BOOKS!

NPR has an interesting little book blurb today. and i'm going to run out this weekend and get it. actually, i'll probably end up ordering it, because i'm pretty sure this isn't one of those books that i'll be able to just scoop up at Borders or something. not that i'd want to go downtown in the masses of tourists anyways this weekend. but whatever.

so this guy is a Lit professor at Wake and has written a book called Against Happiness, which, from what i ascertain, basically argues against everybody being happy all the goddamn time. like i said, i haven't read it--i'm going to--but apparently this guy makes the argument that all of these artists [Virginia Woolf, Dylan Thomas (who, i've ironically been re-reading a lot of lately), Hemingway, Van Gogh] were all quite depressed in every clinical sense of the word--most of which also, relatedly, were severe addicts of some sort or another--but the pain of their lives brings joy and beauty to the lives of some since. i for one, as awful as this sounds, couldn't be happier that Dylan Thomas was a manic-depressive alcoholic. without that, i wouldn't have "Clown in the Moon." (my 3rd favorite poem of all time. they just don't write 'em like they used to...).

the author also points out our society's eagerness to over-prescribe meds for even "mild" sadness. one wonders if this over prescription of psychotrophic drugs may carry any of the types of consequences that the medical community is now seeing as a result of the over-prescription of antibiotics (drug-resistent viruses, etc.)...

anyhow, this looks interesting. i'll let you know how it is.

BOOKS!

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS

so i finally read Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. (yet another phenomenon i was late for...)

and, umm, well...i'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

i mean, yeah, i can totally see why it was made into a film--the story is quite conducive to a visual interpretation, and i'm sure an entertaining one at that. but, in terms of writing...? i dunno, i'm not convinced. i'm not sure i really understand why everyone was falling all over themselves over this book, or this author, for that matter. entertaining, but i breezed through this book without really having to think all that much. or feel. at no point in this book, did i care an ounce about any of the characters, nor did i particularly care what they did or what happened to them. to me, this is indicative of a work of quite ordinary proportions, not one that "critics" should applaud and such.

i'm done with memoirs for a while.

next up: Lolita. nothing like a little russian lit to get the brain goin...

BOOKS!

I'M WITH THE BAND

so, i just finished this book by pam des barres called I'm With The Band. i liked it. a lot. pam, or miss pamela rather...was like, THE original groupie. she bedded jimmy page, robert plant, keith moon, came close to boning jim morrison, did it with jimi hendrix' bassist, lived with the Zappas and nannied for Dweezil and Moon Unit...the list goes on. she had a kuh-ray-zee life and is currently an author of a few books, writes for various publications, and is like, generally, fabulous.

it's a shame that being a groupie isn't really feasible today. because i think that's what i wanna be. but not, like, a whorish groupie in the modern sense, but more like pammy, who had rock stars falling over her and loving her and stuff. she was like, a muse and shit. that's the kinda groupie i'd wanna be.

read this book.