Wargamers Island Books
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Martin van Tol may be the only wargamer to be able to speak all the languages of the armies he owns, and was creator of the Central London Incompetence Teeshirt as well as being one-time Central London Speed Painting master. A great supporter of the competition circuit, as he literally props up the leaderboard at most competitions he enters.
I collected Airfix 20mm from about age 5 onwards. At secondary school had a history teacher who taught the tactics of Alexander using his 25mm armies. Had a ten year break after school, and then, aged 28 or thereabouts, got dragged down the pub by Tim again to resurrect my gaming career.
25mm Napoleonics (French and Austrian). But then I began to realise nobody else wanted to do Napoleonics. These got sold off, although I suspect the buyer was more interested in the box they came in. The first army that actually got used was some 15mm Thirty Years War figures from Mike's Models. These are still in use.
My new 17th century (Essex) figures. They're my best painted. So would be quite interested in seeing a revamped set of 17th century rules Mr VTM's 10 favorite books are listed below. Lots of history, though not so much military history, and definitely definitely not even a paragraph of sci-fi. The links go directly to the UK or US Amazon pages where you can find out more about each one.
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The Thirty Years War, CV
Wedgwood.
This is a superbly readable combination of analysis and story telling in delightfully old-fashioned 1930s language.
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Languages of the Soviet Union,
Bernard Comrie
This has nothing at all to do with history or gaming, but talks about dozens of exotic little-known nationalities in the USSR and their languages. Ideal for anyone who wants to know how many Evenks there are in the world and how many noun cases their language has.
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| Hitler - a
Study in Tyranny, Alan Bullock This book is memorable for its depiction of what made what he was and how he fell apart in his final years.
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| History
of the Soviet Union, Geoffrey Hosking.
The best analysis of how the
USSR came to be, and then how it inevitably collapsed. Covers the
nationalities questions and economics very well, and paints the
bottom-up picture well too.
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| The Rise and
Fall of the Soviet Empire - Political Leaders from Lenin to
Gorbachev, Dmitri Volkogonov.
Mini-biographies of the seven individuals who led the USSR. Amazing how the world's biggest country came to be led by half-educated non-entities with limited mind-sets. |
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| I Claudius,
Robert Graves. My one bit of fiction, and possibly not so fictional. Reads like a very colourful memoir anyway. Also one of the best TV series ever
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| Guns, Germs
& Steel, Jared Diamond.
Probably the best thing to read to understand the influence of environment on global history.
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| Europe - A
History, Norman Davies. Comprehensive history which pays as much attention to eastern Europe as to western Europe.
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| The Affluent
Society, John Kenneth Galbraith.
He stood out against market
fundamentalists when they were all the rage, and in favour of
something more human. An economist who was wise and civilised,
and wrote books without a single graph in them. Written 40-50 years
ago, but still very relevant.
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| The Consolations
of Philosophy, Alain de Botton. Light-hearted and entertaining accompaniment to a TV series about six philosophers and how what they said can be interpreted in our everyday lives |
| Can't find a book (or a price you want to pay!) on your local Amazon? Try searching Abe Books - worldwide |
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If you wish to submit a book list and answer the Big Three Questions please feel free to submit them to me to be considered for inclusion via this link Maroon Me Now Please Mr Madaxeman! and I will try and publish as many as I can (although I do have a real job to do as well, so it may take some time!). |