A few months ago I realized that I was on pace to read a lot of books (about 50) this year. Soon thereafter, other events intervened, but I ended up finishing my 45th book last week. The book? James B. Stewart’s Den of Thieves, a gripping account of Wall Street in the mid 80s, specifically how a ring of insiders like Mike Milken, Ivan Boesky, and others at prominent Wall Street firms used inside information to help fuel much of the hostile takeover actions that are the trademark of that period. The second half of the book covers the investigations by the SEC and Guliania’s U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. A great read.
And because it’s the end of the year, I’m going to list just a couple of my favorite books, movies, and albums that I read, saw, and first listened to (respectively, obviously) this year. I’m not ranking them because I hate lists.
Books
-The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles, Martin Gayford
-Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the Unites States Supreme Court, Jan Crawford Greenberg
-Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
-1776, David McCullough
-Boomsday, Christopher Buckley
-Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman
-High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
-Slow Man, J.M. Coetzee
-The Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, Jonathan Mahler
Movies
-Lucky # Slevin
-Animal Crackers
-The Wendell Baker Story
-Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
-The Departed
-Knocked Up
(Note: This list would probably include Juno, No Country for Old Men, 3:10 to Yuma, The Darjeeling Limited, Superbad, American Gangster, and Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford if I had seen any of them–but that’s a whole other post.)
Albums
-Cease to Begin, Band of Horses
-Era Vulgaris, Queens of the Stone Age
-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco
-Everything All the Time, Band of Horses
-FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake (seriously)
-Icky Thump, The White Stripes
-Hit By A Train: The Best of the Old 97′s, Old 97′s
-In Rainbows, Radiohead
-Real Gone, Tom Waits
Television
-Flight of the Conchords
-Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
-PTI
-Curb Your Enthusiasm
-Boston Legal
-30 Rock
-The Office
-Dirty Sexy Money
-The New Adventures of Old Christine (I wonder if this has anything to do with a Seinfeld hangover?)
One final note on books: Since moving to Farmington in 2006, I’ve had about ten boxes of books sitting in a closet, which is very painful for me. I’ve finally accepted that we won’t be purchasing any additional bookshelves (we do have a beautiful 10′ tall bookcase that won’t fit in Farmington with its 8′ ceilings–any buyers out there?), so this weekend I went through all my books and have decided to get rid of about 20% of my library. That really hurts.
In that process, I pulled out about 30 books that I purchased with the intent of reading but never got around to it. So I’ve already got much of my reading list for 2008. I won’t even need to buy any news books until August–but I will.
Have a safe and happy new year. Boomer Sooner!
Nice list. To the extent that I’m familiar with the ones you picked, I mostly agree. Flight of the Conchords – hilarious. You should also check out Pushing Daisies. A little twee, but nice.
He so, uh, well, ahem – do you have franking priviliges with the firm? Cause I know someone who’d take 20% of the Ninop’s liberry.
And that person could offer one completed, unbound fiction manuscript in return.
So you’re a big JT fan too? Good to know.
Our postage is not nearly discounted enough to make sending these eight boxes of books worth your while.
You’re still getting the unbound manuscript. And don’t try to weasel out of it.
I figured as much. It will be tough getting through it with all sorts of guitar accolades to acquire via Rock Band.
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