I am going through my library and beginning to choose which books to keep and which to part with in one way or another. An early decision has to be made about all of the books I have about the presidents.
Most of my “Presidential Library” is made up of volumes about Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, Reagan, and T. Roosevelt. I have the odd book about Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Grant, and Eisenhower, but I’m wondering whether to keep all of them.
One of my favorite reads this past year was “Destiny of the Republic”, by Candice Millard. It’s about the attempted assassination attempt on James Garfield, his lingering sickness, and ultimate death. It’s also about Alexander Graham Bell developing an early machine before X-rays that could find the bullet, only to be deterred by professional jealousy to fail.
A more recent favorite was another library book I read about Reagan. Actually, it was about both him and Nancy. Written by one of his speechwriters, Mark Weinberg, it’s called “Movie Night with the Reagans”.
It’s about a small selection of the 350 some movies that the President and his wife, along with staff and other aides at Camp David weekends. It related the movie to the events of the time during Reagan’s presidency as well as his early life as an actor and governor.
I have several that I have not read yet, but am not sure that I should keep all of them. In my mind, I kind of have a total number (of books) that I should keep, but it is a moving target. The number gets larger by the day. And that is not what I really what.
It’s going to hard to make a decision on the books I have on the various presidents – these two I mentioned are both library books – but maybe that is the answer: if I want to read one, I’ll just have to take it out from the local library.
I’ll be interested in what decision I make.
(Arial 12)
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