Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports, by Mark Ribowsky.
Ever since I saw Jon Voight play Howard Cosell in Ali, I can't picture the actual Howard Cosell when I think about Howard Cosell. When I think about Howard [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Living Originalism, by Jack M. Balkin.
People say a lot of crazy things about Thee Grand Ol' Constitution. Some think it's perfect in its original form and shouldn't be all bent out of shape to allow for things like federal highways and public schools. [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. The Vegetarian Imperative, by Anand M. Saxena.
Dear Occupy Wall St./D.C./Oakland/Berlin/Milan/Honolulu/Darfur/et. al.: I don't wanna see any of you crusty motherf*ckers eating a hamburger, a hot dog, a chick'n McNugget, a half-smoke, or any other damn thing that used to be alive. It's bad [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.

1. Monsters in the Movies, by John Landis.
Around my house in the 1980s, John Landis was known 1) as the weird bearded guy who was talking when Michael Jackson wasn't talking in the making of "Thriller," which we owned on VHS; and 2) as [...]

A Talk With Tom Moniz of Rad Dad

The zine community and the parental community usually don't mix. It's not common to see a happy family strolling through a zine convention—and that's a shame. After all, the anarchist/punk/revolutionary community is full of good parents. Take zinester, teacher, anarchist, and father Tom Moniz, who has produced 20 issues of the zine Rad Dad in the last [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.

1. Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography, by Errol Morris.
Errol Morris directed The Thin Blue Line, which is about cops. He didn't direct The Thin Red Line. Terrence Malick directed that. It's about Vietnam, or life, or something. Terrence Malick also [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice, edited by Alia Malek.
There was an earthquake 'round these parts on Monday and it was no f*cking picnic, let me tell you. I was in the middle of downtown D.C. when it struck and I know I [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.

1. The Sextine Chapel, by Herve Le Tellier.
This novel about sexual encounters between 20-plus people seems sexy, but it might be sexy in the literary sense that, say, The Witches of Eastwick or Pride and Prejudice is sexy—not in the mouth-breathing horny teenager sense [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.

1. Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror, by Jason Zinoman.
When I was five, I found a copy of Dawn of the Dead in my mom's VHS collection and asked if I could watch it, [...]

Five Books I’d Read

in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.

1. Go Fish: How to Win Contempt and Influence People, by Mr. Fish.
A pseudonymous political cartoonist offers wild and witty illustrated observations about life on Spaceship Earth in the post-9/11, post-millenial, post-economic crisis, post-Bush, post-Potter, post-Winehouse Obama age. Kind of like that famous Benjamin [...]