|
The Men of Waterloo: Sutherland - Extremely enjoyable read on a subject i didnt know much about until now, i feel like a real smartass now. But yeah, just learning about this and the men involved was really cool. Wellington, while brilliant, was a bastard of a man to his men, loved to dole out very harsh punishments for minor infractions, despised most of them to his core, thought "most enlisted for the drink (booze)", same feelings went for many of his officers, particularly artillerymen, though he depended heavily on them.
This man was quite the elitist snob and in later years hated and opposed pretty much any kind of modern reforms, both for the military and civilian govt... absolutely hated the thought of the hoi polloi having access to a ballot box.
Napoleon in contrast, wasnt just popular with his men, he was practically worshipped as a god, just the sight of him would rouse his men to extreme acts of bravery... he personified charisma. But what got him at Waterloo, though he felt a genuine affection for all of them, was a kind of disregard for the lives of his men... instead of working complicated flanking maneuvers that had won him so many battles in the past, he had started to rely on full frontal charges that wasted huge amounts of his manpower, his men would charge ahead more than willingly, but too many were wasted for no reason.
Imagine a 10,000 man cavalry charge across an area no wider than 500 yards... the detailed battle accounts are truly awesome, some real life set piece chess on an unimaginable scale for those times.
Before that... Shut Up and Give Me the Mic: Dee Snider - never was a big twisted sister fan, but this is one HELLUVA entertaining read, basically reads like a "how not to" for the music business. Dude bought into his own press and ego, along with various band members being worthless turds and backstabbers at various times. If you like reading about rock stars, you should definitely read this, though it is free from "tales of ribaldry" that so many other band stories are chock full of and that i enjoy... most of the band were teetotalers to some extent.
Gah, i've read atleast twenty books in the last two months, been on a real tear and cant remember them all... Fred Bears Field Notes was damned interesting, shooting alaskan brown bears with a bow from behind nothing more than a tree, taking elephant charges, the works, fun read.
|