Hear the Words on the Page

I have recently noticed that the number of books I am reading has gone down quite a bit. Apparently the government who employs me expects me to come to work and helping to raise a growing family takes a good chunk of time too [who knew? ;)]. That all changed about three or four weeks ago when I noticed how much time I spend driving around in my car and decided to check out the books on tape (though increasing more and more are actually on CD) at the two base libraries I have access to. Since that time I have finished six books and am currently listening to number seven.

Books on tape are not a new concept to me, I recall listening to Louis L'Amour "Chick Bowdrie" stories on a post high school road trip or two with Nate and I knocked out the first four Harry Potter books as well as two of the Lord of the Rings books while traveling to Moscow from Boise to visit Lisa before we got married. While I'm on the subject I have to take a minute to say that if you get a chance to listen to the Harry Potter books on tape, take it. All seven are read by Jim Dale, who also played Dr. Terminus, the antagonist in Pete's Dragon and he created a unique voice for each and every character in the series, maintaining it for the reoccurring characters throughout. In fact, he did such a good job that he was recognized with a Grammy for the final book, The Deathly Hallows and received nominations for The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix. He is cited twice in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the most character voices in an audiobook (more than 200) and for voicing the first six "Top Ten" selling audiobooks of all time.

I am going to try to do little reviews of the books I read so if anybody is looking for a good read, maybe I can help.

The first three books I want to talk about would fall into the "Founding Fathers" category. The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas that Changed the World by W. Cleon Skousen (which Natalie gave me for Christmas so I actually used my eyes to read this one). This book takes a look at 28 principles that the Founding Fathers inserted into the constitution, how they allowed for the exponential progress experienced in the United States from its foundation, how the government has gotten away from some of these principles and how things would be if they were followed again. This book really gave me an appreciation of the importance of this great document that I have sworn to protect and defend from all enemies foreign and domestic.

Next was 1776 by David McCullough who does a very thorough job at looking at the events of the American Revolution in the year 1776 and how General Washington and his Army came to the brink of disaster various times and how General Howe and his British forces and Hessian mercenaries were unable to end the rebellion when they had the chance. This was an excellent supplement to The 5000 Year Leap, show the military actions around the time of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

I followed that up with John Adams, also by McCullough who has justifiably become known as one of the premiere American historians. Not really talked about too much in any of the history classes that I have taken at any level, this biography allowed me learn about the great life of arguably the most important American of his time (and considering when he lived, that's saying something), as well as the great help and influence that his wife Abigail was in his life.

If you're interested in American history, or books that "other people" might consider boring like I am than I would HIGHLY recommend all three of these great accounts from a pivital point in the birth of this nation