Books, books ,books, I buy far too many books and magazines. But I can't help it. I suspect that many of you, at times, find yourselves in the same boat. Recently I purchased several at places as diverse as a yard sale, Barnes and Noble, and Costco.

Three of them are on current best seller lists. This is encouraging because they are books I would hope become widely read. They include the most recent book by Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation, and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, which you might suspect are both decidedly critical of religion. The third is Bob Woodward's State of Denial. I have finished Letter, and have include a review of it on page x. The other two I have only started by thumbing through them a bit, but they give me reasons to read on. Although I think I will need to take Bob Woodward's State of Denial a small piece at a time. A large chunk of George W. Bush and his administration is likely to make me ill.

The yard sale netted me two books that have a weird juxtaposition. I picked up John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, which I have never read. The second one is titled, The End Times Are Here Now, by Charles Halff. I picked it up because I have been looking for a source of reference as to what these religious "End Timers" believe, with citations of biblical chapter and verse. But these two books do make a strange contrast when side-by-side. On one hand JFK gives us a readable and enlightening narrative about individuals in history that stood courageously for principles they believed in. Then on the other hand we have a book that is filled with the doom and gloom of the biblical end times. Well, that's enough about books.

Until our membership meeting in February, I will continue to remind the membership of Humanists of Utah that we have room on our board of directors for a couple of new faces. Please give it some thought.

Finally, I would urge you to be sure and vote. I think that humanists probably vote at a higher percent than the general population, and I'm confident that we understand how important it is to do so.

--Robert Lane
President, HoU