Again, no particular order.
Categories
Tag: books
Categories
To Read, Vol. 1
In no particular order.
Categories
I Heart Real Books
I got a Kindle for Christmas. It’s…fine. I like that I can look up words on the spot (did you know that “bonny” means “pleasing to the eye?”), that books cost $9.76 and I can read sample chapters for free. However, one of the Kindle’s drawbacks is that it’s not made of paper. Am I the only person to notice this?
Just a hunch, here, but I think e-readers are better suited for reading fiction which I don’t do much of. After I got it, I showed it to a few friends. Half said “Don’t you love it?” and half said “I’m never going to speak to you again.”
Like real books? You’ll love this:
I learned today that my book, Man of War, is now available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, the fantastic Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, larger than life Powell’s in Portland, OR and my local SoCal fav, Vroman’s, in Pasadena. (It’s “available available” on May 24th, 2012 and can also be pre-ordered on Amazon.) I also learned that it’s being categorized under “Military-Strategy” and “Personal Memoirs.” Step aside Reminiscences by Douglas MacArthur.
Speaking of Vroman’s, last Sunday I braved all the last-minute holiday shoppers and bought a number of gifts there including Yiyun Li‘s The Vagrants. I read it a couple years ago and have since bought it for a couple friends. I can’t say I’m a big fan of the word “unflinching” as it seems to always pop up in reviews of, well, “unflinching” subject matter, but “unflinching” is exactly the type of portrait Li paints of late ’70’s China. I can’t remember the last time I read a book that made me gasp and cry, two things I don’t normally seek out in my entertainment. But this book shocked and saddened me-often-and for that and many other reasons I suggest you give it a read yourself.
Categories
Man of War
I’ve written a book titled Man of War: My Adventures in the World of Historical Reenactment. It’s released on May 24th, 2012, but can be pre-ordered on Amazon now. In it I reenact my way through 2,000 years of Western civilization, from Ancient Rome to Vietnam. In addition to the latter time periods, I don the uniforms and civvies of a Civil War soldier (Union and Confederate), a Polish Winged Hussar, a Revolutionary soldier, French and Indian War soldier, bateauman, Viking, Spanish friar and a Nazi. Yes, people reenact the Wehrmacht.
More to come in the following months.