Last Book That You Read- Non- Fiction

I'm an avid reader, so I thought this would be an appropriate post.

I also thought, perhaps, we can use these threads to edit posts and keep logs of what we have been reading? Well, that is up to each user I suppose, that way at the end of the year you can have a complete list.

This is for Non-Fiction Works Only!

Hmmm, I don't read a ton of non-fiction, but so far this year I believe I've read:

The Christian Atheist
Mein Kampf
Why We Don't Shoot the Wounded

Just to help get things stared. So far this year in terms of non-fiction:

A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation- Catherine Allgor
James Madison- Gary Wills
Hiroshima- John Hersey
Why We Can't Wait- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Selling of the President 1968 Joe McGinnis
The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power- David E. Sanger
Post-American World- Fareed Zakaria

Currently working my way thought:

1776- David McCullough
What Crucified Christ?- Ellis Rivkin

lalala2004 wrote:

Mein Kampf

Interesting. A book that's been constantly in print for 80+ years and yet hardly anyone admits to reading it. What did you make of it, Lala?

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy - David E. Hoffman

I've also been reading up a lot on 10th-12th century Russian history recently.

Citizens of London, Lynne Olson
George VI, Sarah Bradford

In Spite of Myself, Christopher Plummer
The Moon's a Balloon, David Niven

all good in their particular way. Plummer's was highly entertaining.

ambler wrote:

lalala2004 wrote:

Mein Kampf

Interesting. A book that's been constantly in print for 80+ years and yet hardly anyone admits to reading it. What did you make of it, Lala?

I certainly don't mind admitting to reading it, and I actually really enjoyed the first half. I have a fascination with these "demons of history" like Hitler, and I thought it would be interesting to read his own words. Obviously he was able to make a lot of people agree with him - He was an elected politician, after all, and the books really shows you how. It doesn't get offensive until the second half, and that's when reading it practically made me physically ill. He is also extremely repetitive, and if you have a very little knowledge of German history, some of it is going to have no meaning, despite the excellent footnotes in the edition I read. So I admittedly skimmed the last few chapters. It was really hard to get through it.

The first few chapters are actually quite quotable, and he actually says many things about history and politics that makes a lot of sense. I think that's why it's an important book to keep in print. Many doctrines may seem perfectly sound, and even individuals with the most evil of intentions can appear perfectly sane and credible. It's an important lesson to remember.

Mein Kampf is on my list of Important Books to Read. (I've hidden my copy under my porn.) Unfortunately the list seems to be getting longer rather than shorter.

I've just started Red Plenty, a study of the Soviet planned economy by Francis Spufford, which seems promising. It's faction rather than straight history.

Assault on the Liberty by James Ennes

I make a point of rereading it every couple of years, not just because I find it gripping, but also because it would make a helluva movie, assuming you could go into a parallel dimension where making it didn't cause half the population to accuse you of being anti-Semitic.

An interesting episode though I haven't read the book you mention. Naval history is full of murky incidents, the sinking of the French fleet at Mers El Kébir is probably the most spectacular example.

If you happen across it, get the revised edition from the late 80s ... that takes into account the 'burying' of the original HC release and some even more infuriatingly moronic responses to the incident.

Reality and Faith : The Ideology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Heinrich Ott.

A fascinating thesis on a man whose life moves me to the core. A profoundly sincere Christian, an intellectual, and an activist. One of my all time heroes, and not just limited to the 20th Century.

Why no film hasn't been made of this man, I'll never know. I'd love to produce, or at least compose a score for that theoretical film. If not, then an opera.

Live Fast, Die Young - Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel

I'd owned this for more than a year, but had wanted to wait until I watched the film until I read it. Having done so, I read this in 3 days, and its an absoultely enthralling read; its got the inside info, its got the gossip, its got some rare photos and its full of pointers that articulate my thoughts about the film better than I ever could have. Like Ray's quote that a father is "a gauge against which the boy can measure himself. Take that away and the spine is lost." He wasnt even talking about the film, moreover his own experiences, but it perfectly encapsulates one of the main themes of the film. An amazing read, thats left me with my Rebel fix in overdrive but I dont want to watch the film again. If only there was a complete soundtrack out there....

Just finished The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller. It's about the Barney and Betty Hill UFO encounter which happened in New Hampshire in 1961. Interesting reading.

THE RESISTANCE: Ten Years Of Pop Culture That Shook The World - Armond White.

The Book of Concord - Compiled by Jakob Andreae and Martin Chemnitz.

Sharky wrote:

THE RESISTANCE: Ten Years Of Pop Culture That Shook The World - Armond White.

What's he say about Brian De Palma?

ambler wrote:

Sharky wrote:

THE RESISTANCE: Ten Years Of Pop Culture That Shook The World - Armond White.

What's he say about Brian De Palma?

Nothing but positive. I'm sure you already know that he defends the often bashed BLACK DAHLIA, SCARFACE, MISSION TO MARS, FEMME FATAL.

There's a good section on BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, which he speaks highly of.

He speaks highly of Bonfire? That's gotta be a first. I haven't seen it since it came out. Perhaps I should give it another chance.

I'm in the middle of SuperFreakonomics. The section on prostitution in Chicago is fascinating.

ambler wrote:

The section on prostitution in Chicago is fascinating.

I loved the chapter about giving monkeys money. That was one experiment I would have loved to see.

Roy Jenkins' Churchill. The third or fourth time I've gone through it and as always a fine read.

though not one read, I was able whilst in Portsmouth to pick up an 1893 edition of Dickens' American Notes/Pictures of Italy for £2.

Recently finished Simon Pegg's Nerd Do Well ... highly entertaining read. Am now onto Sinclair McKay's The Man With The Golden Touch : How The Bond Films Conquered The World.

John W. Dean's Warren Harding.

x

Born Brilliant- The Life of Kenneth Williams (Christopher Stevens)

a fairly good read and dare I say, a man (Williams) I respect

A World On Fire- Amanda Foreman

hefty tome initially dealing with British involvement on both sides of the American Civil War. Liberally peppered with typos early on.