Readlings

So, uh, Ive also been reading!! That 2 part history of the German-russian War by John Erickson that is so dry - I'm well into th second volume now. Felt it important as a student of history to read the acomplished and well thought of dual volumes on the history of that war - despite their dryness and their lenght. Made a point - to spur me to end it - to finish the first volume before school finished - did that. It was a slog, but it flowed easier near the end - partly because of the light @ the end, but also because it was fun to read of the Soviet version of Stalingrad greatly exlained. Since it was easy to finish, I figured I'd bite the bullet and just go ahead and start the slog of the sevenhundred pages so's I could just end erickson as a concern in my life (waited to read these books since 1984. Finally.).

A point I'd made about the mportance of me readiing these books was that most histories of the Russian- German war in World War Two I have been exposed to growing up were writen during the Cold War by Western writers. Since the Germans were now our allies and the Russians were our "enemies" the histories written during that time really lionize the fighting abilities of the nazis and downgrade that of the Soviets. So, beleatedly, I start my own campaign to reeducate myself on that war, except in a more balanced style.

It's still slow. I'm 250 pages in, and finally my impetus(sc) in the book has finally faded - meaning its started to slog. From now on, it will be tricky to finish - 400+ pages to go. But, Ive divided it up into 4 sections of 100 each - lame, ament i - and it will be ersiser to kill off.

And yes, it would be easier to just, say, not read books that are more akin to work - but then I wouldn't be able to pontifiacte about those battles and that war and claim the high ground by claiming "well, Erickson felt that....". It's that Pontificate that I'm after - and the knowledge that it rests on.

So - my funny aside point to youse who could care less on these matters? Well, reading all that Cold War stuff clebrating the Germans always really concentrated ont h early part of the war when the Germans were rocking the Russians world. Th divide is the Stalingrad battle -it's basically all Russian winnings after that. So its funny that these books - The Road to Stalingrad and the Road to Berlin - throws this whole ratio upside down. Instead of 200 pages of the German invasion from June to december 1941, we now get 200 pages of the final Russain attack on the Reich - 200 ags from Jan to April 1945.

So, 400 pages to go. And then more so. This is the Summer of my Russian Campaign. Although I actually have read a bit - my taste in War reading touched on aircraft bigtime for two years there maybe 5-6 years ago and I did read several volumes of the air war in the east - its fun to almost discover this war again.