New Books 2015 pt.5

This is the latest crop of book acquisitions this year. Three ARCs, two for megagame research, three from a charity shop and one from a publisher’s special offer.

About half way through the year and I’ve acquired 38 books, meaning that to meet my reading target I need to read 43 paper books. So far I’ve only finished reading 12 paper books (out of 29 total). However I’ve broken my kindle, and there are a number of paper books that I’ve read part of, but not quite finished. So I’d expect to finish at least 30 books between now and the end of the year.

Why I Acquired the Books

Haking A Dutiful Soldier – I’ve got one of the books he wrote before the war, and a few on the 1916 Battle of Fromelles, where he was the Corps Commander.
The Last Roundhead – an ARC, which I said yes to because it was about the English Civil Wars, and I loved it.
A Splash of Kindness – an ARC, which I thought would be an interesting read, it’s about the power of positive intervention to make life better for everyone
Chinese Turkestan – an ARC, a second book by Ryan Pyle and I thoroughly enjoyed his bike ride round China book.
The Jacobite Clans of the Great Glen 1650-1784 – I’ve decided to do a megagame about the Glorious Revolution, and Bruce Lenman’s other book was a key source for my game of Highland Battles in 1689, which is the core of the military part of the game.
Battles for the Three Kingdoms – a work on the military campaigns after the Glorious Revolutions, so sort of essential for the megagame design & briefings.
I Believed – I found this in a charity shop, it’s a memoir from a former communist who fought in Spain and then left the communist party after WW2. An interesting social commentary.
Undefeated – another charity shop find. This one is about Lt. Col. Jack Sherwood Kelly VC who had a very interesting military career, including a stint fighting the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. He was also court martialed.
Secret Agent – again from a charity shop. I collect books about the SOE and similar WW2 era operations. One of my planned story lines is about an SOE agent with an X-Files riff on top of the sabotage and subversion.

Here are the reasons I’ve acquired books so far this year:

reason	Not read	started	Finished	Total
Amazon/Goodreads recommended	4		1	5
ARC	2		3	5
favourite author	2			2
found in bookshop	9		1	10
personal recommendation	1		2	3
present	2			2
research for a game	6			6
social recommendation	2	1	1	4
work related	1			1