I've been on a John Fante kick lately. Read "Ask the Dust", then "Wait Until Spring, Bandini", and now read "Road to Los Angeles".
My girlfriend gave me the first book in March, and I'm hooked. Charles Bucowski owes a lot to Fante, pretty much stole his style. Fante was soooo ahead of his time.
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"When I see guys huddling up after the game, to pray, that's what scares me about the game. I'm a Baptist, but I'm also a quarterback killer, and I ain't praying with you. But I will give you 30 seconds to ask your Lord and master to keep me from killing you." -- Hall of Fame defensive end "Deacon" Jones on what aspect of the modern game most upsets him.
Half through CD 9...great book. Good insights. The physics are explained well enough to grasp the reasons why he or others were excited at the time, and the drama of solving equations is brought forth.
I just keep thinking tough how stupid it is of me to think of AE as a genius...but that is the way to describe him. Just ridiculously clever and genius. I don't think I'll ever use the dude's name as a farce again (as in calling some idiot Einstein for being stupid). He's kind of beyond reproach.
As a person and a husband and a dad he's kind of a POS, but as a mind he's more brilliant than a planet made of diamonds and rubies.
Reading Bullshit and Philosphy...great insights into the human need to bullshit. Will give a full review when I'm done.
Dang, this could have been written by any one of us.
I'm going back and re-reading Generation X, Life After God, and Microserfs, because I want to remember what it was like to read rich characters and modern prose that flows without being pretentious. Douglass Coupland remains my hero, I guess.
OMG, they just had sex! :-P The first 10 or so pages were pretty tough, but now I'm getting it. I haven't read much in the last few years so I thought it would be good to start up again. Without books I seem to have been getting dumber and dumber. Not good.
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The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Paperback) by Malcolm Gladwell
The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types. These are Connectors, sociable personalities who bring people together; Mavens, who like to pass along knowledge; and Salesmen, adept at persuading the unenlightened. (Paul Revere, for example, was a Maven and a Connector). Gladwell's applications of his "tipping point" concept to current phenomena--such as the drop in violent crime in New York, the rebirth of Hush Puppies suede shoes as a suburban mall favorite, teenage suicide patterns and the efficiency of small work units--may arouse controversy. For example, many parents may be alarmed at his advice on drugs: since teenagers' experimentation with drugs, including cocaine, seldom leads to hardcore use, he contends, "We have to stop fighting this kind of experimentation. We have to accept it and even embrace it." While it offers a smorgasbord of intriguing snippets summarizing research on topics such as conversational patterns, infants' crib talk, judging other people's character, cheating habits in schoolchildren, memory sharing among families or couples, and the dehumanizing effects of prisons, this volume betrays its roots as a series of articles for the New Yorker, where Gladwell is a staff writer: his trendy material feels bloated and insubstantial in book form. Agent, Tina Bennett of Janklow & Nesbit. Major ad/promo. (Mar.)
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