in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. The Electric Information Age Book: McLuhan/Agel/Fiore and the Experimental Paperback, by Jeffrey Schnapp and Adam Michaels
Though its cover is hard to look at, this apparently otherwise well-designed title comes from your friends at the always surprising Princeton Architectural Press, where books are lovingly [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Screw Business As Usual, by Richard Branson.
At first, I thought this book by Virgin chairman Richard Branson was called "Screw: Business As Usual," and was about either his cutthroat entrepreneurial instincts, or sexual proclivities, or both. Then, I thought it was called "Screw [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Squier Electrics: 30 Years of Fenders Budget Guitar Brand, by Tony Bacon
"Dude, wanna come over my house after school and play guitar?" "I don't know. We have a calculus midterm tomorrow." "Come on, dude, don't be a p*ssy." "I don't know man, I [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Distrust That Particular Flavor, by William Gibson.
I'm not sure who William Gibson is, but he seems to write syfy-ish novels that appeal to the Philip K. Dick, Boing Boing set. He's written this book of essays—his first, I think—that imagine a cyber-friendly future, [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James.
This isn't a Jane Austen novel, or a Jane Austen-plus-zombies novel, but a murder-mystery sequel to a Jane Austen novel. In other words, it's fan fiction. When is "Stone Cold" Steve Austen gonna write a WWF-meets-Pride and [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Draw a Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young, by Jeremy Grimshaw.
Genius minimalist composer La Monte Young spoke at my college in the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, I don't remember what he said because he was wearing a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
