Book Club

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > Book Club

Marshal Prolapse: Jun 23, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Koesj posted:

The thing I've heard about Kershaw's work is that he has been coasting on his 'working towards the Führer' theory for a long time now. Not that it's much of a problem, Hubris and Nemesis are fantastic, and there's only so much new stuff you can do in Nazi historiography, but I've been holding off on his newer titles since getting those Hitler biographies as a present in 2003 (thanks mom & dad!).

I could see that, but I think The End fills a nice void, but I'm not much it overlaps with the Hitler bios, as I haven't had the chance to read them yet or more accurately listen to them as my commute allows me about 2 hours of audiobooks a day. Right now I'm on a mix of Hastings Catastrophe, Beevors Second World War, and Forgotten Ally, so having audible is really nice (lack of footnotes and works cited notwithstanding, but you can often buy the book for cheap after getting the audio via amazon).

# ? Jan 10, 2014 13:10

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 04:24

quantumfoam: Dec 25, 2003

[bold]Harper Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 BC to the Present[/bold]
http://www.amazon.com/Harper-Encyclopedia-Military-History-Present/dp/0062700561/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389536128&sr=1-1

This should be a standard reference for anyone interested in military history.

# ? Jan 12, 2014 15:20

NAPALM STICKS TO: Jun 22, 2005

hannibal posted:

I got about 2/3 through The Generals before I lost interest. It was an ok book but I just couldn't get through to the end. I haven't read any of Tom Ricks' other books, although I do enjoy his blog (The Best Defense) - there are some pretty good commenters on there.

Agreed, I'm not a fan of Ricks' books (or views, to be honest. The Petraeus dicksucking is excessive) but I thoroughly enjoy his blog. I've written some guest columns, and am a regular commenter.

# ? Jan 12, 2014 16:23

hannibal: Jul 27, 2001; [img-planes]

white privilege posted:

Agreed, I'm not a fan of Ricks' books (or views, to be honest. The Petraeus dicksucking is excessive) but I thoroughly enjoy his blog. I've written some guest columns, and am a regular commenter.

Nice. I have to say, Foreign Policy's recent site design is terrible. Was it just me or did the comments not work for the first week or so? None of the stories had comments on them even if I disabled all my ad-blocking extensions etc. and I've only recently seen comments come back. I wish Tom would blog somewhere else with a better comment system, because the comments are really what keeps me coming back.

# ? Jan 12, 2014 18:47

iyaayas01: Feb 19, 2010; Perry'd

hannibal posted:

Nice. I have to say, Foreign Policy's recent site design is terrible.

I like the additional content that they've added in conjunction with the new site design, but holy poo poo it is terrible from a functional standpoint.

# ? Jan 12, 2014 19:11

pantslesswithwolves: Oct 28, 2008; Ba-dam ba-DUMMMMMM

white privilege posted:

Agreed, I'm not a fan of Ricks' books (or views, to be honest. The Petraeus dicksucking is excessive) but I thoroughly enjoy his blog. I've written some guest columns, and am a regular commenter.

And in another instance of SA bleeding onto an otherwise respectable blog, Ricks wrote this post that featured none other than a now-private video from Caro's visit to Libya.

# ? Jan 12, 2014 19:24

Elendil004: Mar 22, 2003; The prognosis
is not good.

Can anyone recommend a good book about the Rampart Division of the LAPD which The Shield was based on?

# ? Jan 27, 2014 21:42

Hydrogen Oxide: Jan 16, 2006; H2Woah

Posting poo poo from Skunk Works by Ben Rich because SR-71 stories get my dick rock hard.

quote:

Norman Nelson

I was the CIA�s engineer inside the Skunk Works, the only government guy there, and Kelly gave me the run of the place. Kelly ran the Skunk Works as if it was his own aircraft company. He took no crap and did things his own way. None of this pyramid bullshit. He built up the best engineering organization in the world. Kelly�s rule was never put an engineer more than fifty feet from the assembly area. But the payoff came watching that Blackbird take off on sixty-four thousand pounds of thrust blasting out from those two giant engines. We all knew it was the greatest airplane ever built and it carried the world�s greatest cameras. From ninety thousand feet�sixteen miles up�you could clearly see the stripes on a parking lot. Baby, that�s resolution! The main camera was five feet high. The strip camera was continuous, and the framing camera took one picture at a time. Both took perfect pictures while zipping past at Mach 3. An unbelievable technical achievement. The window shielding the cameras was double quartz and one of the hardest problems confronting us. We also had awful reflection problems and heat problems, you name it.

Because of the tremendous speed and sonic boom, we were very limited to where we could overfly the United States during training missions. We had to pick the least-populated routes. After President Johnson�s public announcement about the airplane in the fall of 1964, Kelly began receiving all kinds of complaints and threats of lawsuits from communities claiming the Blackbird had shattered windows for miles around. A few times we announced a bogus flight plan and then sat back and watched the phony complaints pour in. But some complaints were for real. One of the guys boomed Kelly�s ranch in Santa Barbara as a joke that backfired because he knocked out Kelly�s picture window. Another of our pilots got in engine trouble over Utah and flamed out. The Blackbird had as much gliding capacity as a manhole cover, and it came barreling in over Salt Lake, just as our pilot got a restart and hit those afterburners right above the Mormon Tabernacle. There was hell to pay.

We had to clear FAA controllers along the flight paths, otherwise they�d think they were seeing flying saucers at Mach 3 plus on their radar screens. In the amount of time it took to sneeze, a pilot flew the length of ten football fields.

We couldn�t overfly dams, bridges, Indian ruins, or big cities. We had to clear and train the tanker crews of the KC-135s that carried our special fuel. Air-to-air refuelings were very tricky because the tanker had to go as fast as it could while the Blackbird was throttled way back, practically stalling out while it filled its tanks. During a typical three-to-five-hour training exercise, our pilot might witness two or three sunrises, depending on the time of day.

Another weird thing was that after a flight the windshields often were pitted with tiny black dots, like burn specks. We couldn�t figure out what in hell it was. We had the specks lab tested, and they turned out to be organic material�insects that had been injected into the stratosphere and were circling in orbit around the earth with dust and debris at seventy-five thousand feet in the jet stream. How in hell did they get lifted up there? We finally figured it out: they were hoisted aloft from the atomic test explosions in Russia and China.

That airplane pushed all of us to our limits in dealing with it. A pilot had to have tremendous self-confidence just to set foot inside the cockpit knowing he was about to fly two and a half times faster than he ever had before. I know that Kelly was determined to spread the Blackbird technology onto the blue-suiters and make the whole damned Air Force sit up and pay attention to what he had produced. But I never gave him much chance to sell a lot of these airplanes because they were so far ahead of anything else flying that few commanders would feel comfortable leading a Blackbird wing or squadron. I mean this was a twenty-first-century performer delivered in the early 1960s. No one in the Pentagon would know what to do with it. That made it a damned tough sell even for Kelly.

quote:

Colonel Jim Wadkins
(Pilot)

I had 600 hours piloting Blackbird, and my last flight was just as big a thrill as my first. At 85,000 feet and Mach 3, it was almost a religious experience. My first flight out of Beale in �67, I took off late on a winter afternoon, heading east where it was already dark, and it was one of the most amazing and frightening moments going from daylight into a dark curtain of night that seemed to be hung across half of the continent. There was nothing in between�you streaked from bright day and flew into utter black, like being swallowed up into an abyss. My God, even now, I get goosebumps remembering. We flew to the east coast then turned around and headed back to California and saw the sun rising in the west as we reentered daylight. We were actually outspeeding the earth�s rotation!

Nothing had prepared me to fly that fast. A typical training flight, we�d take off from Beale, then head east. I�d look out and see the Great Salt Lake�hell of a landmark. Then look back in the cockpit to be sure everything was okay. Then look out again and the Great Salt Lake had vanished. In its place, the Rockies. Then you scribbled on your flight plan and looked out again�this time at the Mississippi River. You were gobbling up huge hunks of geography by the minute. Hell, you�re flying three thousand feet a second! We flew coast to coast and border to border in three hours fifty-nine minutes with two air-to-air refuelings. One day I heard another SR-71 pilot calling Albuquerque Center. I recognized his voice and knew he was flying lower than me but in the vicinity, so I called and said, �Tony, dump some fuel so I can see you.� In only a couple of blinks of an eye, fuel streaked by underneath my airplane. He was like one hundred and fifty miles ahead of me.

One day our automatic navigation system failed. Ordinarily that�s an automatic abort situation, but I decided to try to fly without the automatic navigation. I advised the FAA I was going to try this and to monitor us and let us know where we were if we got lost. I quickly learned that if we started a turn one second late, we were already off course, and if my bank angle wasn�t exact, I was off by a long shot. I started a turn just below L.A. and wound up over Mexico! I realized right then that we couldn�t navigate by the seat of our pants. Not at those incredible speeds.

I remember when a new pilot flying the SR-71 for the first time out of Beale began shouting �Mayday, Mayday� over Salt Lake City. �My nose is coming off!� My God, we all panicked and cranked out all the emergency vehicles. The guy aborted, staggered back to Beale. All that really happened was that the airplane�s nose wrinkled from the heat. The skin always did that. The crew smoothed it out using a blowtorch. It was just like ironing a shirt.

My favorite route was to refuel over the Pacific right after takeoff, then come in over Northern California going supersonic, flying just north of Grand Forks, North Dakota, then turn to avoid Chicago, swing over Georgia, then coast out over the Atlantic, then refuel over Florida, west of Miami, then head straight back to Beale. Total elapsed time: three hours twenty-two minutes. Take off at nine or ten in the morning and land before two in the afternoon, in time to play tennis before cocktail hour.

As time went on we were being routed over least-populated areas because of growing complaints about sonic booms. One of them came straight from Nixon. One of our airplanes boomed him while he was reading on the patio of his estate at San Clemente. He got on the horn to the chief of staff and said, �Goddam it, you�re disturbing people.� One little community named Susanville, in California, sat right in a valley and was in the path of our return route to Beale. The sonic boom would echo off the hills and crack windows and plaster. We had the townspeople in, showed them the airplane, appealed to their patriotism, and told them the boom was �the sound of freedom.� They lapped it up.

quote:

Major Butch Sheffield
(Air Force RSO)

Just before I deployed to Kadena in the fall of �69, we were tasked to fly up to the Arctic Circle and check on some suspicious activity on a tiny Russian island. I was then stationed at Beale, living at home with my wife. We took off after breakfast, refueled over Alaska, headed north for fifteen hundred miles. It was scary being over the most forbidding area of the world. If you had to eject, you were finished. Anyway, we reached this island, turned on the recorders and the cameras, then turned around, hit another tanker, and flew back into Beale. I was home in time for dinner and my wife never knew where I�d been that day. She assumed it was just another day at the office. At dinner, I almost burst out laughing thinking of her reaction if she had known I�d spent the day flying up and back to the Arctic Circle!

I had another very odd mission, like that one, in the early 1970s, while stationed at Kadena. We were tasked to fly against the very formidable and new Soviet SA-5 missile site that had been constructed at Vladivostok, their big naval base in the Sea of Japan, at a time when the Russians were conducting a huge naval exercise right off the coast. We were to fly to this dangerous site late Sunday night, hoping that we would find their most junior officers on duty, who would snap at the bait and turn on their radar and we could measure the frequency, the pulse repetition intervals, and a lot of other vital technical details that could be used to develop counter-electronics against this monster. A more experienced officer might figure out what we were really up to and stay dark.

The National Security Agency put aboard a special recording package for this particular mission, and we flew right down the throat of that site, so that it seemed certain that we were going to overfly Soviet territory. As we came in, radars from dozens of Soviet naval ships on that training exercise switched on. And at the last second, we pulled a sharp turn and avoided any overflight of Soviet airspace. But the take was awesome. In all, we got nearly three hundred different radar transmissions recorded, including the first SA-5 signals obtained by our side. Meanwhile, I had plenty of problems to cope with before we landed safely.

After turning, we headed toward Japan. During that big turn, the oil pressure on the left engine began falling and rapidly dropped to zero. We stayed on a southern heading but shut down that engine and flew on one engine against awful head-winds at fifteen thousand feet as we approached the North Korean coastline. We were just struggling to maintain altitude and didn�t realize it until later that the North Koreans had scrambled fighters against us, and that the South Koreans had scrambled their fighters to get between us and the North Koreans and defend us. We had no choice but to put in to a South Korean air base at Taegu. I called the field, but they refused permission to land. Field closed, they said. I said, �I�ve got to land. Turn on your lights.� We came in and just sat there, surrounded by dozens of people in black pajamas with machine guns. My pilot said to me, �Butch, you sure we landed in South Korea?�

On November 22, 1969, I flew my first North Korea mission. I was uptight because North Korea was very heavily defended, and on this particular mission we went to every known SAM site in North Korea, all twenty-one of them, and we crisscrossed them, made a big 180-degree turn that took us right across the Chinese border, then came back right down the center of North Korea, then made another 180-degree turn across the demilitarized zone. We crossed North Korea eight to ten times on that mission, covered the entire country. As we finished up and were turning to go home, a right-generator fail light came on. I tried to reset it, but it was no go, so we ended up making an emergency landing in the south and caused a big stir and fuss.

In �71, we were tasked to fly three Blackbirds over North Vietnam, which was highly unusual. All other missions used only one airplane at a time. We took off first, refueled over Thailand, and headed north, with the other two planes following. The plan was for us to crisscross over Hanoi in thirty-second intervals at 78, 76, and 74 thousand feet respectively, at a certain point, which we later learned was over the Hanoi Hilton, the infamous POW prison, and deliver sonic booms, one after another. Later on, the vice commander of our squadron hinted that the purpose of the mission was to send a signal to the POWs, a fact I�ve never been able to confirm. Many years later, I talked to POWs who were in that prison at the time and they heard the sonic booms thirty seconds apart but insisted that they didn�t know what in hell it meant.

quote:

Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr.
(Air Force pilot)

In the fall of �82, I flew from Mildenhall on a mission over Lebanon in response to the Marine barracks bombing. President Reagan ordered photo coverage of all the terrorist bases in the region. The French refused to allow us to overfly, so our mission profile was to refuel off the south coast of England, a Mach 3 cruise leg down the coast of Portugal and Spain, left turn through the Straits of Gibraltar, refuel in the western Mediterranean, pull a supersonic leg along the coast of Greece and Turkey, right turn into Lebanon and fly right down main street Beirut, exit along the southern Mediterranean with another refueling over Malta, supersonic back out the straits, and return to England.

Because Syria had a Soviet SA-5 missile system just west of Damascus that we would be penetrating (we were unsure of Syria�s intentions in this conflict), we programmed to fly above eighty thousand feet and at Mach 3 plus to be on the safe side, knowing that this advanced missile had the range and speed to nail us. And as we entered Lebanon�s airspace my Recon Systems Officer in the rear cockpit informed me that our defensive systems display showed we were being tracked by that SA-5. About fifteen seconds later we got a warning of active guidance signals from the SA-5 site. We couldn�t tell whether there was an actual launch or the missile was still on the rails, but they were actively tracking us. We didn�t waste any time wondering, but climbed and pushed that throttle, and said a couple of �Hail Kellys.�

We completed our pass over Beirut and turned toward Malta, when I got a warning low-oil-pressure light on my right engine. Even though the engine was running fine I slowed down and lowered our altitude and made a direct line for England. We decided to cross France without clearance instead of going the roundabout way. We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. He came up on our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I told him to stand by. I asked my backseater, who said, �Don�t worry about it. I just gave it to him.� What he had given him was �the bird� with his middle finger. I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel.

Only meant to post three, but copied out an extra on accident, so gently caress you, you get to read it. The book has tons more interesting poo poo, highly recommended if you like boners.

# ? Jan 28, 2014 05:18

Handsome Ralph: Sep 3, 2004; Oh boy, posting!
That's where I'm a Viking!

Hydrogen Oxide posted:

Posting poo poo from Skunk Works by Ben Rich because SR-71 stories get my dick rock hard.

Only meant to post three, but copied out an extra on accident, so gently caress you, you get to read it. The book has tons more interesting poo poo, highly recommended if you like boners.

SR-71 stories get me rock hard every time. Thanks for posting this, definitely going to go buy it at the used bookstore I saw it at last weekend.

# ? Jan 28, 2014 17:13

Time Crisis Actor: Apr 28, 2002; by Hand Knit

Hydrogen Oxide posted:

Posting poo poo from Skunk Works by Ben Rich because SR-71 stories get my dick rock hard.

Only meant to post three, but copied out an extra on accident, so gently caress you, you get to read it. The book has tons more interesting poo poo, highly recommended if you like boners.

Those were awesome. Buying this book like yesterday.

# ? Jan 31, 2014 21:17

zokie: Feb 13, 2006; Out of many, Sweden

Once again I need to come in here and thank the gently caress out of the people who recommended books!

Little America: Holy poo poo! Afganistan is hosed, but still the author manages to make me not catatonic from sadness and depression. The book describes all that is wrong with both the military and civilian side of the foreign intervention into Afganistan and provides a lot of history to the whole subject. If you in any way shape or formed liked the documentary "This is what winning looks like" this is the book for you.

The last stand of the tin can sailors: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! The greatness of this book is only a small fraction of the bravery and kick-assness of the sailors abord the 3 destoryers and 3 destroyer escorts of Taffy 3, and it's one of the best books I've ever read. It has big-rear end cannons, it has David vs. Goliath style-showdowns of piddly DEs facing down heavy cruisers and it has a torpedo bomber pilot flying upside down over a Japanese ship emptying his service revolver in the hope of doing any sort of damage. Or at least distracting the might Japanese ships from mercilessly destroying several US Carrier Escorts.

Please read this book, other highlights are: Sharks, first Kamikaze ever, first (only?) carrier being downed by naval gunfire, fist Kamikaze kill, one dude saving a downed pilot by landing on a jap airfield picking the dude up and lifting of while strafing!

List of totally awesome books I've read from this thread: To the limit, Little America, Last stand of the tin can sailors.
Next: Achilles in Vietnamn, Matterhorn.

Keep them recommendations going!

Ninja edit: the big balled dude firing his revolver from his plane at a cruiser was the same dude that picked up the pilot on an enemy airfield. How did he get his plane in the air with such big balls?

# ? Feb 8, 2014 22:53

McNally: Sep 13, 2007; Ask me about Proposition 305

Do you like muskets?

zokie posted:

The last stand of the tin can sailors: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! The greatness of this book is only a small fraction of the bravery and kick-assness of the sailors abord the 3 destoryers and 3 destroyer escorts of Taffy 3, and it's one of the best books I've ever read. It has big-rear end cannons, it has David vs. Goliath style-showdowns of piddly DEs facing down heavy cruisers and it has a torpedo bomber pilot flying upside down over a Japanese ship emptying his service revolver in the hope of doing any sort of damage. Or at least distracting the might Japanese ships from mercilessly destroying several US Carrier Escorts.

You're forgetting the battleships. There were battleships shooting at those destroyer escorts too, including the Yamato.

I'm surprised one of the reviews on the back wasn't just "AAAAAAAAAAAA"

# ? Feb 9, 2014 19:40

drgitlin: Jul 25, 2003; luv 2 get custom titles from a forum that goes into revolt when its told to stop using a bad word.

I just finished Hunter Killers, which looks at what the Royal Navy's submarines have been doing since the end of WWII. It's told through the careers of four submariners, starting out on war-era diesel subs that sounded horrific and ending up with the new Astute SSNs. It's a fascinating look at a part of the cold war that not many people know about.

# ? Feb 12, 2014 00:08

ming-the-mazdaless: Nov 30, 2005; Whore funded horsepower

Somewhat topical and relevant to the discussion around the euro/ukraine intervention balls:
SADF border war 1966-1989 written by Leopold Scholtz
http://www.amazon.com/The-SADF-Border-War-1966-1989/dp/0624054101

# ? Feb 12, 2014 15:34

Madurai: Jun 26, 2012

Found in flea market: Mutiny, the story of the alleged defection attempt in 1974 by the crew of Storozhevoy, a Krivak-I serving in the Baltic. Boris Gindin, the ship's engineer at the time, wrote this memoir after being strafed, bombed, run out of the service and then the country, and seeing his story make Tom Clancy millions of dollars.

# ? Feb 21, 2014 17:53

Waroduce: Aug 5, 2008

I would like to share this with ya'll
Sled Driver:

rcman50166 posted:

I'm not sure what the legality of this is, but there appears to be a .pdf of it as well, for us poor folk.

# ? Mar 4, 2014 04:06

Lead Psychiatry: Dec 22, 2004; I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?

Does anyone know of any books dealing with the Hmong peoples and their contribution in Vietnam and rebellion in Laos that isn't this? If I have to, I'll start with the Tragic Mountains book. But I'm reluctant to do so when the criticisms all say she peddles the Yellow Rain myth wholeheartedly and knowing that is going to skew my view of her information. So will still need another book to keep perspective.

# ? Mar 21, 2014 10:07

quantumfoam: Dec 25, 2003

Just started reading Widows, a book about the fuckups of US counter intelligence versus the USSR.
Only 51 pages in so far, but it's hilarious and :tinfoil:

-ville at the same time.

pg. 12. "Chinese boys were supplied to Kronthal in Switzerland. He was secretly filmed and then blackmailed."
pg. 47. Washington DC sex clubs that "service" CIA dudes, US Senators, Czech spies, and Carl Bernstein(watergate dude).

http://amzn.com/0671684191

# ? May 2, 2014 21:25

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

About a quarter of the way through A Nightmare's Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot's War in Afghanistan. So far the positives about the book is that it paints a very bleak picture of how just how hosed the early days of Afghanistan were, which was mostly due to bullshit ROE, training handicaps, inter-service idiocy, and the political poo poo back in the US.

Much of this isn't talked about in great detail. It's done with little asides and anecdotes in a way that definitely builds a picture of the era. What I really like about the book is the author's relationship with the Harrier. A lot of the aviation stuff seriously hits home with me. Guys love their jets, but hate them all at the same time for their limitations and quirks. The Harrier itself is as much of a threat to the pilot as anything else in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003LL2XVY/ref=oh_d__o00_details_o00__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

# ? Jul 13, 2014 05:45

gleep gloop: Aug 16, 2005; GROSS SHIT

I randomly downloaded a list of the 100 best Sci-fi/Fantasy books according to NPR a few weeks back. I finally got around to reading them and finished 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Forever War, and I'm about to start The Mote in God's Eye.

The book 2001 is a good bit different from the film, but still amazing. It's different in the way Kubrick's Shining was different from Stephen King's. What I mean is it's amazing but a pretty different experience. Even if you've seen them film (if you haven't, see it) I really recommend giving it a read. It's short to, so any of you idiots can get through it in a few days tops. The overall themes about the wonders of discovery, being scared of the unknown, mind-fucks etc are all still there. The scene with the tree people becoming intelligent takes up nearly the first third of the book but it's a very good read.

The Forever War was absolutely fantastic. If you've read Starships Troopers it's a pretty similar book to that. It uses a sci-fi setting and exaggeration to speak about things you probably experienced in the military. The world changing while you're out on the rear end end of nowhere, incompetent uncaring people in charge, awkward transition to civilian life, the military pulling a bait and switch etc. It can be a bit preachy about the ethics of killing and stuff but it was a really good book. Pretty short to, longer than 2001 but not a hard read at all if you've got a little free time.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 08:36

OMFG PTSD LOL PBUH: Sep 9, 2001

Wanna peep that NPR list.. Link or C/P?

# ? Jul 13, 2014 20:13

gleep gloop: Aug 16, 2005; GROSS SHIT

Obama Africanus posted:

Wanna peep that NPR list.. Link or C/P?

I don't have PMs so what's your steam/email or w/e?

# ? Jul 13, 2014 20:21

gleep gloop: Aug 16, 2005; GROSS SHIT

Oh wait you just wanna see what's on it? Ok yeah one second.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore (not included)
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman (not included)
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

# ? Jul 13, 2014 20:22

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

The Mote In God's Eye really lost steam in the last third. I put it down shortly after CHAOS ENSUES (you'll know which part I'm referring to.

That book I posted about yesterday? Yea, I quit mid-way through. It's a lot of pilot self-loathing and introspection without hardly any sweet Harrier action. Not worth your time.

Gonna start Matterhorn today since you all couldn't quit cumming about it.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 20:56

krispykremessuck: Jul 22, 2005; unlike most veterans and SA members $10 is not a meaningful expenditure for me

I'm gonna have me a swag Bar-B-Q

Since we're not limiting to mil books, in the non-fiction realm I'd recommend Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer if you haven't already read it. P tite book

e: also Shackleton

# ? Jul 13, 2014 21:00

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

krispykremessuck posted:

Since we're not limiting to mil books, in the non-fiction realm I'd recommend Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer if you haven't already read it. P tite book

e: also Shackleton

That book loving owns. Jon Krakauer generally does some pretty great stuff.

I hope everyone in here has a Kindle Paperwhite. It's indispensable.

bloops fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Jul 13, 2014

# ? Jul 13, 2014 21:11

NAPALM STICKS TO: Jun 22, 2005

The Climb by Anatoly Boukreev is on the same topic as Into Thin Air and way better. Into Thin Air is well-written, but kind of full of poo poo.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 21:57

krispykremessuck: Jul 22, 2005; unlike most veterans and SA members $10 is not a meaningful expenditure for me

I'm gonna have me a swag Bar-B-Q

white privilege posted:

The Climb by Anatoly Boukreev is on the same topic as Into Thin Air and way better. Into Thin Air is well-written, but kind of full of poo poo.

That's a reach, but I know what you mean here. They're two different styles of books and the problem with The Climb is that if you're not already kind of in-the-know with mountaineering stuff it's not gonna be engaging. Which is why I wouldn't recommend it as a general-reading kind of thing.

edit: also I'm not going to participate in the Krakauer/Boukreev dickwaving about who was right and who was wrong in a stupid situation where everyone was in the wrong

# ? Jul 13, 2014 22:10

pantslesswithwolves: Oct 28, 2008; Ba-dam ba-DUMMMMMM

If you're into adventure writing, the anthology collections of Mark Jenkins are really good. Dude was a columnist for Outside Magazine and now works for National Geographic, and his books "A Man's Life" and "The Hard Way" are great. He also wrote a book about cycling across Russia called "Off the Map" that is pretty :stare:

at times.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:05

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

Moving away from the realm of mil books, The First Law series is actually really good fantasy similar to Game Of Thrones if that's your thing.

3 books and 2 stand alone ones.

American Gods is thoroughly mediocre. At least I thought so. Boring as poo poo.

bloops fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Jul 13, 2014

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:52

The Rat: Aug 29, 2004; You will find no one to help you here. Beth DuClare has been dissected and placed in cryonic storage.

3 stand-alones; Red Country was the latest. :eng101:

But yes, all of Joe Abercrombie's stuff is absolutely solid.

Laird Barron is pretty great if you're into the Lovecraftian cosmic horror kind of stuff as well.

# ? Jul 14, 2014 00:11

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

Hey Shim, you're a well read dude and I've seen you post about Roman poo poo. Have you read I, Claudius? Thoughts?

# ? Jul 16, 2014 04:24

Mustang: Jun 18, 2006; “We don’t really know where this goes — and I’m not sure we really care.”

If you're interested in Roman historical fiction check out the Marcus Didius Falco series of books by Lindsey Davis. He's kind of like a Roman era private investigator/secret agent. Her books are all pretty well researched and historically accurate. The first one is The Silver Pigs, most of the series is in the 4-4.5 star range on Amazon.

# ? Jul 16, 2014 05:07

Kung Fu Fist Fuck: Aug 9, 2009

if any of you like ancient historical fiction like gates of fire, peep isle of stone. its kind of a weird book, but theres some hilarious poo poo in it, such as

this fuckin book haha posted:

antalcidas' heart was pounding now, surging with exhilaration, for there was no feeling like being swept before a clanking human beast of ten thousand legs, propelled unstoppably toward that wall of hostile spears. his urine coursed down his legs, but not in fear - in time, with the inevitability of it, he would ejaculate too, for there would be much loving to do that day. he would rip pussies for them all, the men he would penetrate with his spear. as his men watched in wonder, he charged into the arms of the enemy, letting out as he ran a wail of joy like a man coming into his beautiful bride.

# ? Jul 16, 2014 06:19

OMFG PTSD LOL PBUH: Sep 9, 2001

holocaust bloopers posted:

Hey Shim, you're a well read dude and I've seen you post about Roman poo poo. Have you read I, Claudius? Thoughts?

You can just read Tacitus straight and translated and make your own Claudius slash fic if you like. That's what old boy did with those books, and later said so.. But they're fun and I'd give it a whirl.

I've said this somewhere else but every armchair historian douche bag human being claiming to know anything will say they've read Gibbons' history of Rome but usually if they're not outright lying they read the 800 page kindle ebook version.. If you get all 6 volumes with his notes (on the reg less than 30 bucks but you can find it at 99 cents sometimes) and a good Latin/Greek dictionary to have on hand while reading you'll get a no poo poo full on education that also entertains and amazes when you put all of it in context.

Read Gibbons. All grown men should at least put that on a bucket list back burner, it's the last true history of "us" and Howard Zinn is a dick suck sycophant compared to gibbons, and I love Zinn.

And yeah I get that they were separated by things like a few centuries but whenever you start talking what's good history poo poo to read you never don't see them come up. But Gibbons is so goddamn intellectually honest (for a white guy speaking English writing a retrospect) you have to start there and just read everyone else in whatever sequence you like afterwards.

And don't forget, before you read any roman slash fic, start with the real poo poo- it's always way more awesome than the remix. Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo for example.

Slim Shady can't spit shots sick as that and claim it's original just because the copyright ran out two thousand years ago

OMFG PTSD LOL PBUH fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jul 16, 2014

# ? Jul 16, 2014 06:33

bloops: Dec 31, 2010; Thanks Ape Pussy!

Amazon had the Kindle version of all 6 volumes for 2 bucks. Yea. Bought.

# ? Jul 16, 2014 06:39

OMFG PTSD LOL PBUH: Sep 9, 2001

quote:

Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo,
Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi,
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis,
quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum.
nam castum esse decet pium poetam
ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est;
qui tum denique habent salem ac leporem
si sunt molliculi ac parum pudici
et quod pruriat incitare possunt,
non dico pueris sed his pilosis
qui duras nequeunt movere lumbos.
vos, quod milia multa basiorum
legistis, male me marem putatis?
pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.

quote:

I will sodomise and face-gently caress you,
cocksucking Aurelius and poofter Fucius,
because you thought me, because of my little verses,
which are a bit sissy, indecent.
For a proper poet should be pure,
himself, but his poems don�t need to be;
indeed, they have salt and wit
if they�re sissified and indecent,
and only when they can arose an itch,
not, I say, in boys, but those hairy men
who cannot move their rough cocks.
Because you�ve read of my thousands of kisses,
you suppose I�m a soft man?
I will sodomise and then skull-gently caress you.

Catallus owned.

# ? Jul 16, 2014 06:43

Godholio: Aug 28, 2002; Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

Obama Africanus posted:

Read Gibbons. All grown men should at least put that on a bucket list back burner, it's the last true history of "us" and Howard Zinn is a dick suck sycophant compared to gibbons, and I love Zinn.

And yeah I get that they were separated by things like a few centuries but whenever you start talking what's good history poo poo to read you never don't see them come up. But Gibbons is so goddamn intellectually honest (for a white guy speaking English writing a retrospect) you have to start there and just read everyone else in whatever sequence you like afterwards.

Gibbon was not intellectually honest in the way we define it today. He was very much a historian of the Enlightenment, and wrote his histories from the perspective of "how these things raised us up above our ancestors." He comes at the subject in a very tautological way. He basically starts from the end state and works backward, tweaking as needed to make the story fit his argument and hold sway over non-historian readers. That second part's not a terrible thing, though.

It's definitely on my list to read...I want to read the entire drat thing, but as a historical work it tells us more about the minds of enlightened scholars than it does about the Roman Empire. As a historical piece it's actually used as an example of what not to do.

# ? Jul 16, 2014 07:26

OMFG PTSD LOL PBUH: Sep 9, 2001

I thought the whole "White english speaking dude" caveat covered that but hey

For those that don't know, Godholio actually teaches this kind of poo poo for a living so he's more than likely right and I'm almost certainly wrong. My education on the matter cost 99 cents like I said, and it's value probably shows.

:shobon:

# ? Jul 16, 2014 16:06

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 04:24

quantumfoam: Dec 25, 2003

I thought it was godholio's dream career, no idea he was able to land a job teaching history.

anyway if you're willing to visit creepy public libraries & do library inter-loan stuff you can find a ton of mil-history reading material.
Back when I lived in CT, I was able to read the 1909 reprints of gibbons "rise & fall of the roman empire" from the shelton ct public library for free.

and if you're willing to dive into the autism/aspergers pool that is military wargaming, alot of the avalon hill games & most of the non-self published studies on wargaming have references to seminal mil-history works. The US Navy sponsors a shitload of military history studies & wargaming concepts.
....it's how I learned about InfoChess.

I still can't decide if InfoChess is the stupidest or smartest thing I've ever heard of regarding modelling war scenarios.

quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jul 16, 2014

# ? Jul 16, 2014 18:16

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