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Nerdy confessions in terms of reading material for me. I am a bit fascinated with Soviet era Russia (Lenin' date=' Stalin, Trotsky..etc) Currently I am leafing through "Stalin - The Court of The Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore for the second time.[/quote'] Huh. I'm busy reading a book called Hitler's Panzers and it's pretty fun. Tells the operational history of Nazi tank units within the wider context of Nazi grand strategy.
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Currently I really enjoy reading Moby-Dick while listeing to Ahab' date=' just the perfect sound track.[/quote'] Ahab's songs are certainly long enough to alleviate the tediousness of trying to make it through Melville's ocean of lengthy tangents. The central narrative is fairly interesting but I really couldn't stand the book. Still, it's great that you do multilingual reading. I hesitate to hit French at the ATM menu...
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Huh. I'm busy reading a book called Hitler's Panzers and it's pretty fun. Tells the operational history of Nazi tank units within the wider context of Nazi grand strategy.
Really? That sounds a little more in depth than your average book on tanks (I do have a thing about tanks to - he says looking at the tank calendar on the wall). I like authors who explore a subject in detail and look at linked subjects/concepts as well as fitting subject matter into a bigger picture. Robert Service does this brilliantly in his works on Trotsky and Lenin in particular. In "The Court Of The Red Tsar" Montefiore explores Stalin's henchmen in detail and looks at their personal histories and characters.
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Really? That sounds a little more in depth than your average book on tanks (I do have a thing about tanks to - he says looking at the tank calendar on the wall). I like authors who explore a subject in detail and look at linked subjects/concepts as well as fitting subject matter into a bigger picture. Robert Service does this brilliantly in his works on Trotsky and Lenin in particular. In "The Court Of The Red Tsar" Montefiore explores Stalin's henchmen in detail and looks at their personal histories and characters.
It's interesting because the class itself actually made the book worth reading. Otherwise I would have hated it. I also have a thing for tanks, I'd like to visit the Bovington tank museum sometime. I'd go to any one of the eighty-seven bajillion tank museums in Ukraine, but unfortunately it's one of the most corrupt nations in Europe so I don't think I'll travel there.
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It's interesting because the class itself actually made the book worth reading. Otherwise I would have hated it. I also have a thing for tanks' date=' I'd like to visit the Bovington tank museum sometime. I'd go to any one of the eighty-seven bajillion tank museums in Ukraine, but unfortunately it's one of the most corrupt nations in Europe so I don't think I'll travel there.[/quote'] Bovington is on mine a Miss Macabre's list to visit also. We keep meaning to holiday in Dorset one year but never seem to get round to doing so. THey are doing Tankfest this year 29th & 30th June which culminates with a mock battle and I quote: "The show finale, the mock battle, will present a scenario dreaded by millions in the post war years… What if the cold war turned hot? For the first time, we will try to show how NATO would try and hold a Soviet force on the Plains of Germany with the potent threat of a nuclear strike. " Freakin sweet!
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Bovington is on mine a Miss Macabre's list to visit also. We keep meaning to holiday in Dorset one year but never seem to get round to doing so. THey are doing Tankfest this year 29th & 30th June which culminates with a mock battle and I quote: "The show finale, the mock battle, will present a scenario dreaded by millions in the post war years… What if the cold war turned hot? For the first time, we will try to show how NATO would try and hold a Soviet force on the Plains of Germany with the potent threat of a nuclear strike. " Freakin sweet!
That would be cool. AirLandBattle was a well-planned operation that would have been interesting to see unfold. What time are they setting this? 1950 or more like 1980?
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That would be cool. AirLandBattle was a well-planned operation that would have been interesting to see unfold. What time are they setting this? 1950 or more like 1980?
It doesn't actually say - it just mentions "the post-war years" which I am taking to be closer to the 50's than the 80's although arguably any year after 1945 is a post war year? They mention the re-enactors on the recruitment form should be ready to play any NATO member country nationality or Soviet forces. Looking more closely they mention they are using a fleet of FV 432's to stage an infantry invasion and they weren't about until the 60's to my knowledge so it maybe a decade or so after the second world war.
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It doesn't actually say - it just mentions "the post-war years" which I am taking to be closer to the 50's than the 80's although arguably any year after 1945 is a post war year? They mention the re-enactors on the recruitment form should be ready to play any NATO member country nationality or Soviet forces. Looking more closely they mention they are using a fleet of FV 432's to stage an infantry invasion and they weren't about until the 60's to my knowledge so it maybe a decade or so after the second world war.
So there are infantry then? That's cool but a bit odd if they're carrying this out in a plain. I know that infantry typically accompany tanks to protect them in an environment with lots of cover, such as jungle, forest or an urban environment. But to my knowledge the tanks in the Gulf War didn't require an infantry escort since they were out in the desert.
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O.K., I just read the 16 pages of this thread, now here are some of my favorites: The Hobit, LOTR, The Silmarilion; Mideval Sagas (especialy from Iceland); H.P. Lovecraft; Ernest Hemmingway; Kurt Vonegut, John Irving; Robert E. Howard; Mervyn Peake (if you dig fantasy check out the Gormenghast novels); also like a lot of non fiction such as history books and religious books. I am currently reading The Rum Diary by Hunter Thompson and The Secret of the Runes by Guido von List.

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I read Wretched Of The Earth by Franz Fanon...and boy did that book make me mad. His solution to colonial mismanagement and oppression in Africa is essentially to get rid of all of the white people in Africa, either by deporting them or killing them. Indeed, he says this is the only solution. Interestingly, that policy was used in Zimbabwe by Robert Mugabe.

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Dorian gray, Dracula those are some very good books. I do enjoy reading gothic novels as well. I have recently read Bram Stoker's Dracula and I loved it. I also like old detective books and the works of Stephen King. Some fantasy books are also great such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The books that I enjoy the most are from the 19th century. I don't know why but I really like the writing style form that area.

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Just about to start "Louder Than Hell : The Definitive Oral History Of Metal". Been looking forward to picking it up for a while and have been meaning to start up a proper collection of music tomes in my house. Been re-reading "Stalin:The Court Of The Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore as I find if a read a massive book (near 700 pages) I need to refresh/re-visit it at some point. I have read Robert Service's books on Lenin and Trotsky as I have a particular nerdy fascination within Soviet era Russia and the whole Revolution and Communist rule years. I find the whole sham that it was truly Communist and for the benefit of the country and it's people particularly disturbing in the face of the blind allegiance to a concept only followed largely out of fear of death or reprisal for non-conformity to.

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I enjoy classic works of literature and darker tales for the most part. E.T.A Hoffman's "The Sandman" for example or the works of Edgar Allen Poe. Dracula and Frankenstein are also highly enjoyable books. Stephen King's horror tales are also very enjoyable for me with the highlight of his career being Salem's Lot so far as I'm concerned.

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OP, I'm the opposite: reading is ma fave. I love all sorts of books, and don't really have a definite list of favourite authors - but Stephen King is up there. Misery, The Green Mile, Carrie, and The Shining are definitely in my favourites. I think King definitely has something for everyone. I'm also currently in love with The Killer Inside Me, Bridge to Terabithia, and Let the Right One In. For classics, I haven't read too many, but all of the ones I've read, I've loved: To Kill A Mockingbird, A Clockwork Orange, The Great Gatsby, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and Slaughterhouse-five. What the hell, I guess I love most books.

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