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Books United States Politics

Newt Gingrich's Amazon Book Reviews 275

lee1 writes "Newt Gingrich has written 156 book reviews on Amazon, at one point becoming ranked in the site's top 500 list. Most of the books are cheesy political thrillers, but the newly announced presidential candidate is also trying to learn about quantum physics, and shows good taste, 'strongly recommending' Richard Feynman's QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter." Gingrich is an early joiner; I'd like to see the books on the shelves of the other likely presidential candidates, too.
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Newt Gingrich's Amazon Book Reviews

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    • Sweet Jesus this man is getting a tongue bath from the press right now. Even McCain's jealous.

      Mind you, he's a liferaft for the press. They get to cling to him in the stormy tea party waters right up until election day, after which, they'll just let him float away to go watch Obama's 4 year victory lap.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12, 2011 @05:45PM (#36113168)

    Between running for president, commenting on Fox News shows, and cheating on his wife, how does he have time to read so much?

    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      .....cheating on his wife, how does he have time to read so much?

      He takes the bottom and reads while the woman does all the work?

    • by Wyatt Earp ( 1029 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:15PM (#36113408)

      He started these reviews right after he left the House, I remember reading some of them in '02 and '03. Emailed his homepage at one point about a book and he replied.

      I don't like his politics, but he was friendly and intelligent in email.

    • by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:33PM (#36113570) Homepage Journal

      Obviously someone in his position can delegate an aide to cheat on his wife.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by IICV ( 652597 )

      Between running for president, commenting on Fox News shows, and cheating on his wife, how does he have time to read so much?

      Just FYI - Newt Gingrich is not running for president, and probably will never run for president. Doing so would require that he open up his campaign books to some federal oversight that would ruin the various money raising scams he likes to run.

      Instead, you'll find that he's formed a committee to think about the possibility of maybe entertaining the idea of running for President at s

  • by cshay ( 79326 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @05:50PM (#36113212)

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A27WFYW9ZJ5DN1 [amazon.com]

    For some reason the Washington Post did not include it.

  • Not that he's written any book reviews that I'm aware of, but I'm sure a lot of the books on this list that he didn't write are on his shelves: Ron Paul on Amazon.com [amazon.com]
  • Amazon reviews (Score:2, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) *

    Are we really basing our opinions of Newt Gingrich on the fact that his Amazon account has "recommended" a book by Feynman?

    By that measurement, my recommendation of Barry Cooper's biography of Beethoven qualifies me to conduct the Chicago Symphony and to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

    But I'm a bit suspicious of Gingrich's recommendations ever since in an interview on Fox News he said he read Plato in the original Latin.

    Personally, I'm glad Gingrich is running for president. It should be good for so

    • by 00_NOP ( 559413 )

      You betcha.

    • Re:Amazon reviews (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Low Ranked Craig ( 1327799 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:36PM (#36113582)
      I'd like to see a source for that. I suspect if he actually said that Google would know about it.
    • by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:43PM (#36113650) Homepage Journal
      Well we know where he'd stand on health care. You can be a citizen as long as you don't get sick. When you do, you'll be deported to Mexico and be replaced with a sexy 23-year-old from Sweden.
    • Re:Amazon reviews (Score:4, Insightful)

      by farnsworth ( 558449 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:54PM (#36113724)

      Are we really basing our opinions of Newt Gingrich on the fact that his Amazon account has "recommended" a book by Feynman?

      By that measurement, my recommendation of Barry Cooper's biography of Beethoven qualifies me to conduct the Chicago Symphony and to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

      But I'm a bit suspicious of Gingrich's recommendations ever since in an interview on Fox News he said he read Plato in the original Latin.

      Personally, I'm glad Gingrich is running for president. It should be good for some lulz. [...]

      Clearly, he's got the right stuff to be a Republican front runner.

      What flamebait. You may not agree with his politics, and his personal life may abhor you, but it seems perfectly valid to assess someone's intellectual capacity based on something like this. You don't have to vote for him, but this may be an interesting find for someone choosing between Sarah "I read them all" Palin and this guy. He clearly is a sharp man.

    • by tyrione ( 134248 )
      Perhaps Newt has a strange kinship to the fact Richard played the bongos at a strip club while being a Professor at Caltech. Otherwise, I doubt Feynman would ever want to have his name anywhere near the name of Newt Gingrich.
  • The candidates the press is focusing on are really weak so far. The last important thing Gingrich did was resign in disgrace from office. Its cool that he likes to read and has shown a minimum level of skill with computers. At least he doesn't have his wife print out his email. (John McCain) ... But Gingrich has a slim chance of winning the primary. I respect Gingrich for what he has done but I can't trust a man who betrays his family like he did. I also don't respect quitters and cable news personalities.

  • Who's to say this isn't somebody employed by Newt to read these books, to make it seem like Newt is a well-read, intelligent, individual?
    • Re:someone else (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:20PM (#36113456) Journal

      I still can't quite figure out why that particular adulterer is even seriously considered after his fist thumping over the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. What an obscene, vile, disingenuous hypocrite that man is.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Yeah... who'd allow an adulterer in office? Not us.

        Especially if he takes issue with a president lying in grand jury testimony. We don't like rabble-rousers... just keep quiet!

        Glad to see the /. politibot is well-oiled and ready for business, though.

        • It must be tough be a Republican these days, with that awful slate of candidates. Looking at the GOP leadership right now is kind of like looking at the Kremlin leadership into the early 1980s; a bunch of old men with heart problems and cranky looks, each one more ideologically frozen than the last, watching as history passed them by.

      • Re:someone else (Score:4, Interesting)

        by osgeek ( 239988 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @08:48PM (#36114436) Homepage Journal

        What an obscene, vile, disingenuous hypocrite that man is.

        Wait... you mean Clinton? The guy who used the power of the presidency in an attempt to smear and bury Paula Jones to cover up just some of his illegal sexual harassment activities?

        People joke about the Repubs going after Clinton for getting blow jobs in the White House. I never cared that much about that part of it. It was the fact that he abused his power to go after Paula Jones that sickened and disgusted me. The guy was absolutely reprehensible, and the fact that he still has the support of his party -- ostensibly the party that supports women -- points out the extraordinary hypocrisy of the Democrats.

        • Re:someone else (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Boronx ( 228853 ) <.evonreis. .at. .mohr-engineering.com.> on Friday May 13, 2011 @12:38AM (#36115334) Homepage Journal

          I suppose you know something Ken Starr doesn't. Clinton ran the cleanest whitehouses in the past 30 years. I give the Republicans some credit for making sure of it.

          • by osgeek ( 239988 )

            I guess Clinton paid Jones $850,000 friggin' dollars to shut her up just for the hell of it? Then you add in that he was a proven philanderer and abuser of his power with Monica Lewinsky, and it's pretty obvious that Paula Jones was the victim of the crime.

            You're right about the Republicans keeping Clinton fairly clean, although I'd argue that he was too busy thinking with his dick and dealing with the aftermath of his compulsions to get himself in other trouble. He was also also extraordinarily lucky to

      • I still can't quite figure out why that particular adulterer is even seriously considered

        He isn't seriously considered, unless you assume that the fact that his announcement for candidacy is newsworthy means he has a chance to win the GOP nomination. He doesn't.

      • The best thing about the Lewinsky affair was how many Republicans lost office because of it. Either because their consciences got to them or because they looked like idiots (like Gingrich). It makes me smile every time I remember it.

        Gingrich may win because of one thing: people would rather vote for a sleazy liar who will do what they want than a man with integrity who will does what they don't want. At first it sounds bad, but if you think about it, there is some reasonableness to it.

        Best example I hea
    • Genrich isn't a dumb. That not his weak point. His weak point is his penis.
    • His history as a professor and his place on the board of the National Space Society at least hint that he was probably the one to read them. He may be a political douche, but he is also a bright guy with a lot of time on his hands.
  • I was hoping these would be hilarious reviews of the Newt "I had a hard on for America so I fooled around" Gingrich's books. I'd love to see Amazon tags on his stuff like there is on Jonah Goldberg's execrable Liberal Fascism [amazon.com]. Some of my favorites are "doughy pantload", "books written while high on cheeto dust", and "cheeto-erotic asphyxiation".
  • Other books (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Wyatt Earp ( 1029 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:20PM (#36113460)

    Palin won't have read many, but her shelves will have "important" books for the looks.
    Ron Paul will have alot of economic and revisionist history stuff, pretty much anyone over from Lewrockwell.com that's written a book, he will have all their stuff.
    Donald Trump will have books about himself, by himself.
    Romney will have a good mix of Christian, Mormonism and pop history books.

    • Re:Other books (Score:5, Informative)

      by ZombieBraintrust ( 1685608 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:36PM (#36113592)
      When asked about his favorite book Romeny stated "Battlefield Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.
    • by imadork ( 226897 )
      I'd love to read GWB's review of My Pet Goat.
    • Palin won't have read many, but her shelves will have "important" books for the looks.

      She doesn't have room on her bookshelves for too many books — they are already teetering under the weight of newspapers and magazines. You know, all of them.

      • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @06:44PM (#36113668) Journal

        I think she got rid of her bookcases so she could see Russia more clearly.

      • According to a book recently written by one of the managers of her campaign, she actually does/did read several Alaska-local papers every day -- but when put on the spot, she didn't want to give that answer for fear it would make her appear too provincial.

        So instead she told a lie that made her look illiterate and/or intellectually uncurious instead.

        I demand a little more from my politicians; I don't expect honesty, but want them to tell smarter lies.

  • by layer3switch ( 783864 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @07:07PM (#36113818)

    http://www.amazon.com/review/RJKX0KUG5773Z [amazon.com]

    Clark describes a pattern of destructive dishonesty that permeated the Clinton Administration. Clark could never count on candor from Shelton (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs), Secretary of Defense Cohen, or President Clinton. Contrast that with the fact that we have every reason to believe President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretaries Powell, and Rumsfeld. This administration will prove far more reliable and far more honorable.

    Newt, as always, smart at narratives but really stupid at drawing a logical conclusion.

    • by SETIGuy ( 33768 )
      I wish I had mod points. But talking about how wonderful the administration was, 8 days after 9/11, isn't all that surprising. Everyone in the media was doing so at that time. After all, the success of that attack couldn't have been because of major screw-ups (or possible malfeasance) by the administration.
    • That is the political plague of our times. We have many political leaders who are good at pointing out problems, but very, very lousy at coming to even a remotely good solution.
  • by Bobartig ( 61456 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @11:50PM (#36115184)

    Team Newt is driving hard to brand Newt as the "intellectual" candidate. I heard a GOP analyst discussing candidates on the radio when an obvious shill called in, repeating the analysts talking points on Newt verbatim. It was shameless...

    The GOPs recent and continuing anti-science, anti-education stance is beyond appalling. Coming from the Party of Ignorance, he needs to tend to his own garden before he gets cred for recommending Feynman on Amazon.

  • Jerry Pournelle, generally well known rocket scientist, technologist and big name writer was science adviser to Congressman G. Jerry writes about getting a call from somebody "calling from congress." Turned out to be Newt, having read A Step Further Out [amazon.com], personally calling to recruit. That led to a long term staff gig and ears to whisper in. I don't tend to agree with Newt's latest directions, but I'm willing to listen to anyone willing to to give Jerry Pournelle a microphone and input into space and science policy.

Solutions are obvious if one only has the optical power to observe them over the horizon. -- K.A. Arsdall

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