My Fall Reading List

Whenever I hear someone say, “I belong to a reading group, and just recently we read and discussed [insert obscure book title here]…” I picture a group of effete people sitting around in plush armchairs in front of a roaring fire, pipes in their mouths and patches on the elbows of their smoking jackets, saying things like, “Oh yes, the symbolic abstraction of the personification of the protagonist is emblematic of the author’s objectivist motif.”

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I have no idea what that means, but it sounds really intellectual, doesn’t it? Liberals like to portray those of us who hold conservative political beliefs as mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthals—the type of humans (when they condescend to call us humans) incapable of such lofty intellectual feats as actually reading books. To them the best we can manage is listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio and stupidly nodding our heads in agreement while driving our earth-destroying SUVs into the formerly pristine backwoods so we can use our evil firearms to shoot endangered woodland creatures. I take offense at that. As it so happens, (1) I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh—I’m working when he’s on the air, (2) I don’t shoot endangered woodland creatures (I aim at them a lot, but I rarely actually shoot them), and (3) I almost never drag my knuckles. To that end, I would like to share with you my fall reading list. My hope is that not only will this list prove to the liberals in my life that I actually can read, but will also give my readers some ideas for excellent reading material for when they’re in the mood to slip on their smoking jackets this fall. America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, by Mark Steyn. This is an excellent book that explains how zero population growth mixed with the welfare state is leading most of Europe to economic ruin and is leading some countries (like Japan) to actually pay couples to have children and reverse this trend. Landmark Speeches of the American Conservative Movement, by Peter Schweizer and Wynton C. Hall (editors). Nowhere will you find a better compilation of speeches from those leaders that brought the conservative movement from the depths of FDR’s New Deal to the political powerhouse that it is today. The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land, by Andrew P. Napolitano. Judge Napolitano succinctly explains how the federal government has manipulated the Constitution to take power from the states and the people. Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson (editors). One of the myths perpetuated by the liberal media is that Ronald Reagan simply wasn’t all that bright. This collection of his writings puts the lie to that myth. Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, and The Writings of Samuel Adams (Volumes I, II, and III), by Samuel Adams. If you would like to understand how the original American patriots thought, these two books are a must read. Adams led the Boston Sons of Liberty to revolt (in acts which included the Boston Tea Party) against the tyranny of the British, and Paine inspired a nation with his writings. Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media, by John Stossel. Stossel, popular reporter for 20/20 and other television news shows, exposes the lies the media pushes on us as truths. I know this is a lot of reading, especially for those of us who don’t own smoking jackets. But I’m looking forward to immersing myself in these books over the next few months. And who knows; I might even get the chance to use the words “objectivist” and “motif” to some of my liberal friends before I’m done.