Books and Sources

[GlobalLlama]

Alright, I'm trying to bolster my boxes.

What books should I start with? List ones I should read for personal knowledge seperately. . .I can check those out at the library. Which books make the best cites? What about the coallations of the "Best Writing of '05" and similar things?

Furthermore, what do you think are the best sources to use. I was told some of my sources are a little below par. This is certainly true, however, funds are limited, so I have to stick with free stuff. Your favorites?

[KY_Extemper]

The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger

Those are my two favorites.

As far as free sources go here's what I'd say:
*Christian Science Monitor (must have)
*New York Times
*Los Angeles Times
*Washington Post
*Houston Chronicle (for southern perspective)

Those were staple sources for me. I also used the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, and Financial Times of London but those require you to pay up so it may not apply to your circumstances.

[GlobalLlama]

I LOVE the Monitor. You could possibly draw 4 cites from one article. They use so many third party analysts. The others are currently covered by other members of my team (and thus not very extensively).


I also used the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, and Financial Times of London but those require you to pay up so it may not apply to your circumstances.

WSJ has some free content on http://www.opinionjournal.com that I use a lot. I like editorials because it aids my analysis, even if it isn't objective. I use the free content on The Economist. FT has a little bit of free stuff.

My plan currently is to subscribe to all the free trials in the weeks prior to Nationals.

Thanks for the expedient help!

Anyone else?

[IrishExtemper]

Domestic Sources:
The Chicago Tribune serves as a good source for Midwest insight.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, in my opinion, has better coverage then the Chronicle for Southern coverage
Business Week is also surprisingly solid as an econ source

Other foreign papers:

The Jerusalem Post--Unparalleled Mideast coverage. Plus, their Palestinian/Jewish perspectives give you the best analysis on Israel

The Daily Yomiuri--Japan's premier newspaper. Also has extensive coverage on Chinese and Southeast Asian issues

Mail and Guardian--South Africa's main newspaper. Good, legitimiate African source

There's tons of British sources to try out too, including the Times, the Independent, the London Daily Telegrpah, International Herald Tribune and the Guardian

Hope that helps

[MauldinDebater]

Try allafrica.com. It's spectacular. Think tanks via links on the extempprep.org website are excellent. If you have $30 then the Washington Quarterly is definitely my favorite source.

[KY_Extemper]

Good point about the Atlanta Journal-Constitution above. I always forget that source.

However, Business Week has seemed like less and less of a good source to me over the years. It used to have some pretty good domestic/international political and social coverage but has now become a pure economic source. This isn't necessarily bad, but some of the articles they write these days have little importance for extempers (although their general economic analysis and special reports are usually spot on).