This is your fault, Ken Burns. (Thank You)

When Joe declared that 2013 was our "Year of the Big Book", he did so, in Josephian fashion, with his Big Book choices mapped out for maximum effect. I, on the other hand, was a bit blindsided by this. Granted, I read more than a few Big Books a year anyway (already have 3 800+ page books on my list), but I needed a splashy choice. Something huge.  And that's when Joe just shrugged and said " Now you have an excuse to finally read Shelby Foote."

So, last weekend, for about $70, I bought this.....

Three thousand pages of Civil War history, written by Shelby Foote. If you don't know who Shelby Foote is, well.....

I discovered Foote watching Ken Burn's documentary The Civil War, which, if you can stand watching PBS style documentaries, is mandatory viewing. The Civil War is what the History Channel wants all it's documentaries to be, but fall incompetently short of. It is slow, deliberate, and tremendous. And the breakaway star is Shelby, whose honey-dripped voice of Southern Paternalism will stick with you. Foote gained enough notoriety that His 3-volume work sold a few hundred thousand copies in the year after the documentary's release, despite being decades old and not having ever sold well before. At one point, Foote even joked to Burns, "Ken, you've made me a millionare." 

And Joe was right. For years I had been saying that I was going to buy those books and read them, but I needed the kick in the ass that the Year of the Big Book provides. So, at some point in 2013, those 3 books will be devoured. The plan is for Summer, but if I hear enough come-hither temptations in a southern drawl, I might start earlier. As for what everybody else is reading....I'm sure Joe is planning to post on that later, and the other 3...Guys? Are you there? Big Books? Hello? We've got a blog?

And that's how you troll.