I didn't even know that Hank Reinhardt's The Book of Swords
was in print yet, but Michael Z. Williamson had several on his table, and I had to pick one up. Hank was one of the key figures in modern study of the sword as an historical fighting tool, rather than an archaeological curiosity or fantasy wallhanger. I'm about halfway through the book, and it's an enjoyable, rambling excursion through the history of... well, mostly swords, of course, but it bounces off metallurgy, touches down on armor, glances off axes, and generally has the feel of someone who is not only very knowledgeable about a topic but also passionate about it vomiting the contents of their mind onto the page. I consider myself fairly well-read on the topic, but I've already learned a few new things. It will sit comfortably on my shelf next to Burton
and Oakeshott
.The other was a reference volume that I've been meaning to add for a while now: Bolt Action Military Rifles of the World
. It's a general overview that's light on text, instead being crammed from cover to cover with lavish, full-color illustrations: Closeups of various markings, details on how to field-strip various rifles, pictures of bayonets and charger clips and various other peripheral doohickeys. The book runs more towards captions than paragraphs, but includes bunches of useful tables of maker's marks and translations of foreign numbering systems often encountered on these strange rifles from exotic lands. It makes for a nice bridge between the typical pretty-but-error-ridden volumes found on the clearance table at Border's and the excruciatingly detailed type-specific For Collectors Only volumes that contain things like the genealogical tables of the man who redesigned the rear triggerguard screw on the M1892 variant of the Model of 188...ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.
11 comments:
What? No Danielle Steele? Damn.....
I really enjoyed Cohen's By the Sword. He got kind of distracted with the history of dueling, and the actual technical information about swords is shaky once we leave the Olympic fencing Cohen is expert in, but it doesn't really matter, because his treatment of dueling is great reading.
In fact, he was the one who led me to Burton. I'd never heard of him before I read Cohen. If you haven't read it, you might like it.
History of weapons is usually pretty interesting. Considering swords were used in warfare up to and including WWII (the Japanese used the sword and bayonet as integral parts of their battle doctrine) it isn't all ancient history. And I am geeky enough to be interested in that stuff.
Pitiably, I like the detailed wierdness of the latter, and those are so few and far between that they command big bux. Now, "The Bullets Flight from Powder to Target" by Franklin Mann is not impossible to find, but to put your hands on one of the original Pope catalogs, for instance, is a rare treat. And there's probably only six of us on the planet that even care.
One of the bigger disappointments I experienced following moving to Tyler 16 years ago was discovering the lack of book vendors attending the local gun shows. Why someone who isn't all that shy about his personal/political views on his blog page would abhor having his name appear on a publisher's customer list doesn't really make any sense to me either. Still, there it is ... (and just to beat anyone else noting the obvious, "The ubiquitous They actually read the publisher's clientele details". :))
og,
"Pitiably, I like the detailed wierdness of the latter..."
I do, too, and "For Collectors Only" and "Collector Grade Publications" titles are vital for the serious collector of any marque, but a good quasi-detailed overview is the... um... gateway drug. :D
Will,
I'm not getting the reference...?
yes, gateway drug indeed. You want a gateway drug? read "After big game in central Africa" by Edoard Foa. he goes into stark, raving detail about the types of weapons, the types of ammo, the composition of the clothing, the composition of the boots, the number of bearers, the types of tents......
and then he starts hunting.
After you read this book, you make your way to Africa, regardless of whether you can afford it.
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton's book only has a few drawbacks, one is that he thinks everyone can read every language he can, and no offer of a translation. I forget where I got my copy, but it is still worth having.
"Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton's book only has a few drawbacks, one is that he thinks everyone can read every language he can, and no offer of a translation."
In scholarly works written before about 1920 or so, you will not find translations of anything written in Latin, Greek, or French, as it was assumed that most anyone with a high school diploma, and certainly any college student, could puzzle out those written languages with little problem, if not speak them fluently...
For a volume wieghted toward the East, George C. Stones "A Glossary of the Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in all Countries and all Times" (or something like that, has to be the longest title in the arms world) is great. A perfect counter balance to Oakshott.
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