Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology

I read Lawrence Wright's 'The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11' --a fantastic and fascinating book, but very time-consuming. It was not an easy read but the depth of reporting was incredible.

I am about a 1/4 into the Scientology story.

 

I like story. Many brainpowers went into the making. I have subscription to all the tight maga-zines.

 

I'll have to read that one. I'm not afraid of long. I read the entire 9/11 report. Sounds great.

 

Looming Tower is -- and this is not hyperbole -- one of the best books written in the last decade.

 

The book won a Pulitzer. Amazing historical account that goes back decades.

When I said time-consuming, it wasn't so much because of length, though it is a long book. It's because there is so much information to process. It's complex and layered. I spent a lot of time going back to previous chapters to look up names and how people were connected or to revisit a chapter earlier in the book that was important to a chapter later in the book. It is not a book for the beach, which is exactly where I brought it after buying it. My wife gives me grief to this day. Instead of Elmore Leonard or Michael Chabon, I tried to read 'The Looming Tower' oceanside. It's not a light, relaxing read.

 

Thank you for posting this. I finally got around to reading it. Fascinating stuff.

 

I have been Catholic from birth. Not once am I aware of a fellow Catholic pestering someone about condom use.

Oh, and Lawrence Wright is incredible. He and Jon Lee Anderson may be the best 1-2 punch working at any magazine.

 

I've been Catholic from birth too Dick. Well, technically since baptism, I suppose, and probably not anymore since I've been to church three times in about 10 years. But yes, we've had discussions with Catholics who have talked about how you should not use condoms, and are quite adamant about it. I know, it's hard to believe that in a religion that has more than a billion followers - and is so sexually liberal that there are still debates about whether it's okay to use condoms to fight AIDS, much less use them to keep babies from being conceived - there are some who get worked up about things that haven't been discussed between you or the Catholics you know.

And I agree with you about Wright and Anderson.

 

I found it a quicker read than Wright Thompson.

 

I'm denying that this thread ever took place

 

Anybody here anything about fallout from this? I thought it would be a bigger deal.