What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

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macdoc
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:45 pm

He has an incredible command of the English vernacular. I found myself dreaming in period English.....and laughing a lot ...he is a very engaging writer.
Yeah - listening to a work and reading it are different.

My new goal will be to
Watch a movie based on a book.
Read the book
listen to the book

all in 24 hours....I did 2 of three with Sea Biscuit and it was wonderful...the visuals in the movie really enhanced the reading.
I barely completed that trick within a day so the the triple play will have to be a shortish novel. :smoke:
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:12 pm

Reading about the Teutoburg forest battle. I wanted a bit more than Wikipedia.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Sun Mar 19, 2023 1:29 am

Ah, one of Rome's more infamous military misadventures. It's not as significant as Cannae, but looms large in my mind because of the image of Roman soldiers (so powerful en masse in ordered battle) being hunted through the forest.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:46 am

Teutoburg forest battle
Fantastic story ...hinge point of history. Xtianity may never have taken hold. No Germany, the list of "could have beens" is enormous.

There is a series on the battle. Barbarians I think.
The ex - Roman soldier leading the German tribes
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:02 pm

Yeah we watched the Netflix show. The plot is a bit fantasy/simplified. Arminius was not raised in Rome as the adopted child of a general. But he was in the Roman army and fluent in Latin.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by rasetsu » Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:58 pm

Loading up some history and science so that I have something that doesn't require a lot of effort to read when I'm feeling lazy. Starting with Hawking's Brief History of Time, Gibbons' Decline and Fall, and Dawkins' Ancestor's Tale.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by rasetsu » Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:59 pm

Also started on Ursula K. LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching. It's certainly different.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by rasetsu » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:18 pm

Nice! I went to send the book on the Windows Subsystem for Linux over to my Kindle only to realize that I downloaded the wrong format when I bought it. Going to my account made me aware of other computer books I had purchased that I'd like to read, most notably refreshing my memory of sed and grep commands and syntax. I found a drag & drop interface for Send To Kindle. Before I was converting from EPUB to AZW3 and then transferring with a cable. This is hella easier.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by rasetsu » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:24 pm

Double score! Send To Kindle takes PDF as well as EPUB. No need for conversion.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Brian Peacock » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:36 pm

Sweet.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by JimC » Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:27 pm

rasetsu wrote:
Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:58 pm
Loading up some history and science so that I have something that doesn't require a lot of effort to read when I'm feeling lazy. Starting with Hawking's Brief History of Time, Gibbons' Decline and Fall, and Dawkins' Ancestor's Tale.
The Ancestor's Tale is just brilliant, IMO...
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:34 am

Hawking's Brief History of Time
it's wrong - according to Hawkins
https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... k-is-wrong
Gibbons' Decline and Fall
it's old
If you want an unbiased, accurate history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire that takes into account everything we have learned about ancient Rome in the past 200 years or so, then the answer is clearly “no.” You will not find anything like that with Gibbon.
Dawkins' Ancestor's Tale
dated if you are reading the original ...okay if you have the 2016 version. :prof:
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:59 am

I found a book on the barbarians and Romans, but jeez...this one is wordy. He could have put half the info in footnotes and just get to the reasonable conclusions and it would be readable. 100 pages of book and 500 pages of footnotes.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:31 am

This is supposed to be accurate.
Image

There are a few long articles on it as well.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:18 pm

macdoc wrote:
Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:31 am
This is supposed to be accurate.
Image

There are a few long articles on it as well.
Yeah, I had a similar book. The result was that the Germani no longer were able to harass the Romans. Romans stuck to the line at the Rhine and any forts past that. Germans had no siege machinery. But Germania was mostly a loss, they were not able to tax like in Gaul.

I have a short illustrated book coming as well as the Alesia battle. These types of books. After that I've lost interest in Romans. Also, the sword clashing is overdone. Neither Germans or Romans relied on swords alone. They are convenient for movies.
B07245AD-63DE-45FB-8264-E51FF566A190.jpeg
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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