The Gift of Sight

It takes me too much time to read a book than I initially think it would. Why? Work -- some of which I have to bring home, viewing blogs, keeping up with tech news, and so on eats a lot of time.

But now I have a few weeks off. I've been meaning to read a few books during the summer. I will go through some of Neal Stephenson's earlier work, for example, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. I've read good things about John Keegan but haven't decided on which book to start with.

Earlier this year, I read The Lord of the Rings and now I want to start and finish The Chronicles of Narnia. Though, strangely, there's a lot of debate about in what order the series ought to be read. I'll stick to the publication order of the books.

Comments

[Francis W. Porretto]

Keegan's World War I books are excellent. So is "The Face of Battle."

[Tom from Chicago]

"Face of Battle" was his first book, published in the late '70s, early '80s. It is quite good, describing battlefield conditions over 4 different battles from ancient to modern. Another good one is "Mask of Command" in which he describes the command styles of several generals, again from ancient to modern.

My recommendation, however, would be to read his history of WWII first. It compiles much information from different sources and presents them graphically & statistically in ways I've not seen done before. Pay close attention to the Battle of the Atlantic, for instance.

Hope this helps.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll start with Keegan's Face of Battle later this year. I have no doubt that his WWII book is excellent but I've read about WII in some detail recently. Churchill's six-volume work and Overy's Why The Allies Won, for example.

I'll put Keegan's WWII book on my To Read List for 2012.