| I'm very pleased to announce the TAP Book Club. From time to time we will choose a book and get as many folks as possible to read it and then have discussion about it here. I'm really hoping that plenty of folks will choose to jump right in and I am also hoping that we may be able to get some of the authors themselves to join in the discussion and perhaps even be interviewed.
First, some ground rules:
1. The first rule of Book Club is that everyone talks about Book Club. Tell your friends. Tell anyone and everyone. Not only that, but everyone is welcome at Book Club and that all are encouraged to participate.
2. Anyone can nominate a book for Book Club. Hell, it doesn't even have to be official. Start one in the diaries if you want. Doesn't matter.
3. Have fun and hopefully learn something from both the books and the discussion. Dissenting voices are always encouraged.
 Our first book chosen for the Book Club was chosen by myself. (Feel free to tell me why I and the book itself suck in the comments.) It was chosen because a number of TAPpers received it as a holiday gift. (Thanks, Hannukah Harry! Thanks, Santa! Or, ya know, Mr and Mrs NYBri, as the case may be...) It is also a rather new release and is therefore pretty easy to find in bookstores and libraries for those who may have found themselves on the "naughty" list. What book am I talking about?
I'm talking about Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse by Seymour P. Lachman (w/ Robert Polner). This book seems to me to be a perfect one to start our discussion from as it deals most intimately with the subject most pertinent to most of the discussion here at TAP. Hell, just read the first two sentences from chapter 1:
Democracy takes decades to take root and flourish. New York is learning that it takes just three men in a room to maim and seriously harm a vigorous and representative system of government. |
| Sounds about right to me. Here's some more description from Amazon:
Three Men in a Room is an insider's exposé of how one of the country's largest and most powerful governments-with the fourth-largest budget, behind only the federal government's, California's, and Texas's-has become a model of corrupt, inefficient, and undemocratic governance. Seymour Lachman ran the New York City Board of Education, taught political science, and was then elected to New York's legislature. What he found when he arrived in the halls of the state senate was a Potemkin village of government where legislators vote on bills they haven't read during legislative sessions they haven't attended. After four terms, Lachman left his safe seat in disgust, and has now written this sharp, mordant, and impassioned call for reform. Although Lachman's story takes place in one of the country's most progressive states, the problems described in this book are rampant in statehouses throughout the country.
Wow. I'm really looking forward to reading it and I hope that you will read it as well and jump right into the discussion I hope will this book will inspire.
Here's the plan. On Monday, February 12th 2007 we will gather here at TAP and discuss this book. I am going to do everything that I possibly can to get Mr. Lachman to be here and be a part of this as well. Maybe I can even swing an interview between now and then.
Anyhoo, I hope that you will be a part of this debate, critique and discussion and that you will suggest titles for future meetings of the TAP Book Club. Feel free to use the comments to this post to suggest other books, or offer your ideas about how to make this new TAP feature even better.
Seriously. I'd love your input. |
