0 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:0.0

Michael's Bookshelves

read (9)
currently-reading (0)
to-read (0)

Michael's Friends (25)

Ben Wheeler-Floyd

286 books | 39 friends

Gloria

889 books | 40 friends

Nadia

37 books | 2,192 friends

Alyssa

127 books | 22 friends

Kenn

70 books | 9 friends

Oridisi

449 books | 63 friends

Helen

389 books | 31 friends

John

943 books | 5,039 friends

More friends…

Michael is following 0 people

Michael Perry

Goodreads author profile

gender

male

website

http://www.sneezingcow.com

member since

January 2009

About this author

edit data

Michael Perry is a humorist and author of the bestselling memoir Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, and the essay collection Off Main Street. Perry has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Backpacker, Orion and Salon.com, and is a contributing editor to Men’s Health. His essays have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and he has performed and produced two live audience recordings (I Got It From the Cows and Never Stand Behind a Sneezing Cow). Perry lives in rural Wisconsin , where he remains active as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical responder. He can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com

Raised on a small dairy farm, Perry equates his writing career to cleaning calf pens – j...more Michael Perry is a humorist and author of the bestselling memoir Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, and the essay collection Off Main Street. Perry has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Backpacker, Orion and Salon.com, and is a contributing editor to Men’s Health. His essays have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and he has performed and produced two live audience recordings (I Got It From the Cows and Never Stand Behind a Sneezing Cow). Perry lives in rural Wisconsin , where he remains active as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical responder. He can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com

Raised on a small dairy farm, Perry equates his writing career to cleaning calf pens – just keep shoveling, and eventually you’ve got a pile so big, someone will notice. Perry further prepared for the writing life by reading every Louis L’Amour cowboy book he could get his hands on – most of them twice. He then worked for five summers on a real ranch in Wyoming , a career cut short by his fear of horses and an incident in which he almost avoided a charging bull. Based on a series of informal conversations held around the ol’ branding fire, Perry still holds the record for being the only cowboy in all of Wyoming who was simultaneously attending nursing school, from which he graduated in 1987 after giving the commencement address in a hairdo combining mousse spikes on top, a mullet in back, and a moustache up front – otherwise known as the bad hair trifecta. Recently Perry has begun to lose his hair, and although his current classification varies depending on the lighting, he is definitely Bald Man Walking.

Perry has run a forklift, operated a backhoe, driven truck, worked as a proofreader and physical therapy aide and has distinguished himself as a licensed cycle rider by careening into a concrete bridge completely unassisted. He has worked for a surgeon, answered a suicide hotline, picked rock in the rain with an alcoholic transvestite, was a country music roadie in Switzerland , and once worked as a roller-skating Snoopy. He can run a pitchfork, milk a cow in the dark, and say “I don’t understand” in French, Greek and Norwegian. He has never been bucked off a horse, and contends that falling off doesn’t count. He is utterly unable to polka.(less)

1073 posts
Michael Perry's Blog

Gotta Feed The Chickens

Thank you to everyone who has taken us up on our special “Chicken Package” (a combo deal on a hardcover of Coop and a copy of The Clodhopper Monologues). We’re about to wrap it up, but in celebration of all things poultry, here’s a link back tothe spring of 2010, when the folks at Wisconsin Life tagged along while I fed my chickens. You can listen here.

View more on Michael Perry's website »

0 comments

•

Published on May 29, 2012 08:17 • 2 views

View all 1073 posts »

combine editions
Books by Michael Perry

Average rating: 3.85 · 3,911 ratings · 906 reviews · 12 distinct works

	Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time 3.88 avg rating — 1,582 ratings — published 2002 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Truck: A Love Story 3.85 avg rating — 1,177 ratings — published 2006 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting 3.85 avg rating — 959 ratings — published 2009 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets & Gatemouth's Gator: Essays 3.74 avg rating — 124 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Why They Killed Big Boy: And Other Stories 3.44 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 1996	My rating:
	Big Rigs, Elvis & the Grand Dragon Wayne 3.50 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1999	My rating:
	Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow 3.78 avg rating — 9 ratings	My rating:
	Daniel's Ride/El Paseo de Daniel by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author), Michael P. Horan, Lee Ballard (Illustrator) 3.44 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions	My rating:
	I Got It From The Cows 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings	My rating:
	Handbook for Freelance Writing 3.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions	My rating:

More books by Michael Perry…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

rss
Michael's Recent Updates

Michael Perry wrote a new blog post: Gotta Feed The Chickens Gotta Feed The Chickens Thank you to everyone who has taken us up on our special “Chicken Package” (a combo deal on a hardcover of Coop and a copy of The Clodhopper Monolo... read more »
20 hours, 19 min ago · like
Michael Perry added: Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg (P.S.) by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Aug 12, 2010 09:05am
Michael Perry made a comment on his profile "Hi folks. Just finding my way around here. I will be checking in, but for now my most current information and regular updates will be at www.sneezingc ...more "
Jan 13, 2009 10:44am
Michael Perry added: The Harley-Davidson Reader by Michael Dregni	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am
Michael Perry added: Handbook for Freelance Writing by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am
Michael Perry added: I Got It From The Cows by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am
Michael Perry added: Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am
Michael Perry added: Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am
Michael Perry added: Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am
Michael Perry added: Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets & Gatemouth's Gator: Essays by Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jan 11, 2009 02:16am

More of Michael's books…

Quotes by Michael Perry

“I deserve a swift kick in the shorts for all the times I've stubbornly wound my way through the library stacks, my mule head leading the way, searching fruitlessly for information a librarian could put in my hands in a matter of minutes.”
― Michael Perry

4 people liked it

“There commenced an epic snit.”
― Michael Perry, Truck: A Love Story

1 person liked it

“In specific moments of ground-level clarity, I recognize the dumbing down of the nation for what it is: an act of charity committed specifically for knotheads like me.”
― Michael Perry

1 person liked it

See all Michael Perry's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: WINTER CHALLENGE 2009-2010 COMPLETED TASKS	3171	2946	Feb 28, 2010 09:02pm
The Ultimate Book...: Read the Season Challenge	107	64	Apr 02, 2010 11:04pm
Readers and Reading: September-October 2010 Chat	55	88	Oct 23, 2010 08:47pm
The Seasonal Read...: 10.8- What A Way To Make A Living	127	217	Nov 17, 2010 03:35pm
Pick-a-Shelf: 2010-10 - Biography - Post October Reviews Here	83	110	Nov 27, 2010 11:17am
Novel Ladies: LuLu's 2011 Reading Log	37	11	Nov 29, 2010 08:40pm
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2596	666	Feb 28, 2011 09:05pm
Chicks On Lit: The Last Letter	2034	850	Jan 25, 2012 11:21pm
Around the World ...: Wisconsin	4	21	Mar 25, 2012 04:26am

More…

Add New
Videos

Michael's Bookshelves

Michael's Friends (25)

Michael's Fans (148)

Michael Perry

Goodreads author profile

1073 posts
Michael Perry's Blog

combine editions
Books by Michael Perry

Upcoming Events

rss
Michael's Recent Updates

Quotes by Michael Perry

Topics Mentioning This Author

Michael's Friend Comments

Flag Abuse

Michael Perry

Goodreads author profile

Upcoming Events

rssMichael's Recent Updates

Topics Mentioning This Author

Flag Abuse

rss
Michael's Recent Updates