February and March Reading Goal

 

Busy! That’s my main word right now. But I did want to update you all on my reading goal.

Full disclosure: I only read one book in February instead of two. Combining the move, my long commute, lack of free time and the shorter month that’s just all I could do. And I finished March’s second book yesterday. Oh well.

“The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat”

This was the book I read in February. Incredible! I am a journo-nerd and I love it. If you don’t know the story of Watergate and Deep Throat, check it out. This book was written by Bob Woodward, the journalist who was able to use Deep Throat as a source to lead him to info on the Watergate scandal.

Woodward really opens up in the book about how he met former FBI assistant director W. Mark Felt, his relationship with him even before Woodward turned to journalism and the wonderful and complex way Felt communicated with Woodward through the whole scandal (and how he covered his tracks back at the FBI).

If you like journalism or have seen “All the President’s Men” or have any interest in American history, I highly recommend this book. Very interesting, well written and honest.

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”

I had really high hopes for this book. It seemed like it would be entertaining and outlandish. TK loved it and read it in less than a week. It took me about three weeks to get through it and I really only started enjoying it at the end.

Obviously this book is not a true historical account, but it is written to seem that way. It just took me a really long time to get interested.

I will say, the book was MUCH better than the movie. Well, it wasn’t really anything like it. The movie essentially took the basic concept that Abraham Lincoln hunted vampires and used a couple of the same characters to tell a loosely similar story. I was even more disappointed in the movie than I was in the book (although it did make me appreciate the book just a little more).

“Animal Farm”

I never read “Animal Farm” in high school. It was just never assigned to me.

So I decided to catch up on what I was missing. It was a quick read (which was good since the Lincoln book took me so long).

It’s an obvious allegory and I read up a little on the history before I read the book. Orwell (the author) was a critic of Joseph Stalin and he used this book to show kind of the dark consequences of a revolution.

I enjoyed it. It’s nothing really earth-shattering in the way of surprise or suspense, but it is a good read and makes you think about unintended end results.