(Bumped – promoted by DavidNYC)
Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. Or so they say.
Anyway, let’s take a break from our usual weekly grind of horse race open threads, and instead turn to summer reading material. What’s on your reading list this summer? I’ve recently read The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution by Naftali Bendavid and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Both were excellent reads, but alas, only the former mentioned the Swing State Project in its text.
“Carter Beats the Devil”, by David Glen Gold, whose wife is, as it happens, Alice Sebold, who wrote “The Lovely Bones”, which is Peter Jackson’s next movie. Coincidence, or secret conspiracy to kill me? We shall see, we shall see. On a serious note, it’s a fantastic book, very good. Take a little while to really get into the rthyme, but once you do it’s really, really good.
Commala come cay, The tower is on the way, Commala came cy, Roland wonders not why. All Hail The Crimson King.
I got a Wii and a DS full of games waiting to be beaten including Zelda’s Twilight Princess (Wii) and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS) (What? I’m 22 years old and it’s still a good game).
Also Pokémon Battle Revolution hits in June, Mario Strikers in July, and Metroid Prime 3 launches in August. Notably, all three of these games will allow the Wii to go online for games for the first time.
I’ve got a stack of books I’m hoping to get through by the end of the summer… the same stack I told myself I’d get through during the spring, too, and last winter. I always seem to be so busy.
Right now: “Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity” by David Foster Wallace. For those of you that enjoyed “A History of Pi” and “e: The Story of a Number,” this’ll put those calculus classes to good use. It really is fascinating, but not good bed-time reading (or, perhaps very good, ’cause you’ll fall asleep fast).
Up next: “I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!” by Bob Newhart. Newhart is still one of the funniest men in America.
After that, either my David McCullough books or some classic Isaac Asimov science fiction… I’m not quite sure.
That new Al Gore one, which I’m enjoying thus far. Finally getting to a Christmas present JamesL’s mom got me- “A Fine Balance”, about India in the 1970s. And I’m reading the FIT Graduate studies dept handbook. ;P
Why I ever decided going back to school for something even more obscure and less profitable than my current occupation was a good idea is beyond me.
Just finished Vol. 10 of the Sandman series. Gonna go pick up Vol. 9 of Y: The Last Man.
Too obsessed with blogs. Honestly, why read books anymore?
I want to get Assault on Reason by Al Gore and Deep Economy by Step it Up organizer Bill McKibbin. I read Obama’s books recently, very good. I might get Edward’s Four Trails.
If the Democrats piss me off more I might read Rules for Radicals.
Read:
Achieving Our Country (Rorty)
Whose Freedom? (Lakoff) a big disapointment
Our Endangered Values (Carter) not particularly interesting
Ending Poverty in America (Edwards and others) really good though very wonky
Crashing the Gate (I’d read excerpts but never the whole thing)
Reading:
Four Trials (Edwards) really easy read
The Essential Galbraith (can be hard to follow at times)
To Read:
The Thumpin’
Sick the Untold Story of Americas Healthcare Crisis
Blinded by the Right
The Gospel According to RFK
What Liberal Media?
Currently on Harry Potter number 1, got 2-6 after that one in preparation for the grand finale, NUMBER 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. (Im 20 and have been reading them for like 8-9 years)
I will be getting the Al Gore book soon, I got the Almanac of American Politics 2002 and 2004 in the email off of Ebay, still need to find a cheap 2006 one.
Will be getting Minnesota Politics and History and Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labour Party and the American Political Economy.
I attempted Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I got bored, it lacks plot, it is all philosophical stuff which I love but the book yes has a story, yes has philosphy, no doesnt have a plot or a reason.
are books I’m in the middle of. I’m in the middle of A Fire Upon the Deep, What It Takes, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Absolute Convictions, and at least one or two others.
Recently finished Middlesex and The Thumpin’, both of which I loved.
And not only was SSP mentioned in the latter, it was in an extremely flattering light.
I am reading “Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism” by Michelle Goldberg.
The book chronicles the rise of the the Religious Right beginning in the 1980s and interestingly enough she notes the central role of the Home school movement as the foundation of their drive to power at least early on, I am not finished with the book yet.
Good stuff.
So I’m a little off topic, but there didn’t seem to be a great place to share this. I found it on a blog I occasionally check out (far less that SSP of course 🙂 http://donklephant.c… ) haha
I figured you guys have to be just as politically nerdy as I am, so i figured you’d all get as much enjoyment out of it as I did. Its a little game where you have to draw the districts of a state. 5 different levels… Good times. Teaches you a lot about what goes into redistricting and all that is involved. Fun and enjoyment WHILE you learn, who ever though of such a thing!! Here’s the url, sorry, I’m not very computer literate,so no direct links!
http://www.redistric…
“The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century” – by Thomas L. Friedman
“Eragon” and “Eldest” – by Christopher Paolini – did anyone else realize that this kid was 15 when he wrote Eragon, and is now 23? He’s got 2 bestsellers (with a 3rd on the way) and a major motion picture.
Waiting with bated breath for the last Harry Potter book.