Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Five Books I’d Read
In which the author discusses five books he’s read, if time permitted.
1. Have a Little Faith: A True Story, by Mitch Albom.
I don’t really read “Mitch Albom,” and don’t understand “his journey,” or his “outlook,” or what he’s “about.” I do know, however, that the employees of Second Story Books in Dupont Circle refuse to buy review copies of Mitch Albom books. Now, doesn’t that kinda/sorta make you want to read them?
2. Under the Dome, by Stephen King. Since I have read every single Stephen King book, I can no longer pretend that I don’t know this book exists and won’t read it. It all started back in 1989 when my mother pointed to a shelf of classic Stephen King novels—It, The Stand, Salem’s Lot, etc.—and warned me that I was not old enough to read them. But what was in these banned books? What mysterious and curiosities lurked therein? Just a lot of gore, and sex, and run-on sentences.
What is the Proper Etiquette for a Book Burning?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C., held an old-fashioned book burning last week (above is an AP video on the same).
Now, my people didn’t burn books when I was growing up, but my youth pastor did ask me to toss my copy of Pyromania, and my grandfather, an Episcopal priest, refused to allow books written by Carl Jung inside his house. Also, I once had to scribble an ode to masturbation on a slip of paper during mass and throw it into a cauldron of fire.
Based on these criteria, I feel qualified to offer the following FAQ for attending a book burning.
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Five Books I’d Read
In which the author briefly discusses five new books he’d read, if time permitted
1. Good Eats: The Early Years, by Alton Brown
I had a housemate who loved Alton Brown. Absolutely loved him. Would stay up until 2 a.m. to watch him on the Food Network. Funny thing was, this housemate was a chef. An actual, real chef, who worked at a fancy restaurant for like 10 or 12 hours and then came home to Alton Brown. I never understood that. I thought a “real” food guy would admire a “real” chef—someone I, who am not particularly interested in food, probably had never heard of—not a TV chef with a kitschy food show that was considered “for foodies” only by people who watched Rachael Ray or Top Chef and weren’t sweating it out every goddamn day in an actual gritty working kitchen somewhere. But, it turns out that this real-life chef loved this fake TV-chef more than any other real chefs he actually knew in real life. Just goes to show you: you think you’ve got life figured out, then it throws ya a curve ball.
2. Changing My Mind, by Zadie Smith
People love Zadie Smith. White Teeth, On Beauty—Zadie writes ‘em, folks buy ‘em. Unfortunately, I’ve only read The Autograph Man, which I liked, but most people hate, and I’ve heard Smith disowned. Then, I did some research and learned she actually disowned White Teeth. But I can’t keep track of who disowned what, or who likes what. I just read.
Mike Huckabee, Considered
In which the author contemplates the former Presidential candidate’s A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit.
Just in time for Halloween comes creationist and cool dude Mike Huckabee’s jolly Christmas memoir…
God, what a snarky intro. Tough to write about this because, as an agnostic (how can anybody be anything else?), I don’t like to knock those who believe One Tuff Jew died and rose again in ye olde ancient times. Then again, Christ rarely helps me when I’m drawing to an inside straight, or when I’m trying to make a straight flush to beat another player’s obvious nut flush, and he certainly never helps me make a higher straight flush against a lower straight flush which, as He should know, would be a hand that would qualify for the bad beat jackpot in most American poker rooms.
So, rather than spew some jokey vitriol about Huckabee, I’d rather present five nuggets of received wisdom I unearthed whilst skimming A Simple Christmas. So, if you hate Huckabee, you can smile at how stupid these nuggets are and, if you like Huckabee, you can appreciate the fuck out of this blog post because I’ve done the hard work for you.
Five Books I’d Read
In which the author briefly discusses five new books he’d read, if time permitted.
1. Che: A Graphic Biography, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon.
As previously discussed, I’m not much for graphic novels, but it’s pretty cool to stare at drawings of Ernesto Guevera and Fidel Castro plotting strategy in the Sierra Maestra. Do you think Castro knows this book exists? If he does, he must think it’s pretty fucking weird. How would you feel if you saw a comic book of a war you fought? Then again, maybe you’re a really laid back hippie-type. Maybe you’d think it was no big deal.
2. How to Be Inappropriate, by Daniel Nester.
Okay: there is a very high chance that, like this guy, this book will be annoying, but some chance—I’m not saying a great chance, but a measurable, extant chance—that this book will be sort of funny. Who’s ready to gamble?
Five Books I’d Read
In which the author briefly discusses five new books he’d read, if time permitted
1. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, by Lydia Davis.
Don’t bother studying the jpeg—this book has a really, really intense neon-orange cover which cannot be reproduced on your computer screen. In fact, I wouldn’t have glanced at this book twice if not for its excruciatingly-tinted dust jacket. However, once I did take a second look, I found that MacArthur Fellow Lydia Davis writes brutal, minimalist prose that is the aesthetic equivalent of that dust jacket’s punishing, unrelenting slice of the ROYGBIV frequency spectrum.
2. Going Rogue: An American Life, by Sarah Palin.
Why not?
3. Peter & Max: A Fables Novel, by Bill Willingham.
Goth fairy tales + illustrations – pretensions to “graphic novelhood” = sign me up.
4. Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women, by Marnia Lazreg. You know how new atheism is sorta cool, but that, after reading some self-important Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkinstomes, you kinda wanna believe in God again just to be a contrarian fuck? In a similar way, I expect this book that would convince Muslim women not to wear veils would convince me that they should wear veils. But, then again, I’m not a Muslim woman, nor have I read this book.
5. A Boardwalk Story, by J. Louis Yampolsky.
There’s not much popular or critically-acclaimed art made in, around, or about Atlantic City. Well, there’s the Bruce Springsteen song “Atlantic City,”and the Burt Lancanster movie Atlantic City, and the Jack Nicholson movie “The King of Marvin Gardens.” But, face it: though good bands occasionally play the Borgata, Max’s Kansas City has probably impacted our culture more than Atlantic City. However, I like things that don’t impact culture. That’s why I want to read a debut novel about Atlantic City by a retired accountant.
Five Books I’d Read
In which the author briefly discusses five new books he’d read, if time permitted.
1. The Wild Things (Fur-Covered Edition), by Dave Eggers.
Another in adventure in meta by postmodernist Dave Eggers, this novelization of high modernist Maurice Sendak’s ubiquitous children’s book is also based on a screenplay for the recent film that Eggers wrote with postmodernist Spike Jonze. I’d read this because I like things that are meta, and because I like things that are covered in fur.
2. The Best American Essays 2009, edited by Mary Oliver.
I often buy, but rarely read, books in the “The Best” series published every year. (”The Best American Short Stories,” “The Best American Science and Nature Writing,” “The Best American Sports Writing,” etc.) I’m never sure what’s in them, but they look good on the bookshelf, and make me feel intelligent which, really, is what books are for.
3. Chronic City, by Jonathan Lethem.
Jonathan Lethem’s written a bunch of books I’ve never read, but I always see in people’s apartments in Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Green Point. Though I’m not interested in the Brooklyn Renaissance (can we call the decade-long Brooklyn cultural explosion a Renaissance yet?), I am interested in alliteration, and boy, is this book’s title alliterated (alliterative? alliteral?).
4. War Dances, by Sherman Alexie.
Sherman Alexie is responsible for one bad movie, but publishes good, emo stories in the New Yorker and is Native American and, though it’s not politically correct to say or think so, Native Americans are cool.
5. American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, by Craig Ferguson.
Aren’t you at least a little curious to read about this talk show host/former Drew Carey Show star’s alcoholism and suicide attempt? He’s one of those guys who seems like a douchebag, but, if he really is a douchebag, is probably a cool douchebag.
Edgar Allan Poe and David Simon, Compared
In which the author discusses parallels in the lives and work of two Charm City scribes.
Edgar Allan Poe, alcoholic inventor of Gothic literature, died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849. Charm City commemorates the 160th anniversary of his death this week. But what does Poe have in common with David Simon, Baltimore native and creator of HBO’s “The Wire?”
Edgar Allen Poe: Deliberately sought court-martial at West Point to pursue career as a visionary writer. “I have no energy left, nor health,” he wrote his guardian. “I shall neglect my studies and duties at the institution.”
David Simon: Left the Baltimore Sun to pursue career as a visionary TV series creator. “I got out of journalism because some sons of bitches bought my newspaper and it stopped being fun,” he told the Baltimore City Paper.
Eff This Book!
Perusing Oxford’s The F-Word
The F-Word
By Jesse Sheidlower
Oxford University Press
$16.95
Ed. Note: the following post contains a number of naughty words, including Fuck, Cunt, and Goat. If there’s a toddler on your lap, best to blindfold him or her before reading any further.
Having read Erika’s post on the third edition of The F-Word, I was cheered to discover a copy in my mailbox this weekend. “What fun,” I thought, admiring its sleek, unsuggestive firetruck-red jacket, its blurb from Steven Pinker (”You’ll never hear the F-word in the same way again”), and the Henry IV Part II quotation that opens the volume (”‘Tis needful that the most immodest word / Be looked upon and learned”). Also of note: a curiously restrained foreword from Lewis Black (guess we all grow up a bit when the OED comes a-calling); eight (8) pages on variants of the word frig; and a note on “new inclusions” in this edition:
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Perusing Oxford’s The F-Word” »
Merge Records’ Mac McCaughan @ Crooked Beat Tonight
Think of all the truly awesome things that Merge Records has accomplished in its 20-year existence. Not only has the label—founded in the late ’80s by Superchunk members Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan—released countless 7″ singles, LPs, and at least one boxed-set by myriad worthy artists, but they’ve pulled off a few truly improbable feats. Merge basically invented the tolerable use of brass in indie-rock. Before Neutral Milk Hotel, the best you could get was June of 44’s Fred Erskine playing balloon-on-scalp-style free jazz trumpet. The label also put out countless Lambchop records, even though Europeans were the only people who listened to them.
But most remarkably, Merge has grown into a widely successful record label in the most humble and respectable way possible—keeping their business personable, modest, and honest. Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, an oral history assembled by John Cook alongside Ballance and McCaughan, tells the label’s story through countless photographs, fliers, and extensive interviews. Washington City Paper recently spoke with McCaughan, who will be reading selections from the book tonight at Crooked Beat.
Q&A after the jump:
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