Books: What are you currently reading?

holdit

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2006
Messages
414
Reaction score
568
Location
Ireland
Country
llIreland
Also re-reading (a real book this time :)) "Fields of Fire" by James Webb. The best novel of the Vietnam War that I've ever read. Why it's never been made into a movie I don't know.

They approached Hodges slowly, singly or in twos and threes, like hesitant, wild animals inspecting their latest zookeeper. It occurred to him, as he watched them pay a sort of reluctant homage to his poncho hootch, that he really did have the power of life and death over them. If I’m bad, he mused, while making small talk and tentative attempts at humor with them, they die. It’s that simple. Remembering the stories from Basic School, he understood immediately why an individual would want to wound an incompetent officer with a grenade. It’s not vindictiveness, he reasoned. It’s self-preservation.

But he felt an immediate, visceral kinship with most of them, and sensed that it was mutual. He perceived the autocratic excellence of Snake from their first meeting. The small, hostile man with the large tattoos on each arm seemed driven by a need to dominate this weed- filled existence that the others were merely submitting to. Snake was the least friendly to Hodges, and yet Hodges sensed that he was potentially a natural ally. Snake’s self-image was at stake. For the others, it was merely their lives.


- Webb, James. Fields of Fire (p. 101). Canelo. Kindle Edition.
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
What it looks like when you are entering here.... No need to type the '"URL unfurl="true" or the /URL The forum software has the smarts to recognize a URL and fill s all that in for you.

View attachment 20916
Coworker navigated me through the process and my first link was of the Horseshoe Curve in the armored trains thread.

Read the part in Blink where after their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Red Team the Blue Team ran the wargame again taking away all the tactics the Red Team had used to destroy them. Then celebrating their " victory ". What a bunch of jicks and a sad testament to the mindset at the Pentagon.
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
What it looks like when you are entering here.... No need to type the '"URL unfurl="true" or the /URL The forum software has the smarts to recognize a URL and fill s all that in for you.

View attachment 20916
Just finished Blink today at lunch, what a fascinating subject. While some, without reading the book, might say it is all just psychological babble that could not be further from the truth. Tons of facts and evidence but an amazingly easy read. I am not an engineer but I believe an engineer who gives this subject a chance will realize there is something to it and not just psycho babbling.

Psycho has his own very distinctive babbling
😉

Thanks again for the reccomendation. Great stuff!!🤗🤗
 

Jazz

Inactive
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
12,188
Reaction score
2,739
Location
The Empty Quarter
Country
llLithuania
Just finished Blink today at lunch, what a fascinating subject. While some, without reading the book, might say it is all just psychological babble that could not be further from the truth. Tons of facts and evidence but an amazingly easy read. I am not an engineer but I believe an engineer who gives this subject a chance will realize there is something to it and not just psycho babbling.

Psycho has his own very distinctive babbling
😉

Thanks again for the reccomendation. Great stuff!!🤗🤗
"The Bomber Mafia" by the same author is also very interesting.
 

Jwil2020

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2020
Messages
457
Reaction score
588
Location
Baltimore, MD
Country
llUnited States
Just finished reading Rick Atkinson's second and third volume of his WW2 trilogy: The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light. The trilogy covers the Allied effort from North Africa, to Italy, to France and into Germany. Although Atkinson describes the operational moves of those campaigns well enough, he does not give a blow-by-blow account; look elsewhere if that is what you prefer. The strength of his work is his excellent insight into the behind-the-scenes drama and decision making in the allied camp at the highest political and military levels. Suffice it to say, keeping the Allied team together and focused on unified goals was no easy task. He also provides great insight into the impact the battles had on the civilian populations, although not to the extent Antony Beevor does in his books. He definitely added to my knowledge base in that regard.

He also brought to light a few things I had never read about before, such as: the Luftwaffe bombing of a ship in Bari Harbor, Italy carrying American mustard gas which ended up in a mass poisoning of Allied soldiers and Italian civilians; and the German revolutionary radio-controlled glide bomb called the Fritz-X. A true wonder weapon that thankfully they did not commit more resources toward developing.

But my biggest take away from his trilogy was just how precarious was the Allied effort in western Europe. Far from the defeat of Germany being a foregone conclusion after D-Day, he documents the many mistakes, miscalculations, and downright blunders, made on both sides, that could have at the very least, prolonged the war well into 1946.

Anyway, I highly recommend the work; a well written and compelling read.
 
Last edited:

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
"The Bomber Mafia" by the same author is also very interesting.
Did you mention in another thread that you were an engineer? A new forum member, IIRC, said that they were an engineer and someone responded that they were also.
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
View attachment 19812

The Great Pyramid Void Enigma - Scott Creighton. P/B.

Since I have a strong interest in Ancient Archaeology - this is a very intriguing book. Well written with easy prose style. The background to the narrative is the discovery in 2017 of a great big void within the Great pyramid at Giza. This was done by the Scan/Pyramid Project by 3 separate groups who came up with the same astonishing results; namely that there is a dirty great big space which should not really be there. It is of the same dimensions of the great gallery beneath it.

The burning questions are - Why is it there and what is it for ?.

Scott Creighton rightly analyses the historical evidence to find clues. The first being that the Coptic Egyptians who believe themselves to be the direct and true descendants of the Ancient Egyptians andhave always claimed that the Great Pyramid was not built by Khufu as a burial place but was built as a recovery vault.

Apparently the ancient astronomer priests used the stars to predict a flood in the future and it was decided to build a stone mountain to survive rtsing water levels. Within the pyramid were to be placed the tools and equipment - records and most importantly, the ancestral mummies of Khufu;s predecessors who would spiritually aid the rebirth of the Egyptian civilization.

Secondly, there is the intriguing puzzle of why no mummies or tombs of Khufu's parent and ancestors have ever been found- mostly, there mummies have disappeared.

Thirdly; the fact that the Great Pyramid being a burial place for Khufu is destroyed by the evidence being forged by it's main proponent; The Archaelogist - Howard Vyse , who in the 1830's had a great time blowing holes with gunpowder above the King's chamber and claimed that he had found two of Khufu's cartouches in the relieving chambers above the King's Chamber; the only problem here being that they have the writing style effect of the Middle Kingdom and not of the Old kingdom.

Fourthly; the orientation of the so called Queens pyramids and the general layout of all the structures on the Giza plateau seem to reflect star positions and dating methodology which backs up that the structures are much older and provide a viable date for a sea level rise cataclysm and a possible future one. ( Do not worry - the next one is due to happen in about 4000 years )....

Why is this exciting - Well ; I notice that a so called prominent Egyptologist who has been a thorn in the side of the truth about the real age of the Spinx and purpose of the Pyramids, and who built them, has only last year stated that there are exciting treasures still to be found and numerous gaps in the Great Pyramid. The same guy who previously said that everything has been found. he small gantenbrink robotic device which went up one of the shafts from the Queens chamber found a small blocking stone slap with a corroded ccopper handle- these are just air shafts according to him.

Scott Creighton makes a good case for the Void being a secret chamber never to be disturbed for ancestral mummies and more intriguingly - a recovery vault with what.........? there has been for a long time; speculation about the lost Hall of Records somewhere on the Giza plateau....there have been legends of it being under the Sphinx and core drilling has been done on a limited scale with empty results. Lots of underground formations have also been found under the Giza plateau and most are water logged and blocked off by the so called prominent Egyptologist.

Maybe ; just maybe - The lost Hall of Records is as legends say on the Giza plateau but deviously designed into the Great Pyramid's structure to only be found by those who have the secret knowledge. They did not envision today,s scanning techniques. It even looks like all the known chambers in the Great Pyramid were designed to fool tomb robbers into believing there was nothing else there........Devious beyond belief, unless of course you are hiding something very significant and important.

The void could be the discovery of all time........so you have to wonder why no core drilling has been done and a small camera inserted to see inside........it has been 4 years and counting.

A fascinating and thought provoking read - my only gripe is that the Howard Vyse fraud evidence is too extensive.
I missed this reccomendation when it was originally posted. I have read a crapload about these subjects. Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, John Anthony West, Robert Schoch. Really, really grabs me. I will have to read this one too! Lol I will post this and call the library right now. Looks like Tipping Point will have to wait. Thanks for posting this!🤗🤗🥰🥰

Can't forget about Charles Hapgood. Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.

The Void book not available in my county. Columbus library has it but inter Ohio borrowing down till the end of April and I can't wait that long. Ordered it. Arrives tomorrow. I just love this stuff and your post has got me all geeked out about reading more!
 
Last edited:

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
Engineer by education and profession, but never licensed.
Upthread when Blink was brought up IIRC Tuomo made a comment about it and he was very sceptical. For some reason I thought he was an engineer and was going to tell him just to read the first chapter. That's what the engineer reference was about. I think most people who play ASL would want to continue reading it. Fascinating subject.

While trying to find his post I ran across the reccomendation for The Great Pyramid Void Enigma and that was it. If you want to attract my attention the words The Great Pyramid will work every time. I have been reading along those lines and military history since elementary school.

Anyway Brigadier Bacardi stopped in for the evening and Civilization is on the PC so finding Tuomo 's post will have to wait. Gladwell's other stuff too. As much as I love military history I am way more into the Grat Pyramid and similar ancient mysteries.

I had concentrated on military history through the late 70's till '95 when I saw Fingerprints of the Gods at the library. When I started reading it the passion was rekindled. 🥰
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
Upthread when Blink was brought up IIRC Tuomo made a comment about it and he was very sceptical. For some reason I thought he was an engineer and was going to tell him just to read the first chapter. That's what the engineer reference was about. I think most people who play ASL would want to continue reading it. Fascinating subject.

While trying to find his post I ran across the reccomendation for The Great Pyramid Void Enigma and that was it. If you want to attract my attention the words The Great Pyramid will work every time. I have been reading along those lines and military history since elementary school.

Anyway Brigadier Bacardi stopped in for the evening and Civilization is on the PC so finding Tuomo 's post will have to wait. Gladwell's other stuff too. As much as I love military history I am way more into the Grat Pyramid and similar ancient mysteries.

I had concentrated on military history through the late 70's till '95 when I saw Fingerprints of the Gods at the library. When I started reading it the passion was rekindled. 🥰
Couldn't find a post by Tuomo about Blink. Too many Dark and Stormy nights I suppose.🤪

Sorry Tuomo. ☹
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
He did participate in the initial discussion about Blink
Thanks! I thought he had but after a cursory search came up empty I thought I was just delusional. I should learn to trust that first impression more.😉
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
View attachment 19812

The Great Pyramid Void Enigma - Scott Creighton. P/B.

Since I have a strong interest in Ancient Archaeology - this is a very intriguing book. Well written with easy prose style. The background to the narrative is the discovery in 2017 of a great big void within the Great pyramid at Giza. This was done by the Scan/Pyramid Project by 3 separate groups who came up with the same astonishing results; namely that there is a dirty great big space which should not really be there. It is of the same dimensions of the great gallery beneath it.

The burning questions are - Why is it there and what is it for ?.

Scott Creighton rightly analyses the historical evidence to find clues. The first being that the Coptic Egyptians who believe themselves to be the direct and true descendants of the Ancient Egyptians andhave always claimed that the Great Pyramid was not built by Khufu as a burial place but was built as a recovery vault.

Apparently the ancient astronomer priests used the stars to predict a flood in the future and it was decided to build a stone mountain to survive rtsing water levels. Within the pyramid were to be placed the tools and equipment - records and most importantly, the ancestral mummies of Khufu;s predecessors who would spiritually aid the rebirth of the Egyptian civilization.

Secondly, there is the intriguing puzzle of why no mummies or tombs of Khufu's parent and ancestors have ever been found- mostly, there mummies have disappeared.

Thirdly; the fact that the Great Pyramid being a burial place for Khufu is destroyed by the evidence being forged by it's main proponent; The Archaelogist - Howard Vyse , who in the 1830's had a great time blowing holes with gunpowder above the King's chamber and claimed that he had found two of Khufu's cartouches in the relieving chambers above the King's Chamber; the only problem here being that they have the writing style effect of the Middle Kingdom and not of the Old kingdom.

Fourthly; the orientation of the so called Queens pyramids and the general layout of all the structures on the Giza plateau seem to reflect star positions and dating methodology which backs up that the structures are much older and provide a viable date for a sea level rise cataclysm and a possible future one. ( Do not worry - the next one is due to happen in about 4000 years )....

Why is this exciting - Well ; I notice that a so called prominent Egyptologist who has been a thorn in the side of the truth about the real age of the Spinx and purpose of the Pyramids, and who built them, has only last year stated that there are exciting treasures still to be found and numerous gaps in the Great Pyramid. The same guy who previously said that everything has been found. he small gantenbrink robotic device which went up one of the shafts from the Queens chamber found a small blocking stone slap with a corroded ccopper handle- these are just air shafts according to him.

Scott Creighton makes a good case for the Void being a secret chamber never to be disturbed for ancestral mummies and more intriguingly - a recovery vault with what.........? there has been for a long time; speculation about the lost Hall of Records somewhere on the Giza plateau....there have been legends of it being under the Sphinx and core drilling has been done on a limited scale with empty results. Lots of underground formations have also been found under the Giza plateau and most are water logged and blocked off by the so called prominent Egyptologist.

Maybe ; just maybe - The lost Hall of Records is as legends say on the Giza plateau but deviously designed into the Great Pyramid's structure to only be found by those who have the secret knowledge. They did not envision today,s scanning techniques. It even looks like all the known chambers in the Great Pyramid were designed to fool tomb robbers into believing there was nothing else there........Devious beyond belief, unless of course you are hiding something very significant and important.

The void could be the discovery of all time........so you have to wonder why no core drilling has been done and a small camera inserted to see inside........it has been 4 years and counting.

A fascinating and thought provoking read - my only gripe is that the Howard Vyse fraud evidence is too extensive.
My copy arrived today. Looking forward to some good reading. Thanks again for the reccomendation.
 

Actionjick

Forum Guru
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
7,466
Reaction score
4,992
Location
Kent, Ohio
First name
Darryl
Country
llUnited States
Just finished Blink today at lunch, what a fascinating subject. While some, without reading the book, might say it is all just psychological babble that could not be further from the truth. Tons of facts and evidence but an amazingly easy read. I am not an engineer but I believe an engineer who gives this subject a chance will realize there is something to it and not just psycho babbling.

Psycho has his own very distinctive babbling
😉

Thanks again for the reccomendation. Great stuff!!🤗🤗
Colonel Cuervo wanted to listen to 2 half squads. I played the episode and went further back in the interview with Bendizoid than I had in quite a while.

The interview with Bob is excellent and he offers some great advice. The part I hadn't heard in a while was a revelation after reading Blink. He said, and sorry Bob if I misquote, that most of the time he doesn't go through all the modifiers or whatever. Something feels right or it doesn't. There you are. Thin slicing and Bob knows of what he speaks.
 

Yuri0352

Elder Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2014
Messages
2,115
Reaction score
1,200
Location
25-30 Hexes
Country
llUnited States
I was fortunate to locate and purchase the officially commissioned 3 volume history of the Royal Air Force, 1939-45 at one of my local used book stores. This set is absolutely fascinating and well written as I am nearly finished with the first volume 'The Fight at Odds'. In addition to the expected chapters detailing the fall of France and the Battle of Britain, I was especially intrigued by the accounts of the air campaign during the fight for Norway. Gloster Gladiators operating from frozen lakes, etc. These books are in no way a dry compendium of dates and statistics, as there are numerous personal accounts of actions as related by pilots and aircrew. The writing style of the authors (Denis Richards and Hilary Saunders) reminds me of Rick Atkinson's WWII US Army trilogy... with a bit of dry Anglo humor sprinkled throughout.

Although obviously presented from a primarily British point of view, I would highly recommend this series to anyone such as myself who is fascinated by the history of the Royal Air Force.
 
Top