Entertainment Weekly Runs Second Chapter of Year Zero – plus THROAT CLEARING SECRETS by John Hodgman!
For years I passed by Entertainment Weekly whenever I saw it on the newsstand, simply because of its title. There was the periodicity for one thing. I prefer publications of the daily, thrice-weekly, or sesquicentenniary ilk. Then there was that word “Entertainment.” I like being entertained as much as the next TV-shunning, celebrity-illiterate nerd. But in a magazine title, “Entertainment” smacks of paparazzi, Justin-n-Britney, and monosyllables.
Then a few years back, a friend of mine went to work for EW – one who hasn’t written or edited a lowbrow sentence in her life (proof: she is now the editor-in-chief of Columbia Journalism Review). So I started visiting their site. I was delighted with what I found – and these days Entertainment Weekly is the first thing that I grab whenever I’m at the airport (although I also make a big show of picking up The Economist).
Entertainment Weekly offers plenty of coverage for socially-well-adjusted folks with normal operating definitions of “entertainment.” But they also do a thorough and passionate job of covering science fiction, fantasy, and videogames. And as a serious music snob, I must say that their music section is excellent. I like that their TV coverage leans toward the smarter pay-cable series. And they cover books, and take them very seriously.
For all of these reasons, I was delighted when Entertainment Weekly took an interest in Year Zero. And today, they’re publishing Year Zero’s second chapter (which I call “Chapter One,” because I’m like that). If you’d like to start by reading the first chapter (which I cleverly named “Chapter Zero”) Wired published it a week and a half ago, and it’s here. But if you’ve already read that, or want to dive right into Chapter One, you can absolutely do that – because Chapter One is where the action starts, whereas Chapter Zero is a prologue that sets up the book. If you want my advice, I’d suggest that you read both – and that you do so right now – because as a good father, I love all of my children equally.
As a bonus, EW is running a video of John Hodgman revealing his PATENTED THROAT CLEARING SECRETS, and teaching them to me in an audio book recording studio. Hodgman, as I mentioned earlier, is the voice of the Year Zero audio book. You can download or stream his reading of the first chapter (‘Chapter Zero,’ remember) here at nerdist.com.
My wife is convinced that this whole throat-clearing ritual was elaborate hoax designed to trick me into drinking Tabasco sauce. She’s probably right.
