(Part 2) Best author biographies according to redditors
We found 1,729 Reddit comments discussing the best author biographies. We ranked the 706 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
30. The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings
6 mentions
Fact:
North Koreans generally refer to pretty girls as "Section 5 girls", as they will likely be impressed into service by Section 5 of the Organisation and Guidance Department, which is responsible for Kim Jong-il's private life. Section 5 maintains his guesthouses and villas, and maintain the food and "entertainment" there.
The girls are selected at 13, undergo annual examinations until 16 for final selection, do a year of training, and are stationed from the ages of 17-24 at different Kim holiday homes and retreats.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escapee--A-Inside-North/dp/147676655X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409241737&sr=8-1&keywords=dear+leader
In a rather different vein from a lot of the suggestions I'm seeing here, I want to plug Michael Herr's Dispatches as an incredible piece of Vietnam literature. There's also If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien.
If you're willing to consider graphic novels, check out Maus, Persepolis, and Laika.
If you're interested at all in vampires and folklore, I recommend Food for the Dead. Really interesting read.
A history-teacher friend of mine recently gave me The Lost City of Z by David Grann. I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but it came highly recommended.
By the by, last year I required my students (high school seniors) to select and read a non-fiction book and gave them the following list of suggestions. Columbine was one of the really popular ones, and I had a bunch of kids (and a few teachers) recommending it to me, but, again, I haven't gotten to it yet.
This book states that these women 'serve' between the ages of 17-24 and that they're selected at the age of 13. This book then states that "Pleasure girls retired from the corps at 22, after which they were often married off to other members of the elite."
Anyone interested in this topic should read Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything. He's also written a book called The Professor and the Madman about the relationship between the OED's editor and W.C. Minor, a prolific submitter that was actually imprisoned in a psychiatric ward because of a brutal murder.
This wasn't written by Belichick, but is an excellent read: Education of a Coach by Dave Halberstam. I read this 5 or so years ago and it made me completely re-think how I viewed coaches in the NFL. I highly recommend it.
Hell, I'm going to go home after work and start re-reading it now that I'm reminded of it.
Hitchens was notorious for many things, but "waffling" was not one of them. His support of the Iraq war was regrettable. His views on Islam were harsh (although they were consistent with his opinions on religion in general) and he'd probably argue there's some merit to the "anti-PC" shtick on the right (and among some on the left). He may even sympathize with Steve Bannon's identification as a Leninist, because he'd said as much of himself in the past. But as another commenter pointed out below, Hitchens was absolutely an anti-fascist. If he had anything like a God, it was Orwell. To just reflexively assume he'd fall in with a group like the alt-right, as most here seem to be doing, is to completely misunderstand his entire career. My feeling is that he'd be disgusted by them.
Texts and Reference Books
Days in the Lives of Social Workers
DSM-5
Child Development, Third Edition: A Practitioner's Guide
Racial and Ethnic Groups
Social Work Documentation: A Guide to Strengthening Your Case Recording
Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond
[Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life]
(https://www.amazon.com/Thoughts-Feelings-Harbinger-Self-Help-Workbook/dp/1608822087/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3ZW7PRW5TK2PB0MDR9R3)
Interpersonal Process in Therapy: An Integrative Model
[The Clinical Assessment Workbook: Balancing Strengths and Differential Diagnosis]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534578438/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_38?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ARCO1HGQTQFT8)
Helping Abused and Traumatized Children
Essential Research Methods for Social Work
Navigating Human Service Organizations
Privilege: A Reader
Play Therapy with Children in Crisis
The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives
The School Counseling and School Social Work Treatment Planner
Streets of Hope : The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood
Deviant Behavior
Social Work with Older Adults
The Aging Networks: A Guide to Programs and Services
[Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415884810/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
Ethnicity and Family Therapy
Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Perspectives on Development and the Life Course
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
Generalist Social Work Practice: An Empowering Approach
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook
DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents
DBT Skills Manual
DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need
Novels
[A People’s History of the United States]
(https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0062397346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511070674&sr=1-1&keywords=howard+zinn&dpID=51pps1C9%252BGL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Life For Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tuesdays with Morrie
The Death Class <- This one is based off of a course I took at my undergrad university
The Quiet Room
Girl, Interrupted
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Flowers for Algernon
Of Mice and Men
A Child Called It
Go Ask Alice
Under the Udala Trees
Prozac Nation
It's Kind of a Funny Story
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Bell Jar
The Outsiders
To Kill a Mockingbird
Please read this whole comment; I write it with compassion. You asked for advice! Here's a bunch of inconsiderate words.
You will not have a "normal family" as one half of a straight couple, two biological kids and a dog. You will not have a normal heterosexual relationship. You already know this, you just don't want to deal with it. Either you'll be lying to yourself and your girlfriend (that's not normal!) or you'll be honest with her about your sexuality (which is not 100% straight).
The more quickly you let go of "normal" the less painful it will be. There is in reality NO NORMAL. There are majorities and minorities; that doesn't mean that those in the minority are abnormal. (When compared to people who are 99% straight, you are actually in the minority in this situation.)
Try small steps first. You should tell your friend (with whom you are very close!) that you think you might be gay, or bisexual. See what she thinks about that. You would want her to know this, right?
You don't need to find a Life Partner right now. You're 22. For God's sake, pull your head out of your ass, go out to a (gay) bar and dance your butt off. Try finding a date first, before you start planning your wedding. Slow the fuck down! :)
You can raise children with another man, if you want. You can even fuck a woman and get her pregnant, and then raise the child as your own. You can adopt or foster. Go read The Kid by Dan Savage.
Don't agree to do something you don't want to do, trying to avoid hurting your friend's feelings. It won't help in the long run. Try dating her first? It might work, it might not, you need to find that out first.
>I just wouldn't feel comfortable with that lifestyle. I know my friends and family would accept that I am gay, but I just don't want that.
There is no "lifestyle." You are living a "queer lifestyle" right now because you are queer and your heart is beating. You don't have a choice.
I think that if your friends and family will accept that you're queer, you should also accept that you're queer. Everything will become easier and more honest when you accept it. You won't have to worry about these things. That I can definitely promise!
The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty
https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Reinvented-Football-Created-Dynasty/dp/0345499123/ref=sr_1_74?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475238145&amp;sr=1-74&amp;keywords=nfl+book
Jaws might be loudmouthed idiot on tv, but he co-authored a pretty darn good book
The Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays
https://www.amazon.com/Games-That-Changed-Game-Evolution/dp/0345517962/ref=sr_1_67?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475238131&amp;sr=1-67&amp;keywords=nfl+book
And all hail Belichick
War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team
https://www.amazon.com/War-Room-Belichick-Building-Perfect/dp/006208240X/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475238058&amp;sr=1-11&amp;keywords=nfl+book
The Education of a Coach
https://www.amazon.com/Education-Coach-David-Halberstam/dp/1401308791/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475238301&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=david+halberstam+belichick
Pretty funny insight into players perspective:
The Rookie Handbook: How to Survive the First Season in the NFL
https://www.amazon.com/Rookie-Handbook-Survive-First-Season/dp/1682450341/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475237975&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=nfl+book
Also Pete Carrolls book Win Forever is an excellent read.
It has more to do with his Trojan days, but is a very clear telling of his coaching philosophy and why he has succeeded in Seattle. That man knows how to connect with people.
Have you read Dan Savage's book about the process? It is called the kid, it is from 2000 so you should be able to find a second hand one in a used bookstore by now.
I have seen other redditors asking this over in /r/lgbt if you want to search for previous posts over there.
Humphrey Carpenter's biography is quite good, and pretty widely available, I think.
> even at the cost of denying the mother agency and bodily autonomy
We Westerners are apparently okay with locking children into prisons for 9 years (12 years, 9 out of 12 months) when they could pick up the same skills in less time with less "formal" schooling. We also work for many months to pay taxes before we make enough to take home. You'll need to come up with a better excuse.
This "lost autonomy" is only from the date when the woman becomes aware of her condition, the loss is pretty much limited to, "you'll be a bit fat for a while, then lose most of it all at once."
Most anti-abortionists would gladly make birth control free to all women in exchange for the elimination of abortion. But for some, abortion at 8 months is preferable to them wondering what happened to the child they gave away. Gotta preserve that autonomy somehow.
BTW: A (very funny) discussion of open adoption was given by Dan Savage of all people.
Don't listen to the haters, OP. You've got this. I suggest that you read a couple of books on RV and van living, though. It will give you a great perspective.
There are a lot of workarounds for modern convenience. Living in an RV is not an easy prospect, but it is very doable.
Here are a few practical guides, though many of them pertain to living in a 15 passenger or cargo van.
How to Live in a Car, Van or RV
The VanDweller's Guide
Van Living: The Freedom of the Road
The Tiniest Mansion
Live In a Van, Truck, Trailer, or Motorhome
Living in a Van Down By The River
My House Has Wheels
The Simple RV Life
So, You Want to Be an RVer?
Retire To an RV
Here's one just for fun, though you may glean something from it.
Walden On Wheels
I also suggest /r/vandwellers and /r/gorving for tips and tricks on living in a small mobile space.
I recently finished reading Papillon by Henri Charriere, and I think it would have a lot of the elements you enjoy from Breaking Bad. It's about a French convict sentenced to life in a French Guyana prison camp in the 1930's, and his many escape attempts and adventures. Charriere claims it is his life story, but many historians believe it is a combination of other convict's adventures, however it is still very good. It was turned into a movie staring Steve McQueen.
Also relevent is Christopher Hitchens' Why Orwell Matters.
You're right about elves and dwarves not being strictly good - as you say. This was particularly true of his early writing, when he was drawing more directly on the primary source material. That said, even in the Bible, angels weren't strictly good - and some of them fell out on the side of evil, so there was precedent for this even in Tolkien's strictly-Christian frame of mind.
Much has been written and said about Tolkien, who will clearly be a subject for ongoing discussion long after I've turned up my toes, but a recent exhibit at the Bodleian addresses much of this. Fortunately for those who couldn't see the exhibit, the book published with the exhibit has some excellent essays on much of this.
A memoir, not a novel, but Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.
The topic comes up about once a week. There's even a book about it.
Edit: there is nothing special about med/grad school and vanlife. Yours truly, Ph.D. dropout.
This was used as the cover of If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien.
Can't find it in a quick Google search, but in one essay in this book, which is by the way fantastic, Philip K Dick relates how he got into some very heated arguments with Harlan Ellison at the bar attached to a hotel for an SF conference. Dick likened publicly arguing with Ellison as similar to a bad acid trip - to paraphrase, "You can't do anything about it, so you might as well enjoy it until it's over." A girlfriend of PKD's was less modest about it, and said it was really impressive seeing PKD bringing his sharp mind to bear and forcefully tangling wits.
I'm recalling this happened more than once, but my memory might be wrong on that part.
http://www.amazon.com/Shifting-Realities-Philip-Dick-Philosophical/dp/0679747877
I coach HS men's lacrosse and college men's rowing
My major was sport psych, so I learned a lot of useful tools in the classroom but also found it really helpful to read about other people who actually applied stuff in the real world. Even if our situations aren't the same and it's not 100% applicable, I like to read about successful coaches just to see what I can pick up from them.
Textbook: Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology. It's cheap and really useful as just what it sounds like--laying a foundation.
Textbook: Sport Psych Handbook. Also cheap and useful, lot of good information.
Pick up something by John Wooden and read it. You don't have to believe 100% of what he says, but every coach should know some basics of positive coaching and sport psych, plus just having it as a piece of cultural literacy.
When the Game Stands Tall was a great book about a coach who took a program from nothing to The Streak. Haven't seen the movie.
Education of a Coach by David Halberstam, a fantastic sports writer, about Bill Belichick. Biographical and written with a lot of input from Bill himself.
If you have anything you're particularly interested in, let me know and I can maybe provide some more specific recommendations. Regardless of what sport/age you coach, the above are all good and useful books.
The principal biography is the authorized one by Humphrey Carpenter. (Stay away from the one by Daniel Grotta, which contains considerable misinformation.) There's also a very good book about Tolkien's experiences in WWI, Tolkien and the Great War, which I highly recommend.
Beyond that, if you want more information, seek out Hammond and Scull's two-volume J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.
I'd take Brady vs Manning off that list. The writing was so disappointing poor (IMO) that I didn't make it even halfway through the book. The sentence construction is just so awkward, like the guy is writing some bad Tom/Peyton fanfiction and doesn't know how real people talk.
The Education of a Coach was a really good read, if you want something Pats-related and don't mind that it was published in 2006.
I'll also always recommend The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, highlighting the importance of offensive tackles.
Thought I'd provide some Amazon links to these fine suggestions, along with a few of my own.
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0008214549/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Jc.DCb1A3J8V6
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Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/000755690X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Qe.DCbHG7HWXM
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Art of the Lord of the Rings US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544636341/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_3f.DCbB8Y2ZNZ
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Art of the Hobbit US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0547928254/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ng.DCbCX2CT65
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Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1851244859/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Vg.DCbSEH99RE
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Rateliff's History of the Hobbit US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CF6AZWK/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Dj.DCbGWY7970
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Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-Earth US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618126996/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Kk.DCbC2XF6NT
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Letters of JRR Tolkien US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618056998/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ml.DCbREBRZH4
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Carpenter's Tolkien: A Biography US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618057021/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_xm.DCbY976PAE
A little less than a month, I'd say. Here's the timeline I derived for The Road to the Dark Tower:
(Plot SPOILERS for THE DRAWING OF THE THREE)
preorder volume 1 of his autobiography. It is finally going to be released 100 years after his death.
Queen Bees and Wannabes - The book "Mean Girls" was inspired by. I really wish it had existed when I was in school. Helpful for both young adults and their parents.
Girl, Interrupted isn't a self-help book, but it helped me to deal with/accept mental illness.
Amazon have the exhibition book at £26 at the moment. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tolkien-Maker-Middle-earth-Catherine-Mcilwaine/dp/1851244859
That would be quite a feat, wouldn't it?
For anyone not familiar with all the horrible works this evil man has wrought, I strongly recommend Christopher Hitchens's short and sweet The Trial of Henry Kissinger. It's an engaging read and Hitchens tries to (and succeeds in) keeping focus on cases that can be convincingly linked to Kissinger--cases that could hope to hold up in an international court of law (hence the book's title).
People's reactions to drugs are as individual as the people themselves.
Mark Vonnegut, son of Kurt, wrote a beautiful memoir, The Eden Express, detailing his mental breakdown following smoking some weed in the early 70's when weed was, most definitely, "pretty much just weed". Course he nibbled on some mescaline too which probably didn't help...
Fast forward a quarter of a century and in '99 there was a multitude of different strains of weed, or at least there was in San Fran and, while Baltimore is no San Fran, I'd be astounded if weed was "just weed".
People talk about 1999 like it's lost in the depths of time. It was only 16 years ago. You could get cell phones for twenty bucks! Pagers came free on a ten bucks a month contract!
If you want proof that Jay wasn't some drug king pin, that's all the proof you need right there. Jay, despite all his protestations to the contrary, was no more the "criminal element" than the man in the moon. His lack of a cell phone or pager torpedoes the wackier drug conspiracies doing the rounds.
So while there's zero proof that Adnan zonked out after smoking his first blunt, let's not pretend it couldn't have happened. He was only 17. Did it happen? Did he zonk out? No way of knowing but pretty unlikely, otherwise he'd probably have said so at his trial. Mentioning things like "the bad kid fed me full of drugs" tends to buy a smidgen of sympathy for the accused.
Amazing OP by the way, you near had me climbing down off the fence! But I'm still up here and still enjoying the view...
1995, mostly about lost highway. http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html
also found in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
https://www.amazon.com/Supposedly-Fun-Thing-Never-Again/dp/0316925284/
an excellent read throughout that gets to the core of how lynch works
Eden Express by Mark Vonnegut (Kurt's son) is an interesting non-fiction book. Basically, Mark graduates college in the 70's? and decides to try to live outside of society. He and a bunch of people all move to the Canadian wilderness. They work hard, but end up doing a fair amount of drugs in their free time. Since Mark is predisposed to Schizophrenia, the drugs end up setting him off.
He is a very charming author, and keeps you interested the whole time.
https://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Maker-Middle-earth-Catherine-McIlwaine/dp/1851244859
You can still get it on Amazon. It's a little pricey but definitely worth it since you can't take pictures of the exhibit. It's not just images, it's got a lot of good text.
This book - Dear Leader - really explained it well to me through the eyes of a defector who had actually met Kim Jong-Il and was his poet laureate.
It was fascinating how he went from believing the propaganda to seeing the truth.
This is a great collection of various essays and letters and unpublished material. It includes the early drafts of the Man In The High Castle sequel which the current tv series is clearly drawing on.
Man, yesterday I was all ready to write an essay about this, I have it like 1100 words in and lost momentum, mostly because I revisited another race-poetry kerfuffle a friend of mine got in a couple years back, or, really more a brother of a friend but anyway, it really dissuaded me from bothering putting my opinion out there in a more official manner. I'm just going to give some bullet points here, I may finish the essay and post, still very much on the fence. (edit—looks like I spent a lot of time on this post now, great.)
Hicok's essay in my eyes: It is kinda like an old hippie who used to make money selling merch about air and water pollution who noticed a dip in sales, and he is grappling with his own selfish desire to sell as much merch as he used to sell, and the comfort that the air and water are getting better which is why his merch isn't selling, and ending at it being good for everyone even if he's taking a personal financial hit. And damn did he repeat so many times how great he thought it was. He was terrified as being seen as a self-pitying rich white man for expressing his feelings at a situation he and many others in his milieu are experiencing. The essay wasn't aimed at me, though in a number of ways we're similar-ish, I think he's putting too much weight on his sexual/racial status and not enough on a possible lack of keeping up with the times, or more likely, just that people are excited by the new. He's the seasoned. He's also afforded many opportunities because of his connections and reputation, which he acknowledges. For me it was too long by quite a bit, I thought he spent too much of the essay reiterating how good multiculturalism is for literature and the world—we agreed with you the first ten times you said it in various ways—especially when the method of the day is to cherry-pick quotes out of context, which Yu definitely did. Onto that.
Yu's response was more combative than I felt Hicok's essay called for, if it was supposed to be a part of a discussion and not an irritated yelp review. He treated Hicok's essay like an editorial as opposed to a personal essay, which it seemed to me to clearly be. Yu saw it as a call to action, even pointing to the so-called hypocrisy of having the spotlight put upon him for a piece that laments losing the spotlight. Who do you think was directing that spotlight? People outraged that someone might be a little bummed they're not as cool as they used to be. The first sentence Yu quotes is cherry-picked to not even show the entire sentence, some bush-league shit right there, very disengenuous. Maybe I noticed it more because I'd just read Hicok's essay so it was fresh in my mind, but it put me on edge right away with its trickiness. Here's a little bit I'd drafted regarding that quote:
>His selective quote early on omits a section that undercuts his point of Hicok being an old straight white man crying on his mountain of gold. Here is the fuller quote with the omitted section included. “In American poetry right now, straight white guys are the least important cultural voices, [as was inevitable, given how long we’ve made it difficult for others to have their say.]”
>This is an example of trying to make a simple point and couching it in an apology because people are so reactionary. I would argue that it’s a valid point, due to supply and demand. The straight white male writer’s perspective has saturated the market and while there will still be a demand for that perspective, with more options there will be fewer readers of any given poem, especially if it's more of the same perspective that had been readily available before. By taking the second half of the sentence away, Yu transforms the use of the word ‘important’ into one of ‘prominence’, whereas in context it is to be understood as ‘needed’.
Yu does rightly point to problematic language in the "inversion of the hierarchy" but it also seems to be out of line with the rest of Hicok's essay which is praising the levelling playing field. If I were workshopping that essay I'd recommend rephrasing. But I'd also say that he tried to hard not to offend people... yet here we are.
Yu then sites data that's kinda relevant, but not entirely. Hicok said that it's something he's noticing and not something that is canonical. Yu even calls Hicok's observations a 'harbinger'... then he sites Pulitzer numbers... see how those don't line up? Yu should have sited, among others, Amazon sales, but then he'd be faced with the fact that neither of them addressed, which is that the majority of people don't buy poetry to read it closely. The top 30-50ish is almost entirely stuff clearly bought for an English class (Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Maya Angelou—Joy Harjo has a bump for being the Laureate which is rad, she's a great poet), a couple celebrities, and mostly Instagram poets. An example of one of their highlighted poems (in its entirety) would be:
>Distance often gives you a reason to love harder.
That's right. An idiom reworded to be worse. And there are quite a few poets of that ilk in the top 20 (Claudia Rankine's in the top 30 to which is good, I have her collection "Don't Let Me Be Lonely" in my 'to read soon' stack). Hicok didn't seem to be talking about the apparatus of publishing or the established canon, he was talking about hype, about the poets who were being talked about, who're going the poetry version of viral. Kind of like how Richard Siken was the hottest shit for awhile around Crush. Maybe he still is, but my point is that people are drawn especially to the new, to new discoveries, new voices. Nick Flynn is another one kind of around that era who was 'hot' around the release of his first collection Some Ether and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City(both around $5 used with shipping at those links, both great books in case even one person reads this haha). Poets sometimes will get 'hot' around their first collection or around prizes. Hicok was just saying that in addition to lower sales (I think he specifically says readers, but, ipso facto, the only real metric is sales) he noticed that the 'hottest' writers were of a more multicultural background than he.
Yu points to Hoagland, which is where I went to right away while reading Hicok's essay. I guess I'm of a somewhat different viewpoint because I've never seen poetry as a way for me to confess my life story, but as a way to entertain. I'll add in some real life elements if they fit and are better than fiction, but I've never seen first person poetry as being strictly the person's voice and read all of Hoagland's What Narcissism Means to Me as an exaggerated/invented persona with some real life elements likely worked in and shrugged at the pov. Someone brought up the controversy when I was in grad school and I revisited the poem and yeah, there's certainly problematic areas and Hoagland's narrator was a bit too close to his own POV that the tribalism he expressed wasn't properly addressed...
There were two other recent dust-ups in the poetry community regarding race in the last decade that I know of: the aforementioned poem "How To" by Anders Carlson-Wee in The Nation—here's a NYT article on the controversy and the Yi-Fen Chou/Michael Derrick Hudson issue from Prairie Schooner and Best American Poetry. Here is Sherman Alexie's essay regarding the BAP selection. I think both are pretty silly to be honest. In "How to" the voice is pretty clearly not the poet, but it didn't have anything racial in it. Perhaps I've just spent more time around homeless people but nothing in the poem made me think that the speaker was black or white. It wasn't important to the poem or to me. I was more concerned with small inconsistencies in the voice but even that was tolerable. Calling it 'ableist' is absurd. I'm saddened that the poetry editors felt forced to put that apology up, whether it was pressure on them from the outside, or from higher up editors scared of the wrath of Twitter. The Yi-Fen Chou issue is interesting mostly because nothing in the poem has anything to do with the pseudonym, there's no appropriation of anything other than using a fake author name. I don't recall the poet's reasoning, but it is intriguing that people gave so much of a shit. It shows that the cover letter does matter as much as the poem, to some people, but for not for elitism, for inclusivity (Alexie's essay is really good, if you haven't read it I highly recommend it). But, not many journals claim to read submissions blind, that incident reminds you of that. What really bugged me the most about that whole story was that Prairie Schooner didn't accept simultaneous submissions at the time, (I know more than the average bear about literary magazines from my years of research and reading) and in Hudson's BAP notes he talked about 49 rejections prior to publication. I know how long it can take if you're simultaneously submitting, to pull a poem from being submitted and waiting until you get all replies if you want to submit it to a journal that doesn't take SS's. It's possible but unlikely that the poem was actually only submitted to Prairie Schooner. Sorry, long aside there)
Closest that I can think of is O'Brien, where, if memory serves, he discusses the sort of not-really-trying shooting.
I have mostly nonfiction recommendations, but hope the following are of some use to you! I used these in my classroom in the past year with much success.
I can edit and add more fiction later when I get home, and look over my bookshelf as well.
World War II
"In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin" by Erik Larsen - highly recommend, especially if you are familiar with Larsen's previous book, The Devil in White City
"The Monuments Men" by Robert M. Edsel - highly recommended, especially if you are interested in the juxtaposition of art, war, and espionage.
"Unbroken" - by Laura Hillenbrand, highly recommended. Hillenbrand's command of the language and prose coupled with the true story of Louis makes this a compelling read. Even my most reluctant readers couldn't put this done.
Vietnam War
"The Things They Carried" and "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up, and Ship Me Home" by Tim O'Brien are quintessential war canon. Must reads.
Iraq/Afghanistan/Modern Military Operations:
"The Yellow Birds" by Kevin Powers was called "the modern AQOTWF" by Tom Wolfe. Pretty poignant book. Absolute MUST READ.
Why are you specifically choosing a same-sex couple? I'm a lesbian and seriously want to thank you for making a decision that will mean the world to one lucky couple.
On a related note, Dan Savage and his partner adopted their son in an open adoption. I highly recommend his book, The Kid.
I would recommend this book for a good overview of what Dick himself thought about his writings. It's a really good overview of his life and reflections he had on his writings and SF in general.
My book list focus both on theme and authors. Obviously I went through a pretty depressed phase (hence all the deeply brooding novels). Still, I think that these female authors gave me a sense of empowerment in my young age by the sheer genius of their work. It was refreshing to read books by women I admired as well as for themes I was interested in.
And the book that taught me the most about sexuality and my body?
In defense of this book, I am not poly-amorous. I really think every female should read it. Great advice on overcoming jealousy, loving your body, and enjoying your sexuality.
A few thoughts:
At one point Lewis and Tolkien were going to write companion novels about space and time. You can see echoes of this in the last chapter of Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in CSL's Space Trilogy when he mentions that space has been cut off from human travel and now any future voyages would be through time. There's also echoes of what might have been in JRRT's Notion Club Papers, which has a time-travel element, but was never published.
In addition, JRRT did not care for the Narnia series because he felt it lacked a coherent theme. However, in the controversial Planet Narnia, Michael Ward posits that CSL actually did have a theme: the medieval view of the planets (The Seven Heavens). There are definitely intriguing arguments made in the book, especially as he combines information from Narnia and the Space Trilogy into his thesis. I wouldn't say it's iron-clad, but if I was still in education, or had the luxury to write papers, this is an area I'd love to explore in depth - specifically the influence of Charles Williams on the evolution of CSL's thought.
If you're interested in aspects of their backgrounds that influenced their worldviews, I would recommend The Discarded Image from CSL (on medieval literature - my favorite CSL book) and The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey (on the philological undergirding of Middle-Earth). The Humprey Carpenter books are also good (JRRT Letters, Tolkien bio, Inklings bio) as are CSL's letters.
The Education of a Coach - David Halberstam. Great book about Bill Belichick
The Beach is an excellent choice (already suggested in the first comment, but I wanted to second it). Travels by Michael Crichton has a few chapters set in Asian countries.
eesh, that does make sense though.
all I know about FAS is I knew two camp counselors when I was a kid who had the facial deformities and speech problems, they were brother and sister and were also both deeply kind and good people. (camp names: Sunflower and Monkey)
that and Dan Savage has about a whole chapter on it in his book The Kid, where he frets about his adoptive son being born with flippers and recalls that his alcoholic Irish catholic grandmother, despite drinking all through seven pregnancies, never produced a kid with FAS.
I agree with all of that, but want to point out that adoption also costs the adopting family money.
Dan Savage's book The Kid is a great read for any gay guys who are considering adopting. (He says that he wanted to call it $300 Per Ounce (or whatever the number was) based on the amount of money they paid in the adoption process and their son's birth weight.)
I think I'm more interested in fostering (which you actually get paid for, although in reality you better be spending more on the kids than the state is giving you), although I'm a bit worried about what it's going to be like taking care of kids who may have any number of emotional, mental, or physical wounds to deal with. I'm not planning on starting any time soon, though, so I have plenty of time for people who went through foster care to convince me that it won't be that bad.
It's not a book. This is an excerpt from a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College. If you like this, you should definitely check out the full speech or check out one of his three collection of essays. He's also got a number of short story collections, including a particularly famous work Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. He's probably most famous for Infinite Jest, a novel well over a thousand pages in length.
Okay, okay. I'm delivering! [Here] (http://imgur.com/a/kzyE8) is the Imagur album with the pictures that I've pulled from the Twain Autobiography. Unfortunately, the picture that you've colorized, and so beautifully, is not in the book. However, I pulled pictures from the late 1800s up to 1907 and I think it would be easier to compare what Samuel Clemens from these different years. In fact, in the pictures from Florence Italy in 1903-1904, he is wearing the same outfit. My guess is that this was taken in his garden with his formal photographs in 1902, but that is open for discussion. I'm still messing with the album (sorry for the sideways pictures). Also, you should check out the book where these images are from, [Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1: The Complete and Authoritative Edition] (http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Mark-Twain-Volume-Authoritative/dp/0520267192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1368402259&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Mark+Twain+Autobiography), which is just absolutely amazing! Whew, I didn't want to be an OP that didn't deliver!
Edit: [Here is the Imgur album] (http://imgur.com/a/WEtt8) (with descriptions from the book) with the images right side up.
Citation: Twain, M. (2010). Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1: The Complete and Authoritative Edition. (H. E. Smith, B. Griffin, V. Fischer, M. B. Frank, S. K. Goetz, & L. D. Myrick, Eds.) (First Edition.). University of California Press.
I'm currently reading Dear Leader and so far I highly recommend it.
Good question, I'd go to [etsy] (http://www.etsy.com/) and buy a few things from there. But since I'm from a country that not a lot of people on the internet are from (South Africa) I'd also put a lot of typically South African things in too, but nothing cliché and gimmicky. I'd also put in my favourite book, [The Book of Disquiet] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Disquiet-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141183047).
Travels by Michael Crichton.
He is my favorite author but this isn't a novel, its more of an autobiography that teaches some great life lessons. My favorite part is when he decides to investigate the "supernatural." Because even though he is a skeptic, he keeps his mind open to possibilities. As a young man, this really helped me keep an open mind.
Also, a multi-tool (or pocket knife). Although expensive, a must-have for any man. I have the Swisstool.
PS just saw this book and now I must go to the library and see if it is there!
I find certain things helpful to get my diagnosis across in an acceptable manner: 1) Once I'm confident of my impression regarding a diagnosis of BPD, I would pull out a rating scale such as the Borderline Personality Questionnaire and go through it with them to lend more of a "scientific" feel to the process (but I wouldn't pull this out early on in the process as it may alienate the patient); 2) I usually give them printed material regarding the diagnosis, such as this one from Spectrum Australia; and 3) I tell them to watch the movie Girl, Interrupted (or read the book on which it is based) with instructions to see if they identified with the titular character.
Book is outstanding too. Autobiography.
Right up there with Shantaram.
Uh. What about J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter?
Papillon
Book and Movie
A "true" story about a man sent to the prison colony in French Guiana and Devil's Island. He escaped several times, was in solitary several times. Some of it seems a little far fetched but it's a good read and mostly true.
The movie's not bad; Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Lots of "indigenous topless" scenes during one part of the movie so be warned before you show to your 11 year old.
Midnight Express is an awesome true prison movie as well.
Hey it's a book too! Did not know that.
A few reddit favorites: House of Leaves
Neuromancer
Slaughterhouse Five
1984
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Ishmael
Cryptonomicon
The Monster at the End of This Book (and that's no a joke, it was so important to me as a child, because of what it did with the story that I read it to my own son)
and a few not on that list: The Clock of the Long Now (by Stewart Brand)
Hot House (by Pete Early)
Underworld ( by Don Delillo)
Disgrace (by J.M. Coetzee)
The Eden Express (by Mark Vonnegut)
And one book I recently picked up (because I liked the author's first novel) really blew me away: The Unnamed (by Joshua Ferris).
Reading that section was like discovering that Michael Crichton believed in psychics.
I don't know any but I am currently reading "The Kid" by Dan Savage where he talks about adopting a child with his boyfriend. Pretty entertaining so far.
Has anybody read Jang Jin-sung's book, Dear Leader? It came out a couple months ago. He's a good source of information on the regime, but at the same time a bad source of information on the regime...
Have you read his book? How is it?
Tolkinova biografija, svaki bitan trenutak je napisan, od rodjenja do vecnosti :).
If you are interested in this kind of thing, Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee is a must read. He is an insider who escaped and gives unprecedented inside views.
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
... https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Everything-Oxford-English-Dictionary/dp/019517500X
Fictional quotes like that in a work of science fiction are intended to provide background flavour, they're not necessarily meant to be understandable. I'd say that that one is meant to suggest that Dick's fictional Soviets had observed spiritual forces acting on the world, and made great effort to study their effects scientifically, but they only wished to understand them in purely material terms.
Dick's Exegesis was his attempt to analyse the experience and insights that he fictionalised in Valis. It's said to contain some brilliant and learned theological speculations, but it is disordered and intermixed with long paranoid ramblings. Unfortunately he was schizophrenic. Zebrapedia is an online community devoted to understanding the Exegesis. The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick is a collection of his essays, and that also might interest you.
Well
http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Mark-Twain-Vol-1/dp/0520267192
It's on sale at various retailers. It's broken up into I don't know how many volumes.
Dofleini mentions that "what was on [the] desk at the moment."
Broom is much less demanding time-wise, although I agree with your sentiments... Not only is it much less polished than his later work, I think it's also less rewarding. It almost seems as though he was warming up for Jest... I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I read it after Jest & Interviews. For me, it falls into the same category as the early Dickens novels: entertaining in their own right, but more interesting as a window into the foundation for more developed later work.
I'd recommend Brief Interviews or A Supposedly Fun Thing as entry points for Wallace, followed by Infinite Jest if you like what you've read.
Mark Twain's autobiography is on my reading list and is supposed to be really good.
> The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent," and that he was therefore free to speak his "whole frank mind."
The fact that he insisted the book remain unpublished to 100 years is fascinating to me.
When I am depressed, I read The Book of Disquiet. When I'm ready to pull out of it, I read The Consolation of Philosophy. These are my ying & yang.
I'd recommend both of these books:
https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Kings-Dark-Tower-Concordance/dp/1451694873
https://www.amazon.com/Road-Dark-Tower-Exploring-Stephen/dp/0451213041/
Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet has a lot to say about renunciation of (and absolute boredom with) sensual pleasure and preoccupation with introspection, which informs certain aspects of my understanding of Buddhism.
From a review:
>If there is a common thread, it is that of unsparing introspection. Over and over, Pessoa asks of himself and of the living mirrors which he has created, 'Who am I?', 'What makes me write?', 'To whom shall I turn?' The metaphysical sharpness, the wealth of self-scrutiny are, in modern literature, matched only by Valery or Musil or, in a register often uncannily similar, by Wittgenstein. 'Solitude devastates me; company oppresses me. The presence of another person derails my thoughts; I dream of the other's presence with a strange absent-mindedness that no amount of my analytical scrutiny can define.' This very scrutiny, moreover, is fraught with danger: 'To understand, I destroyed myself. To understand is to forget about loving.' These findings arise out of a uniquely spectral yet memorable landscape: 'A firefly flashes forward at regular intervals. Around me the dark countryside is a huge lack of sound that almost smells pleasant.'
Not exactly "how to be a man", but general non-fiction I've really enjoyed:
Benjamin Hoff - The Tao of Pooh -- Sounds childish perhaps, but its a fantastic read. Worth the time.
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Pooh-Benjamin-Hoff/dp/0140067477
Biography of E=MC2 -- Einstein's famous equasion, told biography style. Great read, not too "sciency".
http://www.amazon.com/mc2-Biography-Worlds-Famous-Equation/dp/0425181642
Tim O'Brian - If I Die in a combat zone -- http://www.amazon.com/If-Die-Combat-Zone-Ship/dp/0767904435
Also, military field guides / training manuals are non classified and excellent resources for any sort of camping / survival you may do. Most surplus type stores carry them, or you can download and print your own!
I probably could have written that part better. I am not necessarily sure he is "wanted" in terms of an outstanding warrant in certain countries, but the Wikipedia sources explain in more detail as well as the book linked:
>Since he left office, some efforts have been made to hold Kissinger responsible for perceived injustices of American foreign policy during his tenure in government. These charges have at times inconvenienced his travels.[77] Christopher Hitchens, the late British-American journalist and author, was highly critical of Kissinger, authoring The Trial of Henry Kissinger, in which Hitchens called for the prosecution of Kissinger "for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture".[78][79][80]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger#Public_perception
http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Henry-Kissinger-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/1859843980
Winchester also wrote The Meaning of Everything, which discusses more broadly the story of the OED.
David foster Wallace discusses Lynch (with a large focus on Lost Highway) at length in this fine book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316925284?pc_redir=1404145978&amp;robot_redir=1
I thoroughly recommend it.
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis - "Here is a multidimensional playland of ideas from the world's most eccentric Nobel-Prize winning scientist. Kary Mullis is legendary for his invention of PCR, which redefined the world of DNA, genetics, and forensic science. He is also a surfer, a veteran of Berkeley in the sixties, and perhaps the only Nobel laureate to describe a possible encounter with aliens. A scientist of boundless curiosity, he refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhand or hearsay evidence, and always looks for the "money trail" when scientists make announcements. "
maybe this
The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity by Mark Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut's kid = "The Eden Express describes from the inside Mark Vonnegut’s experience in the late ’60s and early ’70s—a recent college grad; in love; living communally on a farm, with a famous and doting father, cherished dog, and prized jalopy—and then the nervous breakdowns in all their slow-motion intimacy, the taste of mortality and opportunity for humor they provided, and the grim despair they afforded as well."
There are others, like say. "The Hasheesh Eater".
Archives for the links in comments:
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Sci fi is kind of the best thing ever. I hope you think so too after a bit! I really enjoy reading older sci fi and seeing how on or off base predictions of technology are. I'm especially a sucker for dystopian stories since I love how it makes me question our current society. I'd suggest anything by Vonnegut (especially Slaughterhouse five and the Sirens of titan).
Also Philip K. Dick- if you enjoy philosophy. I read Ubik as a sci fi and came away with nothing. Did not get it. Then I started reading this book which is going to help me think of it in a new way. That book also has some cool stuff to say about sci-fi as a genre.
Set in the 1930s and the inspiration for the Steve McQueen film: Papillion by Henri Charrière.
If you liked Consider the Lobster, then you will also very probably like A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Both Flesh and Not.
Edited to add that Everything and More is also very good, though it's not a collection of essays.
Not sure if it's what you have in mind, but I can vouch for the fact that this book with exhibits from the recent Tolkien exhibition is stunning. I got it as a birthday present. It's large and features endless beautiful, high quality images of Tolkien's drawings, papers and family photos. There are fascinating, but accessible, essays too.
Well now you see what happens when you just assume I'll be conversational... In all seriousness, I really had nothing else to argue or bring up about the education thing... Also what do you mean by teh tecknawlahgees (the technologies)? Do you mean advancement? Or just the ability to learn stuff using the internet? Speaking of technology, not sure if you've seen After Earth yet, if you haven't then I won't spoil it don't worry. But the technology they use in the film is all like Bio-Tech, like a seamless fusion of tech and humanity. It's pretty cool, and where I think technology should be heading towards.
Well first-off the African Wars have nothing to do with Northern/Mid Africa. Well not in this context anyway. Sorry I didn't make it clearer, but the African Wars I was refering to was the Anglo-Boer War, which I assume you know something about? If you don't it was when the Afrikaaners and the British got into a little bit of an argument, and by argument I mean war. Which the British lost. The reason I call if the African Wars is that there was a third party involved and those were the Native peoples in South Africa, they too played a part in the War. And so that part of history has been renamed the African Wars. Much like the American War of Independence, had Patriots, British and the Native Americans all fighting one another. Or have I got that wrong? Please enlighten.
As for the rest of Africa affecting us, they most certainly do. Firstly we have an open door policy when it comes to refugees and so we take on a lot of refugees. Not a bad thing because they have really good work ethics and often start working immediately. I suppose it is a bad thing for South Africans seeking similar employment (factory worker, farm labour and domestic workers) who can't find work because they are considered lazy in comparison (have to agree). Side note, North African doctors, aren't welcome here if they are refugees because they are needed more in the country they come from. But literally any other skilled worker is a God send because they will do the same job for less.
But African instability affects us in other ways too, like South Africa is constantly trying to push for an AU but keeps getting either shot down by dictators, or the whole system is abused by dictators. Hosni Mubarak, Kony, Muammar Gaddafi and so on had huge pull in the African Political Circle, and used the old African Union as their personal power houses, causing the whole thing to lack meaning and come apart. Now though, the idea of reinstalling an African Union is on the cards again with South Africa at the helm. Former President Thabo Mbeki (who is blamed for never doing anything and was actually impeached [unjustly] to allow the cards to fall in just the right way to get our current President Jacob Zuma his seat in power), is heading up the whole operation, and has been for the last 7 years.
I kinda want to be frozen till 2700, to see how the world will be like. But also to hear the final notes of Longplayer ring out. I think it would be cool to go to one of the sites and just listen as the last ring is played and the whole room just drops into silence. Do you think people will just clap endlessly as that happens? Would be cool.
>if anything about you posting that upsets me it's that you screwed up the formatting.
Well for YOUR information it wasn't me that screwed up the formatting, but rather RES/Reddit editing that did it. I posted it as He wrote it, but RES had different ideas and 'corrected' it to the format you saw it in. I tried to correct it but to was to no avail. So please do be kind as to fuck off (read sarcastically), because it's not my fault. As for finding a poem that might annoy you, I have taken on that challenge. With an entire styl (on purpose) it's called [MNMLST poetry] (http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&amp;d/grumman/egrumn.htm) and is possibly one of my favorites! (as you've guessed). On that link you'll find the thing I was actually after which is the i with a thumbprint as the dot. Love that poem [(which it is)] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poem). On the topic of things which are short (unlike this reply), here is the world shortest [novel] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn) comprised by Ernest Hemingway. Thought you might like something just a little different.
And from the topic of literature we dive straight into book recommendations--getting the hang of segueing--though maybe not this whole business of extra information in between dashes.-- Where was I? Oh right! Well I just picked up on of Pratchett's new books; [Dodger] (http://www.amazon.com/Dodger-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0062009494). There is another cover other than the one in the link. Very much enjoying the Steampunk/Victorian setting. Something I do suggest you maybe pick up for a fun read would be [Poison an Illistrated History] (http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Illustrated-History-Joel-Levy/dp/0762770562/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372521410&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=history+of+poison), an interesting read if you're interested I guess. Plus wow your friends when you can recite all the people killed by poison! Moving on to the book I most highly reccomend, it sits in with my favorite literary technique of narrative. And is all about, and written by, the famous writer [Fernando Pessoa] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Pessoa). It's called [The Book of Disquiet] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Disquiet-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141183047). I put the Amazon pages for all the book recommendations as to not tempt you into reading spoilers from their respective Wiki pages. You're welcome to if you so wish, but I don't want to be held responsible for that. However [here] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Disquiet) is the Wiki page for The Book of Disquiet; it hasn't got any spoilers, but rather valuable information you need to know before reading the book so check that out if you want.
Also [Cloud Atlas] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)). Because it's pretty good and you should probably give it a read.
As for things to recommend back, please do! Sure my taste might be expansive (if you say so) but that means I am just more willing to take on whatever you suggest. Oh and do like Sci-Fi, but only certain authors and certain sci-fi. Please I'm not some neckbeard.
As for other things you should do, this Collegehumor [video] (http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6898570/kim-jong-un-launches-a-nuke) is pretty funny, and the rest of the series.
Don't really have much music to suggest, so we'll skip that this time round, plus this message is getting pretty long...
Okay so my favorite tea... it's a three way tie between Rooibos (Uniquely South African thing as far as I'm aware?), the Vanilla Chai tea from [Woolworths] (http://livingincheapluxury.wordpress.com/tag/woolworths-vanilla-chai-tea/) (their official site is down for maintainence). And this special Chai tea that I have no idea the name, only that I buy it from this guy who makes it himself and sells it for R100 for a 1kg burlap bag, which is a huge bargain! There is also a really nice tea cafe near to where I live that I really enjoy going to called [O'ways] (http://www.oways.co.za/), run by an asain couple who know be name now.
Right I think thats it for answering all your questions... That just leaves me with a question to ask back to you (without tradition what do we have?) <--- Not the question but feel free to elaborate. No what I want to know from you is; have you ever made a terrible decision, but stubbornly stuck with it to prove a point? If yes what was it and what was the outcome? (had to add the second part, because I foresaw you being a dick and just answering with a yes and leaving it [and if you just say no and leave it then I'll be upset, and will throw a massive tantrum]).
Dit het dankie vir die vraag! Ook beteken dit totsiens in Afrikaans.
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn. It's basically a memoir of the author's drug addiction and his life up to the writing of the book. I read it a couple years ago mostly because Patton Oswalt highly recommended it in a blog or an interview and am very glad I did.
I was reading more and discovered that PKD is not talking about the final version of the script in this article. After Universe Makers was published, the script was rewritten to PKD's satisfaction.
From The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick, Introduction to Section Four (page 137 in my version):
>Dick was able to see some of the early rushes of [Blade Runner] before his death in 1982, and was decidedly enthusiastic. In an earlier stage of the production of Blade Runner, however, Dick was displeased with the then quality of the script (subsequently rewritten, to Dick's liking, by David Peoples) and vented his displeasure in "Universe Makers... and Breakers" (1981), included earlier in this volume.
Sorry for the mixup!
This is a good place to start. If I weren't a lazy shit I'd dig up some of the letters that Lewis and him traded, but I can't find them anymore.
There is a marvelous chapter in "Travels", Michael Crichton's autobiography where he talks about treating a beautiful woman who was a nymphomaniac (I know, horrible problem for a guy, right?). She would literally hit on everything- Crichton, other doctors... She stayed with a married minister and ended up fucking his brains out. She was a homewrecking force of nature.
And that's exactly the problem. When your interest in something is so great that it leaves wreckage behind you... it's gone too far.
Needless to say, I still would have loved to meet this woman.
There was a book written about the authors experiences. Would that interest you, I could lookup my history
Edit: No longer mobile and I found it. Walden on wheels https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00B77UDWU/
Papillon was excellent.
My favorite biography i read of the last few years however was David Suchets Beethoven: The Man Revealed
Totally get what you are aiming to do. Although I am older, I, too am in college and trying to defray costs. And, I'm in to vandwelling as a backup living plan and a way to travel cheap. Here are a few links that could help if you haven't already seen them:
About a guy that lived in a van at Duke University, interesting read, addresses a lot of the mental struggle: Walden on Wheels https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00B77UDWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1495889664&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=walden+on+wheels
If you haven't seen this website, the forums have a ton of info on everything to do with living in a van/car/rv/whatever cheaply and comfortably: www.cheaprvliving.com
And, if you want an idea of a quick, cheap and easy van conversion complete with links to the stuff for it: http://www.vanlifecrisis.com/2015/09/the-320-1-hour-van-conversion.html
I found an older van for $900 a few months back. I'm doing a easy build. Back seats/bench went out. Wood platform for the bed across the back, will be ordering mattress foam to be cut down to fit from http://www.thefoamfactory.com/ Had a few storage bins with drawers to hold my stuff. Camping gear I already have is going in, stuff for cooking, heating, and ventilation. I blacked out the side windows the cheap way, cut out black poster board and put them up with sticky squares of Velcro on the side wells for easy removal, and the back and front areas will get black out curtains that can be closed for privacy.
I, too, tend to hole up and have tendencies towards agoraphobia. I like feeling like I have my "home" with me wherever I go, as this van is also my daily driver. Add homey touches inside to make it feel cozy. Drive out to a park to do your homework, it will be more relaxing. Eat fresher foods, just hit the grocery store more often. Good sleep is utmost important to pull this off, so make that the second utmost priority, mechanics first.
Best of luck!!!
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Who knew a Portuguese poet and a 15 year old Asian girl studying for her SATs could think the same way?
But in all honesty, it reads almost like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but a bit more grittier. Like a story with no plot, just an insider perspective and a lot of emotions. Lots of existentialism themes.
You could always read his book, which details his views pretty extensively.
It's pretty good actually.
Great book on Orwell by the late and great Christopher Hitchens.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Orwell-Matters-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/0465030505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1485949600&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=why+orwell+matters
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
http://www.amazon.com/Another-Bullshit-Night-Suck-City/dp/0393329402
Another bullshit night in Suck City
by Nick Flynn
http://www.amazon.com/Another-Bullshit-Night-Suck-City/dp/0393329402
I love me some George Orwell.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/fa/fd/39/fafd395c1b25b95e8706a7a71cbc9bae.jpg
Why Orwell Matters, by Christopher Hitchens
"In this widely acclaimed biographical essay, Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. In true emulative and contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. He examines Orwell and his perspectives on fascism, empire, feminism, and Englishness, as well as his outlook on America, a country and culture towards which he exhibited much ambivalence. Whether thinking about empires or dictators, race or class, nationalism or popular culture, Orwell's moral outlook remains indispensable in a world that has undergone vast changes in the fifty years since his death."
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Orwell-Matters-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/0465030505
Also checkout:
The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus
And
Stephen King's The Dark Tower Concordance
http://www.amazon.com/Papillon-P-S-Henri-Charriere/dp/0061120669/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374207117&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=Papillon
Confirmed. Here is the link to it at Amazon:
https://smile.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00B77UDWU/
I just read Another Bullshit Night In Suck City by Nick Flynn and loved it. It feels like a story, not just someone telling about their life. He doesn't just talk about his life in highlights - he shows his own mistakes, his own flaws. The memoir focuses on his relationship with his father, and both of them being writers sets the text up with some great dialogue exchanges and poetic phrases.
https://www.amazon.com/Another-Bullshit-Night-Suck-City/dp/0393329402
i took a 4-month trip from SF to Osaka...only flew once from NY to London...it was a great trip...plus moths here and there in about 45 countries...highly recommended...
some other good books
This cool Mark Twain autobiography just came out, that's what I'd get!
My favorite book of all time is Travels by Michael Crichton. It's his autobiography and it's amazing. I've read it at least 5 times and had to re-buy it twice, because people borrow it and never return it (that's how I got my first copy... so, karma?).
I like A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by DFW, but haven't read Consider the Lobster.
Echoes Down the Corridor by Arthur Miller - good writing on a variety of issues
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup by Susan Orlean - portraits of people she interviewed, including a group of teenage Hawaiian surfer girls that made a particularly memorable essay.
Essays of E.B. White - excellent observations and thoughts and insights.
Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut - an "autobiographical collage" so being a fan beforehand helps, but his thoughts are on a range of subjects, not just his own personal history.
Also these two lists look promising.
The best description I've ever read of why to go Uncircumcised was in Dan Savage's book The Kid
Cool! Birthderp present from my Mom. Have your read these? I think they are great:
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1290970608&amp;sr=1-8
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
http://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Everything-Oxford-English-Dictionary/dp/019517500X/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1290970608&amp;sr=1-10
The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything. Both are about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, the latter about the actual making, and the former about the specifics of one of the most prolific contributors to the OED: a US Army officer and civil war vet in a British insane asylum. Great reads, the both of them.
Not exactly a short story, but a collection of 1-2 page diary entries, but I would definitely recommend Pessoa's Book of Disquiet.
Other great short story authors are Poe, Kafka, Flannery O'Connor, and Ivan Bunin(Dark Avenues).
"No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family" by Christopher Hitchens
"The Trial of Henry Kissinger" by Christopher Hitchens (this one is only tangentially related to the Clinton administration, but its the only other book I've read concerning it, so its all I've got for ya)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by DFW is pretty entertaining, and according to Amazon has 368 pages.
You could read "The Road to the Dark Tower" by Bev Vincent.
Here's an Amazon link, but your local library may have a copy:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Dark-Tower-Exploring/dp/0451213041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372974727&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=road+to+the+dark+tower
This might interest you: The Eden Express, by Mark Vonnegut, telling of his experiences with schizophrenia. Mark is the son of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Plus it's George Plimpton, who is a legitimately good writer.
Another good one is The Education of a Coach, by Pulitzer winner David Halberstam.
I really liked "The Real All-Americans" about the Carlisle Indian School. Although it has nothing to do with the NFL. Except that Jim Thorpe played for them and he played in the very very early NFL.
I also really liked "The Education of a Coach". A biography of Bill Belichick. Obviously this would have limited appeal outside of NE.
I'm nearly finished w/ an audiobook (I can send to you for free if you don't have an audible account already) .
But there was a section close to the end here that really kind of brought that perspective into focus.
https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00B77UDWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1525449719&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=walden+on+wheels+by+ken+ilgunas
Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green by Johnny Rico.
If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien
I also liked Going After Cacciato, by O'Brien.
Also, there are books about the dark tower books. Here's a good one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0451213041/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1341592890&amp;sr=8-1.
Required reading - Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Orwell-Matters-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/0465030505
appropriate-schmappropriate: get your teacher's attention with Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
but if you're determined to be school-appropriate, The Road of Lost Innocence is short, incredibly moving and inspiring, and about a very controversial topic (escaping sexual slavery in Cambodia).
Read "girl interrupted" please.
True story of a teen girl having teen drama and a bad day. Goes to her shrink and spends the next 18 months in a locked mental ward.
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Interrupted-Susanna-Kaysen/dp/0679746048
Fuck Kissinger.
Motherfuckers don't know what's up–that's why. Bam bam~ ~
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172493/
pew pew~~ ~ – - - --- -
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Interrupted-Susanna-Kaysen/dp/0679746048