BOOKS THREAD

This book was fascinating.

 

I finished this book in less than 24 hours. Admittedly, I'm familiar with the town, locations and even some of the people (well, their heirs) but it's a damn good book.

Cavorting in Hot Springs, Ark., During Its Sin-Soaked Heyday

 

Read The Powers That Be. It's the 1979 book by David Halberstam on the histories of CBS, the Washington Post, Time/Life and the Los Angeles Times.

It's difficult to recommend a 41-year-old book that stretches on for hundreds of pages of tiny type. But wow. What a fascinating read.

I was born in 1970. I knew a lot of the old old-media was really conservative. But in a lot of ways, they made Fox today look like NPR.

 

This was a fascinating look at one man's attempt to make the human race a little smarter: he had an idea to start a sperm bank with donations from winners of the Nobel prize. It didn't turn out like he had hoped. Early on, the author -- who was writing for Slate at the time -- becomes involved in the story as donors and parents and children contact him. He's the Semen Detective. Ha!

Joe Bob says check it out.

 

While I'm a big fan of the show Hogan's Heroes, this book was a letdown. It seriously needed an editor -- "base" instead of "bass" when talking about the musical instrument; words left out of sentences. It didn't really go into any behind-the-scenes secrets. There were bios of each of the main actors and then a description of each episode. So...eh.

Joe Bob cannot say to check it out.

 

LOL. Wow. What a tremendous waste of time. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

 

Thank you for your #ThoughtsAndPrayers.

Ha!

 

Reading “The Hardest Job in the World” by John Dickerson about the presidency. Really, really excellent book.

 

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett turned out to be a perfect read for the quarantine era.

 

Reading through Judd Apatow's biography / memoir to Garry Shandling, "It's Garry Shandling's Book." Its close to 500 pages, but I got through about 75 in less than a half-hour - Large font, and a bunch of the 'reading' is stuff Garry squirreled away over the years, like his letter to George Carlin thanking him for his big break. I haven't gotten to the best stuff yet, but I'd still recommend it already if you liked Garry's work. Even from his early letters and material, you can "feel" his comedic voice.

 

This has been on my shelf for a few months, and I finally got around to it and finished it last night. I can respect all the work put into this book. There was obviously lots of reporting and research. But it never grabbed me. It was a lot of history, but not much of a narrative to bring it all together until the closing chapters, when the -- spoiler alert (not really) -- black high school football league "merged" with the formerly all-white league. It wasn't much of a merger because it wasn't equal at all. It was more of a takeover.

Joe Bob says maybe check it out.

 

I'm diving back into the Dark Tower series. Some I've read numerous times and others only once. I finally watched the movie the other night and boy was that disappointing.