My Book Report

Bush II, Book I: 49 copies sold.

The Year of Bad Behavior: Bearing Witness to the Uncouthiest of Humanity: 52 copies sold.

A Conversation on The Way: Manuscript complete, 215 queries, 76 rejections.

Bush II, Book II: Manuscript 47% complete.

The Year of Bad Behavior II: More Scalawags, Dirtbags, Bullyrags and Lollygags: Manuscript 30% complete.

The Year of Bad Behavior III: More Widespreaded Blockheaded Braindeaded Mislededs: Writing has begun. Title tentative.

My First 15 Marathons: The Running Story of a Midpack Runner: Putting all my running reports together. Hoping I can find them all.

Zaidy's War: My grandfather's memoirs, which I recorded in notebooks and on VHSes. Must find time for this project.

Children's Book with Classified Title: I'm trying to write a parody of a famous children's book. First draft did not pass muster with my Editor-in-Chief. Will submit new drafts shortly.

The Inevitables: A Gladwellian idea I have about people who spend their entire lives in pursuit of a specific career, switch to something else on a dime, and become wildly successful despite a complete lack of practice or the 10,000 hours Gladwell himself talks about.

Obama, Book I: Must Finish Bush II, Book II first.

Obama, Book II: Oh God, no.

Finally (and thanks for listening up to this point) Ammon Shea inherited my favorite newspaper column (On Language) from my favorite logophile writer (William Safire). Needless to say, I'm a fan. He's just written a book on the Phone Book, of all things: http://www.ammonshea.com/phonebook.html

Before that he wrote a book about reading the Dictionary: http://www.ammonshea.com/oed.html

Another favorite writer wrote a book about reading the encylopedia: http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/kia.asp

Another writer covered the Bible by simply pointing out interesting things about the contents: http://www.slate.com/id/2212970/

I need in on this action. As I process all the books detailed above, I can't help thinking I'm overlooking something. There must be a book out there about which a well-researched discussion would spur the interest of the masses. I do not fear research and I love reading. What can I read that I can write about? What am I missing? Help me out, please. Thank you so much.

And let me know what my grade is on my report.

Oh, and feel free to add to my sales numbers. I'll have one more item on my bookshelf for you very soon: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mbodekatgmaildotcom