Posted on 01/11/2006 12:04:15 PM PST by MplsSteve
I'm gonna start doing this thread on a quarterly basis.
The last time I did it, I got some very interesting answers from Freepers.
What are you reading? It can be anything. A classic. A technical journal. A trashy pulp novel. Soldier of Fortune magazine. Anything.
I'll start. I'm reading: "The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's race for Governor of California and the birth of media politics".
So far, it's not a bad read. But what did you expect? I'm a Pol Sci major.
Well, what are you reading?
Me too...about 2/3 the way through. It's an odd one for the series, you can certainly tell it's only half the entire book. I can't decide whether I like his method of splitting the monster opus he created or not yet. Probably won't know until I get through the next book.
I just started it (about 100 pages in) so I don't have much to go on yet. I wish I hadn't gotten so involved in a series that isn't complete yet. I hate waiting for the next book!
The Prey
by Allison Brennan
It's absolutely chilling!
"The Imitation of Christ"...
and a purchase and sale agreement on a piece of real estate in North Carolina
Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology Study Guide
2006 ACH Rules: A Complete Guide to Rules and Regulations Governing the ACH Network.
On the throne, Maxim.
"The Machine Crusades" by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson.
I've just finished "The Butlerian Jihad" by the same authors.
Weird? No, not at all.
You have diverse interests. Nothing wrong with that.
Dear Lord above, someone took a picture of my study!
Let's see . . . what's in the bookbag right now? I'm working on a biography of Nell Gwyn (one of Charles II's mistresses), "The Well of Lost Plots" (Jasper Fforde is highly recommended for us bibliophiles), and Dick Morris's "Off With Their Heads!".
Working on The Logic of American Politics by Samuel Kernell, Gary C. Jacobson
And I keep handy for short reads, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter
I can't remember off the top of my head....a co-worker of mine has it checked out of the Library. As soon as she's through with it, I'll ping you.
John Adams...by McCullough...great
The 12 Caesars..by Seurtorius...fascinating, but weird.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell..by S. Clarke...excellent writing.
The Greek City States...by ???
What a beautiful pooch!!
Shhhhh!
He doesn't know he's a dog. He thinks he's a person and we walk funny. He's a good ole boy, I tell you what.
Last I heard of him he was fighting the establishment over the Troy excavations. Kind of reinforced my views that the early Middle East and southern Europe was not a very nice place.
I am reading "Post Captain" by Patrick O'Brian
and I will also start reading "For Love of Mother-Not" by Alan Dean Foster when it comes in from Amazon.
I have just finished reading TO my daughter "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander.
I am slowly making my third pass through the Aubreiad by O'Brian. I ADORE those books.
I used to but it's been a while since my last reading. I'd love to find (or gain access to) some of the other L & C scholars like Reuben Thwaites' "Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," the Coues edition of Biddle, etc. I'd also dearly love to know more about some Expedition members like John Ordway and especially George Drewyer (Drouillard?) 'Drewer' was ultimate the Mountain Man archetype. But it was John Colter who stayed in the mountains and discovered (for Europeans) Colter's Hell -- Yellowstone.
I'm currently reading Chricton's "State of Fear." Very enjoyable and informative book.
Definitely. DeVoto ("Across the Wide Missouri," "Course of Empire," "The Year of Decision: 1846," etc.) was born in Ogden, UT in 1897. His mother was Mormon and his father was described as "weakly Catholic" by Bill Croke [The Weekly Standard, August 16, 1999]. Croke writes that their "...theological squabbles left the boy a confirmed agnostic from a young age." He fled to Harvard where he received a B.A. in English in 1920.
He never lost his love of the West and is the one recent Western historian I can still stand to read. As Croke puts it: "...since he died, the academic study of history has become entirely the province of those whom the critic Harold Bloom once labeled 'the resentniks.' The topics of multicultural grievance that purchase tenure for assistant history professors these days, the citationless assertions that pass for historical scholarship, the inversion of heroism into the great sin of history, the awful modern academic writing: DeVoto would have recognized very little of it -- especially the writing."
If you haven't already read it I think you might be especially interested in "Year of Decision." That's another book I need to re-read.
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