It was December 28, 2013.
I was almost finished reading Grant, by William S. McFeely.
I dragged my wife, Tammy and three of our kids to the U.S. Grant National Historical Site in St. Louis. I mentioned to her that I really enjoyed reading biographies, and I had had a great time reading Presidential biographies.
At that time, I had only read biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, and John Adams. But if you threw Alexander Hamilton into the mix and books written by Roosevelt, then I was steadily picking up steam.
Tammy…always looking to give me great ideas on things I might like, sent me an e-mail link to http://www.bestpresidentialbios.com, where a guy named Steve was recording his walk through Presidential bios. That was all it took. Steve’s list of books that he had acquired and his list of books he had read was impressive. I thought to myself, smugly, “If anyone can keep up with him (or catch up to him), I can.” As it turns out, I can’t. He’s amazing.
So, in my quest for reading and acquiring Presidential biographies, I have to thank these three people, Tammy Lamb, Steve – the bio guy, and William McFeely. Great job, guys.
As it turns out, my interest in the biographies turned into something a bit different than a challenge with a list. Like Steve, I take notes. I dig into the books and I try, like anyone would, to draw connections and learn lessons along the way. Some of what I’ve learned falls into standard character/situation/event type learning. But what I’ve most enjoyed is learning HOW to read a biography and HOW to pick a biography. I’ve learned a great deal about the writers and historians who work terribly hard to write good biographies. And, I’ve also picked up a thousand tidbits of information that really don’t matter in the slightest.
Tammy and I have also turned our acquisition list into a real treasure hunt and I’ve dramatically expanded my list of must-have bios. We’re beginning to build a fine collection of books at the same time that I’ve been compiling stories about the books and their authors, encounters with antiquarian booksellers and the kinds of items that you may not always find in the body text of the book. As I near my second year in this fascinating pursuit, I’m finding that books are conduits to history in more ways than one.
americanbibliography.com 