War Corner

With all the furore in the media in comparing Donald Trump to Hitler and other less savoury historical figures I wondered whether that was one reason why one of my most popular sections was the entire shelf of books on War. For many of you, you won't have noticed but in the back corner of the shop is an entire shelf devoted to the study in both fiction and non-fiction of War in all it's shapes and forms. When I'm re-shelving books I'm constantly amazed by the breadth of human emotions that can be found just in this one section. There's some sea-faring adventures, with war conducted the old fashioned way with cannons and muskets. Then there's the ominously named book 'World War III' and the other futurist books that cast their eyes forward trying to anticipate how next we will try to destroy each other. There's also books on the different machines, land, air and sea, that made and make these different wars better at destroying civilisations. But in amongst all the doom and gloom there's also on the stories of the men and women caught up in these terrible circumstances. From everyday people helping those in need, to the soldiers and the journalists and those who's lives revolve around the making and creating of wars. The terribly sad part is how many of these books are written by someone who was killed in the line of duty.

Although I haven't read nearly enough of the books in this section every time I walk past another book catches my eye and I can't help but pick it up just to have a look and file it away on my list of 'to read' books. I do wonder if we all read more history books and studied the mistakes of those who came before us, would we be in the situation we are now?