Ive got his 'Fighter' and 'Bomber' in the pile next i think may be a Terry Pratchett im bored with military for a while ;)

Osprey's Armies of the Napoleonic Wars..

I am reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Not bad so far.

For a little light reading just read 'The Hornet's Nest'. By The Jimmy Carter. Second time of reading and I really enjoyed it albeit the end was a little rushed. Today started, A dirty, trifling, piece of business. By Gavin K Watt. Canada in during 1781. John

"The Line upon a wind" by Noel mostert - billed as 'the greatest war fought at sea under sail 1793-1815" very good so far :clap: :clap: :clap:

War and peace (again) Flirting with the idea of Perries naps again, either Sharpe's Practice or homebrew. May have to kill some Nappy Grognards first...

Not if I tape them talking first, that's for sure.

just finished reading David Peace's Red Riding Quartet which has left me feeling (a) depressed and (b) totally confused. On to Galbraith's The Great Crash 1929 which i suspect will have the same effect. On a more uplifting note, last night, in celebration of Bastille Day, i chopped the heads of some Perry French Naps. Tonight in tribute to the counter revolution, i will stick some new heads back on them

Just bought for £2 in a remaindered book shop and started reading George MacDonald Fraser's The Complete McAuslan. Really enjoying it. There was a whole stack of them in the shop next to the tosh written by Jade etc.

The riddle of the sands' by Erskine Childers its got a hero called carruthers and we get to biff fritz very hard superb book so far.I missed the film the other day which i will try to get to watch once ive finished the book as its got Jenny Agutterr in it Jenny was particularly fetching in that movie, as I recall. :clap:

She is in all her films (imho) ;) finished it last week now on 'thank you Jeeves' because i want a break before i start anything too heavy :)

I started reading "Collapse" but lost interest after about 100 pages I think. Should probably give it another go. I'm currently reading the latest Jack Higgins "thriller", which really is tosh, although not quite as awful as his other recent books, but I'm an addict... :(

Cpt Chook, yes mate I have finished Collapse now; on to Scramble for Africa by Pakenham(lovely book by the way; I am enjoying it immensely). As Giles says it can be somewhat tough to read. I felt I was reading an academic work at times. It is very focused, setting out the facts etc. with very little waffle. Re content I found it most interesting. The writer really stresses the importance of environmental factors in the success or fall of a society. To give but an example in one of the chapters he does a comparison of the Haitian and the Dominican Republic. They share the same island but the haitian republic is on a part of the island which nowadays has very little timber. He goes on to examine how that is harming their economy for eg. etc. He also goes into the history of each civilization and examines its effects. taking the same chapter as above he says that the fact that the haitian part of the island had its resources used up during the colonial era whereas the Dominican part was left relatively alone by the Spanish who were there. All in all I found it a lovely book. I also learnt a lot about various civilizations of which I knew precious little about such as the Anasazi for eg. And the writer does not engage in the type of dross one reads on the net; he goes on fact alone. Highly recommended although not for a light read (it's not heavy reading either; somewhere in the middle I would say).