I have been enjoying James McCormick’s book reviews on the blog very much. The quality of these items is a blessing and a challenge. I have been intending for a long time to do some “book reports” for the blog on things I have been reading, but I have not gotten to it for many valid reasons. The way I read is not conducive to taking notes, reflection, etc. I read while walking to the train, cooking, evacuating, a minute here a minute there. I read fast and I retain pretty well what I read. I can read in almost any posture and in any setting with any volume of background distraction, something I have learned out of necessity. Still, while this is the only option available to me, it is far less than the ideal way to read a book. At this point in my life, it is that or nothing. I just ingest the books as best I can and try to retain something of value from them.
So, instead of a book report, I just attach a list of books I have read in the last 16 months or so. It may be of interest to some of you. I hope to write about some of these at some point in the future.
2005
3Q
* Frank Kitson, Bunch of Five
* Michael Deaver, A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan
* Ernst Junger, Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics), the new Hoffman translation
* Joel Kotkin, The City: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles)
* Eddie Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus: The Greatest True Air Adventure to Come out of World War I
* Gavin De Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
* Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals
* Edward E.”Doc” Smith, Gray Lensman (The Lensman Series, Book 4)
* Ralph Peters, New Glory: Expanding America’s Global Supremacy
* Robert D. Kaplan, Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond
4Q
* Joel Garreau, Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human
* M. Stanton Evans, The Theme is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Traditions
* Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success
* Donald R. Headrick, The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850-1940
* Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book)
* John L. Allen, Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church
* Nicholas Rombes, The Ramones’ Ramones (33 1/3)
* Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World
* Henry James, Beast in the Jungle
2006
1Q
* Jeremey Black, War and the New Disorder in the 21st Century (Continuum Compact)
* Alan Macfarlane, The Savage Wars of Peace
* John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades (Sci Fi Essential Books)
* A.R. Myers, Parliaments and estates in Europe to 1789 (History of European civilization library)
* Ferdinand Mount, The Man Who Rode Ampersand
* Gavin de Becker, Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane)
* Claire Berlinski, Menace in Europe: Why the Continent’s Crisis Is America’s, Too
* Francis Fukuyama, America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy
* Avner Offer, First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation (Clarendon Paperbacks)
* Glenn Reynolds, An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths
* Arthur Hermann, The Idea of Decline in Western History
* Roscoe Pound, The formative era of American law
2Q
* Alan Macfarlane, Letters to Lily
* Theodore Roosevelt, New York
* Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
* J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Book 1)
* J.N. Figgis, Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius 1414-1625: Seven Studies.
* Frank Portman, King Dork
* Henry M. “Chips” Channon, Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon
* A.V. Dicey, A.B. Keith, Constitutional Reflections
* Andres Vazquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei: The Life of Josemaria Escriva: Volume III: The Divine Ways on Earth
* Robert W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages
* Frank Kitson, Warfare As a Whole
* Hugh Trevor-Roper, Rise of Christian Europe
* Jim Dunnigan, The World War II Bookshelf: Fifty Must-Read Books
* Paddy Griffith, Fortifications of the Western Front 1914-18 (Fortress)
* Lord Lectures on modern history
* Robert Citino, The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich (Modern War Studies)
* Bernard Porter, Empire and Superempire: Britain, America and the World
* Muriel Spark, Aiding and Abetting: A Novel
* Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals (Penguin History)
3Q
* Shelford Bidwell and Dominick Graham, FIRE POWER: The British Army: weapons and theories of war, 1904-1945, (Pen & Sword Military Classics)
* Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (Oxford World’s Classics)
* Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
* Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March (Works of Joseph Roth)
* Christopher Dawson, The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity (The Works of Christopher Dawson, 3)
* Christopher Duffy, Through German Eyes: The British & the Somme 1916
* Andrew E. Busch, Reagan’s Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 And the Rise of the Right
* Robert Doughty, Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
* Claudio Veliz, The New World of the Gothic Fox: Culture and Economy in English and Spanish America
* Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Islam
4Q
* Daniel Hulsebosch, Constituting Empire: New York and the Transformation of Constitutionalism in the Atlantic World, 1664-1830 (Studies in Legal History)
* Gregor von Rezzori, Snows of Yesteryear
* G.D. Sheffield, ed., Leadership and Command: The Anglo-American Military Experience Since 1861
Currently Reading
* Rene David, Major Legal Systems in the World Today: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Law
* Sister Miriam Joseph, The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric
* Rudyard Kipling, Kim (Penguin Classics)
* Albert U. Romascu, The Politics of Recovery: Roosevelt’s New Deal
* General Sir Rupert Smith, The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World
* Michael Burleigh, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War
Currently “reading” but stalled
* James Campbell, The Anglo-Saxon State
* Thomas P.M. Barnett, Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating
* Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, Black Mass: The Irish Mob, The FBI and A Devil’s Deal
* James Stenson, Father, The Family Protector
* N.A.M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815
* Cynthia V. Wedgewood, William the silent: William of Nassau, prince of orange – 1533-1584
* Edward E.”Doc” Smith, Z-Lensman: Second Stage Lensman Trilogy, Vol. 3
How do you find the time?
It’s a little known fact that several years ago, Lex had most of his internal biological organs replaced by experimental artificial components, developed in secret by ChicagoBoyz R&D.
This gives him not only vastly superior-reading powers, but super-speed and the ability to perform feats of incredible strength.
I recently chatted with the engineers, and they assure me that, since that unfortunate test incident that leveled a square mile of downtown Detroit, the kinks in the laser vision system have been worked out and it should be ready for deployment any day now…
for an all-time best read from this reader, I would suggest The Summer’s Day is done by author Robert Tyler Stevens! As a novel, as a commentary on the Russian Revolution and it’s contamination by the Bolsheviks, as a love story, as giving an insight into the family of Tsar Nicholas, it has few rivals!
Now long out of print, but still available through the ‘Net, a worthy addition to your lists!