I believe that reading widely helps us in our profession in a variety of ways. I hope this catches on....what are you reading? If your answer is, "I don't have time," I feel for you. Selfishly, I am looking forward to seeing some books I otherwise may not have heard of.

Right now, I am reading Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo. Yep, a huge tank of molasses used to make weapon grade alcohol burst, leaving dozens dead and hundreds homeless. Really interesting....

I just love reading the case summaries provided each week by TDCAA. The commentaries, in particular, are choice. I laugh, I cry, it becomes a part of me.

This week, for example, you can read the story of an inmate segregated in a single cell who was beaten to death by a fan motor. How could that happen? Well, you gotta get the summaries to find out.

If you aren't already getting this free reading service, sign up by clicking above on "Case Summaries Sign-up".

John, might I suggest a more relaxing topic such as Salt Water Sportsman, Fly Fisherman, Guns and Ammo, etc?

Recommend his entire Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee (Navajo Tribal Police) series. One of the characters is modeled after a past Hutchinson County, TX Sheriff.

Really best to start with the first. I got most of the series a few years back on ebay, then have picked up new ones as they come out. Another due out in a few months.

http://www.tonyhillermanbooks.com/

[This message was edited by raythomas on 09-09-06 at .]

All the classic posts of Greg Gilleland.

Kathy Herman and Robert Whitlow (Christian legal thrillers) and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Throw in a little T.D.Jakes, thanks to Stacey Brownlee, and some Max Lucado.

OK, my husband might be right - it is possible that I am addicted to my job (although I have quit watching American Justice, Forensic Files, and Cold Case Files - the real one on Court TV - for that reason ).

If not true crime, then crime fiction (Perri O'Shaughnessy, Steve Martini, etc.). I also enjoy Reader's Digest (yea! non-crime-related literature!). I'm looking forward to checking out some of the suggestions on the forum. Paul, I have read many of Max Lucado's books, and they are good. I borrowed some books from someone (their recommendations) for the conference trip since I'm here early, and a couple of them appear to be romance novels. *eep* I've also had C. Garcia-Aguilar (read the books in order), Susan Wittig-Albert (she writes Texas-based crime), and John Sanford recommended to me. I just need to get to the library.

Shall we get an online book club going?

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Shall we get an online book club going?

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Then Newell, David Newell, 007 is your man. He started a book club at Fort Bend County.

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Originally posted by A.P. Merillat:
All the classic posts of Greg Gilleland.

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More powerful than ambien.

I forgot, until I started talking with my grandparents earlier, that I also enjoy well-written biographical and historical books. So maybe I'm not so one-track-minded after all.

My grandfather was just showing me this plow company notepad that was printed in 1905 with a celluloid (plastic alternative) cover that was given to him when the pad was about 50 years old (of course, he's had it more than 50 years now himself). It has really interesting random information, like census info from the time, calculations of heating surfaces in tubular boilers, simple rules for the game of whist, and how to tell if someone is dead (put a mirror over their mouth and if it has moisture, they're alive, or you can stick their skin with a pin and if the hole doesn't close up, they're dead). There were only 23 presidents and 45 states when this notepad was printed. The population of Houston was about 44,633. This was greater than the population of the entire state of Nevada (around 42,334). Postage was 2 cents for first class.

I think that if we lawyers do not fight the narrowing of our reading, this maxim will assert itself: We must read so much law that law is all we read.
Of course anyone who aspires to have something like a life of the mind should run from law school like a scalded cat.

I'm with you Gretch, my husband thinks I'm addicted. He found me the other day watching Judge Judy while reading a Johnathan Kellerman book (Alex Delaware/psychologist;Milo Sturgis/detective series). I confess I love Kellerman's books so much that I even buy them in hard back.
Also reading and rereading Finding God at a Dead End and TD Jakes for motivation and inspration.

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Originally posted by Gretchen:
My grandfather was just showing me this plow company notepad that was printed in 1905 with a celluloid (plastic alternative) cover that was given to him when the pad was about 50 years old (of course, he's had it more than 50 years now himself).

The population of Houston was about 44,633.

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Ah, the good old days.

I also like Joel Osteen's book.

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Originally posted by BLeonard:
I think that if we lawyers do not fight the narrowing of our reading, this maxim will assert itself: We must read so much law that law is all we read.
Of course anyone who aspires to have something like a life of the mind should run from law school like a scalded cat.

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My legal research/legal writing professor in law school, the esteemed professor Walter Champion, told me law school would ruin me for pleasure reading. He was mostly right, but I still enjoy reading books about history, particularly Texas history. My favorite is about Temple Houston, youngest son of Sam. The subtitle: Lawyer with a gun.

Greg,

I feel exactly the same way. It seems like after all that cramming for the bar, I just can't manage to do a whole lot of reading for my own personal edification.

Having said that, I'm inching my way through "Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate." I got it a half price books for 4 bucks before a recent trip to Mexico.

It is a truly awesome book, and I'm sure to author must have dedicated almost his whole life to writing it along with its prequel and soon to come sequel.

And for those of you who like Texas history, I recommend "Texian Illiad" by the Univeristy of Texas press.

Johnny

I can't seem to get too interested in fiction right now, so I'm reading "The Civil War: A Narrative" by Shelby Foote. Also, "The New Hide or Seek" by Dr. James Dobson.

I'm just finishing re-reading the massive biography of Eisenhower by (?).

Went to a Borders in the Metroplex on Friday. Asked for the non-fiction, and their only reply was "It's scattered all over the store. What author are you looking for?" I replied that I was not looking for any author, just non-fiction in general. The two young ladies seemed stumped. They never moved from their stools where they had been chatting for some time. They finally said they could not help me if I didn't know what I was looking for. Is there no competence in retailing any more?

I'm also reading a smaller book entitled "Pistol Packing Preachers." The book is about circuit riding preachers in the mid to late 1800's who kept order in the church house with either a .45 or a Remington rifle. Something along the lines the right reverend Hornbuckle might have employed?

Just before I started going through my Gilleland collection of timeless narratives, I was greatly blessed to have read:

The Purpose Driven Life & The Jesus I Never Knew

Both or either of those books will challenge lawyers, sanitation workers or neurosurgeons to discover what really matters in life.

Not that there will be any free moments during the conference, but the Port Isabel public library will give a library card to anyone with a Texas ID. The conference center has free wireless internet access, but you can also use the library's internet with a library card if you don't have a laptop or if the conference center bandwidth gets too congested when everyone gets here.

Of course, all us book worms out there can also use the library to read, you know, the original reason libraries came into being, and also why I've posted this information to this thread.

I just completed "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl. Its a mystery/thriller set in 1867 Boston with a killer who models his work on Dante's Inferno and with Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes (Senior, not the future Supreme Court Justice Junior), James Russell Lowell, and some other American literary figures as the people who solve the case. It combines crime and sleuthing and literature into one fairly exciting package.