List of Memoirs

    Readers, as I've set out on this assignment of my own creating I feel as if I need to create some ground rules. Often, I dream too big and have a scope too wide. Then my projects crash and burn, and are left half unfinished. Here is what I've decided. 

     First, what books to read. Annoyingly, perhaps with their egos bolstered by the sales of their first book, many presidents have written multiple memoirs. I have decided that I will only read the books that focus on their time in the White House. Now annoyingly some presidents *cough Eisenhower cough* have written multiple on their time in the White House. I don't know what I'm going to do here. I will probably assess after seeing how long they are. 

    Secondly, order. Now there are three ways I can go about this. First, I can read them in chronological order, starting with Buchanan and ending with Obama. Or I can do it in reverse starting with Obama and working backwards. Or I can skip and jump based off of availability from the library. At this moment that is the strategy that I am employing. Why? You can thank Jeff Bezos. 

    My e-reader set up is currently a kindle running KoReader. It was awesome. It worked well with Calibre, was customizable, and read epubs natively. Then I opened my kindle and all of my files were gone, including KoReader. So I scrambled to see what books I could get from the library. Decision Points was readily available. So, that is what I ended up reading. Thanks Jeff. Why did I decided to use KoReader? I hate anything simple and want to make everything harder on myself. I will say when KoReader works is it fantastic. However, it working is not a common occurrence. Honestly this blog suffers the same fate. Blogger worked great, and then I got cocky with the DNS settings. Now it doesn't really work. I am considering switching to simply building my own site, hosted by GitHub pages. I will admit when I was about ten I was a web-development beast, and my prowess has considerably declined. However I believe that perhaps with the help of Mr. GPT, I can return to my prior level of power, and perhaps even surpass it. 

    Now the elephant in the room. The Art of the Deal. Will I read it? As outlined by my rules above I shouldn't read it. However, I admit part of me is curious and wants a window into the fascinating mind of our glorious orange leader. I think whatever happens that will be my last book. So we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there. On this end, if there is any book that I should read that isn't on the list below drop it in the comments section below.

1. Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion
2. Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
3. The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren
4. The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge
5. The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover
6. Memoirs: Years of Decisions & Years of Trail and Hope - Truman
7. White House Years: Mandate for Change & Waging Peace- Eisenhower
8.  The Vantage Point - LBJ
9. The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (He has another book too, TBD if I read it). 
10. Keeping Faith - Jimmy Carter
11. An American Life - Reagan
12. A World Transformed - George H.W. Bush
13. My Life - Clinton 
14. Decision Points - George W. Bush 
15. A Promised Land - Obama 

    Nixon, Carter, Truman and Eisenhower have multiple. While it seems to me at first glance that Eisenhower and Truman's are part of a series, Nixon and Carter's just seem to be them going back and reflecting again. So it will really just come down to how much time I have. I'm honestly surprised. Not that many presidents have written memoirs. However I hear both Clinton's and Obama's are very long, so I'll still have my work cut out for myself. Speaking of long books, I have been trudging my way through Caro's A Path To Power since January. What started out as a performative read has become interesting, but it is soooo long. And there are four more. I'm 3/4 done though so the sunk cost fallacy has kicked in. When I finish it I'll post a review. 

    Until next time readers. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Bill Clinton playing the saxophone.

Credit: CNN