March 31, 2008
The Other 'Casey' in Baseball
When thinking 'Casey' and 'Baseball', it would not be unexpected for most people to think of the slugger for Mudville from the famous poem, Casey at the Bat. But there is another Casey in baseball, whose words are better known...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
October 23, 2007
Set A Book Free
Today I had a good idea. A great idea really. I had just finished a really great book, and typically I would have happily shelved it, content to have another good book in my personal library. But having discussed this...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 7, 2007
The Road
I'm still working on getting caught up on my book reports. I'm not sure why, but sharing some brief comments of some sort about what I've read here in my blog has become an important last step in my reading...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 6, 2007
Who Knew? Guinness Book of World Records
A bit of leftover trivia from our trip to Ireland, something that makes perfect sense, but a connection I had never made before. While on the tour of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, we learned that the Guinness Book of...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 15, 2007
Ireland Books: The Rebels of Ireland
For the last few months I've been cramming on Ireland books in preparation for my recent visit there. And now that my trip has come and gone, I expect that although I'm sure to continue reading about Ireland, I will...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut passes away at 84.
R.I.P. Mr. Vonnegut. Thanks for the great reads. (Via Think Progress.) Kurt Vonnegut passes away at 84.: "‘Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ ‘Cat’s Cradle’ and ‘God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater’ caught...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 11, 2007
Ireland Books: DK Eyewitness Travel Ireland
Our Eyewitness Travel book was our primary guide book for our recent visit to Ireland. It served us very well, providing useful historical background, context, and practical information certain to be of use to any visitor. The challenge of travel...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 23, 2007
Ireland Books: Eyewitness to Irish History
I love reading history. And when it comes to history, you can't often beat a first-person account. I have read a couple of different "Eyewitness to.." type of history books, which are compilations of first-person historical accounts. And so on...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 3, 2007
Rat Scabies & The Holy Grail
For many years I have known Rat Scabies only as the drummer from The Damned, you know, the one licking the pumpkin pie off of his bandmates head on the cover of their self-named 1976 album. But recently my brother,...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
February 24, 2007
Ireland Books: The Macmillan Atlas of Irish History
I love maps, always have. I can spend hours pouring over maps of places both strange and familiar, and I often do (usually with no idea where 'I' am). And if a picture is worth a thousand words, a map...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
February 18, 2007
Ireland Books: Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland
It would be easy to imagine a book with a title like the one this has, would be a dry and dull academic volume. It is anything but. The book does cover '2500 years of Irish history through the lives...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 10, 2007
Ireland Books: Round Ireland with a Fridge
I was really enjoying this book a few weeks ago, when I ran into an unusual hurdle. When I reached the second photo section and tried to continue reading on the other side, I lost all track of the story....Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 23, 2007
Ireland Books: Midlife Irish
This wasn't the first of my growing collection of Ireland related books that I started, but it was an easy first across the finish line. Part personal history, part Irish history, and part travelogue, Frank Gannon's book Midlife Irish is...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 18, 2007
Ireland Reading
If you pay any attention to the 'What I'm Reading' block in the right column of my blog, then you can probably see a pattern among my current selections. Yes, they are all related to Ireland. I'm doing my homework...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 7, 2007
Obama Book #1
One of my New Year resolutions is to do better with my book reports. From the number of Amazon links on this page I'm starting to look like a real book pimp, but honestly, it's just a nice way to...
December 31, 2006
Reading List Catch-Up
OK, so I've been WAY behind on writing up anything about what I'm reading. This post has been sitting in my 'drafts' folder for months, where it began as a posting on summer reading. But with the New Year looming...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 21, 2006
A Cool Freebie on iTunes
Here's a great iTunes find. You probably know John Hodgman as the PC guy in Apple's TV commercials. He recently wrote a book, The Areas of My Expertise, that I expect I may read someday. But yesterday on a Mac...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 19, 2006
Orbit
As you can tell from the 'What I'm Reading' block in the right column of my blog, I don't read a lot of fiction. Most often my reading tastes tend towards history, biography, politics and current events. And so when...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 24, 2006
The Inner Circle
My brother sent me this book by T. Coraghessan Boyle, a fine author that he introduced me to years ago (Thanks Kevin!). The Inner Circle is a fictionalized account of the life, research and relationships of famed sex researcher, Alfred...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
May 4, 2006
Fearing the Flu
You'd really have to be asleep at the wheel these days to not be aware of fears about the eventual certainty of a major flu pandemic. Like the coming of 'The Big One' earthquake that will rock California, or the...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 27, 2006
The Courage of The Convictions
In his book The Courage of Their Convictions, author Peter Irons seeks to remove the "masks of the law" that covers the faces and the stories of individuals who have taken a stand on an issue and fought it all...Link | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
January 29, 2006
Freethinkers
Last September I read a book called What's God Got to Do With It? that introduced me to the life and writings of Robert Ingersoll, a famous politician and orator of the late 1800s who was an advocate of secular...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 26, 2005
Bored by Wicked
My reading comes and goes in spurts. Sometimes I'll tear through books quickly, and sometimes life's distractions just won't allow me the time that I rather be spending reading. My pile of books 'on deck' is growing higher. And because...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
October 11, 2005
Speaking Freely
I've been paying closer attention to The Constitution lately. It's an amazing document that sits at the core of our Democracy and the rights that distinguish us as Americans. Yet at the same time it is a political football, under...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
October 5, 2005
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I've decided it's not enough to maintain a 'What I'm Reading' block as I do on my blog, and not make some better effort to offer some thoughts about the books after I have read them. And so, I'm going...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 22, 2005
Introduction to Ingersoll
I had a good summer for reading. My 'to read' book pile, as usual, is deep. But my pendulum swing between periods of prolific reading and droughts of mindless TV has swung back to reading these last few months. Despite...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
May 25, 2005
Families of County Limerick Ireland
Recently while stumbling around Amazon.com, I happened onto a book I knew I had to buy, Families of County Limerick Ireland, Volume 5 of the Book of Irish Families, great & small. The title page describes the book as...Link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
April 16, 2005
The Pullman Case
width="120" height="240" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" align="right"> When I discovered that my Great Great Uncle Edward Casey worked for the Pullman Company in Chicago for 42 years I became interested in learning more about life working for Pullman, living...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 21, 2005
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Very sad news tonight. Hunter S. Thompson was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 67 years old. I am a huge fan of Thompson's work. I can remember my first introduction to it, when my brother...Link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 17, 2004