Anyone still reading?

Is anyone still working on this? I see mine and someone else's are the only ones this year. I started late in this but maybe everyone else is finished even though it says it will run till 2016.

I'm still going. I finished up Nixon in January - now I need to find a biography of Ford.

I am still working on this. But have to take a break from Presidential bios after reading a few. Reading some other non-fiction books at the moment. I plan on trying to finish this, just might take me a little longer than the ascribed time.

I just found a free ebook on Millard Fillmore, so will probably tackle that next, after I finish the book I am currently reading.

Regards,

Bill

Yep! Still going. I have a couple more to enter but I just haven't got round to it yet. My new job is sucking a lot of my waking hours. Please don't shut it down.

Glad to hear there's still a few working on this.

I'm still going, too, but *very* slowly.

I'm going slowly as I get sidetracked. Now reading about Lincoln but have a thick bio on Robert E. Lee sitting on the nightstand.

I'm still at it too. I keep getting diverted to reading other history books about the time period of the President I am reading. I finished Wilson a while ago but have been working on a stack of WWI books. I will get to Harding eventually.

BTW, 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI.

Hello Friends! I just finished Zach T. last night.

Still reading but slowed up over the last couple of years. Next up is Lincoln so maybe I'll get to that faster than some of these others.

I'm still reading too, although lately the books I've chosen have been whoppers, so it takes me longer to read them!

Yes, I am. Like I often tell my wife, I'll finish it eventually. ;-)

I'm reading in order and find the biographies getting longer as I go. Bit I'm choosing the longer ones so I get more in depth material. This journey will take far longer than anticipated.

Still? I finally started! Tried to read a biography of Washington last year, but it was huge and I had too many things on my plate and abandoned it. I went to the library last week and picked up a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, and am looking forward to it.

Still doing this too, just very slowly. Got another one planned for September.

Still plowing through! I'm reading them in order and just finished Andrew Johnson.

I'm still going, I'm only up to Teddy Roosevelt!

Me too - this will take me a long time, but that's OK, perhaps more like a lifetime challenge, as I read a lot of other types of books and read a lot for work. Finished a shorty - Andrew Jackson - recently. Now to find something on Martin Van Buren.

I'm almost done with Ulysses S. Grant! I took a quick break and read a fantastic biography on William Tecumseh Sherman.

Took a little break, but now back on track at Garfield. Reading them in order so a long way still to go.

I'm still reading! Just noticed my last post above in Oct 2014, and darn I didn't make any progress last year. I do have a book on Martin Van Buren queued up and will see how many I can get to this year.

I'm still reading. Reading in order and am plowing through Wilson. 800 pages. I'm going to keep going through. Glad someone else is too. Happy reading!

>22 swimmergirl1: Yes, you too!

I am still working on it as well, just taking a bit of a break from presidential bios for awhile. But having said that, I am about 2/3 rds of the way through one on James Buchanan.

I am on hiatus. I should be reading about Van Buren, but being in another country doesn't make it very easy to find a book about him.

I'm still at it too! Currently reading about Eisenhower. I try to mix in history books about the same time period of the President I'm reading. WWII and the Korean War took some time to get through.

As I get near the end of this challenge, I am wondering about bios of living Presidents. I'm thinking they might not be too objective. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there.

I've finished down to Bush 41, but also am reluctant where the living presidents are concerned. I found decent books on Carter and Bush 41, but Clinton? Bush 43? Not yet.

Glad to see theirs still a few of us.

Finished Martin Van Buren last month.

I'm reading FDR right now.

Reading about Millard Fillmore.

I admit to feeling much the same way so I've branched out a bit into books BY a President and books relevant to the election process.

FDR is taking me way too long too read!!!

Going shopping today to pick up the next few on my list: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan and Lincoln.

That will surely keep me busy for a while!

Good luck!

Just starting!

How do we update the individual presidential tickers?

Just post to the Presidential Tickers thread with your progress. I don't think the first post is being updated anymore, but we can still show our progress in our own posts to that thread.

And welcome and good luck! This has become probably a life-long challenge for me as I read so many other books.

>35 swimmergirl1: Thanks - I picked up a few on Abraham Lincoln, but needed to resort to on-line ordering for several of the other presidents on my list. And I'm still waiting for my William Henry Harrison biography to come in!

I want to get started! I just need to get my hands on the biography I have picked out for George Washington.

>40 Tara1Reads: What did you pick for GW?

>41 LisaMorr: Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation by Richard Norton Smith

Being a history teacher/adjunct professor, I study/read much about presidential policies at home and abroad. I want to enjoy these reads in a different way, getting to know presidential family life, relationships with other politicians, etc. If it's okay, I will be doing some lighter reading than most. If I have to read 1 more book on either Hoover or FDR's economic policies during the Great Depression, I'll go beserk!

>43 Tess_W: There, there (that's a pat on the back), you read whatever works for you :)

I've taken a long break but do want to get back to it. I got as far as Grant (excepting Andrew Johnson), just requested the new Bill Clinton bio in the American Presidents series, will see if that gets me back in gear.

I'm still reading and reading in order, I'm now reading Truman by David McCullough.

Trump books?

>46 swimmergirl1:

Fools' Names, Fools' Faces by Andrew Ferguson has a funny chapter entitled "The Donald Writes a Book".

Still reading!

Me too, reading An Unfinished Life about John F. Kennedy now.

Me too, albeit slowly. William Henry Harrison finally came in, so I'll be getting to that soon.

Still going. I anticipate it'll take me into 2020. Perhaps 2021 if Mr. Trump doesn't get a second term.

I'm still going, reading a long bio of Nixon that is taking a long time!

yes, but s-l-o-w-l-y!

Yes,,,still slogging along. Have gotten stuck on Martin Van Buren, so have decided to skip him and get on going with the rest of the list. I suspect it will take me another 10 years, but I'm determined to do this one.

>54 tututhefirst: Martin van Buren was the last biography I read; I'm committing to reading a short bio of William Henry Harrison this month.

I'm with you on completing this challenge... someday!

One of these years I'll actually get around to finishing this challenge. It makes me chuckle to think how optimistic I was at the beginning that I would get these all read by 2016. I'm at the same point I was in 2014. Sigh.

Made progress! Finished William Henry Harrison. My next read will be The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.

Did I say 2021? Hahahahahahahaha!

I have one more book to go to finish the challenge. It's a book about George W. Bush. Just started it, but it will be good to have this challenge finished. Then I'm starting backwards on the First Ladies.

>59 swimmergirl1: Impressive!

Finally finished my last book on George W. Bush. Now I’m going to start on the First Ladies.

>61 swimmergirl1: - Congratulations!!! And kudos to you for the additional challenge.

>61 swimmergirl1: Fantastic!

Well done!

Wow, great job!

Just started James K. Polk: A Biographical Companion for my second presidential biography this year.

Glad someone is still reading. I’m working on Barbara Bush.

hopping back into this one. Found a YA book about Martin Van Buren and hope to be able to do one person a month. Have read several of the more contemporary ones, Bush, Clinton, Truman, FDR, so I may get to finish by the end of Joe Biden's term.

working on FDR

Side- tracked
Lion of Liberty by Harlow Unger

It's taken me 9 years to get to Lincoln, but I just finished Team of Rivals this year.

I'm working on FDR and WWII.

I started with George Washington: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall in August 2002. I have made my way in order, through Adams (McCullough), Jefferson (Sterne Randall), Madison (Ketcham), Monroe (Hammon), JQ Adams (Nagel), Jackson (Remini) Van Buren (Silbey), Harrison (Cleaves), Tyler (Chitwood), Polk (Bergeron), Taylor (Bauer), Fillmore (Rayback), Pierce (Nichols), Buchanan (Klein), Lincoln (Donald), Rivals (Goodwin), Johnson (Trefonsse), Grant (Smith), Grant & Twain (Perry), Grant (Chernow), Grant (White), Grant Memoirs (Grant), Hayes (Barnard), Garfield (Peskin), Arthur (Reeves), Cleveland (Mevins), Harrison (Calhoun), Cleveland (Mevins), McKinley (Leech) Roosevelt (Morris), Taft (Anderson), Wilson (Cranston), Coolidge (Sobel), Hoover (Burner), FRD (Morgan), Truman (McCullough), Eisenhower (Ambrose), Kennedy (Dallek), Kennedy (Reeves), LBJ (Unger), Nixon (Black), Ford (Brinkley), Carter (Carter), Reagan (Morris), Bush 41 (Naftali), Clinton (Clinton), Bush 43 (Bush), on deck is Obama (Obama), will pass on Trump, and waiting on a good Biden bio, but will wait until his term(s) are over.

It's been a fun project for the last 19 years. I also had some other reading that was intermingled with these biographies, but for the most part I tried to stay in order.

Congratulations! It is a very challenging undertaking and it's inspiring to see that you have continued through so many years.

>73 etinoco375: Impressive! Thank you for sharing the biographies you chose. Are there any you would not recommend?

I'm the one that started this back in 2009. I have been reading the Presidents in order along with a great deal of historical background books.

Currently, I'm only up to FDR but considering that the background books are for the Great Depression as well as World War II, I think I'll still be on FDR and Truman through next year.

I realized that I really had very little background on World War II so I have many books chosen to fill in all the gaps. One I especially enjoyed and learned from was Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure. Fascinating!

>73 etinoco375: Congratulations and thanks for sharing your list.

I am still v-e-e-e-ry slowly working on this. I just finished Andrew Johnson after starting with George Washington in 2012. For some reason I have two Grant biographies--Chernow and White. They both look hefty and I'm not sure I can commit to both.

>76 cyderry: Like you on WWII I'm kind of stalled on the Civil War. I'll probably move on to Grant soonish, as part of that history, but I'm also reading other historical information about the Civil War and Reconstruction, including historical fiction, so I'll be here awhile.

Also, for some reason I decided to also go backwards. One of my reasons for starting this challenge was shelf cleanup--I had a lot of presidential biographies that I seemed to collect and not read. I noticed that despite proceeding chronologically through to Lincoln, I still had a lot of TBRs relating to the founding era. My sister then got me off track by convincing me to read Chernow's biography of Hamilton, and that got me back to reading about Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, and their various disagreements; Benjamin Franklin; Abigail Adams; the Hemingses; 1776; and Lewis and Clark.

One of these days--maybe before another 10 years go by--I will get to the Robert Caro LBJ series, which is what originally caused me to consider this project.

It's been a great project though--no regrets. I've gotten a couple of family members to undertake their own presidential challenge (though most people think I'm crazy.)

>73 etinoco375: Well done! You've renewed my hope that it is possible to finish this project. (Well, at least until the next election...)

>77 AnneDC: AnneDC: Grant is one of my favorites. His life is full of up and downs, but what placed him up as one of the best - not only did he lead the US Army to victory over the southern forces, but in Jean Edward Smith's bio on page 94, there is a passage that shows Grant's character:

"The circumstances are not clear, bur sometime during his last year at White Haven he acquired possession of the your slave Colonel Dent (his father in law) left behind, a thirty-five-year-old man named William Jones. Grant's view on slavery were ambivalent and Jones was the only slave he ever owned. When he moved to St. Louis, Grant was initially tempted to rent the man out, but soon decided against it. On March 29, 1859, he went to circuit court and filed the manumission papers to emancipate Jones. Grant never discussed his motives, but the action speaks for itself. Able-bodied slaves sold for a thousand dollars or more, and Grant surely could have used the money. Instead he set Jones free."

Understand that at the time Grant was in dire need of money.

Thank you all for the good wishes and It's been a fun project. Most of all, though, reading in order is a good history lesson and gives you insights into what these 45 men have had to endure.

I'm busy with the European theater of World War II and FDR.

still chugging along. I have several put aside for their turn comes up. RIght now I'm just leading up to the Civil War, hoping to get to Buchanan by January so I can devote next year to Civil war era. I agree with Cheli, reading in order is an exceptional way to learn history, and in many ways helps give me some perspective on today's events.

I haven't visited this site in a while but I am still reading POTUS bios. Next up is Jimmy Carter. Carter has written a ton of books himself. I don't usually read autobiographies though. I have Jimmy Carter by Peter Bourne on the shelf.

I'm still reading - stuck at FDR and WWII.

life and so many good books keep getting in the way,,,,but I'm determined to get thru this challenge. It may end up keeping me alive several years from now because I refuse to leave it before it's done.

>84 tututhefirst: "I refuse to leave it before it's done."

That seems reasonable to me!

>84 tututhefirst: I love this comment too, especially the first part: It may end up keeping me alive several years from now because I refuse to leave it before it's done. Just turned 60 and am contemplating retirement and my own mortality, lol.

I have been in a reading abyss for a few years now; am trying to jump back in with both feet and will get back to this challenge as well. I started a bit haphazardly and then went with the chronological plan and am up to Polk.

Still reading, but oh so slowly. And now the biographies have intersected with my own history, so reading them inspires not so much a sense of discovery as one of nostalgia. (or irritation, when I disagree with the politics.)