Bookshelf

Craig Shirley first wrote about President Ronald Reagan in his 2005 best-seller Reagan’s Revolution, in which he examined Reagan’s primary challenge to President Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential race.

On Oct. 26, 14 Americans died in Afghanistan, the highest one-day total loss of life in that country in nearly four years.

SUNDAY, Nov. 1

Timothy Egan, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America. In 1910, several small wildfires in the Pacific Northwest merged into the biggest wildfire in American history. The actions of the newly created Forest Service turned public opinion in favor of Roosevelt’s environmental crusade. 2 p.m., Borders Books at Bailey’s Crossroads, 5871 Crossroads Center Way, Bailey’s Crossroads, Va., 703-998-0404.

What book is on your nightstand right now?

I usually read about six books at a time, so I can have a variety. Born to Run [by Christopher McDougall] is the one I’m fascinated by right now. [Editor’s note: Born to Run is about members of an indigenous tribe in Mexico who run great distances barefoot.] I used to be in the shoe business, and a lot of what they say makes sense.

I’m also reading John’s Story by Tim LaHaye. I read [Dan Brown’s] The Lost Symbol, and I’m reading Saving Freedom, which is [Sen. Jim] DeMint’s [R-S.C.] new book.

What magazines do you read regularly?
Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and I also read The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, the Casper Star-Tribune, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

Which books have most influenced your political philosophy?
When I was in high school, I read The Conscience of a Conservative [by Barry Goldwater] … Incidentally, a paperback copy was 35 cents back then.

Which books about Washington should every member read?
I recommend The Lost Symbol.

What are your favorite novels of all time?
I have many of them, and I go back and reread them. One of them is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Also, [Robert] Ludlum was a favorite author until he died. James Patterson is an interesting one, and he even writes children’s books. C.J. Box is a Wyoming author [I like], and Margaret Cole writes on the Arapaho and Shoshone reservations.

Which author do you most often reference?
I read so many of them, I reference a lot of them. One thing I do is I start every day with One Quiet Moment, a devotional book by Lloyd Ogilvie, who used to be a chaplain here.

Herman Obermayer’s memoir of his long friendship with the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist is one of the most unusual, readable and historically useful books about the unassuming jurist who headed the high court for nearly a third of a century.

Days before America launched its invasion of Iraq in 2003, then-Vice President Dick Cheney went on NBC’s “Meet The Press” and said, “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” That same day, on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” Cheney said the fight would last “weeks rather than months.”

He who holds the purse strings, holds the power according to a new book by David Wessel.

For good or bad, most Americans cannot identify Burundi on a map. And even fewer probably remember the horrific ethnic clashes that gripped the East African nation in the early 1990s.

What book is currently on your nightstand?

There are so many. The Shack [by William Young]. It’s sitting there; I haven’t touched it yet. I was on a James Patterson kick for about a year. The reason I liked it was because he wrote all about Southeast Washington. The detective, Dr. [Cross], was from Southeast. Besides that, Patterson writes one to two pages every chapter, so you can read it anywhere and move through it. It’s even more simple than the Bible.

In his new book, Lovesick, CNN deputy political director Alex Wellen offers a new twist on the concept that only women want to get married.