6 posts tagged “books”
Alain de Botton received a crappy review on his latest book from the New York Times. He responded as follows:
"I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude."
Wow. This is almost as good as Anne Rice's "You are interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't even reading it." Only I can actually make some use from this quote. Maybe I will use it on the Other Hot and Anointed One, Lord Thingy. The original hot and anointed one was:
(How the hell did Lord Thingy get in to see the Pope, anyways? One of my coworkers who attends his church saying that the officiating priest was telling the congregation just how hot and anointed LT is this week. I think I just might lose my lunch.)
In other news, the Zidane and Friends soccer match will be on Saturday, and the American Idols tour rolls into town next week. I wish that the promoters of these shows had joined forces and combined the two. Danny Gokey could sing the French song "Coup de Boule," and then Zinedine Zidane could join him onstage and give him an actual coup de boule. (Of course, Gokey can only wish that he were a fraction as hot and anointed as Zizou. No one has written a book called La melancholie de Gokey, have they?)
Heh heh heh. The VFTWer in me loves this article on bad books.
From the article:
Bad books have an important place in our lives, because they keep the brain active. We spend so much time wondering what incredibly dumb thing the author will say a few pages down the road. One caveat: As with bad movies, a book that is merely bad but not exquisitely bad is a waste of time, while a genuinely terrible book is a sheer delight.
Heh. Makes me want to grab a mystery novel with a Mary Sue-ish detective (why, oh why, do Sues AND Stus show up in mystery fiction all the time?) and put on some William Hung tunes.
Book: Show us a great biography or memoir.
Okay, I'm biased:
I saw this at Chapters today and couldn't resist buying it:
Naturally, I must offer to loan it to my coworker Lord Thingy so that he can enjoy it too!
(Although loaning it to Lord Thingy would require admitting that Elvis has fatally deceased--i.e., left the building. It pretty much says so on the back cover.)
Book: Show us one of your favorite works of fiction.
This morning, I hauled my butt downtown to Word on the Street at Central Library. I went about 20-30 minutes early so that I could get one of their book bags (some of the exhibitors gave items free to book bag holders). Overall, it was a pretty successful (and heavy) haul. I think that getting a copy of the One Book One Vancouver book alone made the purchase worthwhile. Oh, and this year's bag looks like it will hold up better than the previous years' (this year's was canvas; the previous years' bags have been a thinner hemp fabric. I accidentally dyed one when I used it as a filter while felting.).
Anyway, I looked at a LOT of books, picked up some brochures for writing and language programs (I can barely speak French; what makes me think I can learn German?), and saw a preview for a stage adaptation of Douglas Coupland's book Life After God. I didn't go to as many author readings as I did last year, though.
