Bradbury Plus

Wrolled on through The Martian Chronicles ~ whatta gas! Every chapter is a different point of view along the general continuum of our settling on Mars. It was begun as short stories in the early 50's and each tale carries right through and beyond the 00's. Soooo good. I read the first half on a transatlantic flight from Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Manchester England. The second half was clocked on the way home. This is thoughtful stuff.

Now wreading hot comic from the mid-80's: D.R. & QUINCH. From Alan Moore and Alan Davis comes ... smartass abandon! I love this! YES! Big thnx to the mighty Schmame for passing it on ... In between, I still dive in for a good 6-10 pages of getting fired up with Sam Harris: End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation are both killer attax. I keep 'em both with me all the time now. Dig! I still haven't finished The Iliad or my Man-Thing collection. And now I want more. There always seems to be more and more.

Gotta New Pile

Still reading ILIAD. I'm in Book 16. Fuggin' Righteous. But today I've been reading Cell by Stephen King. Whatta hoot! The thing takes off immediately. Hot action, on page 88 before I even looked up. Also, last night I read the first bit of Fahrenheit 451. I LOVE THIS BOOK! I picked up the 50th Anniversary paperback, so attractive, so hot! It really is one of my all-time hall-of-fame awesome books. And one of the few which SCORES as a movie too. To Kill a Mockingbird and Lolita spring quickly to mind, although there are others of course ... yeah that 451 movie is a SCORCHER! I should watch that once a month ... so yeah, it's a sunny Sunday and after I've come back from my run through Rock Creek Park over to Arlington Cemetery I've been reading paperbacks. Cell, 451, and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I've been wanting to hit this for years. Killer stuff. I've peeked through the first bit and it's kickin' off with some mind-bendingly lovely verbage. Give it up to the acclaimed translators of this edition, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Right on. I finally also picked up the Red, the White, and the Blue copies of Average American Male. Yes. I'm knee-deep in awesome paperbacknesses ... yum.

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