The Looming Tower

Tyrone Slothrop · 08-16-2006, 10:51 AM

This thread is for discussion of Lawrence Wright's new book, The Looming Tower. If you want to support Lawtalkers when you pick up your copy, go to the home page and click through the link on the top left to go to Amazon.

I will edit this page to provide links to stuff about the book (e.g., reviews). Suggestions in that regard are welcome.

Since different people will read the book at different speeds, jump right in here when you have something to say.

Reviews
Ronnie Crocker, The Houston Chronicle
Spencer Ackerman, The Austin American-Statesman
Charles Taylor, The New York Observer

Other Stuff of Possible Interest
a conversation between Lawrence Wright and Steve Coll at Slate

Shape Shifter · 08-16-2006, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

This thread is for discussion of Lawrence Wright's new book, The Looming Tower. If you want to support Lawtalkers when you pick up your copy, go to the home page and click through the link on the top left to go to Amazon.

I will edit this page to provide links to stuff about the book (e.g., reviews). Suggestions in that regard are welcome.

Since different people will read the book at different speeds, jump right in here when you have something to say.

You need a snappier thread title to attract posters. May I suggest something involving penske?

Adder · 08-21-2006, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
You need a snappier thread title to attract posters. May I suggest something involving penske?

While we are on the subject of reading materials, I am not sure whether I have recommended this before, but this is worth reading too:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...12971897&itm=1

Penske_Account · 08-21-2006, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
You need a snappier thread title to attract posters. May I suggest something involving penske?

right on, unless he was trying to kill the board.

Anyhoo, I am going to buy my copy today. I am on vacay Thursday through Tuesday, so assuming I don't work too much, I will try to read it then. Please don't post the ending, I wanted to be surprised.

Diane_Keaton · 08-22-2006, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Since different people will read the book at different speeds, jump right in here when you have something to say.

I'm to Chapter 2, about the childhood and rise of Ayman Al-Zawahiri (but you can just call him Al). Just wondering how one plays golf on an 18 hole course (Maadi Sporting Club) that is 100% sand. Isn't the whole thing one big sand trap? On that note, I am deeply disturbed that one must "blast" explosively to get out of the sand trap and...that the technical name for a sand trap is a "bunker."

Carry on.

Replaced_Texan · 09-05-2006, 08:55 PM

On NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon. I just finished the novel I've been working on (I liked a lot), so I'll start this later on this evening.

SlaveNoMore · 09-05-2006, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Replaced_Texan
On NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon. I just finished the novel I've been working on (I liked a lot), so I'll start this later on this evening.

I'm still concurrently reading Fforde's "The Fourth Bear", so I am only up to Chapter 3

Replaced_Texan · 09-05-2006, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
I'm still concurrently reading Fforde's "The Fourth Bear", so I am only up to Chapter 3

I'm a book behind you on the Fforde series, but I did pick it and the Fourth Bear when I bought the "Looming Tower."

I'm also reading Jeff Galloway's "Half Marathon: You Can Do It," but I doubt anyone else would have interest in that.

Spanky · 09-05-2006, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I'm a book behind you on the Fforde series, but I did pick it and the Fourth Bear when I bought the "Looming Tower."

I'm also reading Jeff Galloway's "Half Marathon: You Can Do It," but I doubt anyone else would have interest in that.

I bought the Looming Tower through the Amazon link on this board. I buy from Amazon a lot so the link took me straight to the sign on page instead of to the book. I have a feeling, because of my having an Amazon password etc. that the board may not have gotten credit. You may want to check.

Replaced_Texan · 09-06-2006, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Spanky
I bought the Looming Tower through the Amazon link on this board. I buy from Amazon a lot so the link took me straight to the sign on page instead of to the book. I have a feeling, because of my having an Amazon password etc. that the board may not have gotten credit. You may want to check.

So long as you start your Amazon adventures from the page that you click on from here, we should get the credit.

I read the first chapter last night, and I had all sorts of weird dreams about the Displaced Dog hunting for al Qaeda in my shorts drawer.

greatwhitenorthchick · 09-06-2006, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
I'm to Chapter 2, about the childhood and rise of Ayman Al-Zawahiri (but you can just call him Al). Just wondering how one plays golf on an 18 hole course (Maadi Sporting Club) that is 100% sand. Isn't the whole thing one big sand trap? On that note, I am deeply disturbed that one must "blast" explosively to get out of the sand trap and...that the technical name for a sand trap is a "bunker."

Carry on.

My sister used to live in Maadi and belonged to that club. I'll ask her your question. Curious.

soup sandwich · 09-08-2006, 12:08 PM

OK, I'm done reading it.

My initial response:

1. I hate the CIA.
2. OBL isn't some great super terrorist mastermind. He's just a figurehead and a rallying point for recruitment.
3. I'm a Dem who voted for him twice, but I gotta say Clinton dropped the ball in regard to his response after the embassy bombings (cruise missile attacks) and after the attack on the Cole (no response at all).
4. The book was a very good read.

Did you just call me Coltrane? · 09-08-2006, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I'm also reading Jeff Galloway's "Half Marathon: You Can Do It," but I doubt anyone else would have interest in that.

Galloway is a fucking hack.

Tyrone Slothrop · 09-08-2006, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by soup sandwich
OK, I'm done reading it.

My initial response:

1. I hate the CIA.
2. OBL isn't some great super terrorist mastermind. He's just a figurehead and a rallying point for recruitment.
3. I'm a Dem who voted for him twice, but I gotta say Clinton dropped the ball in regard to his response after the embassy bombings (cruise missile attacks) and after the attack on the Cole (no response at all).
4. The book was a very good read.

I'm done reading it, too. I was waiting for more people before I said much of anything, but I will say that I thought the book was much, much better at telling the bin Laden/Zawahiri side of the story than the O'Neill/Turki side of the story. Wright obviously didn't have any access to what anyone else at the FBI was doing, and he doesn't seem to have had any access at all to the CIA. Michael Schereur (sp?) makes a brief cameo -- in reality, he was running the CIA's Al Qaeda effort, and has written his own book about it (haven't read it). Wright had even less access to Saudi intelligence's doings.

Not to criticize Wright for a book he didn't write, but it's more like a history of Al Qaeda up to 2001 than what the book jackets sells it as.

Tyrone Slothrop · 09-08-2006, 04:45 PM

Anyone reading this book should know that this week's New Yorker -- the Sept. 11 issue -- has an article by Lawrence Wright in it about Al Qaeda in the last five years. Definitely worth reading if you're reading the book, and even if you're not (although I'm only part-way through it).

If you can't get a copy, PM me, and I'll find a way to scan it or something.

eta: Alas, it's not on their web site.