January 2, 2006
Spent a good part of yesterday and this morning reviewing the past year and making goals for this year. Last year was pretty solid with the publishing of two books and ten strong issues of True West.

I also spent a good amount of time trying to organize all my new books. Between my birthday and Christmas I got a whole bunch of great books, but now I’ve got to figure out how to read them all. With my ADD I’ve been jumping around quite a bit. So far, here’s what I’ve been reading:

• 1776 by David McCullough, sample: “For the ‘riotous rebels’ of America, [Lord George Germain] had no sympathy. What was needed, Germain said, was a ‘decisive blow.’”

• Big Money by Dos Passos, sample: “The girls fell for him so that Ellen Rolfe kept leaving him. He’d take summer trips abroad without his wife. There was a scandal about a girl on an ocean liner.”

• Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter, sample: “The irresolvable differences of opinion on abortion, homosexuality, and other sensitive social issues have been exacerbated by the insistence of intensely committed hardliners on imposing their minority views on a more moderate majority.”

• America, the Book by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show crew, sample: “Were you Aware? The office of president affords its holder many, many opportunities to have sex with women who would otherwise find him unremarkable.”

• Zane Grey: His Life, His Adventures, His Women by Thomas H. Pauly, sample: “When Zane characterized Louise as ‘young and innocent’ in a letter to Dolly, his thirty-nine-year-old wife shot back, ‘Bunk! I’m younger and innocenter than anyone you know, old dear!’”

• Mickey Free: Apache Captive, Interpreter, and Indian Scout by Allan Radbouirne, sample: “Mickey told [Tom] Horn that ‘the white lady with the blue eyes and blonde hair was the prettiest woman he had ever seen.’ The next day, Horn ‘noticed she had Mickey in her house feeding him sweet cakes and give him lemonade to drink.’”

• Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution Is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture by David Kline and Dan Burstein, sample: “On the one hand there are the bloggerati, who think mainstream media are moribund if not dead already; that bloggers are inherently more authentic and trustworthy than other voices in our culture; and that now everything changes because of blogs. On the other hand, there are the naysayers who think blogs are already overhyped; that most bloggers have nothing to say; and that without traditional editing, rules, filtering, and financial incentives, blogs will soon go the way of CB radios.”

“The more one reads, the more one sees we have to read.”
—John Adams