memoirs of a master

I'm not the type to read a book over and over again. I did reread where the red fern grows to my sons. At it's conclusion we all bawled like babies. Which was appropriate for Henry, as he was only a few months old and was squirming in a turd. As opposed to my youthful habits I haven't read multiple books by the same author. Before I was 20 I read everything I could by Vonnegut. Cat's Cradle to Hocus Pocus and then I stopped until A Man without a Country.

After the first passage I sat and reflected on the voice of this man who made a reader out of me. His voice hasn't changed. So comforting and accessible (and goddamn funny). I read slowly and steadily. I couldn't put the book down without fear of losing this connection to my past, knowing this was it, his last book.


P.S. Despite the inspiring sales job (it better not suck) Sammy did for The Man Who was Thursday it is actually a really fun, quick read and is also celebrating it's 100th birthday this year. G.K. Chesterton bridges the fantastical absuridity of Lewis Carroll with the stark absuridity of Kafka. Chesterton is a wit and great with dialouge. So if any of you suck asses are still a part of this book-blog-club order it on amazon for $.10 and read it's 200 pages.

IGSOL Administrative Shit

Alright Roy! I just wanted to point out that Jack picked Choke out because he really liked Fight Club. I will be posting more comments on the book soon! As for now I just wanted to make a few administrative announcements:

1. The August Selection is A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. It's his final piece and perhaps good timing with the Democratic Convention in town. Again, I have to point out that Sophia Rain picked this one, as she is the political brains and voice of this DeStefano clan. (This selection is a super quick read so everyone can get caught up on choking on Choke.)

2. The September Selection is The Man Who  Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. This selection is the work of Roy and it better be really fucking good.

3. Shaleen's Mom suggested The Shack for our next book and I was curious if anyone had any thoughts. 

Kick and double kick it out! Peace.

choke- seriously

All right I'll jump in with a gut response to choke. It sucked. I got that "nothing was what it seemed" pretty quick but he never let up. I'm really not choking, she's really not a doctor, it's not really a colonial town, a fire alarm is not really a fire alarm, sex is not really an addiction, etc... He beat the shit out of that theme like a Sadistic Lord of manor whipping a masochistic pariah in the stockade. I stuck out the book for the anticipated non-sequitor ending that Chuck "the suck" Palunikkicincinuk is known for. Choke was actually the first book I have read by him. I did see fight club and thought it kicked ass so was anxious to read one of his novels. I'm over my curiosity. One of the passages I could really have done without was when the crazy futuristic alien M.D. was flossing an old ladies teeth while trying to generate some sort of sexual tension with our tragic hero. Dumb. Impregnated by J.C's foreskin. Dumb. You guy's I like, Choke I didn't.

What is the What?

If you have the chance read What is the What? Dave Egger's (a heart breaking work of staggering genius) book he wrote with one of the lost boys of Darfur. I read it shortly after reading The Road. It is every bit as gruesome and unfathomable as The Road but true (ish).

The Meaning of Life

OK Joey! I challenge you to a Nietzsche debate. I can't help but think about having babies so that you can cook them on a spit. Why do we have children in the first place. I believe that we have them for all the reasons anyone would tell you. I also believe that in some weird way our children are our afterlives. They carry on what we are into the future. That being said, having children is really an instinctual desire to survive beyond the inevitable. Isn't having babies to eat just a version of the same thing? If the cannibals of The Road could kick out babies like the lady in the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life they would be well fed. As sick as this sounds, I would rather be the father finding survival for my son at the chance of him living into the future with a piece of me in his heart.

P.S. I know this great BBQ place on Colfax.

A Business Idea

It's this kind of insight into food that has made you a mogul in the industry Roy. I just had a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and all I can think about is that peach. I think we should open a restaurant during the apocalypse. We would kill!

Perhaps it could be a pizza place!