Books I've Read

I often write of the copious amounts of reading having a driver affords me.  I've read the entire collection of H.G. Lawrence, several Stephen King novels, and many of the childhood classics:  Gulliver's Travels, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island.  I seldom recommend the books I read;  not because I don't enjoy them, but because most people are already aware of them and have either read them or decided not to.

The past two weeks I've read three books I think most people should add to their reading list.  Even dedicated bibliophiles like myself may not encounter these books:

1)  The Dangerous Book for Boys.  This book was highly touted when it first became available in 2007.  I think that's even when I bought it.  I finally read it this past week and it was well worth my time.  Broken into chapters averaging just a few pages each, the book is an instruction manual for how to do the types of activities that are becoming more and more rare as technology takes over our lives.  From building home-made batteries, to navigating by the stars, to dealing with girls, to the Ten Commandments, this book is an instruction manual on growing up male.  A few of the activities, like making paper hats and boats, growing crystals, and creating your own cipher, I've either done with my own kids or plan to in the coming weeks.  I recommend this book to anyone who has a son, a grandson, or a great-grandson.
















2)  Council of Dads.  At the age of 35, it isn't often that I consider my own mortality.  A few events:  planning my will, obtaining life insurance; and the Michael Keaton movie "My Life", both did the trick for me.  Council of Dads made me reflect not only on my own mortality, but on what it means to be a human.  It tells the true story of a man roughly my age diagnosed with cancer shortly after the birth of his twin daughters.  He takes the reader on his personally journey of reaching out to important men in his life who can, collectively, represent him to his own daughters and fill in for the void he feared he would leave.  They would be, his Council of Dads.

One of the key takeaways for me with this book was to periodically check your inventory.  Not of the things you have, or of your blessing.  An inventory of the people in your life you know you can call, under any circumstances:  needing bail, a lift to the doctor, a shoulder because of a terrible tragedy; and, no matter where you are or they are, they will drop everything in their life and rush to help you.  I reflected on this quite a bit while reading the book and decided a few things:  First, if this number is less than five, you may want to be nicer to people.  Second, if the inventory is disproportionately family, you need to do more social activities.  Conversely, if the inventory is disproportionately friends, you have some reparations to do with your family.  What does your inventory look like?

















3)  Gateway to Empire.  In the two years I've lived in Jakarta, and the nearly 18 years I've lived away from where I grew up, nothing made me more interested in returning to the Midwest than reading this book.  Set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Gateway tells the story of America's expansion into the Mississippi river basin.  The author does an excellent job telling both sides of the story in a (mostly) unbiased voice.  The imperialistic young nation wanting nothing more than to invite the Indians into their way of life, and the disparate tribes of Indians reluctantly trying, despite a natural aversion to planting crops where the Creator did not intend for them to grow.  I learned more about the country I grew up in by reading this book than I ever did in school.  If you have ever lived east of the Appalachians, west of the Mississippi and north of the Mason Dixon line, you'll get a real enjoyment hearing how it was settled, conquered, and built.  After reading this book, I am now looking for a biography of Tecumseh.
















Finally, I leave all of my reading brethren with a question:  How much of a book you are not enjoying reading do you finish before giving up?  In the last year, I've started and failed to finish a handful of books.  Others I've forced myself to finish just for the sense of accomplishment, but I found no enjoyment in them (The Cave fits that description - the book had no punctuation!).  I typically give the author 50% of the book, or 200 pages, whichever comes first.  I just started Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco.  I'm 50 pages in and wish I hadn't started.  I'm switching books tomorrow.

When do you give up?