Books & Authors

Good Books / Bad Books

There are thousands of books hitting the market every day. They wouldn't exist unless someone thought they would sell. Regardless, many of these new books are poorly written garbage - so bad a reader can't get past the first few pages without falling asleep or retching. My rule. Before buying a new book be sure to read at least one full page in the middle. That usually yields a good clue as to the quality of the writing.

Books are written by people with average or above intelligence - who also have an extraordinary ability to focus, and yet only a few books are truly outstanding.";font-family:courier new;font-size:85%;" >Readers, on the other hand, just have to follow the author from page to page, which is a much easier process than writing.

For me a really good author inspires the reader to concentrate and follow the writing. The appreciation of an author's book is very personal. It makes criticism, comparison and qualification also very personal. Regardless, I'd like to share some of my assessments with you.

Book Categories

Difficult

A list of those books that are worthy but hard to read:

• The Holy Bible, Koran
• The works of Shakespeare
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Charles Dickens

Excellent, understandable and readable.

Those authors who have been able to produce only one or two exceptional books before their light went out.

• Norman Mailer (The Naked & The Dead)
• Truman Capote (In Cold Blood)
• Stendahl (The Red Badge of courage)
• Leon Uris (Exodus)
• Joshua Slocum (Sailing Alone Around The World)
• Robert Bork (Slouching Toward Gomorrah)

Authors that have produced a large body of exceptional work.

• Mark Twain,
• C.S. Forester,
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
• Joseph Conrad,
• Rudyard Kipling,
• Jack London,
• John Steinbeck,
• Walter Stegner,
• Larry McMurtry,
• Ivan Doig
• Alexander Kent
• Patrick O'Brien
• Morris West

Easy to read, interesting, story-tellers.

• Louis L'Amour
• Stephen King
• Douglas Reeman

Good Political Writers:

• Pat Buchanon
• David Limbaugh
• Ann Coulter
• Robert Spencer
• Dinesh D'Sousa
• George Will
• Dick Morris
• Mark Steyn
• Margaret Thatcher

Good Travel Writers

• Micael Palin
• Lynn & Larry Pardey
• Paul Theroux
• Jonathan Raban
• Charles Kuralt

The Supreme Court is killing America

The power of the Supreme Court is frightening in many respects. These nine appointed Justices are empowered to interpret, protect and defend our basic legal foundation. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights all require honest interpretation and enforcement of the rules. From it's beginning as a co-equal branch of our government (with the Executive Office and the Congress), the Supreme Court has moved to increase it's authority. It has become part of a political tug-of -war between the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch. This is not good for America. The judicial branch has become dominant and government checks and balances are no longer function as they should. Why is there no movement to apply term limits to the Supreme Court? I would think a justice could learn the job and be effective if his or her term was limited to 15 years or 75 years of age.

GREED (Another subject)

Now, in 2007, we are fast approaching a disaster. American society has always been directed by greed. There are more gentle ways to put it - but the fact is that the ambition to gather money or power is the basis of capitalism, free markets and profits. So, in a perverse way, greed has resulted in the energy for America to be successful.


Someone once predicted that when a democratic representative government reached the point that it's political leaders paid their own salaries - it would fail.


America has reached the point.

• Deficit spending. Two words indicating politicians stealing your children's tax money.
• Earmarks. An innocent sounding word representing politicians stealing tax money.
• A Taxation system that is unfair.
• Court ordered obscene financial judgments.
• Citizen paid taxes directed by politicians to welfare programs benefiting non-citizens.
• A Social Security system paid for by deficit spending.
• Paper money whose value is based upon potential earnings.

Is America about to fail?