1991), Chabon plays with the conventions of the Chandlerian private-eye novel, but that's only one ingredient in an epic-scale alternate-history saga of Jewish life since World War II. The premise draws on an obscure historical fact: FDR once proposed that Alaska, not Israel, become the homeland for Jews after the war. In Chabon's telling, that's exactly what happened, except, inevitably, it hasn't gone as planned: the U.S. government now has enacted a policy that will evict all Jews without proper papers from Sitka, the center of Jewish Alaska. In the midst of this nightmare, browbeaten police detective Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy who happens to be the disgraced son of Sitka's most powerful rabbi."

[Captain Blood]

I've just finished reading this novel and it's absolutely excellent. Interesting, well written, and somewhat in the Flashman mode - although the hero/antihero is not quite as outrageous as Flashy, he has his moments, wrapping in the dog days of Cromwell's Commonwealth, the Restoration, fire, plague, pornography, alchemy, the Dutch Wars, Monmouth's Rebellion and the Glorious Revolution, and even Henry Morgan in Jamaica. In short, a brilliant gallop through the second half of the C17th, with the (fictional?) hero encountering most of the great historical characters of the time, and taking part in many of the great events. Not to mention having his wicked way with several of the great women of the day.

Most historical novels in English let themselves down with the cod 'olde worlde' dialogue and historical details they get wrong (and which we military history buffs find particularly irksome!) But - like George MacDonald Fraser - this one comes across as utterly authentic. The hero's misadventures may seem far-fetched, but the world he inhabits comes across as totally real. It just doesn't put a foot wrong. It transports you back to that time, and rings absolutely true.

Highly recommended. A great read. (And it's been out for several years, so you can probably get it from Amazon - or eBay - for not very much).

[Jules]

just finished - Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, 1941-1945... excellent - well worth reading

I have just started reading  Invasion, 1940: Did the Battle of Britain Alone Stop Hitler? - nice new take on the subject..

[Vanvlak]

Troy, from the Osprey fortress series.
Quite archaeology-oriented, which suits me fine.  

[PeteMurray]

Gah. I got "Gentlemen of the Road" for Christmas and haven't read it yet!  :oops:

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Gah. I got "Gentlemen of the Road" for Christmas and haven't read it yet!  :oops:

Pete, the Sluggard. Takes after Plynkes.

[PeteMurray]

Pete, the Sluggard. Takes after Plynkes.

Guilty as charged.

I like Chabon, too. Chabon writes the kind of novels I wish I were writing. Also the cover of the German version beats the US cover by a country mile.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

I like Chabon, too. Chabon writes the kind of novels I wish I were writing. Also the cover of the German version beats the US cover by a country mile.

There isn't any German version, this book has not been translated to German, it's US one I've ordered and showed, just another edition.
Chabon is a milestone for me, after reading his books, especially "The mysteries of Pittsburgh" I've started reading much more of American modern literature.