BOOKS THREAD

"Dangerously Funny" about the 1960s Smothers Brothers show on CBS and the attendant controversy surrounding the show's political material. Really entertaining read.

 

Still slogging through "The Real Romney." But amused that yesterday's feud over Romney's ancestors, and his subsequent lies, er, tap dancing, about them, is now in dispute when he has the pictures on his wall. At least according to the book I'm reading. This campaign is going to get interesting now.

 

"Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood" by Christian Smith (and a host of other sociologists). Came out November 2011.

Took a break from my usual diet of rock star autobiographies, and this is a good read on the mindset/morals/etc. of the 18-23 year old set.

They look at five main issues, and the chapter on morality might be the best. It's not just that young people, as a whole, aren't religious or tend to believe in moral relativism. It's that many of them don't EVER think about morality or know it can be part of the decision making process.

Good example: The kids discuss their decisions on drug use in the book, and none of them (they interviewed hundreds) talk about the moral dimension of purchase drugs, such as the violence it takes to get drugs to the U.S. market, or the amount of resources spent on drug trafficking that could be used for other things in society.

Instead it's all "drugs could do bad things to my body" or "I would look cool if I did drugs."

Anyway, for an academic-y book, I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

 

Bissinger just released After Friday Night Lights, a very short update on Boobie Miles. Real quick read. Pretty interesting how much Bissinger has helped Boobie out financially over the years.

 

Anybody else excited about next week's release of Caro's latest LBJ book: The Passage of Power? I'm tempted to schedule a vacation week around reading it.

 

Just finished David Bowie: Starman, a new bio by Paul Trynka. Easily the best Bowie book I have come across, it does a great job of examining his early days and evey phase of his career and it takes a real critical look at his recordings. Plenty of interviews with former producers, old friends (including the guy who messed up his eye) and bandmates and a cranky Angie.

 

I've just finished "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline which, while not the greatest piece of prose ever, may just be the ultimate SJ 80's geek novel ever. Set in a (grim, natch) future where everyone hangs in a virtual world called the OASIS, it's described by one reviewer as "...nostalgia porn. If you grew up in the 80s, enjoy video games, or go crazy for popular culture, you will devour this one."

The creator of the OASIS has died and left his entire estate to whoever can find the Easter Egg he has hidden in the OASIS. The tests, etc require an intimate knowledge of pop culture from the creator's youth in the 1980's - movies, music, TV, anime and especially video games. Our hero, a high schooler named Wade is a 'gunter' (egg hunter) and he and his friends are up against the most evil corporation of all time.

From the first chapter, I kept thinking "I gotta let Bubbler, Huggy, BYH and the rest of the Scooby gang know about this". So now you do.

 

Very much so. Did you read the Esquire piece on Caro from a few weeks back? Great stuff. I'd link to it, but the Esquire site isn't coming up for some reason.

 

I didn't read the Esquire piece but I've read a couple others, as well as the excerpts that ran in the New Yorker.

 

Yes. Can't freakin' wait.

I've said it here or somewhere else in the sandbox, but Caro's LBJ magnum opuses are the greatest biographies I've ever read. It took me six months to devour "Master of the Senate" and it was fascinating.

I didn't read the Esquire piece, but a buddy sent me the NY Times Magazine piece. Good, good stuff.

Didn't know Caro went broke writing these. Nor did I know he's pushing 80 (he's 76). Plus, he doesn't use a computer. Amazing.

 

Has anyone read/seen Frank Deford's Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter?

 

Finished off King's "11/22/63." Put me down as another who found myself more interested in Jake/George's life in the late 50s-early 60s, particularly the relationship with Sadie, than the Oswald stuff. This was my first King novel - don't know if I'll read anything else he's done since I don't read horror, but this book will stick with me a long time.

I've been on a Flannery O'Connor binge since finishing '63. Read some of her better known short stories and gotten about halfway through "Wise Blood." I'm about the least religious person I know (although I'm married to a Catholic) but like O'Connor, I am very much a Georgian. So I can relate to the Southern themes, less so the Catholicism that permeates her writing. I see the comparisons to McCarthy, who is a personal favorite. And her dark sense of humor does sort of tie-in with the Coen Brothers. Maybe I'll get around to reading some Faulkner after I get my O'Connor fix if I can decide on a book and stick it out.