Mandatory Reading

Finished The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright last night. If this isn't a must-read, I don't know what is. It was flat-out phenomenal on a couple different levels.

First of all, it's a history book, and it's exhaustive...on what has to be one of the most complicated histories there could be. The research and work that was put into this book is mind-boggling, and was put together in a cogent, deft manner that is simultaneously dispassionate and extraordinarily urgent.

Second, it's a real page-turner. Not dry like a non-fiction work can sometimes be (and I'm a non-fiction fan), this reads better than any spy novel or epic novel I've ever read. The development and depth of the characters in this book are unbelievable. We all know the ending, and yet Wright manages to cull together about 50 years of obscure (frequently incredibly confidential) history and create a ridiculous page-turner. I couldn't put it down.

And by the way, this book has nothing to do with politics...it's not about that (well, it is, but not today's climate...only politics as it relates to the development of the topic). This book gave me a new, more fully informed understanding of the vastly complicated details of the last 50 years or so.

What I'm saying is that this book should be read by everyone as a mandatory step in getting a drivers license or when you go to the dentist or as a required step in the ingestion of oxygen. It's that important. And no one will complain, because the book is good enough to warrant the attention.