Book Recommendations

I have some recommendations for the previous topic, the roman legion, and a few for the next topic, which I plan to do - World War II.

I really like to read history books that also have pictures so I can get an idea of what the equipment and such looked like.  One that I picked up was really good for showing every aspect of the Roman army (from equipment, to formations, and even pictures of real artifacts) was The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy.

While I'm at it, I'll mention another source of information that I have used.  Rome: Total War is a strategy PC game that I found interesting.  It's full of information on the ancient Romans, as well as other factions from around the same time period.  While it is, of course, not always completely accurate as far as history is concerned, it is fun to play, and has enough good information to be worthwhile.  There's a mod for it called Rome: Total Realism which makes it a lot more accurate in terms of factions, visuals, and so on.

The subject of gaming brings me to my next topic - The Second World War.  I have enjoyed a few of the Call of Duty games over the years, but I always liked the World War II versions the best.  Recently, I have been playing a miniatures game called Flames of War, which is also set in World War II.  In addition, I was given an e-reader for Christmas, and while searching for something to read, I stumbled upon an author that had been recommended to me in the past, but whose books I had yet to check out.  His name is Jeff Shaara, and the first book I chose to buy for my reader was his novel The Rising Tide.

I am about half of the way through, and so far I find his writing style very easy to read.  He uses words very sparingly, avoiding filler, and the content is certainly not lacking either.  Another great author, that I've mentioned before, is Steven Pressfield.  He has written a novel (only one so far) about World War II as well.  It's called Killing Rommel and it's excellent, as is everything I've ever read by him.

Alright, so by next week, I should have a full post up on the topic of World War II.  I haven't decided which aspect of the war to focus on yet, but, until then, I'll be doing some research.