Current Events > Reading Thread Forever

(+) Yeah! (+)

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Dune part 2 will probably just cover Dune. The director has said hed like to do Dune Messiah though.

Finished Six Frigates, got snotty a couple times. RIP Lawrence and Decatur.
Gonna read some Poetry for Lit tomorrow + the lighter Navy readings.

cuh posted... I love Krazy Kat!
https://i.vgy.me/zV7FrE.jpg

Currently my most favorite video game book. My only gripe is that it's not a hardcover. I hope they release an English version of the Iceborne edition.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/268d727d.jpg

Anyone have any recommendations for books with supernatural cults, occult horror, lots of magic, or cosmic horror (that's not just lovecraft)

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I'll check it out thanks!

Read about The Battle of Lake Erie today. All things considered Perry seems like one of the more reasonable Navy fellows.
Also found a cool manhua, I need to investigate that medium more.

Halfway thru Barbary Terror. Decatur+wife sound like ripe material for a romantic novel/film tbh
>she sees his portrait in cabin of ship
>next evening is introduced to him by her father
>whirlwind romance of four months before marriage
>writes to Secretary of Navy asking him to give her husband a shore post so they can be together
>he ends up sailing for Algiers but asks for early relief and a shore post when he gets back

Finished Barbary Terror today, not as interesting as Six Frigates, but still not a bad read.

cuh posted...

Which is the lowest book you own/have read?

I have that Capitalism and Schizophrenia book and read like 50 pages (understood like 10 of them)

Legit probably that Bionicle one lmao otherwise maybe...Don Quixote or Odyssey...

I've started reading Child of God

tbh i picked it up because i got it confused w/ a movie that i thought was based on this book but i was dead wrong wtf.

the movie City of God lmao

Ratchetrockon posted...

I've started reading Child of God

tbh i picked it up because i got it confused w/ a movie that i thought was based on this book but i was dead wrong wtf.

the movie City of God lmao

How do you like it so far?

Disney is a big blank spot for me actually, I'm vaguely aware of Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, Topolino but otherwise no clue ^ European comics usually have great art, probably solid adaptations.
I took advantage of that Princeton Press sale actually and got my books today! Went for Lost Animals, Theropods+Sauropods, and Medieval Bestiary. Lol all animal themed. Thank you cuh!

Juhanor posted...

How do you like it so far?

Oh God I barely read it tbh. I'm at 16% of the way through the book based on page number. Ive been too distracted on other things.

But So far it's good. Very detailed prose. The mc is a racist peeping tom weirdo tho unfortunately . I'll keep reading to see him get his comeuppance hopefully

Just finished the Dark Tower series last night, what a hell of a ride.

Next book is by William Gibson, about the computer age beginning in Victorian England, called The Difference Engine. Really looking forward to it.

Damn Lester is really messed up. I'm halfway through Child of God. I didnt think he'd do freaky stuff with a corpse. But I guess there were signs of Lester being sexually frustrated earlier on.

Also this passage still confuses me from a few pages back

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ce3c66f0.jpg

What does blue panthers mean? Also what type of posters do post offices even have? .

After some digging I think he may be looking at either stamp posters like this:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/143978aa.jpg

Or Fbi's most wanted posters. Apparently post offices used to have them:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/bd53539f.jpg

But I feel like I'm totally off-base still.

I wish I had the attention span to read.

Lester is on a rampage rn. This chapter caught me off guard i had to reread the last part a bunch of times to make sure the author wasn't being figurative lol. I thought Lester was just gonna stay on the down low after murdering this girl and her baby but nah.

Dark_Arbron posted...

I wish I had the attention span to read.

Everybody starts somewhere!! You could try poems, short stories or sequential art.

Gonna start back reading Shogun, along side the tv show. This book is over 1,000 pages, so its definitely gonna take me awhile to finish it.

You know a novel is memorable if you still remember names and lines 30-40 years later.

I finished Child of God last night. Fitting end for Lester is all I have to say.

I planned on reading a more lighthearted book afterward but decided not to for now because of my morbid curiosity. Gonna read Outer Dark by the same author (Cormac Mccarthy).

Actually had a chance to pick Bleach back up yesterday, Kubo's use of black+white is insane.

Awesome moon:
https://i.vgy.me/2QDLue.jpg

Read a little more Bleach today, maybe a couple more volumes before bed.
Manga is awesome.

Reading Unit Cohesion and Warfare in the Ancient World: Military and Social Approaches.

Dr. Roel Konijnendijk section on the Athenian army is pretty interesting and building on the work of Jason Crowley in The Psychology of the Athenian Hoplite: The Culture of Combat in Classical Athens. The chapter explores way the Athenian levy achieved some level of unit cohesion despite the pretty poor level of organization it had, a proper way to think of the Athenian levy is to pretty much envision a mass of normal people armed with spears and shields with almost non-existent training.

HannibalBarca3 posted...

The chapter explores way the Athenian levy achieved some level of unit cohesion despite the pretty poor level of organization it had, a proper way to think of the Athenian levy is to pretty much envision a mass of normal people armed with spears and shields with almost non-existent training.

How effective were they as a combat unit? Your description reminds me of America's militia from my recent college readings--normal people with personal weapons and almost non-existent training.

I finished reading The Well of Ascension yesterday, but I plan to start Yumi and the Nightmare Painter instead of immediately finishing the first Mistborn era. Oh and speaking of Brandon Sanderson books he announced another book the other day, and plans to first sell it along the Words of Radiance leatherbound version on Backerkit. This new book has no title yet, but he is calling it another Secret Project and I'm actually in time to back this one($50 for just that one).

I've finished 7 book this year so far, so I'm doing great for my new year's resolution. It's all been Cosmere stuff though so my non-Sanderson list of books I haven't read is piling up.

I'm reading:

Undead Samurai by Baptiste Pinson Wu
Neuromancer by William Gibson

Continuing with Outer Dark today. Been only reading a few pages a day since my last post but ill try to put more in tonight. Im on the part with the baby and old man .

Juhanor posted...

How effective were they as a combat unit? Your description reminds me of America's militia from my recent college readings--normal people with personal weapons and almost non-existent training.

I'll let the good doctor say it best:

The Athenian hoplite phalanx was a levy of eager amateurs. Its fighting ability rested on horizontal unit cohesion: it was wholly lacking in institutional organisation and training, but its members believed in their citys cause, and in combat they refused to let their friends and neighbours down. Their moral commitment gave their phalanx its strength. In a world of amateur armies, this was sometimes enough. Meanwhile, in a context of democratic and egalitarian ideology, tighter vertical unit cohesion and more extensive training were not welcome. The selfless bravery of the citizen hoplite was the military expression of the spirit of Athenian democracy, glorified as not merely sufficient, but ideal. This was the culture of combat Crowley analysed in peerless fashion.

The recommendations of authors like Xenophon seem to have gone mostly unheeded. Perhaps the methods they proposed reeked too strongly of Sparta. Perhaps, as they themselves seem to have realised, their authoritarian ideas were simply incompatible with the values of freeborn Athenians. Even they could not have guessed the consequence: the rulers of Macedon adopted all the improvements cited here, and their professional armies brought the freedom of the Greeks to an end.

The whole section is pretty damning on the Athenians.

In short, the Athenian hoplite militia lacked nearly all of the features that we associate with a military force worthy of the name. They had no combat training, no formation drill, no elaborated chain of command or small unit organisation, no unit traditions, no junior officer cadre, and no enforced disciplinary measures. They received no formal instruction in what they were expected to do, and their leaders were only nominally able to persuade or force them to do it. In these circumstances, the horizontal unit cohesion of the hoplites their commitment to their primary group, the values it stood for, and the goals it shared was absolutely essential. It was practically the only thing holding the Athenian phalanx together.

Essentially the Athenians lacked officer hierachy, they only had three officers the Lokhagoi, the taxiarkhoi and the strategoi, a culture that put emphasis on defying authority since the Athenians were pretty weary of any sort of authority and that includes military, lack of any sort of training. The chapter elaborates more on those points. I'm sure that the American militia at least had drill masters and was more organized, on top of that there was a regular professional army. IIRC the role of the American militia is romanticized in pop culture but in practice the American militia performed pretty poorly against the British army.

Oh wait looks like your parallel with the American militia was spot on.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b3602505.png

HannibalBarca3 posted...

Oh wait looks like your parallel with the American militia was spot on.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b3602505.png

Lol yup, I was reading about them as part of my Naval history course and this
HannibalBarca3 posted...

IIRC the role of the American militia is romanticized in pop culture but in practice the American militia performed pretty poorly against the British army.

was basically the sum of it. One of the British officers during the War of 1812 complimented their strength and vitality...specifically their ability to run away!
Assuming the Prussian officer mentioned is von Steuben, I actually live pretty close to his tomb.

RIP Toriyama
https://i.vgy.me/Sg6yvU.png

Ended up going with American Mosaic for my Immigration text; transcriptions of oral history interviews with American immigrants. First guy came from Sweden at age 17 in 1913 and had seen the sky lights after the Tunguska event, pretty cool.

cuh posted... :( I'm sorry cuh. I will say a prayer for you and yours. :(

Didn't get any reading done today, this daylight savings is messing me up.
cuh posted... :(
Thank you for sharing, and let me know if I can do anything else. We're all here for you. <3