Thursday, July 05, 2012

The Book I Read

Let's create a summer reading list. I'm going to list the following:
  • The book I'm reading right now;
  • A good book I've read recently; and
  • A great book that I'd recommend to anyone.
The book I'm reading right now is Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, by Robert Kaplan. I've read one other book by Kaplan, Imperial Grunts, which was a fascinating look at the U.S. military. So far I like this book, although it's somewhat slow going.

A very good book I read recently is: Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, by Eric Metaxas. The title should be self-explanatory. I loved Metaxas's more recent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and while this one isn't as detailed as the Bonhoeffer book, it tells an important story very well.

The great book I always recommend is: The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, by Lawrence S. Ritter. The classic oral history from 1966 is about baseball but also about America at the turn of the century. Perhaps my favorite book of all.

Share your choices in the comment section!


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but the last and best book I've read is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig.

J. Ewing

Brian said...

Currently reading: Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman. Somewhat stream-of-consciousness essays that often connect seemingly unrelated topics.

Recently: Probably the best book I've read (or I should say, finished) in the last 6 months was Haruki Murakami's 1Q84. At 944 pages, it is impossible to summarize well. My Japanese friends tell me that it is at its core all about what it means to be Japanese today. I have to take their word for that, but it is a hell of a good story. I've read everything of Murakami's that has been translated into English, and the only book of his I like better than this one is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which I'd probably pick as my favorite book of all time, if forced to make such a choice.

A great book I'd recommend to anyone is a challenge! But I'm going to go with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. As a resource for recipes, it is a bit dated (though many of the classics in it are spectacular if you pull them off), and some of the ingredients and suggested sourcing thereof will make you realize how much American food culture and business have changed in the last 50 years. However, I cannot think of a better single volume that will teach you how to cook things properly: how to blanch vegetables to preserve color and crispness, how to get the skin off a tomato without damaging the pulp, the manifold ways to cook eggs right, how to make a killer sauce, etc., etc. If you learn the techniques here, you can apply them to almost anything.

I've had my copy for just under 7 years (it was a wedding present) but it looks like I've had it for 20.

First Ringer said...

Now: I'm finishing 'Master of the Senate', the LBJ bio by Robert Caro. It's taken me over a year to complete since it's about 1,000 pages. The narrative wanders and LBJ comes off as one of the worst human beings in politics, even with the author an obvious left-leaning supporter. Still an interesting read to better understand the history of the Senate itself.

Recently: Niall Fergerson's 'Empire.' Relatively pithy; the number of pages nearly equals the length of Britain's global dominance...not bad for cramming almost 300 years into 300 pages. I don't agree with Ferguson's conclusions on why Britain lost her empire (lost out to the competing empires of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and democratic America). But if you want to read a vigorous, apologist's defense of Pax Britannica, you won't find better.

Recommend: 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' by T.E. Lawrence. I crack my copy once ever few years. An absolutely wonderful read if you have an interest in the era (and if you've seen 'Lawrence of Arabia').

Night Writer said...

1Q84 is on my list to rea. My all-time favorite novel, as anyone who follows my FB posts knows, is Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale." it's long with, multiple plots and memorable characters and dialog. It will take you a while to read it because it is long, but also because there will be many times when the prose will make you stop dead and roll the words around in your mind and on your tongue in the hopes you'll be able to imitate them some day.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Currently I'm reading Bad Religion by Ross Douthat. Very interesting take on where American Christianity is and why it's there.

I recently read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and really enjoyed it.

My book for the ages is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. The reason that I'd recommend it to anyone is the writing itself. It was a such a pleasure to keep reading, not to find out what would happen, but to hear the way he said it.

Anonymous said...

Loved Ender's Game and O.S. Card books generally. Among my all-time faves is "City" by Clifford Simak. You can see it coming from where we are today.

J. Ewing

Gino said...

contrary to image, i do buy a book or two.
its just that all my stuff is still packed, and the last two or three i read this year... i cant remember the titles of... but they had to do with snipers, soldiers and autobiographical accounts.

favorite book of all: The Farmer's Almanac, any year.
good stuff there, and you can use it, too.

Night Writer said...

So, Gino, I take it you have a few Stephen Hunter books packed in those boxes?