In honor of International Literacy Day:

I thought I'd tell you about a few books I'm reading or have read.

Right now, I have a copy of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone's Conscience of a Liberal on my desk at work, and I sneak in a few pages every time I have a free moment. Losing Paul Wellstone was a loss for us all, but at least in this book we have a lot of his thoughts and wishes in one place. If you like Ed Fallon, you'll find a lot to like in there.

On my nightstand at home, I'm still working on The Great Good Place. It's a great comparison of public gathering places in America with other nations, as it relates to eventual civic activity and awareness. I don't read at home as much as I should, so it's been slow going, but I continue to work on it.

Finally, the book I recommend to everyone, Freakonomics. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner combined to create an excellent work on often unseen factors that may determine courses of action in the real world. It's a quick read, I finished it in a week, then gave it to Laura, who finished it in a week, then gave it to my grandfather, who has left it to sit and collect dust for over a year. The moral at hand: Don't be my grandfather, read Freakonomics.

As always, if you have a book to recommend for me, feel free to glance over the rules for doing so. If you'd like to see (or purchase) other books I'm interested in, check out my Wish List.

KL