What are you reading?

Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell.

Right now im reading the book of Andrzej Sapkowski "Bozy wojownicy" (can translate it into english as "Gods wariors" or "Divine Wariors"). It is a second book of story after "Narenturm".

Authour is quite famous in Poland as a fantasy wirtter but his books Narrenturm and God's Wariors are very different than his other books.

At the first look the book seems to be a historic novel. Action takes place in the 15th century during hussite wars. The historic backrground is really good and i didnt find any mistakes so far. But well, its hard to say that it is historic book because it has its second bottom. Medieval ages were famous for burning witches and wizzards and in these books they really exists. So in the completelly historical world we find a group of people who are usually the professors or students of medieval european universities but are in the same time they are secretelly practicing magic and alchemy and often they can be found behind the real historical events and battles. Right now iv read 1/5 of the book and find it really interesting. The Pope called crusade against Czech heretics under the command of Henri de Beaufort which invaded Bohemia and was cut on pieces by the hussite army.  Really interesting story.

Right now i am reading 3 books:

-Henry Kissenger,Diplomacy

-Oral Sander,Political History from Middle Ages to 1918

-Tayyar Ari,International Relations and Foreign Policy

 

Edited by TheDiplomat

Just read:

Dutch:
Harry Mulisch, De Procedure (interesting and quite good, but not as brilliant as some of his other works)
Willem Frederik Hermans, Nooit Meer Slapen (a masterpiece of black existentialism)

Now reading:

In Dutch:
Vergilius, Aeneis (no explanation needed)
Harry Mulisch, Het Stenen Bruidsbed (brilliant, quite difficult)

In French:
Camus, L'�tranger (quite good so far)

In German:
R�diger Safranski, Nietzsche, Biographie Seines Denken (very interesting)

In Greek (with the aid of a translation into German):
Aischulos, Oresteia (not far enough to cast a judgement so far)

I could not read Whom for the Bells toll,it bored me.

I am now reading "Memleket Hikayeleri" by Refik Halit Karay.

I'm reading two books currently, and both are excellent and highly recommended.

The first book I'm reading is "The Struggle for Mastery: Britian 1066-1284", by David Carpenter. So far (I'm only about 163 pages in), it gives an entertaining and informative account of the demographics and economics of the peoples of Britian before the Norman Conquest. A good account of William the Conqueror's invasion and consolidation of England is given, as well as the politics of Wales at that time and the ambitions of the Scottish Kings. The book also has a good narrative of the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I, and their attempts and ultimate success at forging and defending a cross Channel state. So far, I would highly recommend the book. It is kind of confusing at times though, for it does not give much background of to many of the historical figures introduced.

The other book I'm reading concurrently is "The Birth of Vietnam", by Kieth Weller Taylor. I would also highly recommend this book, as it is very entertaining and informative as well, even though I have not finished this book either (only about 123 pages in). It can be read in many ways: first and foremost, it's a book of the forging of the Vietnamese identity and their struggles for independence from China from the third century B.C. to the tenth century A.D. A good account of the founding myths of Vietnam and their effect of the Vietnamese national identity is given. Also, the effect of various early independence leaders on the development of Vietnamese independence movements is given. It can also be read as an account of the Chinese conquest and provinicial life and politics in a remote border region of Chinese civilization. There's also some information of the various kingdoms of South East Asia and Southern China before and after the Chinese invasions.

i've read half of Erik Hildigners book about Steppe warfare, but I had to quit because it's so bad. instead I'm reading now the new osprey book about Steppe warfare which is really awesome so far....

Finally worked my way through Eberhard Bethge's biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - very slow going.  Have gone on to Alexander Adams biography of Sitting Bull.  It's not so much a biography as a survey of the Plain's Indian Wars - with an attempt at focusing on Sitting Bull's role.  As there were so few writtne records of the period from an Indian point of view - he seems to be doing a good job of balancing the perspectives.  I enjoyed "Moon of Popping Trees" by Rex Smith much more - it is the best, most well balanced short account of the events on the Plains in that period that I have seen.

I recently read 'For the power and the glory' by Graham Greene. Really a good novel. It's the third book of Greene I read (the others were The Comedians and Monsignor Quixote). I'm certainly going to read more Greene. 

incouraged by recent discusions of King Arthur I took to reading (or rescaning) all the non fiction books I could lay my hands on about the topic- about 12 of them at the moment.