An Autumn Reading Invitation

With autumn dramatically announcing itself here in Nebraska with falling temperatures and oodles of drizzling rain, I’m keenly reminded that it’s my favorite time of year to read. Sure, I read all year round and I greatly appreciate winter reading too, but fall reading is somehow really special. For instance, fall is usually the time when I revisit long-treasured friends – Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, the Dumas classics of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Milne’s beloved The Wind in the Willows, Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, and the adventure novels of such talents as Rafael Sabatini, Alistair MacLean, John Buchan, and C.S. Forester.

But I am planning a somewhat different approach for this fall, the autumn of 2026. This time around I’m planning on piling in a lot more non-fiction books. And, not only that but, as avid a re-reader as I am, these non-fiction books are ones I have never read before. 

But why am I bothering to go public with this news? It’s because I'm inviting you to join me in the project. Read through the list of books I’ll give you in a moment and, if one or more strikes your fancy, consider joining me. How would a book partnership of this kind work? Well, in a variety of ways. You may be encouraged to read it merely because I am -- a kind of stimulant and accountability factor. Or you might want to read and exchange ideas and opinions about the book, as over coffee or just a letter or email. The fact is that after ending our 30 plus years of the Notting Hill Napoloeons book club, a club in which the members met every month to discuss our mutual reading of the best of classic literature, Claire and I really miss talking to friends about books. And thus this invitation.

And the books I’ve selected for the fall? The Counter Revolution: The Fall & Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement (Victor Davis Hanson); Going Further: The Incomparable Clarence Thomas (Senator Ted Cruz); Revelation: How God’s Plan for the Future Can Change Your Life Now (Amir Tsarfati); Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story (Wilfred M. McClay); and The Theft of America's Soul: Blowing the Lid Off the Lies That Are Destroying Our Country (Phil Robertson). A couple of these I bought at Hobby Lobby, the others I bought in Kindle version. And I’m starting on the Phil Robertson one this evening.

So...if you’re interested in a reading connection involving any of these this autumn, just let me know.