Read this one a couple years ago. Really enjoyed the Shiloh and Okinawa sections. Delium seemed to produce the same conclusions that all studies of the period have produced.

I'm trying once more to read A Natural History of Rape. I'm really having trouble with the academic writing style and the frequent use of ten-dollar words.

Great book as was Warriors of God.

I hear you, I tried reading The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and I felt the same way. As a matter of fact I felt stupid just trying to read the book. The national Review ranked the book #15 in its 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century but I'm never going to know as I will never finish reading that stupid book.

Seven words for you. Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss, which I'm reading right now. I feel like a complete idiot. It's not so much obscure or overly-academic words (though he did teach me acroamatic and coeval), but odd sentence structure, apparent repetition, and a habit of presenting others' arguments in their absolute totality before refuting them. (And refuting them somewhat within that presentation.) I've had to reread so much just to see which arguments are actually Strauss's.

Of course, Strauss has also written extensively about how (political and philosophical) writers hide meaning in their books, so you can't take anything he says at face value.

Average times reading one paragraph before I think I understand it: 4.

Dr. Mabuse,

To take a break from Strauss, I've started rereading Hanson's Carnage and Culture. I think it's better than Ripples of Battle. Part of the thesis can be summed up in this sentence from the first chapter: "There is...a cultural crystallization in battle, in which the insidious and more subtle institutions that heretofore were murky and undefined become stark and unforgiving in the finality of organized killing." Basically, cultural differences become eminently apparent through the study of battles. The argument this leads to is that battles between east and west have shown consistently that Western culture is better suited to warmaking. Though Hanson claims not to make value judgments, he occasionally lapses into a nonacademic West-worship. Which isn't all bad because he's usually right, if somewhat overbearing.

Definitely check it out, if you haven't already.

Just finished:

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Finished:
Self-Help by Lorrie Moore

Still Reading:
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

Starting:
Who Runs the Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore

Finished The Skystone and just starting the 2nd book in the series:

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Re: What are you reading? (November 2008)
 

Currently reading "If Chins Could Kill" by Bruce Campbell.