BOOKS THREAD

i feel an equal amount of sickness reading either al franken or ann coulter. neither one can be taken seriously with their limited agendas.

anyway, the initial reviews for "munich" (by steven spielberg) are not pretty, but the book it's based on -- "vengeance" (by george jonas) -- is a good read. it's about the israeli commandos who were sent to avenge the 1972 olympic terrorist attack.

 

Really?

At least Al Franken is funny.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Reading Arthur and George by Julian Barnes, who might be the most structurally creative fictionist out there (History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters). Martin Amis famously slandered him in The Information. He also wrote a hilarious small series of private-eye novels under the nom de plume of Dan Kavanaugh about, yes, a bisexual detective.

YHS, etc

 

Coming in March to a bookstore near you, and probably already to your sports dept desk:

Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot
by Mike Greenberg

A 200-plus page exploration of a Metrosexual's infatuation with himself and his own life.

I snagged a please-review-me copy from our paper's stack of free books. My wife read it and asked me to never become that guy.

 

Outing alert: Idaho is Mike Golic!

 

a really fun, interesting book i just finished is called 'the game' by neil strauss

basically, dude starts studying pick up artists (you know, like those that run seminars and shit) and becomes kind of the pickup artists...

 

Neil Strauss wrote the highly entertaining (and Dyno recommended) "The Dirt" with the members of Motley Crue. I thought he did a great job of giving each guy in the band his own voice.

 

"Crashing the Boards" (How Basketball Won the World and Lost Its Soul at Home) by Harvey Araton.

Pretty good basketball read by a passionate basketball writer. I've always liked Harvey and the solid jumps he's made from the Post (he seems to hint at his distaste for its mongering headlines like reporting) to the Daily News (real solid nuts and bolts basketball writing) and now the NYT's (wondering how he would be as a columnist, but that's worked out).

The books waxes a tad bit poetic (not as cloying as a George Will on baseball) but he drives home his points in concise enough manner to be tolerable.

 

robert fisk's 1,400-page "the great war for civilization: the conquest of the middle east" is next on my list. it's getting good reviews for the depth of its reporting (which should be the case at that length).

 

Sirs, Madames,

Just reread Michael Ignatieff's memoir The Russian Album. (Work purposes.) The only thing the Ivy League educator ever wrote that has any emotion in it, but it is truly excellent and entertaining if you can hint it down ... and it might turn out to be a look inside head and heart of a future Prime Minister. Or at least a significant player in Parliament suspensers.

YHS, etc

 

I'd been carrying around Stephen King's "The Colorado Kid" in my bag for the last three months. Wanted to read it (wanted to, really, just roll right through it; it's about 170 pages), but just never could sit down and read.

Finally got around to it the other night when I drove from the newsroom to an all-night diner. Ate a late-night/early-morning country breakfast, then sat in my chair for about 2 1/2 hours and read good, ol' King. The assessment? It's a nice little story. I kind of liked it. Would I read it again? Probably not. But the two main protagonists are aging journalists who work on an island in Maine.

Definitely an airport/airplane/road trip book. Easy read, kinda fun. Maybe you'll even enjoy it.

 

Just want to thank the board for the recommendations.

A Tender Bar, The Metaphysical Club and Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs were all in my stocking