While this thread has turned to novels, my favorite novelist is N.S. Norway. He wrote under the name Nevil Shute and hit the best-seller list many times between 1938 and his death in early 1960. NSN was an aeronautical engineer with a passion for details. Interested in early flying in the Arctic? Find a copy of "An Old Captivity". Interested in the D-Day preparations? Find the novel called "Requiem for a Wren" or "The Breaking Wave". "Most Secret" is a book about Royal Navy ops in Occupied France.
Good reading,
Richard
He was a genius. His novel
In the Wet is a masterpiece of political thought and his
Round the Bend will still bring tears to these old eyes.
I can also recommend Patrick O'Brian unreservedly. His prose and characterizations are unforgettably vivid and his research/authenticity is unmatched.
For a realistic depiction of warfare in the Hundred Years' War (and others), I really enjoyed Bernard Cornwell's
Agincourt (and others). He is a superb historian as well as an unmatched storyteller & world-famous novelist, and his descriptions of the early cannons and their servicing are fascinating as well as illuminating.
I don't read quite as fast as MP but have read my share and someone else's too (grin). Keep a permanent library of 2000-plus books, mostly fiction and guns but many many how-to-do-its as well. I keep about 10% of what I read and am always having to do a mass clean-out to make room for more. One entire bedroom and about 1/4 of my shop has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves but some of it is magazines. Last year I sold over 200 hunting books but kept all the gun ones.
Regards, Joe
