Books for those who can read

DARTH · Post by **DARTH** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 7:04 pm

You have to look at the difference between a light Zulu sheild and Spear and the Heavier Spartan Sheild and Spear. It would be easy to yeild the Zulu weapons any way you want, but the Spaertan gear was heavier.
The Zulu used formations ( Empi), but not as tight or interdepndent as the Spartan Phalanx. The Zulu were trying to envelope you and kill you in melee combat, the Spartans were trying to run you down, as one great human killing machine.

Maza · Post by **Maza** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:48 pm

Dylan,
You'll probably also want to check out Jeeks newest novel. It's fiction, but it deals with spartar warriors, especially the homo-erotic aspects of their society. I hear there's a significant portion of the book that covers their shaft handling technique in great detail.

DARTH · Post by **DARTH** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:48 pm

I read War by Dyer when I was 11, then at 15 and again 2 years ago, an interesting book. I discussed it with a friend, who is War College Grad, and he agrees it's a good book, but the author makes some real twit suppasitions=)
I like Keegan's work alot.

No one knows exactly, but Armstrong did alot of practicle experimentation, try using a heavy spear underhanded with one arm, and you'll go right to overhand. Also, you will deffianitly do that fighing from the high ground.
True, if I had a spear and no sheild, then I would go underhand, tucked in, like Jojutsu/MCMAP Beyonet style.
Th Illiad was way before Themopelye, and entertainment combat will always be flashier and more individuallistic than real combat, (as CHUD pointed out) also, they had iron by thje time of the 300.
The Spartans, like the Romans later, cared little for that "Come fight me one on one before our armies clash." stuff that the Japanese and Fuedal Europeans were so fond of.
They were more into totall, all out warfare, than the set rules and games of prior and later fuedal warfare.
Rules are for deplomats and delintants looking for honor, whn nations and coltures are at stake, give it all you got and play to your strengths.

Thanks for the book suggestions.
One for you.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE SWORD,by CHRISTOPHER J AMBERGER (or something like that) Great book on bladed and unbladed combat.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:17 pm

DARTH RANDELL wrote: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE SWORD,by CHRISTOPHER J AMBERGER (or something like that) Great book on bladed and unbladed combat.

Hey, I picked that up cheap a while back but hadnt read it yet. So it's worth the time?

GDG!

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:12 pm

GDG, its a series of essays, okay but not really anything special.

DARTH · Post by **DARTH** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:39 pm

GDG,

If bladed combat is part of your study, than read it, some pearls of wisdom in there, but not really a "how to".

Turdacious · Post by **Turdacious** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:05 am

DARTH RANDELL wrote: I like Keegan's work alot.

Keegan's the shizzle.

Hank Scorpio · Post by **Hank Scorpio** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:52 am

While we're nerding-out on the subject of hoplite combat, a couple other books would supplement the recommendations already made--

Peter Connolly's works on Greece, Rome, and Hannibal. Some of his books are written for young adults, but all are excellently illustrated with respect to arms, armor, troop formations and tactics. He also has some other titles published by Osprey, which is a British publishing house that has a large catalog of military history series. Some focus primarily on equipment, others on significant battles and others on history, TTPs, etc. Generally, they are exceptionally well illustrated.

Any of these would be good additions ot the library of someone who's interested in this sort of stuff.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:17 pm

Turd Ferguson wrote:
DARTH RANDELL wrote: I like Keegan's work alot.

Keegan's the shizzle.

I agree, I read The Face of Battle and was very impressed. He seemed to have a handle on the limits a professional historian can bring to analysis of conflict.

DARTH · Post by **DARTH** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:41 am

Curl up with Grossman's On Killing.

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:16 am

"Getting things done" by David Allen.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:18 am

Lankavatara Sutra by Buddha

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:34 am

Dis one?

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:34 am

Shafpocalypse Now · Post by **Shafpocalypse Now** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:58 am

Funny, I'm just reading a novel that Grossman coauthred with Leo Frankowski.

Pinky · Post by **Pinky** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:55 pm

Just finished A Confederacy of Dunces. It's very good, and very funny.

Hagbard · Post by **Hagbard** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:05 pm

Quicksilver, by Stephenson was fun, reading the second one now.

I like vajracheddika as far as sutras go. How can you beat a sutra with the same name as a wrestling move?

beefheart · Post by **beefheart** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:19 pm

Pinky wrote:Just finished A Confederacy of Dunces. It's very good, and very funny.

Hagbard Celine wrote:Quicksilver, by Stephenson was fun, reading the second one now.

Heartily recommend A Confederacy of Dunces. I reread last winter and it was as good as it was twenty some years ago which can't be said for many comic novels.

The Baroque Cycle likewise is a must read.

nafod · Post by **nafod** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:21 am

BeefHeart wrote:
Pinky wrote:Just finished A Confederacy of Dunces. It's very good, and very funny.
Heartily recommend A Confederacy of Dunces. I reread last winter and it was as good as it was twenty some years ago which can't be said for many comic novels.

I also read it years and years ago (1982?). Have to read it again.

Recently finished reading the 4th of George R.R. Martin's Fire & Ice books, with A Game of Thrones being the first in the series. Excellent, all of them.

Shafpocalypse Now · Post by **Shafpocalypse Now** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 3:06 am

I like them (the George R. R. Martin books).

I like the Steven Erikson "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series about 100x better though.

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 3:50 am

I really liked the first George RR MArtin, but never got throguh the second one.

Abandoned by Wolves · Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:28 pm

Loren Estleman writes some of the most involving detective/suspense fiction going these days. He's the one current mystery/fiction writer whose work I buy in hardcover (since Block seems to have retired his "Matt Scudder" character), at least if it's an "Amos Walker" novel or a "Macklin" novel (his other "series" character.) (Estleman writes Westerns, too, but I never got into those).

I'd stack "Sugartown", "Every Brilliant Eye", "The Witchfinder" or "A Smile On the Face Of The Tiger" against any detective/mystery book published since the death of Raymond Chandler.

johno · Post by **johno** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:42 am

Mysteries: Michael Connelly. Most recent offering: Echo Park.

bill fox · Post by **bill fox** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:33 pm

Just finished "What is the What" by David Eggers

Unreal book.Fictionalized account, based on mostly true stories of the journey of a Sudanese lost boy to the U.S., and his life here. I also just read Cormac McCarthy's new book, appreciated the writing, but still didn't really love it. It's a post apocolypse story and maybe it was so effective it was too freaking depressing. The last one "No Country for Old Men" is really great.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:00 pm

The Subject Tonight Is Love trans. Daniel Ladinsky, by Hafiz