Only two books this week:
The Great War in America • It is always nice to find a World War I book that I don’t have, especially one that fairly recent.
Warrior and Weapon • Two-books-in-one. Interesting how I haven’t run across these before, lots of great photos of war equipment from ancient time until now.
Both Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 and Our Enemies Will Vanish were published in 2024, and in perfect condition. Enemies Will Vanish is my first book on the Russo-Ukraine war, something I’ve been anticipating.
The Bridge at Remagen was something I read about in Stephen Ambroses’ The Victors, so I picked this up although I’ve never been too impressed with older war movies. If I remember from The Victors, a lot of the extras in this movie were actually at the battle. I’m probably just remembering that because it happened in more than one production so soon after the war.
The Proud Tower is one of four recent books by Barbara W. Tuchman I’ve aquired recently, this paperback was at the thrift two weeks ago but at full price ($3.99). It wasn’t there last week, but showed up this week. It is amazing that I’ve never run across this, or the The First Salute / March of Folly before. I used to pass on paperbacks, but they are small and cheap.
This two book set of Reporting World War II in special editions by The Library of America were a great find, and in perfect shape.
Fateful Choices by Ian Kershaw was a nice find, I’m halfway through his Hitler biography and would like to have all of his books.
Four of these books published in the past year, and were originally $35 or more new, wheras I procured them for a fraction of that! This also means that I beat the online-resellers that go over each book with their scanners, they would have picked them up before me. Always nice to get a win. I am two books away from having all six Jack Carr books now, so that was also a win. His books aren’t at the thrifts very often.
Picked these up today, a dollar apiece. What a deal! I actually picked them out on Tuesday, but they weren’t half-off, but they were exactly where I left them, and today were now half-off. The two Mozart CDs by BIZ sound great. It is difficult for me to find classical I don’t have already at a thrift store, but it can still happen.
The Dr. Seuss book is substantial and is very detailed into his life and work. The World War II book appeared pretty standard, but the illustrations are terrific. Vikings and the Patton book are great additions to the library as well.
I happened across these paperbacks today at half-off. They range from the years 1942 through the 1970s. It is nice to come across a batch of books like this.
A History of Warfare • John Keegan, renowned historian. I have a lot of his books.
History Channel: The Civil War • This was only seventy-five cents, and I learned two things just from the introduction.
Two Centuries of Warfare • This is a huge book, full of pictures and illustrations in addition to text.
Aircraft of World War II • A reprint of an older book with many diagrams of warplanes.
Vietnam: The Helicopter War • Nice to have a book focused on the choppers.
World at War: 1945 to the Present Day • One of three books, now I have to find the other two.
A Year in the Live of Downton Abbey • The fourth book I have about the show (that I have all of the Blu-rays of!)
The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table • My dad picked this up for free from somewhere. It’s only a few years old and is on quality paper.
The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant • This replaces my older, non-annotated version. Better size, paper, and content.
Cataclysm • Any World War I book, I’ll pick up.
Death or Glory • My only book on the Crimean War (to my knowledge), which is the first war journaled in any real number of photographs, and a precursor to how the Civil War would be fought.
Nothing but Victory • I took a chance that this wasn’t in my dad’s library already, and it wasn’t. For a buck-fifty, it is fairly new, in perfect shape, and has a good number of pages. I can’t pick up every Civil War book I want because of space, but this one was worth it.
Hindenburg • I paid full price for this one, because lately I have gone from being totally uninterested in airships, to very interested. Airplanes always appeared to be far more exciting than a big, fat, slow airship, but upon further inspection, they are really interesting. They were for a time, airliners in the sky, and some even had a lounge with a piano for guests!
Time/Life The Epic of Flight: The Giant Airships – The First Aviators • On the same topic, I passed on these books a long time ago, in an effort to save space as there were some books in this set I wasn’t interested in, so I decided to keep an incomplete set. However, I’m now interest in Airships, and those who took real risks in creating and testing the first airplanes. Now, as I look at this set, there are only two or three that I am uninterested in acquiring.
Scharnhorst • I’ve read about this ship in other books, but this is the first book focused on just the Scharnhorst. It was fairly new, and half-off, so, a great deal.
Shoot for the Moon • I’m more interested in the moon landing, wheres previously, I wasn’t. It is actually fascinating and it’s a shame people aren’t into this topic more.
The Mighty Eighth • I have another book by this title, but it is a less graphical one by a different author. The bomber missions are incredibly interesting when the reader tries to imagine himself in the same situation as the men who were there.
A great day collecting books!
The Great Pyramid Decoded • Detailed but readable information and thoughts on the mysteries and facts about the Pyramids.
The Russian Empire 1801-1917 • I left this one last week, as it was beat-up and full-price, and gambled it would still be around this week at half… and it was! I did a lot of Photoshop on the very much beat-up and ripped cover (it’s not perfect, but a lot better! It’s good to know how much time to, and not to spend on some of these things!)
The Red Baron • I knew of this books’ existence, being the one with this title that was written by the Red Baron himself! Glad to have found it.
Other Clay / Beyond the Beachhead • First-hand accounts, my favorite kind of history book.
Blood and Treasure • I’m a Daniel Boone / Davey Crockett guy, but I don’t actually know a lot about them.
Supremacy at Sea • This one was only published last year, and I got it at 1/5th the originally discounted new price!
This World War I book, I actually didn’t have, and it has an introduction by John Keegan. Published in 1980, I find it hard to believe I haven’t seen this book before at all of the book sales and thrift/book stores I’ve frequented over the years!
The Demon of Unrest was published within the year, a 2024 book and still has the original $18.99 price tag on it. I got it for nowhere near that much!
Scholar of Mahem is one of those first-person accounts that I like so much, so that was a no-brainer to pick up.
Bloodlands is a book I already had, and accidentally bought again. Turns out I had a beat-up paperback, and this one is hardback. So, everything worked out. And it looks to be a great book on a topic that is extremely interesting.
randyrydberg.org 