BOOKS THREAD

After finishing Pierce's "Idiot America" (the Terri Schiavo chapter is guaranteed to piss you off), I started -- and am halfway through -- Maraniss' "Rome 1960".

Am not disappointed in the least.

 

My son left a copy of "Plunkitt of Tammany Hall" a collection of statements made by turn of the 20th century Tammany Hall ward leader George Washington Plunkitt, which I am not reading with delight. As much truth about American politics today as there was when said 100 years ago.
Sample quote: "Say, ain't some of the papers awful gullible about politics?"

 

Please change "not" to "now" in previous post. God, life's hard without a copy desk.

 

Hi this is my first post on this forum. I was wondering how many books you guys read in a give year. I just recently went hard core reading non-fiction for the past two years now having a Kindle definetly helped till the screen broke .

Right now I am reading "The Bronx Zoo," by Sparky Lyle and "The Battle for America 2008" by Dan Baltz and Haynes Johnson. I recommend Battle to political junkies but find Zoo a little hard to get into because it serves almost like a diary anyone else have that feeling when they were reading it?

 

I probably only read about a half-dozen or so because I read a lot of magazines too. But I'm ahead of that pace this year, having read four books in about the past month and a half. I am trying to get caught up on my pile. Juts finished "Satchel," which was tremendous, and I'm about halfway through "Into Thin Air," which is pretty good, but I haven't gotten to the tragic action yet. Up next is "Sin in the Second City."

 

Depending on the size of the books, I may read 7-10 in a year, largely because -- like DirtyDeeds -- the magazine load. But if I've got a 1,200-pager that takes me 3 1/2 months to finish, that figure skews lower.

And DD, you're going to LOVE "Into Thin Air". I can read Krakauer on any subject; the guys is flat-out talented.

His "Under the Banner of Heaven" was mesmerizing and infuriating at the same time.

 

I haven't loved it so far, but it's been pretty good and I'm moving through it pretty quickly. I think it might be that I'm already pretty familiar with the tragedy, so it hasn't been as dramatic as if I had read it 10-12 years ago. But I'm also sure it is going to pick up, since they are just about to start the summit attempt. And I look forward to reading more of Krakauer's books ... this is my first, for whatever reason.

 

My "book number" probably skews higher because I don't subscribe to any magazines (although my SO subscribes to several, so every once in a while, I'll pick up a Newsweek or something when it catches my eye.)

Kind of all depends on what's going on in my life, though. If I'm writing a lot, I'm usually not reading as much. Last year, I had some serious writing projects so I think I only read about 8-10 books, and most of those between August-October. This year, I haven't done any real writing since February (just hunting-and-gathering, as I call it, for future writing), so I've read a ton.

In 2009, going backwards, I've read: "Sin in the Second City," "Satchel," "Glory Road," "The Black Prince of Baseball (Hal Chase)," "Living on the Black," "Opening Day (Jackie Robinson)," "For The Thrill of It (Leopold and Loeb)," "The Given Day," "Larceny and Old Leather," "A Voyage Long and Strange (Horwitz)," "When Pride Still Mattered (Lombardi)," "Shoeless Summer," "Across the Fence (Vietnam)," "1920: The Year of the Six Presidents" and "Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World". (Can't remember if I read "Last Days of Summer" this year or the end of last, so I won't count it.)

So, that's 15 so far, but again, this has been a prolific reading year due to not writing (and to be fair, "Glory Road" was finished in a single sitting, as were "Shoeless Summer" and "Larceny and Old Leather." Short and sweet. I think the longest of those were MacMillan's "Paris 1919," 700-plus pages that took quite a while to get through, and Feinstein's "Living on the Black.")

Currently reading Peter Morris's "Game of Inches" at night while simultaneously listening to the audiobook of "Devil in the White City" on my commute to/from work.

Joe Poz's "The Machine," on the 1975 Reds, is next. Been waiting for that all year.

 

Yeah I just finished Baltz and Johnson's book be aware that at least in my opinion it tapers off after they discuss the democratic primary. The Republican primary and the actual election doesn't appear to be explored nearly as much and is much less interesting. I would recommend the book but be aware there is a dearth of analysis done in it and is more of just a reporting of what happened over the course of the last election.

 

Dang and I thought I was high I logged about 50 last year. Whats the secret?