The Air War: 1939-1945 • This is one of those thinner hardbacks that is three or four decades old, maybe from a book club. I like finding these, and the fact that I haven’t seen it before makes it an easy choice to buy.

Rise of the Fighter Aircraft: 1914-1918 • I read a book on this topic in elementary school, and it was really interesting back then, and even more so now. Just trying to understand what it was like to fly this kind of plane in the kind of situations they had to deal with, is just amazing stuff. One of the planes only had ninety horsepower, that is the same horsepower as my parent’s 1989 Ford Escort, back in the day. In just four short years, planes went from a short-distance novelty, to being able to cross the Atlantic Ocean. They went from trying to hit each other with handguns, and hand-dropped bombs, to double-machine guns that were timed to shoot through the propeller. Tactics improved, too, of course, and so many of them were re-learned in later wars.

Men O’War: Stories from the Glory Days of Sail • I wish there was a modern re-print of some quality of the Horatio Hornblower series, as I really enjoyed the A&E Networks’ rendition of it, and would like to read the books. Barnes & Noble Collectors Editions would be great for these. Until then, I can go with this book, which I left at the store last week because it wasn’t half-off. It is like new, and was a great buy.