Books News

Kindle Books Outsell Dead Tree Books @ Amazon

2:17 am EST December 27th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

It looks like once again, we live in the future.

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Random Thoughts On Race & Journalism

7:16 am EST May 24th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 44 Comments

I am currently reading The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. It is an excellent book and I highly recommend it, it basically discusses the role journalism played in the civil rights movement.

the race beat* Objectivity. One of the themes running through the book is the role northern journalism (ie The New York Times, The Washington Post, and broadcast TV) played in the fight. They basically went from disinterest in the story as a southern regional thing to what was viewed by segregationists as an advocacy role.

I think about our modern arguments about the role of news organizations to remain journalistically “neutral” and you realize that to have been neutral in this time period would be to have effectively been pro-segregation. There’s not a moral “other side” to the issue, is there? Nowadays we don’t allow our journalistic institutions to go to the Klan for their perspective but in the ’50s the Council Of Concerned Citizens was a legitimized political outfit pushing a pro-segregation point of view. It was up to the media to rule that group out of bounds at some point.

Reading this book has reinforced my thinking that the only way journalism can recapture its soul is to tear down the church of “objectivity” and to take a point of view – and I mean a point of view from the left, right, and beyond. Contrary to what even I espouse regularly, liberalism does not have all the answers. We should have news outlets that are unabashed about their points of view. What we shouldn’t have is idealogical news outfits that bend the truth and pretend to be neutral. And by that I mean Fox News. Heh.

* The South. I’m a history buff and I go through these phases with what time periods I’m into (particularly U.S. history). Previously and ongoing I’m way into WWII (this is the part where I point out that people who try to argue that Hitler was on the left and use the evidence that the Nazi party was the National Socialist party have clearly never actually read a history book and should be laughed at and not taken seriously, especially since one of Hitler’s first acts was to round up leftists) but recently I’ve moved towards both the Civil War and the Civil Rights era.

The South in America is seriously screwed up. Its as if the entire region insists on being the lagging indicator for where American civilization is going. I’ve never pretended to not be the Yankee I am (though geographically I was actually born south of the Mason-Dixon but the part of Maryland I’m from and where I live has a Yankee heart), but things about the south continually shock me. I mean, really, you’re going to support Confederate “heritage”? You look back at American history and the group of people you think are worthy of praise are criminals who so loved their free slave labor they enaged in the worst sort of national insurrection. REALLY?

It isn’t lost on me that this is the base of the modern Republican party and conservative politics.

* Judicial philosophy. As I read the book with the impending announcement of a supreme court justice, the “activist” attack seems even more ludicrous. The courts were very much the avenue through which America broke the shackles of segregation. From cases like Brown to local cases involving ballot access. The idea that a judge should be this robot that pretends like its still 1776 and not a living breathing human that sees quite plainly that technically legal obstructions pushed by racists violate the spirit of the constitution is sort of a tough pill to swallow.

* Next. I’m thinking of reading Taylor Branch’s books on the Civil Rights movement. Can anyone recommend some books about the Civil War that aren’t in the style of “here’s a detailed and boring account of a battle followed by thirty-five more of the same”? I hear Confederates In The Attic is good. Or any other history/journalism books you think are good. I still haven’t gotten around to reading Grapes Of Wrath or The Jungle yet. They’re on my bookshelf glowering at me.

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They Send Me Books

3:58 pm EST May 2nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

I just got Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press by Eric Boehlert, who works where I do and shares a birthday with me though I’ve never actually met him in real life.

I also got The Final Four of Everything. I’m still not sure why the publisher sent it to me. But I’ll check it out.

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I Read That Book!

12:01 am EST April 19th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Ezra Klein pointed to this devastating review of Chesa Boudin’s Gringo: A Coming-of-Age in Latin America, and I couldn’t help feel as if I had read that sort of pretentious liberal fart-twaddletm before. And I had! It was the very funny Neal Pollack’s The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack. Of course the problem is Pollack’s book is satire.

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Amazon Kindle For iPhone

1:27 am EST March 4th, 2009 | News | 3 Comments

kindle for iphone

Well, the e-book just got interesting…

Starting Wednesday, owners of these Apple devices can download a free application, Kindle for iPhone and iPod Touch, from Apple’s App Store. The software will give them full access to the 240,000 e-books for sale on Amazon.com, which include a majority of best sellers.

The move comes a week after Amazon started shipping the updated version of its Kindle reading device. It signals that the company may be more interested in becoming the pre-eminent retailer of e-books than in being the top manufacturer of reading devices.

You can download Kindle for iPhone here.

My guess is that as the prices come down for these devices the book publishers who don’t adapt to pushing their authors via digital are going to go the way of the newspapers.

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Amazon.com iPhone/iPod App

5:39 am EST December 27th, 2008 | News | 5 Comments

If you’re a book junkie like me and you like to check Amazon.com to either see reviews of a book while you’re in a book store or cheat and use Amazon’s recommendation engine, you should use the new Amazon.com app I just found yesterday from them. It works much faster (for me at least) than the Amazon.com mobile site.

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David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama”. Apparently He Thought Nobody Would Check.

8:04 pm EST August 5th, 2008 | News | 30 Comments

There are lazy college and high school students who do a better job of b.s.-ing.

The first few pages of David Freddoso’s book, The Case Against Barack Obama, are marked by false and misleading assertions about Sen. Barack Obama, accompanied by dubious citations. A Media Matters review of the endnotes reveals that the rest of the book is little different from these first few pages, as throughout the book, Freddoso misrepresents or distorts his sources and even makes assertions that are actually refuted by sources he cites.

Many of you might remember this show from a couple years ago, when the con in question was Ann Coulter… but the need to make up facts and phony citations remains. It’s like that’s all conservatives can do, and have no shot at arguing these important issues in an intellectually honest manner.

Or somethin’.

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Books, I Love Me Some Book Reading

10:47 pm EST April 19th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Received
Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I finished Before The Storm.

Reading
The Race Beat – About how the media, especially black media, affected the Civil Rights struggle
Crusader Nation – I currently have a fascination with the pre-WWI era, especially with regards to TR, trust-busting, and the muckrakers. One of these days I’ll get into reading about the Civil War, but I’m not there yet. Considering where I was born and the area I live in I should be more interested. But I’m not.
All the Money in the World – Rich people also fascinate me

Book Suggestion Request
So, my all time favorite historical period is WWII. I love all things about the era, and I’m looking for a book that tells the story of the entire conflict – from the rise of Hitler to the liberation of France and on to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The closest I’ve come so far is Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich which is good, but gets way into the weeds about German diplomacy. There are a ton of books on the individual slivers of WWII – D-Day, The Pacific War, The Concentration Camps, etc. but besides books of military tactics I can’t seem to find the right narrative history. Does anyone know of one?

Weird
I checked this book out today: Don’t Blame It on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex. I didn’t buy it and I confess the cover photo is what first caught my eye, but I had no idea black professional men were running down to Brazil for erotic adventures. You learn something new every fricking day.

On a related note, I am going on vacation to Brazil. Just kidding. Though I would like to go some time. For the nature and stuff. Right.

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Book Inbox 4.3.08

4:11 am EST April 3rd, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Recently sent to me

Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics by Glenn Greenwald of Salon and blogosphere fame

Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors by Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint

Recently read

God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back) by Deadspin’s Will Leitch. Rating: 3.5/5. Hilarious, funny rants that can be appreciated by people like myself who are sports fans but not to the level of the kind of sports junkie who calls into radio shows.

The Wentworths by Katie Arnoldi. Rating: 4/5 – Weird and perverted, like her other great book Chemical Pink

Reading right now
True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo. Explains using science why Republicans (and others) are dumb enough to accept what they watch on Fox News or read on some random guys blog without question.


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My Harry Potter Mistake

11:18 pm EST July 22nd, 2007 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

I pre-ordered Harry Potter months ago (I became a huge fan of the books a year ago when I read the previous 6 books in a vacation week bender) but I have it delivered to work because I’m never home when UPS delivers. But of course, they release the darn book on a Saturday! So now I have to wait until Monday to get my hands on the book. Still, anticipation is high.

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