Book Wednesday: Stuerm vor Englands Torren

NR. 4 Kleine Kriegshefte 10 PF
This one came from the Hay Castle Bookshop for 6 GBP.

My interests in German reading are mainly historical pieces about Germany, in German--such as this one. It's a piece of Germany propaganda from the early 1940's.

This one mainly talks about Germany's activies in France. It's a mixture of articles and photos.

As an added bonus, someone left a Hotel menu in it from 1942:

Book Tuesday: The Economic Development of Poland's Western and Northern Regions

Year of Publication: 1961

This one was an ex-library book, from the University of London, King's College

My price in Wales: 3.50 GBP

From the preface:

'Poland's prewar frontier with Germany and with the former Free City of Gdansk was 1,931 kilometers long. At present the border on the Odra and Nysa rivers is 460 kilometers, or one-fourth of what it was before 1939. The restoration of the regions in th west and north have placed Poland's boundaries on a natural frontier. The Odra and Nysa boundary unites two friendly nations: The Polish People's Republic and the German Democratic Republic; it has ceased to be a powder keg and is properly called the "peace frontier".

Fifteen years of reconstruction and expansion on Poland's western and northern regions as part of one unified economic plan, have made of the regained areas and the other parts of Poland one unified whole.'

Why did this one look interesting to me?

It's full of facts and figures, comparing Poland during the war years to Poland in 1961. Especially interesting to me is the overlap between Poland and Germany, including Chaper II. Nationality and Demographic Problems. Knowing the later history of Poland being in the EU, to see how Poland was viewed in 1961 in the post-WW2 years is a nice historical insight.

A snippet of one of the many tables:

Book Monday - Best of Enemies

Britain and Germany: 100 Years of Truth and Lies

by Richard Milton

from Amazon, here. My price at the Red Cross Charity Shop in Wales: 2.99 GBP

From the inside cover:

'For the best part of a century, Brtain and German had been closer than any other two countries. Germany was Britain's biggest export market, and vice versa. Germans adopted English dress, customs and manners. German thinking on race, national identity, eugenics and racial supremacy also had its roots in British thinkers like Darwin, Huxley and Galton. Even as late as the Nazi era, Hess, Himmler, Goering and Hitler himself remained passionate Anglophiles.'

I've wanted to read this one for a while, since I knew I was moving to the UK. Over time, some UK work colleagues have mentioned how they thought of Germany growing up is largely a result of their UK educational background. While I have an interest in German history over the past 100 years and have read up on it, I'm not so familiar with UK history over the past 100 years, so looking forward to see the intersection of them.

The start of Chapte 23:

The long weekend in Wales

We recently spent a long weekend in Hay-on-Wye, the Town of books. No really, it's a town of books!

If you're into secondhand bookstores, it's a great long weekend destination. Here is the view from the castle steps:

You're seeing the outdoor shelves next to the castle walls. Lower cost/low interest books are often kept outside with 'honesty boxes' for the 1 pound or 50 p payment for them. (They do get locked up at night.)

And, because it's Wales, we went walking in the hills and saw many sheep:

So how great was the damage to the bank account due to all the books? I tried to keep it minimal, but did manage to find a few. I'll try to do up some photos of them in the coming weeks...