My book-buying "problem"

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Chris C, Jul 6, 2018.

  1. idler

    idler GeneralList

    It's good that some of our culture made it out to the colonies, I got my copy in Dublin.
     
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  2. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Culture? I can even get Stilton if I go to the right shop :D

    It's very hit-and-miss. My favorite British book finds include With The Jocks by Peter White and a 1950s copy of G Patrol by Michael Crichton-Stuart.
     
  3. wtid45

    wtid45 Very Senior Member

    I did a few years back cull lots of books outside my area of interest, and focused on just having two bookcases large ones mind you! With Arnhem in one and Burma in the other.... but in the bookcases in my shed I have weakened with much outside my area of interest... where I seem to have followed the Von poop theory, in other words it was cheap or N&M P made me buy it...
     
  4. wtid45

    wtid45 Very Senior Member

    That is surely the unspoken Rule... that and don’t tell the Wife!
     
  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    This thread hasn't really helped.
    It's sort of... fun. :unsure:
     
  6. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    No, I think this thread has made things worse :D
     
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  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Tell you what, though.
    If I hadn't shied away in the past from the crazy prices Hodges often demands, I might have been faintly disappointed on receiving.
    It's very good plain reference, but it's still a slender 64 page 70s sort of thing. I've got H&C stuff that does markings in a more lucid & well-illustrated way, if not quite so wide-ranging.
    Gap in the market, maybe? Just that nobody's bothered to try?
    There's a few of you here I'm sure could turn out a more lucid & complete guide, if you could find a publisher.
     
  8. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    "H&C"?

    (Small update - I found that the "local" copy still had to be ordered online as it was technically from a related online-only business. But the copy is on its way because it was still cheaper than any other price I've seen for it.)

    You do make a good point. I'm going to note that for the future, even though I don't know enough currently myself to write such a thing. abe

    There was some good coverage of various marking topics in Dick Taylor's "Warpaint" books, which also covered camouflage etc. Problems: (1) spread across 4 books in a way encouraged to get you to buy all the books, (2) pretty books, but expensive, (3) volume 2, with the WW2 camouflage patterns and whatever else, sold out pretty quickly. I just don't even see it listed online, so I ended up with volumes 1, 3, and 4.
     
  9. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Histoire & Collections
    Damned fine French magazine publisher that also churns out some very good books.
    Tend to go in & out of print rather randomly though, & don't always do English editions of everything.
    Livres en anglais

    Also behind this thing I've been wanting someone to publish for decades, but it went OOP & fucking stupid money almost immediately while I wasn't paying attention.
    I hover like a Labrador looking at chocolate, waiting for a reprint:
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Armoured-Fighting-Vehicles-1914-1940/dp/2352503221

    (Though on earlier French tanks, this is excellent, & currently silly cheap again on N&MP: FRENCH TANKS OF THE GREAT WAR Development, Tactics and Operations - Naval & Military Press )
     
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  10. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Finished Frogmen today. Great little book of 167 pages. Written by the author as an auto-biographical piece, leading up to his unit's work in Burma. Interesting, particularly in how he builds his team and training techniques and develops his equipment, as well as the final few chapters working with the 14th Army at the Irrawaddy and Ramree Island.
     
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  11. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    'Hodges' is barely worth having - it's a very early attempt to pull sources together at a time when the Public Records Office did not give access to much of the surviving literature. The expensive book is usually the one with Michael Taylor's addenda which take up more pages than the original book ! Andrew Foulkes has done a proper job for the BEF of course and I believe that there will be more detail on the way.
     
  12. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Okay so the three volumes of the Spanish Repubican Air Force History count as one book right?
    My Spanish is just good enough to get by on this and the pictures and profiles make this look like a great buy for a SCW history fan like myself. I've got a lot on the Condor Legion so glad to build out the other side.
    The XV International Brigade book is a reprint of a 1938 edition. Lots of good pictures and maps and first person accounts.
     
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  13. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    I picked this up cheap myself about 5 years ago and agree it is a great little book by a very interesting chap. I always enjoy these books that look at less well known aspects of a campaign.
     
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  14. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I was interested in getting this title for a while Orwell1984, one of my Chindit 1 casualties was killed by a crocodile whilst swimming the Irrawaddy in April 1943. It was the only incidence of this happening to a Chindit that year, but of course many died trying to cross this mighty river and simply disappeared, so who knows how many went in the same way.

    There was in Burma from as far back as the 1820's, a myth or legend, that the Irrawaddy River always took, one way or another at least one man from any British battalion posted to the country. Reading through the history of the British occupation, the myth seems to have great value in truth.
     
  15. zola1

    zola1 Member

    Hi all,
    Got this Spike Milligan book from Oxfam in Bedford... 49p ! .. I did put a donation in the box as I felt guilty at that price..
    It’s falling apart ! .. but a great read .. black humour abound .. Spike would have been the right type of friend to keep you going amongst all that muck and bullets ...my late dad was in the Campania region 43-44 , so lots of great references that I can relate to .
    Photos are really good too.

    Regards

    Derrick
     

    Attached Files:

  16. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    My Dad had all Milligan's WW2 related books and loved the Goon show too. I remember reading Hitler: My Part in his Downfall when I was 13 or 14 and finding it hilarious even at that tender age.
     
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  17. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    The David Fletcher completism rumbles on.
    For a little Shire booklet it's rather good, but then: Fletcher.

    Staff Cars:

    IMG_20190423_112745915(1).jpg

    IMG_20190423_112849249.jpg
     
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  18. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Visiting friends isn't all bad - from the independent Works-style bookshop in Otley. A P&S title that might be a sneaky reprint, but I don't think it is...

    IMG_20190423_5796.jpg
     
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  19. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Still worth keeping an eye out in The Works.
    Among the dead-eyed maniacs that haunt the covers of low quality cookbooks, there can still be Haynes things.
    Challenger 2 one by Dick Taylor, and looks as good as most of his output.
    Others just hard not to get for around a fiver.

    IMG_20190427_171819611.jpg
     
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  20. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    Found the Lysander book to be quite good.
    My most recent weird buys below:
    [​IMG] Less for the German stuff and more for the smaller Axis forces covered.
    The below are all in Polish but with English photo captions and I'm able to suss out some more info. Bought because they're on weird little subjects which appeal to the crank in me. They're relatively cheap due to the exchange rate on the zlotny and they have a deal where if you buy four or more you get a good discount on the fourth title. Worth it for the pictures alone.
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
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