pyroguysr's Diaryland Diary

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My Summer Reading List

OK... I promised I'd read 25 books by the end of summer... I've failed somewhat miserably, but I made a concerted effort. Here's my continued reading list:

"Time Enough For Love" - R.A. Heinlein
Gotta love the old master. I always turn to Bob when I need to be inspired again. Proves that RAH could write in ANY genre and make it Sci Fi

"Callahan's Con" - Spider Robinson
I love this series, if for nothing else than the puns. The ending was a bit weak, making this something of a disappointment in that aspect. It was almost as if he were rushing the ending to get the damn thing published and pick up his check. Friend of RAH he may have been, but he is NOT (as put on the front cover) the "new" Heinlein. He's too much of a conspiracy quack

"Black Feathers" - Cecilia Tan
Sci-Fi erotica. Don't read this book if you're homophobic. But DAMN, she has a powerful command of words! She explores various aspects of erotic sensuality in ways I'd not conceived.

"America Declares Independence" - Alan Dershowitz
I don't care how many letters this man has after his name, how much he is a 'respected professor of law' or how much he makes; his entire premise on the first amendment is flawed because he assumes Jefferson was an atheist - an argument used by his political enemies (primarily Alexander Hamilton) to ruin him politically. Jefferson was not and declared so many times. He said many times in his political career that he believed in God, was a Christian that made sure his daughters got a "proper religious upbringing" by sending them to, of all places, a CONVENT for education. Jefferson WAS aloof, an elitist, a hypocrite when it came to independence of man and slavery issues and he also was, like Mr. Kerry, a person that flapped in the political wind like a limp flag. All in all, he was still a man of his times. However, to me, Dershowitz is the penultimate misguided liberal.

"The Life & World of Henry VIII - A Short History" by Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht
Sort of research for our ren faire. I remembered little of my world history about this figure, even though he has soooo much to do with what the previous book I read was ranting on about... namely the union of church and state. Painted H8 as a vain, spoiled, petulant monarch that would stomp his feet and pout when he didn't get his way... later on, he quit stomping his feet and just beheaded those that disagreed with him. Nice guy.

"My Life" Bill Clinton
You know, I've interviewed Jimmy Carter and found him charming in person. I'd probably find Bill Clinton and George W to be the same. While I don't HATE Bill Clinton, I vehemently disagree with his political outlook, his policies, views and his arrogance - but then again, he's a lawyer. This is the third time I've had this book in my hands. Finally finished the last few chapters while waiting to use the computer in the library. Had to snicker all the way through this one. By GOD he is smug and must think we are all idiots to swallow this crap! Talk about your historical rewrites! The only book worse than this one was the one that Billary wrote last year!

"Treason" by Ann Coulter
Snickered and sighed through this one as well. I love Ann's columns because, most of the time they are witty and well thought out and I like her political outlook up until she gets on her holier-than-thou, Christians-are-the-only-good-folk type rants. But when I've seen her on TV on Fox News, I've found her to be as arrogant and opinionated as Mr. Clinton and all the others on the extreme left and right. Fingerpointing back and forth just doesn't do it for me. I don't think I'd like her in person, either. She has that perpetual frown thing going.

"Marco Polo, If You Can" Wm F. Buckley
Bill Buckley is another whose column I love, yet find smugly superior, but in a more genteel way than Ms. Coulter or the Clintons. I still think I could actually sit around and listen to this man postulate. Yes, he sounds like the typical Ivy-League professor, but I love his command of the language and his calm, rational tones - not to mention his dry wit. I loved him when I was a lefty and still enjoy him now. However, I truly ADORE his Blackford Oakes spy novels! I read this one back when I was in the Navy, owned it twice, loaned it out both times and never got the copies back. Picked it up again and fell into a nice groove with the witty reparte, reading it in less than two hours one night.

"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look At The Right" Al Franken
I think that someone once told Al Franken, as a joke, that he was funny. He never got the joke. This piece of crap was lying around the house, so I bit the bullet and read it for want of something better to do at 1 am when I was bored. Big mistake. Franken wasn't funny on SNL. He wasn't funny on talk shows or radio. He's less so here. "Fair & Balanced" my rosy red arse. He's just a fat, obsessed, arrogant, elitist asshole that's good at snickering and tearing people down. Can this man say anything positive?

I'm just about finished with the John Adams biography and find a lot of corrollation between Mr. Adams and Mr. Bush. Both did very important things for this country, tried to do them in as non-partisian a way as possible, but garnered no respect for all their efforts. Reading this also pointed out to me that there was political slander, rancor and mudslinging from the very beginning (and if you think it is bad NOW, it was actually WORSE then!)

I also picked up several other books for reading, but either couldn't get into them or found them to ponderous. Sometimes I just want mind-candy to read. I miss my library where I could grab a Ron Goulart or an Alexander Kent book and float off into the world of fictional fantasy and then grab Churchill's "History of the English Speaking Peoples" for more erudite stimuli.

That and it's no fun to read political books when the folks around you don't like to debate. They get all emotional and upset with you which leads to feelings of guilt or worse - me arguing with the TV or radio.

I think that makes either 14 or 15 books for the summer. During my summer breaks in high school, I'd devour as many as 70 or 80 books, but my brain was less full of junk then.

We had a knight at the fair this weekend that was walking around in his armor (he's one of the jousters) and he had a "BUSH/CHENEY" bumpersticker on the back of his armor. I mentioned that I thought we were probably a minority in that crowd. He disagreed. Many of the jousters are conservatives. YAY!

Pirate weekend was this past week. Twas fun. Will write more about that in a later post. In the meantime, stay well.

11:23 p.m. - 2004-09-28

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