ILIADIN'

Oh boy Oh joy Oh my Oh I!
I began The Iliad this week.

Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.

It's been an amazing wreading coupla days: Homer and Steven Pressfield. I'm going back and forth. Gates of Fire for the continuing Thermopylae tale > BRILLIANT ACTION OMG! I LOVE THIS BOOK! Just finished Chapter 24, the most intense battlescenes so far. Then I'm back in Iliadland. I'm loving the Pronouncing Glossary in the back, so many names and places, such high-lovely poetry! Can't wait to read other translations. I'm reading the Robert Fagles paperback, the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, thick'n'sturdy on-the-go Grand Storytelling! I am lifted imagining!

I'm a Man-Thing baby

Holy Buckets of Swampjuice! I've waited years for the release of Essential Man-Thing and finally this week it arrived! I am wreading it muck-slowly, so mossy-awesome, this is one of my all-time favorite comics presented cleanly, in order, no ads, no color, just supernatural Philosophy of Self in the Everglades action. DC's got Swamp Thing and Marvel's got Man-Thing. Both rock, but right about now it's MAN over SWAMP. Both go supreme with The Sword's Age of Winters album in headphones!
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Also this week, I started the ASTOUNDING historical novel Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. This is a wonderfully rich and well-researched telling of The Battle of Thermopylae. Soooooo good! Ancient war come to life more than ever before! The Asian Hordes! The Spartans! Xerxes! Leonidas! More than just the men or the armies, this is a triumph in presenting and preserving knowledge of beaucoup d'ancient ways of living ~ 24 centuries ago! I will be loving this book for many weeks to come, simply KILLER so far ... I see others have loved it too ... It's more than just the 300 story, so much more going on before and after the most famous fighting.
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Of course I've been rollicking in instant classic The Average American Male
~ @ 22 pages to go I didn't want it to end, such a wickedly life-affirming story! I bought three copies, one in each available color: white, red, and blue ... yeah dude ... will buy more copies next week for gifts ... I laughed out loud throughout, and that counts! Such a spirited modern tale inside these handsomely clean and durable paperbacks, love the feel, perfect for on-the-go irreverent city wreading hell yes ... guess I'll give the fat 'right on' to HarperPerennial for that ... but seriously: Go Chad Kultgen! Hope this turns into more for him. Here are the funny promo videos.

Grape Juice in a Wine Glass

I finished The Book of Lost Things, with its imaginitive conclusion, I totally loved it in the spirit of A Spell for Chameleon, which I adored ... wread the Grant/Sherman chapter in my new McPherson book, Glory Bee! Righteous {Right! Yes!} Defense!! Love those guys ... Off now to clock The Lion in Winter from '68, a Walter Wrecommends fer sher, should be a hoot I'm sure cuz that BECKET was hot as hell and this is the followup featuring Anthony Hopkins' first role, so no wreads tonite ... but I gotta give a shout out cuz today's the day the best book of year came out: THE AVERAGE AMERICAN MALE by Chad Kultgen. Rock On, Brother Chad! We Salute You! + Fuggin' Highlarious Headbutt!

Sunday Wreading

Loving this Book of Lost Things book all weekend, but especially today. I've wread 120 pages and it is a light delight. Fairy tales coming to life, whispering books, great beasts, predatory wolves and man-wolf things walking on two legs and wearing trousers, nasty trolls and harpies, lotsa fun, thnx mum.

I'm also dipping into A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius in between. Did about 30 more pages, he's very very good, that Eggers. PLUS I just picked up the smoking-hot Sam Harris slim volume attack: Letter to a Christian Nation. LOVE IT! Good Gravy, man! Let 'er rip! Loud'n'Proud, bro!

Darry Nudges

Got an ASAP from my Mom today. She went nuts over a book and wanted me to read it, so I checked it out from our nation's grand liberry and read the first few chapters during turkeysandwich lunch. It seems sweetly adventurous, much like others my dear mother has recommended. Its tag line is Everything You Can Imagine is Real ~ Lotsa dying mother stuff at the beginning, which is just like A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius, which I'm concurrently reading, so that's a lil odd. This novel is called The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, who usually writes thrillers. Its call# is PR6053.O48645 B66 2006.
You can read the 1st chapter HERE

Ssssippin' Ssssnapples

These thirst-quenching Snapples, these White Tea cold drinx are LOVELY!
Nectarine! Asian Pear ! I can't get enuff!
Green Apple! All them Green Tea ones too, soooo megayum to the maximum.
I've been sitting by my big-ass window in my comfortable-ass reading chair covered in Axis Bold As Love blanket, Big Franklin right next to me, snoring. We both been hittin' that spot lately. Mostly I'm reading A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius and my new Lincoln paperback. And sippin' the hell outta them snapples. Gotta fridgeful right about now too! Hahahaha that's some down-home, modern-ass yumminess right there. The pink lemonade rox ass too of course and I gotta whoooole row of raspberry sugary tea so please don't step to me. I'm hot child in the city, don't ever wanna be no fool Mr. T pities.

OOoooooOooo! In my End of Faith book he called Pacifism FLAGRANTLY IMMORAL! OMG! I TOTALLY HEART SAM HARRIS TO THE MAX! I've been wreading him in fourpage jabs.

Wrob's Wreading

The new James M. McPherson is gloriorious!
THIS MIGHTY SCOURGE!!!
A collection of essays with a gorgeous-ass cover. If you are at ALL interested in our great Civil War, and if you even LIKE the sound of words, even justa lil bit, you'll go Hog Wild for this, a LOT! Hot Dog! +++++
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DAVE EGGERS DAVE EGGERS
Dubbled meself with dubble-eggers: the smoking hot new one <WHAT IS THE WHAT> in GORGEOUS 50's schoolbook hardback & the hilarious high five paperback that is A.H.W.O.S.G. heck yes! How much funnin' it is this! Sakes Alive!
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THE END OF FAITH!!!!!!


RELIGION, TERROR, AND THE FUTURE OF REASON
Sam Harris scorching paperback! Sparks & Arrows! Direct Hits All Over! Loud & Proud writings, can I getta HELL YES! This is str8 Body Temple Defense, plus justice. I'm uplifted re-reading him, hoping me up into imagining things actually changing, peeple growing on a large scale, helping each other naturally through community, discarding heart-scamming religions and simply adoring the ones they love, be they family or friends or fantasy lovers or favorite female mc's ...

"We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of the book of Revelation, or any of the other fantastical notions that have lurked in the minds of the faithful for millennia -- because our neighbors are now armed with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that these developments mark the terminal phase of our credulity. Words like "God" and "Allah" must go the way of "Apollo" and "Baal," or they will unmake our world."

And THEN he lays into Religious Moderates!!!
OMG!
HELLS BELLS!
Now THIS is what I am talking abouts!
/wrubbing handes vigorously

"Religious Moderates are themselves the bearer of a terrible dogma: they imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the unjustified beliefs of others. I hope to show that the very ideal of religious tolerance -- born of the notion that every human being should be free to believe whatever he wants about God -- is one of the principal forces driving us toward the abyss."

And he DOES show us. Early and often. This stuff is hot lava in y'all's neighborhoodes. Thank you, Sam Harris, raised fist.
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Got the new L'ENFANT book: Scott W. Berg did the wresearch, wrote it up, and it ... is ... niiiiiiice. GRAND AVENUES: THE STORY OF THE FRENCH VISIONARY WHO DESIGNED WASHINGTON DC. Hail.
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On page [794] of Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Thomas Thomas Pynchon Pynchon's AGAINST THE DAY +++ I should write about this every day. Every day I read more, even if it is only a paragraph, but every time there's more and more and then some more, hahaha, and i know the fun sometimes is imagining you never hafta read it all or ever even find an ending cuz cuz cuz he pax it in, longcharge paragraphes galore WE WIN! Wrob hearts this book beaucoup.
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Wreading Flannery O'Connor's short story "The Violent Bear it Away" > 1955 > from a Library of America collexion: an LC Copy 2 from Fort Meade, lovely green cloth cover. This is some serious writing.