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Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World by Robert Anton Wilson

Dagon by Fred Chappell

Gon Swimmin' by Masashi Tanaka

Thinner [pseud. Richard Bachman] by Stephen King

Demon Box by Ken Kesey

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CollectionsYour library (1,591), Req. reading c. 20 (111), Req. reading c. 21 (5), Dogshit lit. (51), Currently reading (2), All collections (1,591)

Reviews29 reviews

Tagsread (604), sci-fantasy (257), non-fiction (203), translation (169), short stories (137), 2006 (127), noir-ish (124), 2009 (117), graphic novel (116), 2008 (114) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

GroupsAmerican Postmodernism, Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction, Beat Literature, Beat-itific, Comics, Dalkey Archive, Famous voluminous novels, Japanese Literature, Le Salon Litteraire du Peuple pour le Peuple

Favorite authorsRichard Adams, Paul Auster, Will Christopher Baer, Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Jonathan Baumbach, Arthur Bradford, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Albert Camus, Caleb Carr, Raymond Chandler, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, Robert Coover, Gregory Corso, Michael Crichton, E. E. Cummings, Mark Z. Danielewski, Don DeLillo, James Dickey, Philip K. Dick, E. L. Doctorow, Tim Dorsey, Dave Eggers, Bret Easton Ellis, Richard Fariña, William Faulkner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ian Fleming, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jonathan Franzen, John Gardner, Allen Ginsberg, Oakley Hall, Dashiell Hammett, Joseph Heller, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Joe Hill, Jerry Holkins, John Irving, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Bob Kaufman, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Stanisław Lem, Tao Lin, David Mamet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Cormac McCarthy, Herman Melville, Mike Mignola, Alan Moore, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, Flann O'Brien, Frank O'Hara, Grace Paley, Breece D'J Pancake, Kenneth Patchen, Douglas Preston, Jacques Prévert, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, Arthur Rimbaud, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, J.D. Salinger, Gary Snyder, Terry Southern, Wallace Stevens, Peter Straub, Arkadi and Boris Strugatski, Hunter S. Thompson, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Kennedy Toole, Laozi, Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Vigorito, David Foster Wallace, Joss Whedon, Walt Whitman, Robert Anton Wilson (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresHalf Price Books - Broadway, Half Price Books - North Lamar, Half Price Books - San Marcos, Half Price Books - South Lamar

About meMY LIFE.

"I am at this moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."
--A Confederacy of Dunces

"Yes! Yes! Dig him! Now consider his soul---stop awhile and consider."
--On the Road: T.O.S.

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
--On the Road

I'm a 21-y/o goof from Texas.

About my libraryYes, my library is now every book I own. Hey now! now! now!

Check it.

-April '08

I have trouble putting things in order, deciding what I myself even like, what I prefer, moving on and on, but I'll sit here and compile what I imagine my top 50 (YES 50!) books just may be:
01: Gravity's Fucking Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
02: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
03: The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
04: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
05: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
06: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
07: Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
08: What is the What by Dave Eggers
09: On the Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac
10: V. by Thomas Pynchon
11: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
12: The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
13: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
14: Giles Goat-Boy: or, The Revised New Syllabus by John Barth
15: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
16: In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
17: Ratner's Star by Don DeLillo
18: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
19: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by D.F.W.
20: The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
21: You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers
22: Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
23: The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 by Richard Brautigan
24: Watership Down by Richard Adams
25: Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
26: White Noise by Don DeLillo
27: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
28: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
29: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
30: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
31: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
32: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me by Richard Fariña
33: Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
34: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
35: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
36: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
37: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
38: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
39: Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth
40: Pricksongs & Descants by Robert Coover
41: Sphere by Michael Crichton
42: Deliverance by James Dickey
43: Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
44: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
45: The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake
46: A Confederacy of Dunces by J.K. Toole
47: Moby-Dick by Hermann Melville
48: Bed by Tao Lin
49: Masks of the Illuminati by R.A.W.
50: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

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Real nameTodd Ellis

LocationNew Braunfels, Texas

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/RSHabroptilus (profile)
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Member sinceJan 2, 2007

Currently readingSoldiers' Pay by William Faulkner
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

Leave a comment

It's been so long, Todd, since I read As I Lay Dying - back in HS when I had to instead of wanting to, so I couldn't give you any real analysis other than I strangely remember liking it while others in the class were whining about having to read it.

I think Faulkner is extremely difficult and I'm impressed that you're really tackling him full force. Is there any Faulkner now that you don't own? Yeah, give up the A-Z has to be good; don't put unnecessary rules on your reading - you're quite well read as it is now and don't really need to do that to make yourself better read. Read what moves you and inspires you and gets yer blood flowin', that's my best unasked-for advice.

I've just "discovered" Mary Karr: memoirist, poet, novelist, who was also in a relationship w/DFW prior to his marriage and after her divorce. She's a smokin' writer. Am devouring her memoir "Cherry" as we speak.
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Pop-Up-G...
You may have sent MY Coover to some other friend?! After you PROMISED you'd send it to me?!
In reply to your question: yes! Not only because i had such a poor impression of it - though i have tried three times to give it another chance, which i think means i've spent enough time on it to hold an opinion (after all, finding something unfinishable doesn't mean you shouldn't review). Also because i know the author well - at least, i've read 'The Plague Dogs', 'Watership Down' and 'Shardik' more than once, i love all i know of his work, and honestly couldn't believe this was the same Richard Adams until i researched it.

That's why i keep trying again and still intend to force myself quite a bit further into the book, hoping it will turn out less disappointing. I have to say that summaries of the plot don't make it seem promising. Beautiful sex slaves just aren't my thing for various reasons. But i want to give it a chance out of loyalty to an (otherwise) favourite author.

Good for you picking me up on it. But it wasn't flippantly or lazily done, and it was honest (as all my reviewing is), so i felt it was fair.
Lovely poems toddells. I've been obsessing over W.H. Auden of late, I just can't get enough of him. In any case, here's a link to some of his poems that I've posted on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note....

Annnd also by him:

August 1968

The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.

About a subjugated plain,
Among it's desperate and slain,
The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,
While drivel gushes from his lips
I hate to promote further knowledge of Ayn 'La Bitch' Rand, but you might find these interesting anyway.

http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/601...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/books/...

I see someone sent you Eliot's Prelude. Do you know Prufrock?
You are clearly one lucky, lucky guy!

My lap has been catless since Hoagy's demise. Our current feline is NOT a lap-sitter. Alas.
POTD

Preludes

The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o' clock
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gutsy shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and shimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps

And the the lighting of the lamps

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

T.S. Eliot
Yeah I'm just finding that out. She was really secretive about it.
My mom wrote this in the book she wrote for my father in 1986:

I could tell you that
today I had incredible, funny and
interesting thoughts
I could make up all kinds of shit
and you would be impressed, right?
---(what a wife)
---(how clever, God how clever she is)

and the thing is,
but I just ironed

I fucking ironed

and talked to karen a minute about
being fat
and that was my day.

(I loved it)
TODDTODDTODDTODDTODDTODDTODDTODDTODDTODD
Okay I'm back...

Yes, read Ragtime. Any book with Sigmund Freud as a character is awesome; I loved it (my only Doc read thus far, sadly)

And are you serious, Sukenick is a character in BOD? I'm picking it up next time I see it! Strange how Sukenick was so well known among his peers and yet so little read by the public. I doubt Suke was Doctorow's professor as Doc has been around a lonnnng time himself (he's pushing 80 these days) but he could've been; I really don't know.

Jeanette Winterson wrote a brilliant intro in one of Acker's omnibus' that opened my eyes to what Acker was doing with her weird, disjointed, obscene prose. And I just honestly like her bad attitude and boldness and doesn't-give-a-rip-about-the-opinions of others approach to fiction. Yeah, it cost her readers and acclaim and sales but I suspect she wasn't in it for that anyway (though the money would've been good); she nevertheless created a cult status for herself that will last as long as there are likeminded rebels in the world (and there always will be) - feminist or not.

Are you going to be reading the Clarice Lispector? Sounds fantastic so far (my copy should arrive I'm hoping tomorrow). She was a metafictionist and experimenter at times so I think she's right up our alleys. I'll grab Bender too next time I see it based on your raves. There's just too many damn good innovative writing out there...all I want is every single book like that that's ever been written....that's all ;-)

You gotta read Fowles...and fast!

Well, keep in mind that I only finish 20 books a year, but actually begin 50-60/year and get through half of most of them before getting disinterested. I don't have to know like most just how the story ended; I can live just fine w/out knowing.

I've been meaning to ask about your Mom but you know thought it was something you're already having to deal with anyway so why deal w/it here. What you've had to deal with for so long really sucks and I wish I could say something more meaningful and helpful to you other than the standard supportive shit. You ever need to vent more than just on the monitor you've got my number and I'm happy to listen.

I don't think you're ever wasting your time reading ANY version of a published author's work; if anything, I think you're seeing a writer-at-work, and learning how they've developed and their process of self-editing and revision can only be a good tool for learning in your own development as a writer. Reading anything by John's Barth or Fowles in any version can never be considered a waste of time. Be-leeeeve it!
Here's some Whitman since I've been so terrible about this of late (& thanks richard for the reminder): POTD!!!

Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,

You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

I have stories for you!!!!!! Get on AIM tonight loser.
Something is wrong here...I see no POTD for some time...you and Devon on the outs?

I found the "Collected Poetry and Prose" of Wallace Stevens at the liberry yesterday. Luckily I still had my messenger bag on me when I had to take my aunt to the hospital, so I got to read a lot of it. Ran across "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction," and thought you should read it.

A stanza from section II, "It Must Change":

"After a lustre of the moon, we say
We have not the need of any paradise,
We have not the need of any seducing hymn."

I love Stevens more as I grow older, I think because I'm sober and also have stopped loathing poetry on sight. This crap version is the only complete text I could find on this pestiferous Interweb thingie: http://www.iterasi.net/openviewer.aspx?s...

Hope you're well
"The Waterworks" is fine Doctorow. "Ragtime" is still the bee's knees, though, the best thing bar none that he's created.

Agreed that the book of daniel possesses good qualities. The two above, however, make that look like a contract-filler book.

Am heading into NaNo, so won't be too awfully social for the next month or so. Check the book out: http://www.librarything.com/topic/75687

Cheers
POTD - Since you just read Old Possum, one of my favorites.

GROWLTIGER was a Bravo Cat, who lived upon a barge;
In fact he was the roughest cat that ever roamed at large.
From Gravesend up to Oxford he pursued his evil aims,
Rejoicing in his title of "The Terror of the Thames."

His manners and appearance did not calculate to please;
His coat was torn and seedy, he was baggy at the knees;
One ear was somewhat missing, no need to tell you why,
And he scowled upon a hostile world from one forbidding eye.

The cottagers of Rotherhithe knew something of his fame,
At Hammersmith and Putney people shuddered at his name.
They would fortify the hen-house, lock up the silly goose,
When the rumour ran along the shore: GROWLTIGER'S ON THE LOOSE!

Woe to the weak canary, that fluttered from its cage;
Woe to the pampered Pekinese, that faced Growltiger's rage.
Woe to the bristly Bandicoot, that lurks on foreign ships,
And woe to any Cat with whom Growltiger came to grips!

But most to Cats of foreign race his hatred had been vowed;
To Cats of foreign name and race no quarter was allowed.
The Persian and the Siamese regarded him with fear--
Because it was a Siamese had mauled his missing ear.

Now on a peaceful summer night, all nature seemed at play,
The tender moon was shining bright, the barge at Molesey lay.
All in the balmy moonlight it lay rocking on the tide--
And Growltiger was disposed to show his sentimental side.

His bucko mate, GRUMBUSKIN, long since had disappeared,
For to the Bell at Hampton he had gone to wet his beard;
And his bosun, TUMBLEBRUTUS, he too had stol'n away-
In the yard behind the Lion he was prowling for his prey.

In the forepeak of the vessel Growltiger sate alone,
Concentrating his attention on the Lady GRIDDLEBONE.
And his raffish crew were sleeping in their barrels and their bunks--
As the Siamese came creeping in their sampans and their junks.

Growltiger had no eye or ear for aught but Griddlebone,
And the Lady seemed enraptured by his manly baritone,
Disposed to relaxation, and awaiting no surprise--
But the moonlight shone reflected from a thousand bright blue eyes.

And closer still and closer the sampans circled round,
And yet from all the enemy there was not heard a sound.
The lovers sang their last duet, in danger of their lives--
For the foe was armed with toasting forks and cruel carving knives.

Then GILBERT gave the signal to his fierce Mongolian horde;
With a frightful burst of fireworks the Chinks they swarmed aboard.
Abandoning their sampans, and their pullaways and junks,
They battened down the hatches on the crew within their bunks.

Then Griddlebone she gave a screech, for she was badly skeered;
I am sorry to admit it, but she quickly disappeared.
She probably escaped with ease, I'm sure she was not drowned-
But a serried ring of flashing steel Growltiger did surround.

The ruthless foe pressed forward, in stubborn rank on rank;
Growltiger to his vast surprise was forced to walk the plank.
He who a hundred victims had driven to that drop,
At the end of all his crimes was forced to go ker-flip, ker-flop.

Oh there was joy in Wapping when the news flew through the land;
At Maidenhead and Henley there was dancing on the strand.
Rats were roasted whole at Brentford, and at Victoria Dock,
And a day of celebration was commanded in Bangkok.

Griddlebone's my favorite cat, ever. Next one I get, it's getting the name.
Yeah I saw that you rated the O'San book with a half star. I'd like to read the Roger McGough book, maybe you could bring it up when you visit? Please.

Because I go into borders so often one of the sales ladies I talk to gave me an advance copy of a book called The Maze Runner, it looks pretty eh but still! Free books, I won't say no to. Unless Palin wrote it.
POTD
For we have thought the longer thoughts
And gone the shorter way.
And we have danced to devils' tunes,
Shivering home to pray;
To serve one master in the night,
Another in the day.
Good pick for the day.
POTD

HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?)
Outside fair costume--within ashes and filth,
No more a flashing eye--no more a sonorous voice or springy step;
Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, venerealee's flesh,
Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous,
Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,
Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,
Words babble, hearing and touch callous,
No brain, no heart left--no magnetism of sex;
Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence,
Such a result so soon--and from such a beginning!
_____________

It is a green hollow where a stream gurgles,
Crazily catching silver rags of itself on the grasses;
Where the sun shines from the proud mountain:
It is a little valley bubbling over with light.

A young soldier, open-mouthed, bare-headed,
With the nape of his neck bathed in cool blue cresses,
Sleeps; he is stretched out on the grass, under the sky,
Pale on his green bed where the light falls like rain.

His feet in the yellow flags, he lies sleeping. Smiling as
A sick child might smile, he is having a nap:
Cradle him warmly, Nature: he is cold.

No odour makes his nostrils quiver;
He sleeps in the sun, his hand on his breast
At peace. There are two red holes in his right side.
Yeah, I also picked up a bunch of Acker (she will be a salon read in 2010 - awesome, awesome writer, now that I have a better understanding of where she was coming from and what her intentions were) and a Coover (Gerald's Party), and...the biggest find...The Anatomy of Melancholy, a 17th century text on Melancholy & Depression. But you, my goodness! More Sorrentino (I too need to get more of him. Aimee Bender! Dude, I've literally (said it once, will say it again) have held that book, the Girl in the Flammable Skirt, in my hands, only to put it back having been distracted by something else and not wanting to spend spend spend. That's supposed to be stellar, really cutting edge stuff. Sample a story or two and let me know if its worth all the hype. And Becket, of course, can't go wrong there.

Check this out: Received an email today from Federman's daughter inviting me to a memorial next month down in San Diego celebrating her father's life. I've, of course, rsvp'd, and am looking forward to seeing who might be there.

Todd, you are in for a huuuuuuge treat with The Magus! I honestly don't think it matters which version you read. I wish I had read it at your age, because it is definitely a young man's novel. I've only read the revised version (different endings). But, I was so enrapt with the book back when I first read it, that I sought out the copy you own just to see how Fowles altered the ending. I like both endings! They are both unforgettable, powerful, in your face endings, much like the way Paul Bowles ended The Sheltering Sky. If I were you, I'd read the version you have, then if you ever come across the revised version, grab it, and then read it too, because the novel is so complexly mysterious it does require multiple readings (much like Umberto Ecos best stuff) to really get what the hell is going on. I'm not a fast reader, but I zipped through the Magus. I wrote a review of it way back when - mediocre - focused mainly on the powerful Nympho motif, if you're interested in more of my lauds of it. I liked it better than The French Lieutenants Woman. Powerful, personal, mysterious, labyrinthine stuff. Just read what you got, you won't be disappointed.

Glad to hear you've got your bases covered with Big Bend. Sounds like a fantastic adventure. Be careful in those mines, young man! I'll be heading up to the local mountains myself (with the fambly) just to beat the heat out here and literally expand our horizons from this monotonous city shit.

I don't mean to keep blathering on about The Magus, but that's a damn fine piece of writing. I should read it again myself. In fact, it should be a salon read later in '10. Hmmmm.
Ahh that's love, thanks Toddells.
Haha how lame. For research on the review, I looked at 4 or 5 wiccan websites, and every single one bitched about Silver RavenWolf. Besides, what terms in that article did I abuse?
The deer poem sounds cool, try and find it pleeeease.

I didn't notice about Brautigan. :/
The Big Bend map looks good. Be sure you've got some good topos if you do any serious hiking, unless you've already hiked there and know the terrain. Are there any caves or slickrock canyons down there in Big Bend? You know, I'd be spooked rafting the Rio Grande, just because I'd be paranoid that coyotes would want to steal it - and my fresh water and food and money - but maybe border crossings are not such a major issue in that isolated neck of the woods, eh?
oh oh....i finally got a copy of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN...brand new from Amazon...did some computer research for a guy in town who paid me with an Amazon Gift Card....feed the addicts, is what i say in this situation....
;-}
J
"Postcard"
I wonder if eight-four-year-old Colonel Sanders
ever gets tired of travelling all around America
_____talking about fried chicken.
No, not Vintage. It was Simon & Schuster first. Yeah, I've read "What is the What?" and disliked it. I don't know, at this moment in history, if my dislike for Eggers and the whole McSweeny's self-congratulatory ethos is such that he could write anything at all that I wouldn't simply, Pavlovianly reject. He's this century's Dickens...overblown, overrated, undertalented.

Chacun a son livre, certainment.
Go to sleep loser. You'll not study tonight.
Agreed. I've probably spent more time chatting with you online then I have spoken to most of my other friends in real life, and I still barely know who you are.

Ehh really didn't like that movie.
I can never tell when your being sarcastic or not.
We weren't fighting, you're right. You were being an ass and driving me into a murderous rage.

Ahh thanks, I loved those poems. Makes sense to me, I only ever write poetry when I'm either feeling insane (most of the time) or feeling really childish (about half the time).
I did it when we were fighting, I was so pissed at you I didn't want to see your name all over my page lolz.
This is the last poem I'll inflict before sleep promise! Wrote it July 2008, another journal poem!!!!! I know how you love them haha. :)

Trash Can Parasites
Co workers toss their smeary trash in you
Like it’s nothing.
The plastic sack hides the sticky mess
But I can smell you from across the room.

I don’t like you despite your uses,
I know what’s inside.
Slime, mold, grease, and rot
When I get too close to you I want to run for the pot

Vomit retch puke and spit
You gross me out so much
I can barely stand it.
Trash can of doom!

Please trash can
Grow arms and legs
and
Change your bags!
POTD by your favorite, Emily Dickinson

There's been a death in the opposite house
As lately as today.
I know it by the numb look
Such houses have alway.

The neighbours rustle in and out,
The doctor drives away.
A window opens like a pod,
Abrupt, mechanically;

Somebody flings a mattress out, -
The children hurry by;
They wonder if It died on that, -
I used to when a boy.

The minister goes stiffly in
As if the house were his,
And he owned all the mourners now,
And little boys besides;

And then the milliner, and the man
Of the appalling trade,
To take the measure of the house.
There'll be that dark parade

Of tassels and of coaches soon;
It's easy as a sign, -
The intuition of the news
In just a country town.
That what I thought--that the shorter he made his stories, the better they were. Hence my high hopes for Shoplifting...Ohhhhhhh welllllll.
"The Awakening" is a very worthwhile readd for every young man. It's a lot closer to the truth than we're comfortable knowing, even today. Maybe it's not quite so bad, but it's not good, even yet.

"The Book of Daniel"? Whyinahell are y'all reading Ed's least effort?

Yeah, read "Zeitoun" and let me know if I should or not. I'm a real detractor of Eggers's, since he's self-published all his books and they still get ecstatically reviewed (unjustifiably so, IMO) unlike every other self-published author on Earth. But this one is very, very tempting.

As to visiting, I'll be in Austin before you'll be in NY. I arrive on 12/1 and leave on 12/8. I won't have a car, and will be staying with my younger brother near 183 & 290E. Maybe we can meet while I'm there? I'm considering asking Brent if he can spare a visit, though with wife and child I doubt I would rank high enough to make that happen.

Cheers
Damn rights I did, bro . . . chiosaurus. It was the only way I could lash out at him, short of prank-calling his great great great granddaughter.
The ending changed everything. I discuss it in my review, profanely.
POTD - SERIOUS this time!!

"Ah Vastness of Pines"
By Pablo Neruda

Ah vastness of pines, murmur of waves breaking,
slow play of lights, solitary bell,
twilight falling in your eyes, toy doll,
earth-shell, inw hom the earth sings!

In you the rivers sing and my soul flees in them
as you desire, and you send it where you will.
Aim my road on your bow of hope
and in a frenzy I will free my flock of arrows.

On all sides I see your waist of fog,
and your silence hunts down my afflicted hours;
my kisses anchor, and my moist desire nests
in you with your arms of transparent stone.

Ah your mysterious voice that love tolls and darkens
in the resonant and dying evening!
Thus in deep hours I have seen, over the fields,
the ears of wheat tolling in the mouth of the wind.
and can't stop peeking at it!
can't stop opening up the door!
can't stop giggling at it

That is you.
In under 170 pages, Baumbach successfully builds and maintains a sort of hypersurreality, mixing together dream and film, meditating on the art of storywriting for both the printed page and the camera

!!!!!!!!!!!

Good stuff toddells.
Hey, so what's your itinerary for Big Bend?
Why why why!!!!!!!!!
well I'll be hot diggity darned! I stand corrected you young smarty pants!
Great great Baumbach review! Btw, Kicking & Screaming came out in 2005, minor minor detail. Off to go do some pimping....
"Wahhhh I'm Tood I like to troll around on lt and wear girl pants all day!"
Poems of the day!

1)

What a sham this life can be!
It all boils down to fact?
I disagree!
______FairyTales and mind games, what's
going On in this head of mine?

I know! I know! Kwon! Knwn! Konw! What?

Consider my mind Blown.
Cut my brain & eat my insides
I have no use for them ---
Trivial Things these so
called 'vital' organs.

2)

I live in a house that has been overrun by cats.
These are no ordinary cats mind you, but cats with
the unnatural ability to look into your eyes at
your soul and judge you with unswerving intelligence
Oh dear me! My home is turning into a warehouse
for a bunch of mind reading hooligans!
How does one stop such a thing? Does this
situation call for a call to arms? Or am
I merely imagining all of this in my
head? Who can say for both options are
terribly unlikely. Oh come here you
itty bitty pretties! I've threatened
the damned things with all sorts
of nasties, but the ignore me
with arrogant disdain. Will
no one do anything to
stop this madness?
The doctor I shall
go to see, the
all knowing
doctor knows
what's
wrong
with
me.
Maybe it's because they're not many 'young' people on the site. Or status updates. And picture fests. In any case, it's lame. You should add my friend anastasia, she's bakerina on here, and she's a badass. You'd like her
Good good decision re: archiving.

What's the hurry re: growing up? You're 21. Adulthood is more than growing up. It's growing into yourself, and how's a man supposed to do that without knowing what that self is, and how's he supposed to find *that* out without looking? Go look for a while.

Pennsylvania's a big place. Western, eastern? The whole enchilada (and how I miss El Rey's mole enchiladas!) would take a summer to do justice to. Though Harrisburg's a rathole and can easily be skipped. Pittsburgh has some outstanding ice cream at Penn State's creamery...maple walnut *dripdrool* sundae with caramel topping...'scuse me, need to go change my drawers....

Where was I? Oh yeah...so try going someplace you've never been and see what's what. Shy boy that you are, you'll find more in strange places than familiar ones.

Now that the Brautiganfest is over, what's next up on the TBR? "Mao II" had one of the coolest jackets I've ever seen...Miken, the cover/jacket printers, used it as a sample when trying to talk my old boss at Bantam Doubleday Dell into using the then-revolutionary matte-and-gloss lamination/varnish stuff on a Danielle Steel jacket. (They failed.) When I read the book, I was more aware of the jacket than the text. Funny, that.
Comments March '07 -> Oct. '09 archived.
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