ShirlD Posted 19 May , 2014 Share Posted 19 May , 2014 Holts battlefield guides and Anzacs on the Western Front, from cover to cover! Cheers Shirley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 20 May , 2014 Share Posted 20 May , 2014 In between learning about the Belgian Army's Strategy (as that is my new job... ) I'm taking Masefield's "the Old Front Line" with me on the train tomorrow and will after that at last start with Robert Ryan's "Dead Man's Land" !! MM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenneth505 Posted 20 May , 2014 Share Posted 20 May , 2014 Barbuese Le Feu available at Guttenberg. I thought it readable from that source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robigunner88 Posted 21 May , 2014 Share Posted 21 May , 2014 Just finished 'Gallipoli: The Fatal Shore' by Harvey Broadbent and now returned to focusing my Great War readings on 1914 by moving on to 'Ypres: The First Battle 1914' by Ian Beckett. Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 21 May , 2014 Share Posted 21 May , 2014 Barbuese Le Feu available at Guttenberg. I thought it readable from that source. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkTurner Posted 24 May , 2014 Share Posted 24 May , 2014 Currently reading FIGHTER ACES! The Constable Maxwell Brothers Fighter Pilots in Two World Wars by Alex Revell originally published as 'The Vivid Air' in 1978. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFBSM Posted 24 May , 2014 Share Posted 24 May , 2014 Currently reading Gallipoli:A Ridge Too Far, edited by Ashley Ekins. It has expanded my knowledge substantially and would recommend it to those interested in the August Offensives especially, the discussions of the Turkish responses to the attacks are most interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 26 May , 2014 Share Posted 26 May , 2014 Can't wait to get the new Robert Ryan !!! His Dr Watson is absolutely fabulous!! Well written, a page turner to the end... makes the trip to work a real pleasure... one would easily forget to get of the train just to continue reading! Now started "Les carnets de guerre de Louis Barthas, tonnelier". Louis Barthas was 35, father of two when the war broke out and he was called under colours. He would spend the whole war on the front and keep a journal on scraps of paper, which he copied after the war, to keep the experience for posteriority. He was a simple corporal, but very literate. the book itself is amazingly well written. You don't just read about life in the trenches, you LIVE it. While reading, you're there. It's a masterpiece!! I just discovered that is has been translated this year and published by Yale University Press under the title: Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker. Next on the list is then not reading, but writing: I have to start my Historical Guide to the Yzer 2014 !! MM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 26 May , 2014 Share Posted 26 May , 2014 Now started "Les carnets de guerre de Louis Barthas, tonnelier". MM and B, I read tonnelier and immediately thought, excellent, something about French mining operations. Lucky you translated the title otherwise I would make a fool of myself with French yet again. If only I had concentrated when I was at school. It sounds a good read even if it doesn't descend into the earth....... Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug504 Posted 26 May , 2014 Share Posted 26 May , 2014 Currently reading "Crumps and Camouflets" by Damien Finlayson, another addition to my collection of underground warfare books. Packed full of information and written in a very readable style. Recently received a "Kindle paperwhite" as a birthday present and at £6 this book was a bargain addition. I believe the present was a cunning ploy by my wife to try to reduce the amount of shelf space devoted to WW1 books! I must say after resisting the temptation to purchase a Kindle for some while, using the "I prefer real books" excuse, I'm a convert. Shelf space being no longer an issue, the collection I suspect, is going to mushroom! Doug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenneth505 Posted 26 May , 2014 Share Posted 26 May , 2014 I must say after resisting the temptation to purchase a Kindle for some while, using the "I prefer real books" excuse, I'm a convert. But it seems to me that so many of the books we discuss aren't digitized yet and may not be for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 27 May , 2014 Share Posted 27 May , 2014 Probably not the right place to discuss the use of Kindles & their like but they still make me fear for the future of the printed book. I suspect a lot if not most people are down-loading books that they've already seen in a bookshop or library. Simple economics suggests that the former, at least, will eventually disappear and the online booksites don't really offer the same browsing environment. They're OK if you know what you're looking for but there's little chance of a serendipitous encounter with an unknown but potentially interesting book. This must surely lead to less variety becoming available. Beware of taking the easy option before it becomes the only option! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 1 June , 2014 Share Posted 1 June , 2014 Just finished reading 'Backs to the wall' by G.D Mitchell , the memoir of a 'digger' from the Somme ( he also fought at Gallipoli but his time there is not covered in this book) , Bullecourt , Messines, Spring Offensive, Hamel. He is given a commission in the field and also wins the D.C.M and M.C ( which he is too modest to mention) , although inches from death on many occasions he survives the war without a scratch. A superb memoir , one of the best I have read. The book was originally published by Angus & Robertson in 1937 and was reprinted by Allen & Unwin in 2007 in paperback ( I believe it is also available on something called kindle? ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 1 June , 2014 Share Posted 1 June , 2014 Thank you for the recommendation blackmaria. I have an Australian colleague who is shortly returning to her homeland. I think you have just suggested her leaving present! I have just picked up "Mapping the First World War" in a secondhand bookshop. Have only heard good things about it so I am looking forward to starting it next week David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdproject Posted 2 June , 2014 Share Posted 2 June , 2014 Shock Troops, Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917-1918, by Tim Cook an awesome accounting of the CEF battles and individual first hand descriptions of young Canadian soldiers being put through the meat grinder. IMHO all generals on both sides should have been lined up against a wall. Great read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 Can't wait to get the new Robert Ryan !!! His Dr Watson is absolutely fabulous!! Well written, a page turner to the end... makes the trip to work a real pleasure... one would easily forget to get of the train just to continue reading! I've recently done a 'fact and fiction' talk with Rob Ryan in London which was great fun, and very different to what I usually do. The third book won't be long, and I understand he's been asked for one 'Watson' a year for the following three years - so through the centenary period. Poor old Watson will be exhausted! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yelob Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 Focusing now on the cultural history of the war and its aftermath. Two great ones came my way recently Winter's Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning which is a very challenging look at the complex business of remembering/forgetting/commemorating and dealing with loss at all levels. Also in the same vein is Audoin-Rouzeau's 1914-1918. Looking at the war this way is initially challenging but well worth the effort. Liam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 Focusing now on the cultural history of the war and its aftermath. Two great ones came my way recently Winter's Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning which is a very challenging look at the complex business of remembering/forgetting/commemorating and dealing with loss at all levels. Also in the same vein is Audoin-Rouzeau's 1914-1918. Looking at the war this way is initially challenging but well worth the effort. Liam If those go well with you, you might also enjoy 'The Last Veteran' by Peter Parker and the recently published 'The Long Shadow' by David Reynolds. (Blimey, I'm starting to sound like Amazon!) David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hastings Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 See how easily it's done David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 See how easily it's done David Yes I must admit I thought of the unfair aspersions cast your way by Pete and me, as I was posting David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yelob Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 Thanks David, I appreciate it......kind of. I had eyed up the Vol 3 Cambridge which looks great on this stuff. I have the money just about for it however I may go instead for the Parker book and eat as well. My family will also gain with the latter option so your post may be very timely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 6 June , 2014 Share Posted 6 June , 2014 right now reading "The Unending Vigil" by Philip Longworth. It's good, very interesting but a little bit more structure would have done no harm !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 6 June , 2014 Share Posted 6 June , 2014 Just finished From Boer War to World War: Tactical Reform of the British Army, 1902-1914 - Spencer Jones Puts British tactics Mons to 1st Ypres into perspective and illustrates how the army wasn't as hide bound s some might have it (and in some ways ahead of the German and French) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarylW Posted 6 June , 2014 Share Posted 6 June , 2014 Probably not the right place to discuss the use of Kindles & their like but they still make me fear for the future of the printed book. I suspect a lot if not most people are down-loading books that they've already seen in a bookshop or library. Simple economics suggests that the former, at least, will eventually disappear and the online booksites don't really offer the same browsing environment. They're OK if you know what you're looking for but there's little chance of a serendipitous encounter with an unknown but potentially interesting book. This must surely lead to less variety becoming available. Beware of taking the easy option before it becomes the only option! Unfortunately, Kindle is both the easy and only option now for me because I can't hold printed books any more to read. I do remember serendipitous moments finding a treasure in an old bookshop. I still browse in them now and can't resist picking up one or two. I love books, particularly old ones and I'd hate to see the demise of bookshops and libraries but Kindle has been a godsend to me. I also download and read a lot of books onto Kindle from archive.org. Books that I'd probably never be able to read otherwise. Back to 'What WW1 book are you reading' At the moment I'm reading (on kindle) 'More than Bombs and Bandages: Australian Army nurses at work in World War One' Kirsty Harris. Very interesting and for an academic work it is very reasonably priced. Much of it would be of interest to anyone researching the work of British nurses because Australian nurses served in British hospitals or British army nursing units as part of the Australian Army Nursing Service in Egypt, England, France, Gallipoli, Italy, Burma, Salonica and India. Also Australian units, as well as hospital ships and in Australian hospitals for the wounded. The book was recommended to me by Sue. After that probably 'The White War: Life and death on the Italian Front 1915-1919' Mark Thompson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 7 June , 2014 Share Posted 7 June , 2014 Dan, A Memorial Memorial book printed for private circulation in 1918. 9th Rifle Brigade Officer Captain Daniel Edward Bradby, O.C. "D" Coy, killed in action on the Harp 9/4/17. Although you always know the sad ending of these memorial book they are absorbing and very useful for putting a bit of life into the battalion rather that the dry war diary excerpts. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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