What Are You Currently Reading? 2014

[Backwards Observer]

Four books that seemed to be common fixtures on expat shelves in mid-seventies Singapore.

War of the Running Dogs by Noel Barber

Syonan, My Story by Mamoru Shinozaki

The Scourge of the Swastika by Lord Russell of Liverpool

The Knights of Bushido by Lord Russell of Liverpool

...at the annual Speech Day of Liverpool College on 23 November (1961), Lord Russell of Liverpool lectured the boys on the three things he most disliked in young men: Teddy boys, pop singers and beatniks, but especially pop singers 'because they can cash in to the tune of about 200 pounds a week for strumming a guitar and looking as though they had Saint Vitus' dance.' The Beatles - All These Years

[Currahee23]

right now I'm reading Tequila Junction by John Poole concerning 4th Gen Counterinsurgency and The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen.

[Backwards Observer]

Dangerous Allies by Malcolm Fraser


Exit Wounds: One Australian's War On Terror by Major General John Cantwell

[Backwards Observer]

The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke

Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz

"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world." Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

[BushrangerCZ]

"Who will teach the wisdom" by Tim Bax. Outstanding... current COIN decision makers obviously have never read this book. They should have.

(Added)http://www.amazon.com/Who-Will-Teach.../dp/0615842755

[Firn]

Un anno sull'altipiano ( A year on the high plateau) by Emilio Lussu. As a sardu he served in the Great War with the Sassari Brigade. If you know the area you can sometimes walk mentally along to the same slopes and ridges. Some scenes seem grotesque but the Italian officer corps and military leadership was perhaps the most arrogant and inept in Western Europe. In some instances you truly feel like laughing out and crying at the same time.

Don't know how good the English translation is. His Italian is both a child of those era and is own, as descriptive as sarcastic. The title reveals how little that front is know in the English speaking world.

*This 'High plateau' is of course the one fought over. Ironically it was for a long defended by it's German speaking population in alliance with Venice against the Holy Roman Empire, while in the book Italian speaking soldiers of the Empire hold a ridge against the attacking Sardinians.

[Backwards Observer]

Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis by Eric Berne, M.D.

Psychological Warfare by Paul M.A. Linebarger

"And will you," asked Dr. Sen, quite unable to resist the opportunity, "get rid of your empire when the time arises?"
"Without the slightest hesitation." replied the Inspector.
Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End

[ganulv]

Un anno sull'altipiano ( A year on the high plateau) by Emilio Lussu. As a sardu he served in the Great War with the Sassari Brigade. If you know the area you can sometimes walk mentally along to the same slopes and ridges. […]

Do you know if there is a decent history of the Great War and the vie ferrate, Firn?