2017 Reading Challenge discussion

Just joking. My friend / husband did recommend the whole book to me. And he did recommend it back in July, when, if I would have just opened it and started reading, I had a hope of finishing all 1,483 pages of it.

But of course I didn't and so now there are fewer than 8 hours until 2016 and I've only finished Books 1 and 2 out of 6, and I'm nowhere close to the start of World War II.

I'm happy I finally plunged in because it's quite extraordinary. Shirer was himself present for the first half of the Third Reich, and observed many of the events he wrote about. (I learned why it was the Third Reich. The first two were the Holy Roman Empire and the Bismarck era).

And thanks to the much remarked upon German penchant for record-keeping, Shirer had access to documents that made it possible to write the authoritative account of this bizarre and malevolent empire. If you've a spare six months or so and an interest in early 20th century history, I heartily recommend it.