Last year one of the theme reads on the Reading Globally group over at LibraryThing was “War and Regions in Conflict” for which I decided to read about World War Two, one of my favorite periods in history to read about when it comes to non-fiction. We were encouraged to read from different sides of the conflict, which I thought was a bit more difficult with World War Two since it has more than one battlefield and more than two sides. But, I made a plan – unfortunately real life got in the way.
But, this theme would just not leave me alone. So, for 2012, I’ve decided to start my own World War Two theme. For now I’ve decided to focus on the European part of the war (including America’s involvement in the war), leaving out the Pacific and African battles, unless I just happen to read something that fits that. This theme will probably continue past this year, so expansion is always possible. My planned reads can be found here.
But my plans to focus on World War Two don’t stop with fiction. On one of the bookshelves in my house stands Sir Winston Churchill’s The Second World War in 12 volumes. I’ve always wanted to read it, but for some reason never started. Now, however, I’ve decided to read one volume a month, so I will have finished it at the end of 2012. I’m working on volume 1 now, Milestones To Disaster, which encompasses the period of 1919-1939. So far it’s very good, although sometimes I don’t know all of the people Churchill mentions – I think they were household names, especially in Britain, right after the Second World War, but I just don’t know them all. Still, it’s very clear and concise, and he manages to point out both the good and the bad.
What’s your favorite time in history? Are you doing any themed reads this year
1 comments:
STopping by a bit late to say I love reading WWII fiction and so I will be interested to see what books you read during your year.
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