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Well what have you’ve been reading lately? I heard on a TV news report that only 58% of graduates after college chose to read books. I admit I do very little reading at home. Most of my reading is done on my t …

I just finished reading Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green. My daughter had to read it for school and it was awhile since I read it, so I read it again.

I also just finished reading Grandmother and the Priests by Taylor Caldwell. This is now out of print so I buy copies whenever I find them at used book stores. It’s about a little girl who visits her glamorous grandmother’s house whenever her parents fight, and the grandmother has fancy dinners with several priests as guests. Each priest tells a story about topics such as good vs. evil, redemption, and the devil. The characters often become lost in the religious discussion.

I have The Stone Tables by Orson Scott Card on my nightstand, waiting to be opened. This is the story of Moses, but with a Mormon bent.

I also have The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue on my nightstand. I think I might read it before Stone Tables because it looks good!

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. I have one more suggestion for any of you who might be interested, one of my favorite books, The Color of Water by James McBride. This is a biography of the author’s mother, a white Orthodox Jew who married a black man in the South back in the Civil Rights era. Her family was decidedly not pleased, to say the least, and the way this strong woman raised her children is absolutely beautiful. The title comes from one of her children asking her if God is black or white. Her response is that He is the color of water… I love that.

I also just finished reading Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked” which is a very odd, but entertaining, book.

Unfortunately, though, I only read a few pages a day. Getting old has really cut into my reading. When I was younger, I would copyedit dense nonfiction 8-9 hours a day and then go home and read novels until midnight. Now I still edit all day, but I’m lucky if I can get in half a chapter of pleasure-reading before my eyes start to cross or I nod off. And I used to laugh at my mom dozing on the couch over an Agatha Christie book.

Why does he spend so much time explaining all the intricate details of Waterloo? It seems so strange to read 150 pages before you even meet the main character. But good reading, nonetheless.

I learned love of reading from my family. We used to read aloud from the classics, like Around the World in Eighty Days, or Lord of the Rings, as well as popular series. Whenever the latest Mrs. Polifax book came out, we’d voluntarily cancel all evening activities, so that as soon as my father walked in the door, we could have a quick dinner and start reading. Even when I grew into a teenager, there were times when one of us would “declare” a family reading session, because the book they were reading was so darned good, they simply had to share. Also, it avoided the arguments over who gets which book, when. I highly recommend group reading for the next Harry Potter book!

“Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner-This book has been out for awhile and I’m about halfway through. So far it’s been very entertaining, the chapter I’m reading right now is titled “Drug Dealers Living with their Moms”

Ever since reading “The Power to Destroy” by the late Senator William Roth, I’ve come to question the necessity of the income tax at all. The horror stories documented in that book will make you do the same.

Doing internet searches on the subject of the income tax led me to:

“The Federal Mafia: How the Government Illegally and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes” by Irwin Schiff – This book has been around for decades (he’s sold hundreds of thousands) Ever since he got sent to prison he’s been giving it away as a free download. I’ve read the first couple of chapters and he makes his case pretty convincingly.

I love your website, I found it looking for info on Thomas Sowell, so now I’m completely hooked. Finally I find some common ground. The books I am reading are:

‘Art Held Hostage’ by John Anderson- about the cooping, or actually the theft by the Pew, Annanberg, and Lenfest Foundations of the great Barnes Collection from Lincoln University Board of directors of the Barnes foundation. This happened with inside collusion, as usual, we don’t appreciate our great gifts, and let others take the most valuable of them for a mere song, in this case a 4 million $ gymnasium, and updates to the school in exchange for an at least 50 Billion dollar art collection (at last count, probably more than that). Fascinating story of why the principal of ‘Pride cometh before a fall’ is so important.

‘Islam and Dhimmitude (Where Civilizations Collide’ by Bat Ye’or

A book about the history of Western beliefs and Islam, and the tactics of both over the years. I will also be reading ‘Constantine’s Sword’ soon and a book called “Why I am not Muslim” by Ibn Warraq, a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, and talks about the differences, he is a man along the lines of Walid Shoebat.

Oh and I very often read Proverbs, or Psalms.