Josh Hanagarne's Blog, page 22
March 11, 2013
What’s Your Favorite Books Of All Time? (Another Giveaway)
Hey there,
Today Gotham Books is doing another book giveaway for The World’s Strongest Librarian. If you’re a Twitter user and want to participate, here’s how it works:
Tweet to Gotham Books
Tell them what your favorite book of all time is
use the hashtag #strengthandbooks
In case you’re wondering, my favorite book “of all time” changes, but it is currently Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Oh, and it’s also my least favorite book, but I can’t stop returning to it.
If you’re not interested in the Twitter thing would want to chat, let me know your favorite book below in the comments.
Josh
March 9, 2013
What I Found In A Local Bookstore
Saturday afternoon I was in The King’s English bookstore and I saw this big foam poster:
That’s me, my son, and my friend Aaron Cance, who has one of the greatest book minds I’ve ever encountered.
The publicity campaign is actually cranking up now, and it is incredibly surreal. But fun, and exciting, and nerve-wracking. Guess it’s too late to back out now!
March 7, 2013
Possible Service Interruption
Hi all, I’m dinking around with some nameserver configurations today. There might be some downtime for the blog, but I don’t anticipate any big issues.
See you soon.
March 5, 2013
Book Giveaway (50 copies) Ends Tonight!
Hi all, I just saw that Penguin is doing a giveaway for my book that ends tonight.
50 copies will be given away. You can enter here.
Good luck!
March 4, 2013
Two Book Reviewers Worth Reading
Once in a while I get an email that says something like, “You’re not a very good literary critic.”
This is both true and irrelevant to me. I’m not trying to write real criticism, either positive or negative. Readers will know that I generally talk about what I like, give some reasons for why I like it, and then the conversation starts. The book talk is what I really like. I read a lot and all I’m really interested in is helping readers find new books to try.
But if you’re looking for real book reviews, there are a couple I follow who I like for very different reasons.
1. Dead White Guys: An Irreverent Guide To Classic Literature.
Meet Amanda Nelson. She makes me laugh every day. I can’t say that about enough people. And buried in the snark, she writes real book reviews. She knows what she loves, what she hates, and is happy to tell you why and back it up with a sheaf of reasons.
Adam is a really, really smart person, a real intellectual, and he reads like crazy. And he writes the sorts of reviews that I really get something out of, so please check him out. One of my favorites out there in book-blog land.
Go forth and enjoy.
Josh
March 1, 2013
What Can You Do With A Library Cart?
If you remember the heartbreaking opus, How I Went From Managing 16 People To Supervising One Inanimate Cart Full Of Damaged Books, you know that I have an intimate relationship with library carts.
Today we took our relationship to the next level, sort of on a dare. Continue, and witness the breathtaking (read: dumb) results!
February 26, 2013
Speaking in El Paso This Weekend
Hi all, if you’re involved in the disabilities community in any way, and you live in the El Paso area, I’ll be speaking in your neck of the woods this Saturday.
It begins at the El Dorado High School auditorium at 8:30. I’ll be giving a talk, then there will be a signing afterwards. Since my book won’t be out yet, I’ll be signing bookplates.
It’s going to be good. I’m really nervous, as always, but it’s going to be good.
See the CDIC website for details.
February 25, 2013
Book Collecting, UFC, Salvador Dali, Cocaine, Weed, and Ecstasy, Etc
Spoiler! The highlight of my Las Vegas trip was an hour in a bookstore.
But first:
A couple of weeks ago I was in Las Vegas, walking out of my first UFC live event (as a spectator, not a fighter, of course). As we shuffled along, shoulder to shoulder, a voice started yapping, behind me and to the left.
“There’s no way that round was scored right! There’s no f-in…” etc. ”I just lost thousands of dollars! I just want to do so much cocaine! I want to fight someone!”
Okay, now keep in mind that this is being bellowed almost in my ear. I turned to see who this aggrieved person was. It was some chubby kid with a big mole and a grey sweatsuit, maddened with rage. After listening to him for the next two minutes I felt like I regressed to a third grade reading level. I hope he found his cocaine and calmed down.
En route to our hotel an hour later, we walked by a 7-11. A small man with a twitchy woman in tow walked up and said, “Hey man, I got cocaine, weed, and ecstasy.” And he said it in the deepest voice, like Darth Vader deep. I started laughing, it was just so brazen. And it’s not like it was in an alley, it was just out in the open in front of a place where people were buying Big Gulps.
This is why Bauman Rare Books was such an oasis in the midst of all the stupid. My friend and I, another book nerd, had a great time wandering the casinos and watching the fights, but we each heaved a big sigh of relief when we saw a book store in the middle of The Palazzo.
And what a book store! Documents signed by Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, 80k price tags, lots of pages behind glass, etc. People would walk in and their voices would instantly hush.
The owner showed us a Dali-Illustrated and -signed version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that just about stopped my heart, those unbound pages were so beautiful.
Then, a couple of days ago I went to a book collecting salon at Weller Book Works, here in Salt Lake. After and before a wonderful talk by Catherine Weller, I just stumbled around the rare book room with my mouth open, looking at the books signed by Joyce, Faulkner, and so on. And talking with other people doing the same thing. It was a blast. A blast, I tell you. The perfect Friday night.
Then started reading A Gentle Madness again. And it sort of made me wish I was an eccentric book collector with a fortune to burn. Alas.
I have lots of books, and even a few signed ones (I have a signed Sandra Cisneros book that says, in Spanish ‘My handsome white boy, now and forever, I only write for you’).” But nothing rare, and I don’t know if I’d ever be able to shell out much money for rarities, even if I had the money.
How about you? Any serious collectors here? Serious or not, what are your prized literary possessions?
Josh
February 23, 2013
The Stereotypical Freaks by Howard Shapiro
I don’t read many graphic novels, but whenever someone recommends one to me and says “I think you will like this, because I know you,” I read it.
Someone who knew I had been in some truly awful garage bands recommended The Stereotypical Freaks to me. I have real soft spot for recreations of High School, and that’s what I got here.
Freaks is about a group of kids that don’t fit in. I was one of those kids, or, I liked to think I was. I also listened to and loved just about every song discussed in the book (the chapters are kind of like a playlist, a charming touch).
These misfits make their way to a battle of the bands that reminded me very much of a battle of the bands that I played in (we lost).
Every time I read a graphic novel, I wish I had a better understanding of art. I really like the art in Stereotypical Freaks, but am helpless to explain why, or what it is that I enjoy about it.
Howard Shapiro is a great talent, and getting to know him is yet one more perk I’ve gotten out of this goofy blog.
Thanks Howard!
February 21, 2013
The Big Book Of Lesbian Horse Stories
I’m sorry, but you have to see this. The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories.
Do any of you own this book? I have to admit, I’m intrigued by what happens when ecstasy is “only a hoofbeat away!”
