I found Nicholson's Baker's The Mezzanine in a stack of my old books and am rereading it. It's delightful and very strange. The Devil is in the details, and there are plenty of details here. It's all details. I also have a copy of his U and I somewhere around here, another great one.

I'm watching rising sun.

I remember that mainly for Connery's weird hairdo, the short bangs.

Accelerando by Charles Stross. Strong cyperpunk posthuman imminent singularity hard scifi. I am enjoying that new ideas and constructs flow out of every sentence, rather than being an exhaustive exploration of one concept. Good stuff for fans of that genre.

The White Boy Shuffle

Very much like Oscar Wao

Kioshk,

I really enjoyed his The Anthologist and the sequel, The Travelling Sprinkler.

I read and enjoyed The Anthologist, hadn't heard there was a sequel. Thanks

Listened to an interview of Dan O'Brien on The James Altucher Show (podcast) and thought it was entertaining. Prompted me to buy O'Brien's book, How to Fight Presidents. The stated premise of the book is that it offers scouting reports of the presidents as potential fight club-type opponents, but the book's true purpose is to provide a series of brief, very entertaining biographical sketches of each president through Reagan. I've laughed out loud several times while reading the book and have also learned some fascinating stuff of which I'd not previously been aware (seriously, google "james buchanan ann coleman"). I recommend it for a light, educational read.

Which presidents were best or worst fighters?

I've been reading Age of Ambition, mostly since I'm moving there in a couple months. No matter how many of the crazy facts I hear about China's rise since 1979 I never stop being impressed.

Nixon would have WIM to spare in any kind of fight. He'd fight dirty, gouge eyes, whatever it took.

Teddy Roosevelt was a big game hunter, and iirc he was the one who installed a judo room in the White House.

You gotta know Andrew Jackson would fight like a gamecock.

Ainec, nswf

Finished reading An Open Heart by the Dalai Lama. The book is drawn from talks the Dalai Lama gave in New York City in 1999. The book is primarily about Buddhist practice. It also includes some history and biographical information.

Started reading Why Meditate? by Matthieu Ricard.

Some of the toughest were Andrew Jackson (duel king, apparently engaged in at least 8 duels; was held as a prisoner of war at a young age and emerged super tough from it), Abraham Lincoln (there's an interesting anecdote about how he roughed up a gang of local hoodlums, including picking one up and tossing him "twelve feet"), Teddy Roosevelt (had a pet lion at the White House and emerged from being a sickly lad into a physical beast; also, after being shot, politely informed the audience he was speaking to that he had been shot but then continued to speak for an hour and a half anyways), Gerald Ford (had a summer where he fed bears at a national park, and on a sidenote is compared convincingly many times to Homer Simpson), Ronald Reagan (described as having an amazing physique that contradicted his physical age) and of course George Washington (supposedly said he preferred the sound of bullets to the sound of silence).

Some of the physically weakest were John Adams (who the book describes as easily one of the smartest presidents), Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and of course Taft.

The books draws very favorable portraits of the personalities of the favorites (Washington, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, especially Teddy), but also of McKinley (described as having an amazing character) and Hoover (same). It draws very ugly portraits of Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon (takes the stance that he purposefully sabotaged peace talks to end the Vietnam War so that he could become President). It paints fascinating portraits of Ulysses Grant (may have had issues with his balls...read the book), Lyndon Johnson (supposedly would whip out his dick constantly to impress people) and James Buchanan (was probably gay, was involved in a bizarre series of events regarding a deceased fiance). Also, there's a funny story about how one of the early 1800s presidents (can't recall who) gave a crazy drunken speech once that was the product of whiskey having been recommended by his doctor for some ailment.

All in all, a very entertaining and quick read.

Oh, and ultimate winner of the battle royale probably Andrew Jackson.

Finished Helter Skelter. Awesome book. Such an insane story. The book is well written and has a great structure. Highly recommend. I couldn't put it down. I listened to the White Album sometimes while reading it.

I'm about halfway through American Psycho from Bret Easton Ellis. I loved the movie and the book brings so much more detail to this amazing story.

This sounds right up my alley

Remember watching this in class during college. Classic.

Just started Albert Speer's book 'Inside The Third Reich'. Been looking forward to getting around to this one.

Just got the hardcover copy of the foundation series for xmas. Started reading it last night, scifi really doesn't get much better than this.

Read this series years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yes, Foundation books are great even for people like me who aren't that into science fiction. I've read 3 or 4 other Asimov books I've liked too, The Gods Themselves and The Currents of Space.

Any chance Caro wraps up the LBJ Quintology and then moves on to a trilogy about Gregg Popovich?