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Bookseller Barnes and Noble Weighs Sale of Company – NYTimes.com

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Bookseller Barnes and Noble Weighs Sale of Company – NYTimes.com.

This is really sickening.

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Book Review – Golden Gate – The Life and Times of America’s Greatest Bridge – By Kevin Starr – NYTimes.com

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as see...
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Book Review – Golden Gate – The Life and Times of America’s Greatest Bridge – By Kevin Starr – NYTimes.com.

It’s hard to believe that only 73 years ago, the Golden Gate Bridge did not exist. The airplane is older than the Golden Gate Bridge. The particle accelerator is older than the Golden Gate Bridge. Betty White is older than the Golden Gate Bridge.

One of my favorite places on earth.  This is a review from the NY Times.

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A Book Update…

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Whew, it has been a busy couple of weeks in my book world.  On the 23rd of March, Christopher Moore‘s Bite Me: A Love Story was released and I plowed through it in about 5 days.

Next was Lisa Lutz‘s The Spellman’s Strike Again.  This is the fourth in a series on the Spellman family.  Bite Me is the third in Moore’s vampire series.

Both are easy reads and fun.  Don’t label these books as literature; but never label them as crap, like Dan Brown and John Grisham write.

I must admit, I’m a big fan of both authors so I’m a little biased though.

Next I’m on to Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez.  Here’s what the inside cover of the book has to say:

Teri and Phil had never needed their own personal god.  But when Phil is passed up for a promotion – again – it’s time to take matters into their own hands, and look online.

Choosing a god isn’t as simple as you would think.  There are too many choices; and they often have very hefty prices for their eternal devotion: blood, money, sacrifices, and vows of chastity.  But then they found Luka, raccoon god of prosperity.  All he wants is a small cut of their good fortune.

Oh – and to crash on their couch for a few days.

Divine Misfortune is a story of gods and mortals – in worship, in love, and at parties.

I’m always one to pick up a book that will pick at religion.  Let’s hope this does exactly that!

In the middle of all of this, I’m slowly reading through David Rakoff’s Don’t Get Too Comfortable.  The book is a collection of essays both social and political….and hilarious.

Rakoff is a little long winded, but it’s still a good read, if only for the bathroom.

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Bite Me: A Love Story…

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Tuesday, March 23rd will mark the release of Christopher Moore‘s Bite Me: A Love Story.  In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a huge Chris Moore fan.  My tastes range from poetry to history to biography to absurdity!

Absurdity is the closest I can come to describing Moore’s fiction.  I did not make that up.  His work has been described as absurdist fiction and I can’t get enough.

Bite Me is the third in his vampire series.  I won’t go into a long description of the previous books because you can find a review anywhere….and that’s not what this site does.

The first two books are Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck.  You can find them in paperback and I highly recommend them.  They have lovable characters that you really get attached to and Moore leaves lots of room for continuation of the story.

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Vile and Revolting…

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

I know, I’ve been missing for a little while.  Honestly, I just haven’t felt inspired enough to write.  I am working on a new story but it’s just a concept right now so I won’t share.

What I have been doing is reading a shitload of books.  Let’s start with Ian Sansom.  I started on his Mobile Library Series.  It’s fun and breezy and I can recommend the first in the series: The Case of the Missing Books.  I’m onto the second one now: Mr. Dixon Disappears.  There are four in the series.  I’m not sure if I’ll get to the last two any time soon because there are three book I want to read very soon.  Those are James Hynes’ Next: A Novel, Lisa Lutz‘ The Revenge of the Spellmans, and of course (the priority) Chris Moore’s Bite Me!

Revolting Rhymes
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Jen bought me a couple of books I wanted for Valentine’s Day too.  Both are by Roald Dahl.  The first is Vile Verses.  It’s large and I’m just skimming through it.  But last night at dinner we read through Revolting Rhymes.  These are the stories you know told in a new, and kind of sick, light.  Snow White, Cinderella, the Three Little Pigs, and Red Riding Hood are just a few in the book.  I’ll put it this way: Red Riding Hood is packing heat in this version.  It’s a must read and you can get both on Amazon for cheap.

I’m hoping to get a little inspiration in the coming weeks and start pushing out some more poetry and a little fiction, just for fun.

Until then, keep on reading…books, that is!

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An owl, a pussycat, and a boy who couldn’t sleep…

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Edward Lear, illustration for "The Owl an...
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This week has been a doozy.  I guess that’s a really nice way of saying that the week has been total shit and I’m ready for a new life.

But one good milestone is that I finished one book and started a few others.

I just finished DC Pierson’s The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep And Didn’t Have To.“  Umm, strange is all I can say.  I have a feeling there was a larger meaning that I just didn’t get.  I think what drove me a little nuts was that it was written like a 15 year old would talk.  Have you ever listened to a 15 year old girl speak for three minutes straight in ONE SENTENCE?  That’s what it was like.

The story started out pretty interesting and had great possibilities.  But like most modern novels, it seems that the author gets to a crescendo and the editor says, “ok, that’s good.  Slam it shut in the next five paragraphs and we’ll call this pig cooked!”

You know you’re about to get screwed when the book starts to build to a great conclusion and you realize that you’re on page 225 of 228.  Yep, you’ve been blue balled!

Hopefully the next selection will be better.  It’s kind of chick-lit but I need something to read while I’m waiting for Chris Moore’s Bite Me to release on the 23rd of March.  Also, I think the 9th is the release date for Next: A Novel from James Hynes.  A few days ago I finished Kings of Infinite Space and really liked it so I’ll dive into his next novel when it comes out next week.

Ok, so the book is called Sammy’s Hill and it’s written by Kristin Gore.  She wrote for SNL and Futurama.  Let’s hope it can keep my interest.

And I’m still in the middle of a few others.  Poet‘s Corner is a collection of poems with commentary by John Lithgow.  Yep, the same John Lithgow from stage and screen (Third Rock From the Sun).  It has already turned me on to several great poets, including Edward Lear and his Books of Nonsense.

Here’s a little Edward Lear for your pallet.  It’s a blast.

The Owl and the Pussycat

I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!’
II
Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?’
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III
‘Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?’ Said the Piggy, ‘I will.’
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

The book is entitled The Complete Nonsense Books of Edward Lear and contains many of his illustrations (he was an artist too) as well as his poetry.  I highly recommend it.  It’s lighthearted and lots of fun.  With all the stresses in life, this is a great escape.

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The Devil’s Dictionary…

Friday, February 12th, 2010

I go on a kick every once in a while and start buying books…lots of them.  I won’t bore you with all the titles.  But I ended up with one really fun book called The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

This is a cheap, cheap, cheap book you can pick up at Barnes & Noble.  I think I paid $3.50 for it, and it wasn’t on a discount rack.

Here’s some of the great definitions contained:

Absurdity, n. A statement of belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion.

Academe, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
Academy, n. (from academe). A modern school where football is taught.

Faith, n.  Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

Learning, n.  The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.

Enjoy!  If you get a chance, pick up this book.  It’s full of funny definitions and a lot of poetry to go along with some of the explanations.

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Snow and a Boatload of Rhymes…

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

La st Thursday we had a huge ice/snow storm rip through Oklahoma.  Schools were still closed today and I only worked 1/2 days on Thursday and Friday.

So how did I spend Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday?  The bookstore of course.

Since I’ve been on this poetry kick lately I’ve been looking for a sort of anthology of some of the greats.  What I found was a perfect book for someone like me who is just beginning to realize the true power of poetry.

This book has everything you could ever want in popular poetry.  If this thing doesn’t get you diggin’ the rhyme, I’m not sure anything will.

The problem is that it’s freakin’ huge!  So here’s the deal.  You know how your granny gets up every day and does her bible reading?  Well, I’m an atheist so I’m not going to read the bible….but I will read my daily dose of poetry.

One poem a day until I dig through the book.

And I promise that I’ll lay off the poetry for a while on this blog.  I actually do read other things.

I’m in the middle of Kings of Infinite Space by James Hynes at the moment.  And, I have a stack a mile high at home of others I need to get through this year.

I’ll give you a little heads up too.  Lisa Lutz has a new book coming out in March called The Spellmans Strike Again.  This is the 4th in the series.  She will also be in Dallas in April and I will be there.

On March 23rd (I think!), Christopher Moore’s next book, Bite Me, is going to be released.  I’m pissed at Chris right now because he’s not coming anywhere near Oklahoma.  But I’m sure the book will rock so I can’t be too mad.  This is the 3rd in his vampire series.  This series is nothing like the Stephanie Meyers Twilight crap!  It’s not great literature but his writing is much better and much more adult.

So I’ll be back in a day or so and update you on the first few poems from the book.  I might skip around or just start from the beginning.  The first poem is In Cabin’d Ships At Sea by Walt Whitman.

Man what a great journey this is going to be!!  2010, the year of education.


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Pride, Prejudice, Zombies, Androids, and Busted Up Eggs…

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

This morning I was asked to do something very strange.  Most weekends I get up and run errands and eventually end up at some coffee shop where I will write for several hours.

I announced my intention to head to Barnes & Noble this morning because they have been closed for three fucking days due to a weak ass snow/ice storm that came through here on Thursday and Friday.  It seems that all their competitors were able to open up!!  But I digress.

My wife asked me to pick up a book for her.  The book is for an upcoming book club meeting she has in a couple of weeks.  I have to tell you that I was appalled when I heard the title.  It sickens me that someone would write a novel like this.  I was even embarrassed to ask the clerk at B&N for the location of the book.

Are you ready for this?

The title of the book is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  There, I said it.  I think Jane Austen just made another turn in her grave!

How do you completely destroy a classic piece of literature like Pride and Prejudice?  How do you reduce, to shreds, linguistic brilliance?

My mouth was ajar.  I was in a daze.  And then I was reminded of Jasper Fforde, one of my favorite authors.  If you don’t know Jasper Fforde, he wrote The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, both outrageous takes on the fairy tales Humpty Dumpty and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I had no response.  I guess the only thing I can say is touché.

If you get a chance, pick up copies of Fforde’s NurseryCrime series.  You won’t be disappointed!

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The Revised Book List…

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

I know, it has been a while since I’ve posted on Lint Upon Tweed, but I promise to post more in the future.  Of course I’m a compulsive liar.

So, the first retraction I have to make is my reading list.  I had grand designs for the stack of books I wanted to trudge through this year.  Then I started trudging and realized that I really wasn’t interested in any of the books I had picked out.

Onto the bookstore!

Here are the first two books for the year.  Don’t laugh!

Merrill Markoe is a new favorite of mine.  Merrill was a writer for Letterman many years ago when Dave got his start on morning television.  She’s written about 5 or 6 books and she has a savagely biting wit that I just love.

Merrill actually wrote a book called It’s My Fucking Birthday!  She can’t be all bad with a title like that.

That’s right, I’ve never read Hitchhiker’s Guide.  I haven’t seen the movie either.  I’ll dig through that after I’ve read the series.

However, I do know what 42 means!

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