# The last book, magazine or newspaper you've read?



## Pong (Apr 28, 2009)

A very simple question to those who are viewing this thread, what was the last book, magazine or newspaper you've read?

Me, Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake. A pretty funny book, and several jokes are still stuck in my head.


-Pong


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## Lucky13 (Apr 28, 2009)

A book about the Dehavilland Vampire and it's service in the Swedish Air Force, by Bo Widfeldt and Åke Hall....


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## imalko (Apr 28, 2009)

A novel "The Grass Crown" by Colleen McCullough. Its about turbulent times of the eclipse of Roman Republic, with Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius beeing the main characters.


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## Screaming Eagle (Apr 28, 2009)

Street machine, now its Muscle Car Review


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## RabidAlien (Apr 28, 2009)

George R. R. Martin's "A Storm of Swords", book 3 in a (so far) 4-part fantasy series. Next is a book about Rommel.


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## mudpuppy (Apr 28, 2009)

"When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler" by David Glantz Jonathan House. Very informative book but reads like a textbook there is so much data on troop movements, division strengths, command changes, tactical maneuvers, etc.


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## timshatz (Apr 28, 2009)

Book. "Third Reich at War". Deals primarily with the domestic policies of Hitler's Germany from 1939 to 1945. Excellent book, well researched and written. Tons of footnotes. 

Highly recommended, especially for anyone who wants to know what it was like inside Germany during the war.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Apr 28, 2009)

Sgt. Dan Mills "Sniper One" pretty damn good.


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## Cota1992 (May 19, 2009)

I read Sniper One a few months back and I was impressed.
I'm reading Hell Hawks! The untold story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler's Whermact by Robert F. Dorr Thomas D. Jones.

I had a chance to visit with Mr Dorr yesterday and got my book signed.
It's about the 365th Fighter group- a P-47 outfit in the 9th Air Force, nice to read a detail account of a about a ground supression sqaudron.
I'm on the third chapter since this morning.


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## BombTaxi (May 19, 2009)

I usually have two books on the go at once, one fiction, one non-fiction. Currently my ficition is _The Best of H. P. Lovecraft_ - I don't think I will ever get bored of re-reading his work.

Non-fiction is _Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire_ by Brendan Simms, covers the period from the War of the Spanish Succession to the American War. Only two chapters in (barely past Blenhiem), but it is very well written and provocative.


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## Capt. Vick (May 20, 2009)

..."Doomed at the Start" about the USAAC pursuit pilots in the Phillipines at the begining of WWII. A really good book except we all know how it ends...sadly. I can't remember the author of hand but it shouldn't be hard to look up with a title like that. I bought mine used for next to nothing and you can also. Recommended!


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## Cota1992 (May 20, 2009)

I also read at least two at a time- I'm aslo reading Dairy of a Confederate Soldier: John S. Jackman of the Orpahan Brigade by William C. Davis along with Hell Hawks. I get a lot o stuff from the library as well and with dues dates, etc I some times find myeslf reading more than two at once, lol!
Art


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## Colin1 (May 20, 2009)

Cota1992 said:


> I'm also reading Dairy of a Confederate Soldier...


The nerve of the guy
his comrades are getting slaughtered and he's milking cows..


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## Cota1992 (May 20, 2009)

Hey Jeff Davis had to have his cream every morning!

Okay okay Diary of a Confederate Soldier...the fun of being dyslexic, I was looking at the book when I typed it...


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## Vassili Zaitzev (May 20, 2009)

Colin. 
Don't know what I'm gonna read yet, looking at Ghost Soldiers now.


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## vikingBerserker (May 20, 2009)

"German Air History – Ju 287 and EF 131"


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## Colin1 (May 20, 2009)

Currently reading

Critical Path - R Buckminster Fuller

Forbidden Archaeology - Michael J Cremo

VIMANA Aircraft of Ancient India - David Hatcher Childress

I'm reading one of Jeremy Clarkson's books (the blue one) but I'm not sure if anyone will be familiar with him outside of the UK, he's a TV car show presenter but he has a real gift for journalism; if you look beyond the overgrown schoolboy he has a funny, witty, socially very perceptive knack of getting his point over, I can read him for hours. I also recently picked up 

Tempest Pilot - C J Sheddan DFC RNZAF 

which I haven't started yet but has jumped the reading queue a bit. I've got a bit of a backlog behind that, I recently bought spectacles for seeing small detail close up but have needed them for much longer, unfortunately I did the denial thing and ended up buying books that I was genuinely interested in but then just left them sat around in piles because it hurt my eyes to sit and look at pages full of what appeared to be dancing ants. 

I now read whenever I get the time.


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## Cota1992 (May 20, 2009)

Colin1 said:


> I'm reading one of Jeremy Clarkson's books (the blue one) but I'm not sure if anyone will be familiar with him outside of the UK, he's a TV car show presenter but he has a real gift for journalism; if you look beyond the overgrown schoolboy he has a funny, witty, socially very perceptive knack of getting his point over, I can read him for hours.
> 
> 
> We've got BBC America where I live- Top Gear is one of my favorite shows.
> ...


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## Negative Creep (May 20, 2009)

I haven't read a book cover to cover in a while. I've read lots of chapters and parts after finishing my dissertation on the RAF in the Faar East. Now writing my last ever essay on the Holocaust, which is hard to read as it's so depressing!


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## pbfoot (May 20, 2009)

George E Kennan Memoirs 1925-1950
He was a career US diplomat including 
opening US embassy in Russia in 30's (40 people )
Prague 1938-39
Berlin 1939 - 1941 (99 people including dependents and remeber they were handling all the commonwealths affairs )
Portugal in 1943-44
Russia 1944-45
then Poland Japan NATO MarshallPlan 
What shocked me was how small the US diplomatic corps was


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## Cota1992 (May 20, 2009)

Finished the Confederate book and now starting another Aircraft book alongside of Hell Hawks (I don't like to but due to time restictions before it has to go back to the library I'm going to bump this to the top of the list)

New book:
A Dawn Like Thunder: The true story of Torpedo Squadron Eight by Robert J. Mrazek


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## Wildcat (May 20, 2009)

Just finished "Torpedo Leader" By W/C Patrick Gibbs. Fascinating book, highly recommended.


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## wheelsup_cavu (May 21, 2009)

Shinano: The Sinking of Japan's Secret Supership

It's about how a US submarine sank a Japanese aircraft carrier during World War II.
The Shinano was and I believe still is the largest vessel ever sank by a US submarine.


Wheelsup


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## Capt. Vick (May 21, 2009)

Let me know how that book is will you? 

Thanks, CV


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## fly boy (May 22, 2009)

avation history about the german secret weapons


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## BikerBabe (May 24, 2009)

"The First and the Last" by Adolf Galland, even though the various translators of my edition of the book can make it a little challenging.
Plus it's been a while since the last time I took time to read an english language book, so I'm brushing off my english here and practising it a bit.


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## Cota1992 (May 24, 2009)

Fisnished up the aircraft books- Hell Hawks was very good and I ran out of time on the Torperdo Squadron 8 book so I'll have to get it from the library again to finish it.

Now reading Winston Groom's "Vicksburg 1863" and "Warrior: The Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen" by Peter H. Capstick (The last work of ofne of my favorite writers)


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## lesofprimus (May 24, 2009)

Just finished reading The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien...


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## Maximowitz (May 24, 2009)

"Enemy In The Dark" by Peter Spoden (NJG5/NJG6)

An excellent book of his experience as a nightfighter pilot.


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## TonyM (Nov 2, 2011)

I just read Aviation Safety Magazine; parts of Finish Forty by Searce; three papers The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times, and the New York Times. I would have read more but I have things to do. 

TM


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## RabidAlien (Nov 5, 2011)

Just finished "Somme" by Lyn Macdonald. Really good history of the First Battle of the Somme, including a good amount of first-person perspectives, a look at the mindset of the commanding generals (and, by contrast, what conditions at the front ACTUALLY were like). Seemed to jump and skip a bit at times (the very end, they skip over the last push to take some ridges, and just give a page or two of "after-action" interview quotes from survivors. You get an idea of what happened in that last push, but...you weren't really there with the guys. All in all, not a bad book for someone who basically knew the name of the battle, and that (like most WW1 battles) it was an atrocious meatgrinder. Wasn't aware that tanks were first used (in small amounts, and generally three or four together...of which two or three broke down before ever engaging the enemy) here, and that the name "tank" came from Allied communications regarding these "land-ships", where they were referred to as "tanks" to deceive the Germans into thinking they were just trucks loaded with water coming up to the troops. Or so the book says (seems plausible, not sure if its 100% true or not).

Currently reading "Spellbound" by Larry Correia, my new favorite author. The dude has a wicked sense of humor/sarcasm! I love it!


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## tyrodtom (Nov 6, 2011)

I just finished Fighter Pilot, about Robin Olds, excellant book. He sounds like the kind of officer I would have liked to served under.
I was at Nakhon Phanom RTAFB when his 8 TFW was at Ubon RTAFB, his F-4's would occassionally give us some sooty lowlevel flybys on the way back from N. Vietnam.


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## razor1uk (Nov 6, 2011)

'Classic Racer' magazine...


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## v2 (Dec 18, 2011)

I just finished "Stolen Journey" by Oliver Philpot- the most thrilling escape story of the war...


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## imalko (Dec 18, 2011)

Reading John Jakes' "North South" these days...


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## syscom3 (Dec 18, 2011)

I finished "The Naked and the Dead" a few months ago. Now I'm midway through with "The Thin Red Line".


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## vikingBerserker (Dec 26, 2011)

"Patton's Airforce"


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## ToughOmbre (Dec 26, 2011)

*Book:* Re-read "Flags of our Fathers"

*Magazine:* January edition of "American Rifleman"

I don't read newspapers.......ever.

TO


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## stona (Dec 26, 2011)

Fw190 Volume One 1938-1943 by Smith and Creek.
Just about finished a first read through.
Steve


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## vikingBerserker (Dec 27, 2011)

_Air War Over Khalkin Gol - The Nomonhan Incident _by Vladimir Kotelnikov


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## v2 (Dec 31, 2011)

"Torpedo Leader" Pat Gibbs


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## nuuumannn (Jan 1, 2012)

_Hurricane_ by Leo McKinstry, currently reading Aeroplane Nov 2011 edition


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## phas3e (Jan 1, 2012)

Book - the Magic of reality - Richard Dawkins
Mag - Model aircraft "monthly" - Jan 2012


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## vikingBerserker (Jan 1, 2012)

_Lonely Vigil - Coastwatchers of the Solomons_ by Walter Lord. EXCELLENT Read!


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## BikerBabe (Jan 2, 2012)

Militærhistorie, dec. 2011.
FlyPast, dec. issue.
Aeroplane, dec. issue.
The Classic Motorcycle, dec. issue.
Book: Henrik Andersen: Morian Hansen - en legende. About danish speedway rider/RAF bomber gunner/booze smuggler/stock car driver/pilot Jens Henning Fisker Hansen, aka Morian.
...hm, and I sometimes wonder why my female friends think I'm hopeless to borrow books and magazines from?


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## wheelsup_cavu (Jan 31, 2012)

I just finished re-reading "The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle: Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot." 


Wheels


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## Capt. Vick (Jan 31, 2012)

"A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam" by Neil Sheehan


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## ToughOmbre (Jan 31, 2012)

"Retribution" by Max Hastings

The 1944-1945 war against Japan. Good read, but if you like Douglas MacArthur you won't like this book.

BTW, I'm not a MacArthur guy.

TO


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## wheelsup_cavu (Mar 19, 2012)

This months issue of WW II magazine.
World War II March/April 2012 Table of Contents


Wheels


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## oldcrowcv63 (Mar 21, 2012)

ToughOmbre said:


> "Retribution" by Max Hastings
> 
> The 1944-1945 war against Japan. Good read, but if you like Douglas MacArthur you won't like this book.
> 
> ...



Nor am I. Can you please tell me more? Would love to know how Mac's career survived the Phillipine debacle. He must have been heavily connected stateside. I suspect his lacky Sutherland contibuted greatly to the PI and Australian fiascos and am looking for some verification. Evidently Hap Arnold sent Kenney, an otherwise capable USAAF general to the south pacific as Macs air boss but within a year or two of chastizing Sutherland and straightening out the organization he joined the CoS in promoting Mac for president. Something seems fishy.

Had looked forward to reading *Black Cat Raiders *expecting a purely unit history but this USN Captain couldn't resist following the lead of his fellow brown shoe leaders in criticizing VAdm F. J, Fletcher's Guadacanal decsions. It's tiring to keep reading the same baseless trashing over and over by the same crowd. I say to my fellow airdales.. he was the winningest carrier commander of the war and he didn't have wings. Deal with it. Get over it.


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## Airframes (Mar 21, 2012)

Just finished 'Mosquitopanik', by Martin Bowman, an account of Mosquito ops in the ETO, from 1942 to 1945. A good read, with many accounts from air crew and combat reports, particularly night ops and 100 Group work.


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## jjp_nl (Mar 22, 2012)

A little while ago I got me this book. Bit of a let down to be honest...as in nothing really new on Schnauffer, no special pics, just the generic Nachtjagd pics everybody with a slight interest in the Nachtjagd and the Luftwaffe prolly has seen countless times, nothing really Schnauffer specific, not on the man, not on his a/c. Information mostly consists of summing up the lot of Schnauffers missions and victories, nothing of which can't be pieced together from various other standard works on the Nachtjagd, but of well...for a few Euro's it isn't too bad either


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## meatloaf109 (Mar 24, 2012)

"JG 26 Top Guns of the Lutfwaffe" by Donald L. Caldwell, foreword by Adolf Galland. This is the ultimate account of the "Abbeville boys" from inception to incineration.
16 pages of picts, many that I had never seen before, and just a good read with many technical details on the Me's and Fws that they used.


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## Capt. Vick (Mar 24, 2012)

Just finished "A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam" by Neil Sheehan. Am now starting "December 8, 1941 MacArthur's Pearl Harbor" by William H. Bartsch. (Looking forward to this after having read "Doomed at the Start".) After this will read "Everyday a nightmare" also by Bartsch, then the three book Bloody Schambles series.... That is the plan anyway! Nice!


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## ToughOmbre (Mar 25, 2012)

"Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides

Steve


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## wheelsup_cavu (Mar 27, 2012)

Memphis Belle: Biography of a B-17 Flying Fortress.






Wheels


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Mar 27, 2012)

Finished The Most Dangerous Enemy by Stephen Bungay. Very good read, Thank you Dave!!!!


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## Marcel (Mar 31, 2012)

Buffaloes over Singapore. Great fascinating insights of Britain's greatest defeat. Also tells the real background of the losses that earned the Buffalo the title of one of the worst fighters of the war. Written by one of the authors of Bloody Shambles, I thought it was well researched.


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## Airframes (Mar 31, 2012)

That looks an interesting book Wheels - what's your opinion?
Aaron, just about to start on 'Most Dangerous Enemy' - got it for a snip at Cosford last month.
Marcel - coincidence; just seen that book on special offer.
Just finished reading 'Operation Mincemeat', by Ben Macintyre, the true story, warts and all, behind 'The man who never was', the deception plan for the invasion of Sicily. A good read, with lots of fascinating info. Just ordered his other work, 'Agent Zig Zag', the story of 'triple' agent Eddie Chapman, the subject of the 1960s movie 'Triple Cross', staring Christopher Plummer.


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## wheelsup_cavu (Apr 3, 2012)

Airframes said:


> That looks an interesting book Wheels - what's your opinion?
> Aaron, just about to start on 'Most Dangerous Enemy' - got it for a snip at Cosford last month.
> Marcel - coincidence; just seen that book on special offer.
> Just finished reading 'Operation Mincemeat', by Ben Macintyre, the true story, warts and all, behind 'The man who never was', the deception plan for the invasion of Sicily. A good read, with lots of fascinating info. Just ordered his other work, 'Agent Zig Zag', the story of 'triple' agent Eddie Chapman, the subject of the 1960s movie 'Triple Cross', staring Christopher Plummer.


I enjoyed it but it didn't tell me much more than what I already knew from reading "The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle: Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot." If you can find "Memphis Belle: Biography of a B-17 Flying Fortress" at your library I would give it a shot but the pricing for buying it used has gotten to be bit ridiculous since it is no longer in print. 


Wheels


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Apr 3, 2012)

I think you'll like it Terry. I am reading Focke Wulf 190 1938-1943 Vol. I at the moment. Talk about mind overload.


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## Airframes (Apr 5, 2012)

Thanks Wheels.
Aaron, it's quite interesting and well written so far, although there is a bit of an 'overkill' in some areas, with the style and phraseology. Also noticed one big error, where Bungay states the main version of the Ju88 in the Battle was the A4. 
A bit heavy going in the first part, but necessary to lay out the prelude and political situation. Certainly dispels the normal 'myths', and a good read so far.


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## vikingBerserker (Apr 5, 2012)

I have to agree with you gents. I'm becoming a big fan of the Fw 190


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## ToughOmbre (Apr 5, 2012)

"Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose

Steve


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## Wayne Little (Apr 6, 2012)

Aaron Brooks Wolters said:


> I am reading Focke Wulf 190 1938-1943 Vol. I at the moment. Talk about mind overload.



Lot to absorb hey Aaron...


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## vikingBerserker (Aug 4, 2012)

_Malta - The Hurricane Years _by Christopher Shores,

Now onto _Malta - The Spitfire Years _


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## Capt. Vick (Aug 5, 2012)

Bloody Shambles Vol 1


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## Njaco (Aug 5, 2012)

Two books...

"Army Group South"
"The Longest Day"


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