Book recommendations

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TurdFondler said:
Can anyone recommend me a good book about ww1 aircraft?
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Does it just have to be on the various aircrafts used during the war, because there are plenty of illustrated reference material out there. I'm sure there's one that will additionally mention their wingspan, engine horsepower, etc.

As for me, well let's say I'm not a 100% sure what I'd like to settle on so I'll throw a couple of subjects out there.
1) Best book on the Mongol Empire with particular emphasis on military organization and governance. Alternative such could just be on their military in which case I'd like to know how they were equipped and organized and how they fought (i.e. tactics).

2) Best book on the later Roman Empire (i.e. sometime around the 3rd century or beyond). I've seen a few books on this, but I was wondering if anyone had any personal recommendation on this subject.

3) Best book(s) on the Roman Army. Note, I don't mind if you recommend books that pertain to a particular period for the Roman Army such as how it was during the early Republic (versus say how it was by the later stage of the empire). Again I'm just looking to see if any one has any personal recommendation, since there are a few books I've seen I may check out.

4) Again, something on the VOC i.e. the Dutch East India Company.

5) Something on the Mughal Empire or the Ottoman Empire that may not strictly pertain to a chronological narrative.

6) Best book on the Silk Road (again, as said above, I already know there are a few books on this).

7) Something on ancient India perhaps not focused squarely on a chronological narrative.
 
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The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov. The way he created an entire Universe so big and complex was mind blowing to me. I started with the main trilogy and ended fascinated. Years later a friend told me about the prequels/sequels and I bought them asap. My favorite collection of books no doubt about it.
 
Currently interested in some book that covers Ancient Egyptian civilization whose focus I would prefer be less on history and more on customs, beliefs, society, etc.
 
Anything from Star Wars Legends with the exception of Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi
 
AnsemSoD1 said:
Anything from Star Wars Legends with the exception of Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi
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If you haven't read Kenobi yet it's rather good. So is Mathew Stover's adaption of Revenge of the Sith. I haven't read it in a while but Labyrinth of Evil was a favourite in highschool. Nobody will probably ever recommend you read Death Troopers but it's a surprisingly decent read and quite different from anything else. Young Jedi Knights will probably be in every Salvation Army you go to and is a pretty solid series if you're interested in the Solo twins and Luke as a Jedi Master.
If you're new to reading the extended universe then the book Jedi vs Sith is a great starting point to learn the history, lore, eras, and see which storylines seem interesting for you to read. It encompasses everything from the era of the Sith to Luke and beyond. The EU is rather vast with stories from all sorts of time periods. This ancient website is also great for finding an era and books within it, but maybe better suited if you know already what you're looking for: https://www.starwarstimeline.net/Recommendations.htm
 
Interested, a little, in Hard Case Crime/Otto Penzler Presents Mysteries that aren't by the usual Christie-Carr-Sayers-Gardner-Queen or Chandler-Hammett-Macdonald-Woolrich ones (the well known and timeless ones)

Picked up some Donald Westlake. Any other recs? I hear Max Allan Collins, Ed McBain, and the like aren't horrible but I don't really know what I'm looking at.
 
Candidae said:
If you haven't read Kenobi yet it's rather good. So is Mathew Stover's adaption of Revenge of the Sith. I haven't read it in a while but Labyrinth of Evil was a favourite in highschool. Nobody will probably ever recommend you read Death Troopers but it's a surprisingly decent read and quite different from anything else. Young Jedi Knights will probably be in every Salvation Army you go to and is a pretty solid series if you're interested in the Solo twins and Luke as a Jedi Master.
If you're new to reading the extended universe then the book Jedi vs Sith is a great starting point to learn the history, lore, eras, and see which storylines seem interesting for you to read. It encompasses everything from the era of the Sith to Luke and beyond. The EU is rather vast with stories from all sorts of time periods. This ancient website is also great for finding an era and books within it, but maybe better suited if you know already what you're looking for: https://www.starwarstimeline.net/Recommendations.htm
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I liked Kenobi (Noted the parallels between the villain and Anakin's fates) and I am currently working my way through the Prequel Trilogy's novelizations (On the Phantom Menace at the moment). I also loved Labyrinth of Evil as well and I thought that everybody loved Death Troopers? Or have the JewTube trannies now turned on it as well?
 
I don't think it was this thread, but last week someone enthusiasticly suggested "catch-22" as a superb sarcastically funny military comedy book. I took them at their recommendation. They were fucking wrong.

I'm giving up halfway through. The jokes aren't subtle nor are they even funny. I see the comedy being aimed for, but is misses by a mile. It's not blackly funny, it's downright mean spirited. Every character is a contrarian strawman, and the "protagonist" Yossarian elicts no sympathy, he's an unlikeable coward and not the broken hero aimed for. This book sucks.

If whoever it was (or anyone else) wants to read a REAL funny military novel then I highly recommend M A S.H. the book the movie and TV series were drawn from. This is a gut-bustingly funny look at the lives of doctors in the Korean war as opposed to the lives of fuckups and criminal cowards in WW2.

Hawkeye Pierce is everything Yossarian was aimed at but failed completely to hit. Clever, insightful and selfish in an actually funny way. And with with a black guy named "Spearchucker Jones" and sneaking trips to Saigon to fuck The Epileptic Whore it's as delightfully non-PC as any Kiwi would wish.

Can't recommend it higher. The finest kind.
 
The Un-Clit said:
Catch-22
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It's one of the few comedy books where the reader never gets any real relief, like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I hated HGTTG for so long because of the ending, but as I've mulled over it over the years, I've realized the ending was perfect. If you want the usual literary fare and likable characters, Catch-22 is not for you.
 
56 others said:
It's one of the few comedy books where the reader never gets any real relief, like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I hated HGTTG for so long because of the ending, but as I've mulled over it over the years, I've realized the ending was perfect. If you want the usual literary fare and likable characters, Catch-22 is not for you.
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I'm all for dark and nonstandard novels, but if they are billed as a black comedy there needs to be actual comedy. A dark, angry enjoyable military read with black humor would be "The Short-Timers" by Gus Hasford, which was the basis for Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" . There's a line i'd like to paraphrase from near the end of that book:

"The Short-Timers is hard, Catch-22. You, you're just mean."
 
verissimus said:
Does it just have to be on the various aircrafts used during the war, because there are plenty of illustrated reference material out there. I'm sure there's one that will additionally mention their wingspan, engine horsepower, etc.

As for me, well let's say I'm not a 100% sure what I'd like to settle on so I'll throw a couple of subjects out there.
1) Best book on the Mongol Empire with particular emphasis on military organization and governance. Alternative such could just be on their military in which case I'd like to know how they were equipped and organized and how they fought (i.e. tactics).

2) Best book on the later Roman Empire (i.e. sometime around the 3rd century or beyond). I've seen a few books on this, but I was wondering if anyone had any personal recommendation on this subject.

3) Best book(s) on the Roman Army. Note, I don't mind if you recommend books that pertain to a particular period for the Roman Army such as how it was during the early Republic (versus say how it was by the later stage of the empire). Again I'm just looking to see if any one has any personal recommendation, since there are a few books I've seen I may check out.

4) Again, something on the VOC i.e. the Dutch East India Company.

5) Something on the Mughal Empire or the Ottoman Empire that may not strictly pertain to a chronological narrative.

6) Best book on the Silk Road (again, as said above, I already know there are a few books on this).

7) Something on ancient India perhaps not focused squarely on a chronological narrative.
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Are you looking for fiction or non-fiction? For a great fictional novel which covers some of this list, id go with "The Journeyer" by Gary Jennings. Easily the best fictional retelling of Marco Polo's journey along the Silk Road through to the heart of the Mongolian Empire and the court of Kublai Khan and back I've ever read. It also dips into a scathingly funny detour into India towards the latter part of the book as well.

For touching on the last days of the Western Roman Empire during the time the Visigoths sacked Rome and the reign of Theodric go with "Raptor" also by Jennings.

All his books are meticulously researched and feel accurate to the times, but be aware they are also full of raunchy deviant sex. Again it's topical to the time and place of the stories but may not go down as well with current social mores today though id expect any Kiwi to be smart enough to not let it be an issue.

If you were looking for non fiction sorry, im no help there. 😄
 
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