World War I

[Catlady]

Audible is showing a list of some WWI audiobooks today--no special pricing, unfortunately, but many interesting titles, some of which have been mentioned in this thread.

[bfisher]

The featured article on Wikipedia today is on SMS Goeben (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Goeben). Today is the centenary of the start of her fabled run through the Mediterranean fleet to the Dardanelles, one of the triggering events for Turkey's entry into the war, and the subsequent Galipoli campaign.

The Goeben incident is described in

"The Great War At Sea" by Richard Hough

"Castles of Steel" by Robert K. Massie

"The First World War Volume I:To Arms" by Hew Strachan

There is an excellent description (it reads like a thriller) of Goeben's run in "The Guns of August".

"The Ship That Changed the World: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914" by Dan Van Der Vat describes the incident in more detail. An excellent book, but unfortunately only available as a dead tree book.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by rkomar

This sounds interesting to me; I've always liked trying to follow battles with maps. I wonder if the images in the ebook are detailed enough for the purpose, though. Have you, or anyone else, looked at it and can comment?

Unfortunately Amazon doesn't have a preview for this book, well not on the Aus site anyway.

The blurb says that the book is best viewed on a tablet, but I think it would probably be best viewed on a PC screen.

One could print off any of the maps they wanted to concentrate on, though it would be a tad expensive if you wanted to print them all off in colour I would expect.

But that's the way I would do it, read the text on an ebook or tablet and view the maps on the PC, printing off the maps that I wanted to focus on depending on the history that I was reading.

Edit
You can download a preview from Kobo.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by rkomar

This sounds interesting to me; I've always liked trying to follow battles with maps. I wonder if the images in the ebook are detailed enough for the purpose, though. Have you, or anyone else, looked at it and can comment?

I downloaded the sample from Amazon and IMO the maps are just okay to poor in image quality. Better than I've seen in a lot of ebooks, but still too low rez if I want to zoom in and pan around to really see things and read the small lettering on these large maps.

Specs for the better map images are...
959 x 1367 pixels / 300dpi
1174 x 862 pixels / 300dpi
808 x 1185 pixels / 300dpi

...fine if I was scanning them to throw in a print book, but not so great on a digital screen of various size & ppi.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Unfortunately Amazon doesn't have a preview for this book, well not on the Aus site anyway.

The blurb says that the book is best viewed on a tablet, but I think it would probably be best viewed on a PC screen.

One could print off any of the maps they wanted to concentrate on, though it would be a tad expensive if you wanted to print them all off in colour I would expect.

But that's the way I would do it, read the text on an ebook or tablet and view the maps on the PC, printing off the maps that I wanted to focus on depending on the history that I was reading.

Edit
You can download a preview from Kobo.

I took a look on Google Play (where I buy ebooks), and there is a sample there. Unfortunately, the maps viewed in the browser are illegible. I can also see that you'd need a colour display to make sense of them (which is okay). Another unfortunate thing is that the book is selling for $25 at that site.

Anyway, I'm not so much worried about the rendering abilities of what I read the book on, but rather whether the images embedded in the book are high enough resolution. If they made them small, or compressed them too much to save space, it would make the book fairly frustrating to read, and it wouldn't matter what I tried to read it with.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I downloaded the sample from Amazon and IMO the maps are just okay to poor in image quality. Better than I've seen in a lot of ebooks, but still too low rez if I want to zoom in and pan around to really see things and read the small lettering on these large maps.

Specs for the better map images are...
959 x 1367 pixels / 300dpi
1174 x 862 pixels / 300dpi
808 x 1185 pixels / 300dpi

...fine if I was scanning them to throw in a print book, but not so great on a digital screen of various size & ppi.

Thanks for the info!

[Lynx-lynx]

Below is a pic of a map in the intro section of the book (taken from the Kobo preview using the Kobo Desktop reader).

This map is described as: ' a graphic depiction of battlefield geometry for the artillery; a French canevas d'ensemble, showing trigonometrical points and directions reperes (bearings marked on terrain features and used by the artillery for picking up an accurate line of fire).'

Rkomar gee the book's expensive on Google. Try Kobo Aus it's only AUD4.99.

The other thing is, and this is what I do, once it's in Calibre I copy diagrams/maps into a Word doc, and then I manipulate them into the size and clarity I want and print them off. I've found that the best way to read say MacMillan's books and view the maps she refers to as I go.

Edit
Of course having a magnifying glass would help .... I know this is getting complicated, but then it's not unusual even for a published book to have to use a magnifying glass to view images or maps etc clearly. The best answer for viewing books with maps is to get a printed book of good dimensions though I suspect - ebooks just don't cut it, eh!!

[rkomar]

Thanks for the sample image Lynx-Lynx. When I look at it in full resolution, I find it difficult to make out the words in fine black print. The overall purpose of the map is clear (to show the grid), but I love looking at maps for their own sake, and am frustrated by all the information that is "hidden" by the resolution being too low. I wouldn't mind paying $25 for such a book, as long as the images were sharp.

[bfisher]

I am currently reading "The First World War Volume 1: To Arms" by Hew Strachan. Quite readable for something by an academic historian. This covers the beginning years of WW1. Very good coverage of non-Western Front activity (including the Eastern Front, early naval actions - pre-Jutland, Africa, Turkey's entry, German global strategy, financing the war, and the industrial buildup). This was published in 2001, and there were supposed to be two more volumes, but will they ever be available? A bit of a door-stop at over 1200 pages.

He also published "The First World War", a much shorter work.

[IcecreamLtDan]

I'm actually reading that one right now. If you're interested in learning about the war and not sure where to start, it's a good one as it gives a brief, but solid, overview of the whole war. He doesn't spend a lot of time explaining all of the events that led to the war and concentrates on the war itself.

[LovesMacs]

Any opinions on John Buchan's A History of the Great War? I gather that this is an abridgment of a multivolume history of World War I, and it's quite inexpensive.

[bfisher]

Haven't read it yet. Love his Richard Hannay novels about ww1 espionage. Is it a consolidation/condensed version of his books about various ww1 battles?

[bfisher]

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/buchan/john/

Seem to be available free at Adelaide U ebooks, but I'm not sure what the quality is like - books at this site are usually well formatted

[bfisher]

Buchan was a speechwriter for Haig, and then the Director of Information in Beaverbrook's propaganda operation, so you can reasonably expect that it is unofficial propaganda.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Buchan was a speechwriter for Haig, and then the Director of Information in Beaverbrook's propaganda operation, so you can reasonably expect that it is unofficial propaganda.

I ended up buying this because it was so cheap. What you've told me explains the pro-British tone of the writing.

I haven't gotten that far yet into the book but Buchan does talk about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and how the various countries ended up at war. This particular book doesn't say anything yet about the Schlieffen plan or Plan 17. I can't say yet if the abridgement limits this book to just battle highlights.