What book are you reading?

[Decker]

The world is incredibly deep, the plotlines are intertwined to a level I haven't seen before, all teh characters have their own goals and pursue them relentlessly and (what I like best of all) - sometimes things go wrong for the main characters and they have to work within those constraints. The characters seem incredibly human (except some of the women, but for the most part) and all of them have some character flaw.

Ah, so it's a fully fleshed out world with all the stuff one see's in Tolkien's work? (Just using him as a reference.) Alright, and since I see that there are quite a few books in the Wheel of Time series, are they all seperate storylines with different characters each time? I am asking because at my local book stores they are packeged into sets of four.

I also just finished reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I'll say while he covered quite a few topics in the simplist of ways I don't see how this is a huge classic. Granted it is a good read and a fast one at that, but it just seems little overrated, it's good but not great/legendary.

[drone]

I also just finished reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I'll say while he covered quite a few topics in the simplist of ways I don't see how this is a huge classic. Granted it is a good read and a fast one at that, but it just seems little overrated, it's good but not great/legendary.

The simplicity is the key. Being able to relate the simple scenarios to modern situations is the challenge.

Started Anathem, another Neal Stephenson book.

[Cyclops]

...
I also just finished reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I'll say while he covered quite a few topics in the simplist of ways I don't see how this is a huge classic. Granted it is a good read and a fast one at that, but it just seems little overrated, it's good but not great/legendary.

Context.

He was up against a literary culture with a lot of bogus stuff in it like "if the wind is in the east the army camped on the plain will be victorious, but if the goose is sacrificed and its liver has a spot do not pass Go".

The bit where he says "make decisions based on information from people with military knowledge" is golden, a great moment in military theory: likewise when he does the cost/risk analysis of paying bribes to spies. Its obvious to us but he's the giant who first expressed this rational maxim.

It's the moment war stops being a noble pastime and becomes a profession. You're very right it is simple, its very stripped back because it has no ********.

I'm awaiting the third Cornish book, lovely little series that with the Lamplighters. In the meantime I'm reading everything I can find on Phillip 2 of Macedon.

[woad&fangs]

I just finished The Travels of Marco Polo. I'm not sure what to read next but I'm leaning towards Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[Marshal Murat]

Reading "Assegai" by Wilbur Smith. Some escapist British empire literature isn't too bad these days. Also working on the biography of Mandela, which is one thick book as you might imagine.

[Ser Clegane]

The Fall of the West - the Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy, Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving is next.

[Martok]

I'm halfway through By Schism Rent Asunder, the second book in David Weber's Safehold series. I'm definitely enjoying it, almost more so than even his Honor Harrington novels; I haven't plowed through the pages of a book at this frenetic a pace in a while!

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Lessee...

Herwig Wolfram's History of the Goths is awaiting completion. Miranda Carter's triple biography of George, Nikolai [sic.] and Wilhelm is a leisurely reading. For professional or academic purposes I'm reading On Tyranny: An Interpretation of Xenphon's Hiero by Leo Strauss and re-reading (since I'm working on translating it) W. Sidney Allen's Vox Graeca: The Pronunciation of Classical Greek. Bed times are, as has become habitual for a few years now, accompanied by Tolkien, presently The Return of the Shadow, which is the first volume of the textual history of The Lord of the Rings, as the familiar ones would recognize.

It's great to be able to read again!
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[Beskar]

Reading "Assegai" by Wilbur Smith. Some escapist British empire literature isn't too bad these days. Also working on the biography of Mandela, which is one thick book as you might imagine.

I read it, unfortunately, I read so many of Wilbur's books, I knew the ending near the beginning.

Not as bad as Scott Mariani though. I read the back of the cover of his last Ben Hope and I actually could tell you who the main characters were in it and the entire plot and sub-plots (Even the Romance and lost re-union). What made it even worse, I read it and I was correct. Now he went and wrote some Vampire Federation nonsense which I have zero interest in.