The President reads books. Do you?

[Ezlivin]

There's an article on DU saying that Bush and Rove are in a "competition" to read books. They display his "summer" reading list.

I'm a reader. That means I love to read. (Sorry about the Bushism.)

Which books did you read in the past 12 months?

Here's my partial list in no particular order:

The Cage by Audrey Schulman
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
American Mania: When More Is Not Enough
Future: Tense : The Coming World Order?
Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis
Atheist Universe: Why God Didn't Have A Thing To Do With It
Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Freethinkers : A History of American Secularism
Don Quixote
Olympos by Dan Simmons
Illium by Dan Simmons
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Manifold Origin by Stephen Baxter
Manifold Space by Stephen Baxter
Manifold Time by Stephen Baxter
End in Fire by Syne Mitchell
Murphy's Gambit by Syne Mitchell
Deepstar Six by Jack McDevitt
Chindi by Jack McDevitt
Good Faith by Jane Smiley
Cell by Stephen King
Idlewild by Nick Sagan
Drake's Fortune by Richard Ravner
Picoverse by Robert A. Metzger
Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman
Dreaming War by Gore Vidal
A Shortcut Through Time by George Johnson
Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
The Culture of Make Believe
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Diamond, Jared
Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change
The Collapse of Complex Societies

[AndyA]

1. George is so proud of himself! He's almost finished reading

My Pet Goat, which he started a few years back. Charlotte's Web is next on the list, and he's really excited about starting The Little Train That Could, just in time for the elections in November.

George secretly hopes Charlotte's Web will be an easy one.

[liberal N proud]

2. Where is My Pet Goat on bu$h's list?

They forgot the one book that I would believe he reads.

[Ezlivin]

4. Did he get time to finish it?

I thought that the scheduled terrorist attack disrupted his reading.

[liberal N proud]

25. Notin' inturupts his readin'

[Crankie Avalon]

3. The president reads baseball books...where are yours?

I'm finishing "Fiasco" now and if I (or anyone else, for that matter) could get Bush to read one book, this one would be good as any.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. Sorry, DU wouldn't be able to handle the data overload...

even with the new servers. :evilgrin:


Seriously though, I think it's a PR bet.

Rove> "Ok, here's the deal. I'll have that cute little boy in Propaganda call up so-and-so (some whore) at __________ (some rag) and tell them that we have a bet going..."

Shrub> "What-ever we want though, right? Even if I pick my goat book every time, it counts, right?"

Rove> "Don't worry, I won't tell." :pats the monkey on the head:

[MrCoffee]

6. sci-fi? you nerd. i can tell, i can recognize my fellow travelers.

[Ezlivin]

33. I grok that

Where's my smilie for the Vulcan hand sign?

[stepnw1f]

7. He Just Lost His Mouth-Breathing Base (nt)

[BlooInBloo]

8. It's obviously a lie - sheesh.

Some quick boe calculations:

so gw says he's read 60 books this year

that works out to 7.5/month

or about 2/week

say each book is 400 pages

that works out to 115 pages/day

every day (on avg of course) since the beginning of the year.


While "conducting his presedential duties".

He's so stupid, he doesn't even know what a believable lie looks like.

[Benhurst]

10. You're right. He couldn't possibly move his lips that fast. NT

[TomInTib]

9. I stopped reading when I heard gw was doing it.

Actually, I stopped when our last two independent booksellers went out of business in our little town.

I refuse to do business with a non-independent retailer of any sort.

Our town has an ordinance that bars all but independently owned business.

[babylonsister]

11. How do you feel about libraries? nt

[TomInTib]

12. I love libraries and we have probably the finest small-town library

in the country.

But it's a little too far to walk for me.

And I don't drive.

I do not think that I have read a book in the last two years.

[babylonsister]

17. My heart goes out to you, Tom. I love to read and

think you are missing out by not doing so (though I realize the internet provides lots of material, I love to get lost in a good fiction; keeps me sane(r)).
Do you have a flea market or thrift store close by? They usually sell books. Also, here's another swapping site for you to check out:

http://www.bookins.com/index.php

[SmokingJacket]

26. Try Abebooks.com

They sell used books from small and large independent stores all over the world.

There are also many used book exchanges on the internet -- give a book, take a book.

And consider moving -- a person needs to be able to walk to a library, IMHO.

[TomInTib]

46. I checked that out this afternoon

Thanks for the lead.

As for moving - never.

Have you ever been to Tiburon?

[shain from kane]

14. That it's cheap but it's not free

[babylonsister]

18. Huh? My library is free as long as I abide by the time limits. nt

[shain from kane]

20. It's a line from a song that I thought you might recognize.

Real estate taxes pay for our library, so it's cheap, but it's not free. All residents can get a library card, but non-residents have to pay for one.

[babylonsister]

21. Nope, must be before my time, or

more likely after. ;)

[shain from kane]

27. Ok. Well, here it is ---

Babylon Sisters
By: Steely Dan
From the album: Gaucho

Drive west on Sunset
To the sea
Turn that jungle music down
Just until we're out of town
This is no one night stand
It's a real occasion
Close your eyes and you'll be there
It's everything they say
The end of a perfect day
Distant lights from across the bay
Babylon sisters shake it
Babylon sisters shake it
So fine so young
Tell me I'm the only one

Here come those Santa Ana winds again

We'll jog with show folk on the sand
Drink kirschwasser from a shell
San Francisco show and tell
Well I should know by now


That it's just a spasm
Like a Sunday in T.J.
That it's cheap but it's not free
That I'm not what I used to be
And that love's not a game for three

Babylon sisters shake it
Babylon sisters shake it
So fine so young
Tell me I'm the only one

My friends say no don't go
For that cotton candy
Son you're playing with fire
The kid will live and learn
As he watches his bridges burn
From the point of no return

Babylon sisters shake it
Babylon sisters shake it
So fine so young
Tell me I'm the only one

[babylonsister]

30. ...

Maybe if you had hummed a few bars?:blush:

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

13. there's an easy solution to that...

...trading books instead of buying them. Get thee to PaperBackSwap.com. There are no required fees, and it's run by three guys in their spare time. I am beyond addicted. :)

[Whoa_Nelly]

15. George 'n' Karl havin' an IMPORTANT meetin' (Chimp pic!)

He reads books, but not daily newspapers??? :wtf:

[Sugar Smack]

16. He's supposed to be reading "Hamlet"?!?

LOL!LOLOLOLOLO>L!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[ginnyinWI]

19. Nobody else reads at DU?

I'm shocked, shocked.

Here's my list since last August:

Non-Fiction:

A People's History of the U.S. (Howard Zinn)
The Mediterranean Diet
John Adams (David McCullough)
The Worst Journey in the World (Cherry-Girard)
With Scott to the Pole (Fiennes)
John Kerry--Complete Bio (Boston Globe)
Myths to Live By (Joseph Campbell)
How Would a Patriot Act? (Glenn Greenwald)

Fiction:

Brick Lane (Ali)
Silmarillion (Tolkein)
The Hobbit (for the nth time) (Tolkein)
Unfinished Tales (Tolkein)

[babylonsister]

24. I read a couple of books a week, and

don't keep a list :shrug: (granted, the books I read aren't exactly brain food, more like brain candy).

[ginnyinWI]

28. I've been keeping a list for about ten years.

It keeps me motivated to keep making time to read. I try to read at least a book a month, on average, but some of them are really long, so I don't always make it.

[Cosmocat]

22. Honestly, if is funny ... And, I mean it ...

I laughed for nearly a half hour when I read the origional post ... I am laughing now ...

That these clowns are SO bold faced, ridiculously beyond reality in their propoganda, to think that anyone of any self thought would believe this clown even read ONE of these books, let alone 60 of them ... Just ... Funny ...

THEN, you realize that there are actually people who WILL believe it, and complete wonderment sets in, before it gets really funny again ...

[RebelOne]

23. I read all day long. That's my job. I'm a copy editor. n/t

[Ezlivin]

36. I pity you

For I've read some terrible copy.

Have you noticed that the friggin' graphics on TV are often misspelled? I was watching the History Channel and they had a nice banner at the bottom that read: "Engineering the Impossilbe". I paused the picture and yelled at my wife, "I can't believe this! Doesn't anyone proof anything any more?"

How can we engineer the impossible if we can't even spell it?

And don't even get me started on the plethora of unneeded apostrophes jammed all over the damned place.

[SmokingJacket]

29. I read AND I work in a book store, and I call bullshit

on that list. It's perfectly designed to be masculine, conservative (but not whackball -- where's Ann Coulter on that list?), and comfortably intellectual, and even includes a drop of multiculturalism.

I wish someone at a press conference would quiz him on some of those titles.

"So Mr. President, what's your favorite line from Lincoln's Second Inagural address?" or "What do you think Camus would say about terrorism?" or "What did America do right in its fight against polio, and what can we learn from it?"

Oh, so many good questions.

[Sugar Smack]

31. I know. HAMLET? I'm still cracking up.

:rofl:

[ginnyinWI]

32. I'd love to see questions like that!

And also some more obvious ones that the press seems to have forgotten about. Like where's Osama? And what about all of those campaign promises? And call him on all of his supposed Christian moral values.


Just because a person has a reading list, doesn't mean they've actually read it! :rofl:

[Ezlivin]

34. I see and raise your call on bullshit

Bush does not exhibit one single clue that he is a reader. His command of the English language is deplorable.

When I read that he's a reader it pisses me off. You'd never see that open-mouth drooler in a library or over at Barnes & Noble or Half-Priced Books.

[BlooInBloo]

38. Make them dead-stupid-basic questions....

... So that no one can claim "oh well the President read it, he just doesn't have time for the in-depth analysis that people in lesser job have".

We want questions that leave no doubt whatsoever that dumya has simply not read the book.

Questions that contain a false presupposition, for example, are good. "What did you think of the way Hamlet treated his sister Jaqueline?", for example - will immediately expose someone who knows nothing at all about Hamlet - as I suspect dubya doesn't.

[Book Lover]

40. Exactly!

You got your Mitchner and your Fisher; then you got your baseball books there, always good for a break; then you got your Oshinsky (one of my authors!!), your Carwardine, and your Patterson & de Jonge, so you got your history. And hey, why not toss on a couple of Shakespeare's plays, eh? Perfectly balanced in order to drive up sales of the spring/summer releases, what with the publicity of being on this list.

[opihimoimoi]

43. I think he would be hard pressed to correctly answer 9 x 7 = ?

How many pints in a Gallon

How many yards in a mile

Basics indeed but we need to know if he can compute...

Why is Peace not being addressed in a more positive mode?

Why are we rejecting Solutions that lead to PEACE?

Basics once more....can he REASON?

Why is the Earth heating up?

Can this man think????

[sui generis]

35. I've been on a science fiction jag

somewhere over 60 books, probably closer to 80, plus Science, Scientific American, Nature, Smithsonian, Archaelogy Review (before it turned traitor), National Geographic, and :blush: Discover and Popular Science, oh and of course JAMA and JAPA.

plus

Wolfram's "A New Science"
The Fihrist (again)
String Theory, Vol. 1 : An Introduction to the Bosonic String (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics)
David Crystal Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (a must read - truly enjoyable)
The Dancing Wu Li Masters
Optical Memory & Neural Networks
Language Evolution (Studies in the Evolution of Language)
Artificial Intelligence For Engineering Design Analysis & Manufacturing
Pharmaceutical Production Facilities : Design and Applications
Structuring Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurial Transactions
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Buyouts: Transactional Analysis
Field Guide to Surgical Triage

and that's just the stuff written in English.

[Ezlivin]

37. Science is good for your brain

I've loaded my brain with as much as I can, although I'll have to say that some of your titles are extra heavy duty. Wow.

My wife and I both agree that the last thing that we would sacrifice would be our library. The television and computer would be in the trash long before our books.

[Retrograde]

39. My analysis of the list

My analysis of Bush's summer reading - you know this list was carefully put together vetted by somebody in his press office:

MacBeth and Hamlet: Good plays, which many of us probably read in high school. IMHO, they're here along with The Stranger to give some intellectual oomph to the list.

Now we have the histories and other non-fiction:

Promised Land, Crusader State: sounds interesting, a history of US foreign policy. Message: See, he does know something about it!
Lincoln's Greatest Speech, Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, Manhunt (about Lincoln's assassination): Do I detect a theme here? Am I supposed to make the connection Bush=Lincoln?
Mayflower, Revolutionary Characters, Decision at Sea, The Bridge at Andau: message: GWB does know something about History
The Places in Between, After Fidel: message: and he keeps up with current events
Polio, American Prometheus: message: and he's interested in science!
Clemente, The Big Bam: message: but he's a regular guy who likes baseball
Finding Fish: message: and he's sensitive to minorities who find fulfillment in the military!

And the fiction:

TheQuick Red Fox, TheDreadful Lemon Sky, Cinnamon Skin: good light reading, classic mysteries. Message: see, GWB's just like you, and likes the same kind of entertainment. And they're all set in Florida, where another great Bush lives!
Beach Road, The Messenger, Through a Glass Darkly, Challenger Park: contemporary fiction, I'm not familiar with any of them beyond the reviews on Amazon. Some of them even sound interesting. Message: again, he's just like you, and likes all kinds of stuff. Is Challenger Park a reminder of his space promise?
Flashman and the Charge and Flash for Freedom: These have me stumped. I've been a Flashman fan from way back in the 70s - even named my cat after the character - but I don't see Bush or his handlers reading them - unless they take them seriously and not tongue in cheek like the author intended. (For those of you not familiar with the series, it's about a Victorian British soldier who manages to find himself at every military disaster of the 19th century: he has a very low opinion of the British establishment. Flashman at the Charge is about the Crimean War, the charge and subsequent slaughter of the Light Brigade, and an uprising by Central Asian peoples against the Russians (hmmm...). Flash for Freedom is about the slave trade: I think it's here mainly for the title - gotta keep harping on Freedom!)


Now that I've picked apart his list, I should in all fairness mention mine. Since the start of summer I've read The Worst Hard Time (about the Oklahoma dust bowl highly recommended for anyone who wants to destroy an ecosystem in one generation), The Devil in the White City(which I don't recommend), a biography of Sir William Banks (18th century botanist) and 14 lighter novels and mysteries. I'm currently mostly through Fatal Purity (a biography of Robespierre) and a bunch of travel books for an upcoming trip.

[Philosoraptor]

41. bush doesn't read books, nor is he from Texas

[Chiyo-chichi]

42. They made some mistakes on *'s book list...

He's not reading John MacDonald's Quick Red Fox, but this...



Not The Dreadful Lemon Sky, but a book by dreadful Lemony Snicket... actually he just watched the movie (those books are long.)

Not Antwone Quenton Fisher's Finding Fish: A Memoir, but...



Not George MacDonald Fraser's Flash for Freedom or Flashman at the Charge, but...



Not Donna Leon's Through a Glass, Darkly, but...


(again, he just watched a movie. Well... part of it. He heard that Alice chick ate some trippy shrooms, but George got bored after a while.)

Not Challenger Park , but


..........I could do this all day.

[Chiyo-chichi]

44. The Stranger?

Not Camus... he listened to the Billy Joel album.

[Retrograde]

47. now let's not dismiss children's books

We all had to start somewhere! A well-written "children's" book can appeal to people of all ages on different levels. I periodically re-read Carroll's Alice books and catch things I didn't understand when I was younger. And isn't "Sentence first - verdict afterwards" the motto of the Bush DoJ?

Bush would do well to read the Dreadful Lemony Snicket if only for the musings on what separates a noble person from a villain (it's not in the movie). I'm afraid the conflict between the readers of Herman Melville and the readers of Edgar Guest would go over his head, although I suspect he'd be the latter.

I'll confess I gave up on the latest Harry Potter when I reached p. 600 and Nothing.Had.Happened.Yet.

[Chiyo-chichi]

50. I absolutely agree with you.

I don't mean to dismiss children's books. I love them. I used to manage the children's department in a bookstore.

I was just going for a cheap laugh. Guess I failed.

[Retrograde]

51. I thought it was hilarious!

Just wish I could come up with more titles!

[tammywammy]

45. I don't have a list with me

I'd have to go through my bookcases at home to really know for sure.

Right now, though, I'm reading Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. It's very interesting and I've been chewing on it for a few weeks now.

Last week I read Karin Slaughter's Blindsighted as well.

[Critters2]

48. If it's true--which I doubt---

he might actually learn something valuable from some of these. Which is why I don't think it's true.

[conflictgirl]

49. All the time

I read on average 2-3 books a week, plus the materials I have to read for school since I am finishing my BA degree. Plus I work as a proofreader and editor, so I spend 20+ hours a week reading those materials as well.

I can't get away from words. It's a good thing I don't try.

BTW - was Bowling Alone interesting? I started it this summer and the subject matter interested me a lot, but found it kind of dry to read and set it aside to read other things first.