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READ IN 2006

( The list )

51 books this year. That's almost a book a week. I can live with that!

NOTE: Books without links were borrowed from spouse's Half.com store.

Given the recent surge of interest in one of MY favorite obscure authors, prompted by the Waterstone's List of 30 Books That Should Be Rediscovered (which contains only 29 books -- go figure), I offer the following Jonathan Carroll title for a bookring:

From The Teeth Of Angels

Trust me, it's better than that half-hearted review I wrote makes it sound. (If it's any excuse, I wrote that when I first joined and started registering every book I owned, even those --like this one -- that I hadn't re-read in several years.)

If interested, please email me at my screen name at livejournal dot com, or PM me through BookCrossing. Must be willing to mail internationally.

x-posted to bookcrossing

38 books read so far this year, with just over 2 1/2 months to go.
Last year I read a total of 43. That's probably going to be the total for this year as well.
Nice to know I'm consistent!

It's all your fault. Yes, you. You fellow Bookcrossers. Who've mentioned so much stuff about the convention in the forums recently that I started frequenting them again. Even ChitChat. Where I started a thread and now compulsively check it and find some excuse to bump it back to page 1. Curses on your heads.

I need to do laundry and dishes. And cook dinner.

Sigh.

Mom just gave me a huge bag full of books. I'm supposed to be cleaning house and doing taxes. Instead, I'm going to be registering books on BookCrossing! Heheheheh!

(Procrastinate? Who, me?)

Today is Groundhog Day. I'm betting good ol' Phil sees his shadow. NPR talked about "cross-quarter" days this morning. Now that was interesting. Much better than giving Miss-Jackson-if-you're-nasty more grist for her dying career.

Let's see, this evening after work I can go to choir or listen to the President drone for an hour or more. I can do something I enjoy or I can cringe on my sofa. Sing? Become infuriated? Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

Any conservative-types out there, I said the same thing about the previous two Presidents. Regardless of how much I disliked Reagan's policies, he was the only President in recent years who knew how to give a speech. Bush I was barely listenable. But Clinton and Bush II made/make me crazy with their delivery and intonation and phrasing. Ick, retch, phewie!! I read the transcript of the speech in the next day's paper and feel just as informed without all the aggravation.

Last night I stopped by Kohl's on the way home. Spouse needed skivvies. I should never go into Kohl's alone, especially when they're having a clearance. Luckily, I managed to restrain myself, and only picked up three long-sleeve Ts and two fleece warmup bottoms, all $5 each. And I promptly hid them in plain sight by wearing one set as soon as I got home, and folding and putting away the rest. Oh, and spouse got his skivvies, too. He's good for about another six months, I think. But he's hard on those skivvies. (No pun intended, believe me.)

Only one post on BookCrossing last night. In BookTalk. I never even looked at ChitChat. I'm almost sorry about that, for texaswren's sake.

Cold, wet, rainy. Bleh. When will spring get here?

( The List )

X-posted to bookcrossing

Stanley Greenberg has written a deeply researched, extensively footnoted, highly readable indictment of our current political state, and we should be humbly grateful for it.

From the preface, where he observes the press "...prefers the politics of character...." to reporting anything of substance, to the afterword, in which he presents the two scenarios he developed in the previous 300 pages to his focus groups, Greenberg holds very few cows sacred and presents a relatively even-handed treatment of the current political deadlock.

However, I give you fair warning: If you, the reader, are not of the liberal persuasion, this book may irritate the starch out of you. Remember, I said "relatively even-handed." Also remember, I'm a liberal.

Greenberg starts out with a short review of the last 200 years of political history, showing us that one-party domination is the rule rather than the exception. He devotes much attention to the last fifty years, in which no party has dominated, and even greater attention to the last 25, from the Reagan Revolution in 1980 to the bitterly contested and still controversial 2000 brouhaha, and on to the beginnings of the 2004 campaign. (Incidentally, I was reading the section on President Reagan when he died and for the first few days of our national mourning period. I was struck by irony: the facts in Greenberg's work versus the hyperbole issuing from every talking head on television.) Greenberg's liberal bias is highly evident in this section: he is far too easy on President Clinton. I laughed out loud at "...[he] advanced his proposals for gays to serve in the military, thus dramatically illustrating the breadth of the principle for America's ever-expanding rights." Oh, puh-leeze. The "don't ask, don't tell" policy was hardly a milestone in civil rights.

The author goes on to discuss the makeup of each party's core voters, or base; to present hypothetical, occasionally foul-mouthed, and often amusing "secret planning sessions" in which potential party strategies are plotted; and in the final sections, to propose a plan for each party to break the deadlock and pull the majority of voters in line with its political views. Footnotes and graphs and "chalk talk" illustrations abound throughout.

Greenberg writes in clear lucid prose, plainly setting out his premise while using minimal political jargon. While the book is meaty and dense with facts, the only dry thing about it is Greenberg's somewhat sardonic wit. It is a surprisingly funny book which should be read by every voter, regardless of political party.

( What I've Read )

So that's 45 of 110. But since the Narnia series consists of seven separate novels, and LOTR is published in 3 volumes, I've really read 53. Of course, that accounting method increases the number of books on the list dramatically as well. (Just how many Discworld novels are there?)

( On Mt. TBR )

( Will Consider Reading )

( Probably Won't Ever Read )