Books
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Speaking of violence.... You want violence, try reading this one I finished last night: Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy by Philip Freeman. The era's casual genocide, infanticide, or butchery of as many as 60,000 soldiers in single battles are mind-boggling. The strategic brilliance of Hannibal is so impressive. It is interesting to speculate, as the author does, about how different the world would be had he taken to Rome after destroying their army in the Battle of Cannae and laid siege. It could well have been the end of the Rome in 216 BC. It's truly hard to even get my head around that. Constantinople fell in 1453 AD. Imagine almost 1700 years of Roman influence suddenly gone. We wouldn't be speaking the same languages or anything.
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Thanks @Giles - another on my reading pile
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Another one I just read, and this one is free to Audible subscribers, was *The Four Percent Universe * by Richard Panek. This one was about the discovery of dark energy and dark matter and the race to publish that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. Two groups of scientists using different methods effectively tied in that endeavor and were awarded Nobel prizes for it.
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@mclaincausey said in Books:
@Giles what a damn book was Finding Endurance.
Shackleton was a high caliber human being. An unbelievable story. I welcome the author’s personal biographical details and broader observations as well.
So glad you enjoyed. It's one of those books that if someone tells me they don't like it, they are history
I personally learnt so much and it has given me a broader aspect on all sorts of things...."OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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The main takeaway from Trafalgar was the sheer terror of being on board one of those ships. The smoke tried to suffocate you, the sounds deafen you, and everything around you trying to kill you.
Absolutely insane conditions.
I’ve seen movies where the officers walked around nonchalantly on the main deck where there was chaos surrounding them. Always thought it was modern day artist’s interpretation of events…after reading quite a few stories realizing that it was reality.
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
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@Giles enjoyed so much I’m now listening to Endurance by Alfred Lansing, as it is free on Audible. It’s much older and will be much different with less modern context but still should be a good one and enjoying in the early bits.
I have also added Trafalgar
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@Giles and not a half bad navigator. Astounding.
, but a good page-turner (and there are four parts of it).