So, what are you reading now?
 

Thought this might be a good companion to the music thread, so long as we can keep the arguments out. It might be difficult given the subject nature of some of the books, but I figured it was worth a try.

I just finished "Winner Takes All" an excellent book on politics as it relates to the economy of the last thirty years. Recommended for anyone who can take the truth, warts and all.

Next in the queue is "Someplace like America" by Dale Maharidge, This is a followup to his 1985 book "Journey to Nowhere". Dale and his photographer have been following a homeless Vietnam veteran and his brother, people displaced and disenfranchised by industrial decline and natural disasters (Katrina), their varied stories of desperation, hope, failures and in some cases success in overcoming difficulties. But, it's more about the journey than it is the outcome. It covers an America many of us have never seen.

After that, "The Closing of the American Mind".

Dave

I read the "Winner take all Politics" and "Corporations are not people". but I am still scanning, scanning, scanning, count is up over 550. Lucky that HP sends me a big packet of 4x6 photo paper with every ink order 'casue I have all my digital pics to print out. But the granddaughters will have fun. They will be here next week for a visit. No time for reading.

Tony Horwitz - A Voyage Long and Strange. This book by one of my favorite contemporary writers tracks the various exploratory expeditions and settlements of North America prior to the Pilgrims. He has a bunch of other great titles too. All are recommended.

P.J. O'Rourke - Holidays in Hell . One of his earlier works I haven't yet read. Great, funny and insightful writing by one of my favorite humor writers about his trips to nasty places when he was political editor for the Rolling Stone. His chapter on visiting Jim and Tammy Baker's Christian Holiday Resort in South Carolina is priceless.

Steven King 11/22/63

How is it? I was a big King fan back in the '80s. Haven't read any of his stuff since "Bag of Bones".

Dave

shelters of stone.

I sure miss reading the two towers series by i think Stephen king.

The wise man and imminent junky part i thought funny. Over all fun series though.

That's "Dark Towers" and yes, that was King. I never read that series, but, I've read nearly everything else, as I said, up tp "Bag of Bones". Including the "Bachman Books".

Dave

yeah dark towers. I read em before i turned 17 i think. Very good books. I recommend a read of them. I also read almost all his books until the late 90s. Then i just stopped reading books altogether.

Just started reading "Someplace like America". Fascinating. He speaks of how the book was named in the Preface. He was camped out with some homeless people, squatting in a public park in California back in 2003, when cops with batons already drawn and helmets on emerged at 3 a.m. and began beating people as they scattered. (One woman was killed, still in her slleping bag, and the case never even made to the news.) Later, he asked "Red" the Vietnam Vet, "How can something like this happen?" Reds reply; "What? In someplace like America, where even homeless people are supposed to have inaliable rights? Happens every day, man."

Dave

"A History of the European Economy, 1000-2000"
Francois Crouzet, 2001

I posted that with a degree of hesitance. I don't want this thread to become political. So, let's just move on. If you wish to discuss homelessness or police brutality, start another thread, please.

Dave

My hat's off to you. I wouldn't have the patience.

Dave

ok sorry about my part. Ill delete it so no further questions arise from it.

Last Fall I did some business in Regensburg, Germany. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany and was settled by the Romans about 120 AD. The city is on the bank of the Danube River and was a big tracing hub for centuries. The Italians that lived there amassed some serious coin. One of the families, Thurn and Taxis, still has billions, although they made their money on postal routes, not trading.

If Princess Elisabeth von Thurn and Taxis ever asks for my hand I will tell her that with a little more sweet talking I might be had. :D

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w207/ebaconjr/4.jpg

I've had the Thurn und Taxis beer on a number of occasions. Have you had the little bratwursts at the grill down by the river in Regensburg - the oldest bratwurst joint in the world? Nice town, Regensburg.

I know the bratwurst stand; it is at the base of the stone bridge. Unfortunately I did not partake.

One night we had dinner in a restaurant just across from Regensburger Dom/St. Peters Cathedral. The restaurant was a converted home of some millionaire of antiquity. It was a great place for a corporate party and the food was top notch German fare.

Electronics Made Easy

Regards,

D-Ray

'bout to start D. McCulloughs' 'John Adams', a gift from my stepdaughter.

Pete

Excellent book. I gotta warn you though;

It portrays him as a human being---
No deifed hero worship. Just an ordinary lawyer with fire in his belly and a forceful voice, fighting for what he believes is right. (And an ancestor of mine.:))

(My Grandmother, on my mothers side was an Adams. Her great grandfather was John Quincy Adams.)

Dave

I'm loving "Someplace Called America". But, I gotta take it in small bites. Reading the stories reminds me of people I've known and things I see going on today.......And it makes me angry.

Dave

An interesting piece of history blue.

That's very cool.

Pete

Volume 3 of Schlesinger's series on the Roosevelt Years, this one called "The Politics of Upheaval" The first few chapters have been devoted to early '30s demagogues, including Father Coughlin and Huey Long. Interesting Characters - and Schlesinger does a good job of presenting a balanced picture of them.

Regards,

D-Ray

The Battle of the Tanks: Kursk, 1943 by Lloyd Clark

A story of the largest armor battle in history (by a long shot).

He may be a little biased, but the Age Of Roosevelt is an excellent description of the Great Depression. I think I have read volume 1 in another lifetime. His credibility on his Kennedy volumes is a little bit in question since he worked for the JFK administration as an official biographer. I did head his book about Robert Kennedy...which although not unbiased is very good.
I need to start reading again but my 100 mile commute and the internet get in my way lol.

Geeezzz.... You guys read those heavy books with lots of big words and heady concepts...
... And I just finished Penny Marshall's memoir.

Guess I'm not quite in your league here.

;)

We're just stuck a little further in the past than you are. :cool:

Regards,

D-Ray

To the King fans I just read 'Under the Dome'. At 1,000 plus pages it is long, but is a good novel right up there with 'the Stand'.

I am still stuck half-way through The Dark Tower Volume 7 which I stopped about 6 years ago...

I finally finished the volume on Roosevelt: "The Politics of Upheaval."

It is amazing to see some of the parallels between the arguments being made then and those being made now. According to Roosevelt's opponents, any attempt for a national program to relieve suffering put us on the highway to communism.

One serious difference between then and now. NBC and CBS rejected slick marketing advertisements against political programs:

"[A]s the NBC president said, it 'would place the discussion of vital political and national issues on the basis of dramatic license rather than upon a basis of responsibility for stated fact or opinion.'"

Started "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis last night.

Regards,

D-Ray

Just started Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf.

John

I've developed a stash of books from browsing garage sales, thrift stores and other sources for used books. My selections have ranged from wanna to should. I've finally gotten around to making a dent in the pile. Recently finished the Roosevelt biography, and today finished "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis. Tonight I started John Kenneth Galbraith's "The New Industrial State." In the little progress I've made, I've been surprised by very readable style displayed by, of all things, an economist.

Regards,

D-Ray

JKG is very readable. His son also writes well IMHO. Lester Thurow is also very readable. Kenneth J. Arrow is another to keep in mind. Their scholarly writing tends to be less readable without a few courses in economics. Now, if you're trying to get some sleep, then John Maynard Keynes is the ticket. :D

Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace

A real stream of consciousness. The asides overwhelm the main topics to the extent that it's hard to tell what the main topics are. It's fun though.

Regards,

D-Ray

Instructions for my daughters new wireless headphones. :p

A Collection of Essays---George Orwell

Just finished "Marakech", fascinating stuff.

Regards,
Dave

Let her read them and then explain them to you!:D

LOL, how did you know that's what happened? :o

Read 'The Insiduous Dr Fu Manchu'. Kinda fun if a bit of a stretch.

Pete

sometimes it's good to stretch your intellect.

John