Selected Works 2004 - 2008

by Christopher Gutiérrez

Sure, you're right, I'll admit I can't write my way out of a paper bag. I'm just a spazz and a criminal who never learned how to keep his mouth shut. But see, I don't mind much; because after the football players, band and prom queens have their evening, I am still here, sitting in the cheap seats and screaming to the kids who clean the field, 'I fucking believe in you.'" - Christopher Gutierrez.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

In the same fashion Do-It-Yourself punk bands have built their fan base for the past 30 years, Chicago author Christopher Gutiérrez has carved his own niche into the literary world relying on that same aesthetic. In the span of three short years, Gutiérrez has gone from sporadic zine publisher and part-time blogger to full-time writer and public speaker, self-releasing 3 books, a spoken word CD, a live DVD, several mini-books and fanzines all under the umbrella of The Deadxstop Publishing Company.

Reviews

[Bex · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth book by the bloke largly known as Hey Chris from the Fall Out Boy song Grenade Jumper he is a great guy in himself and an awesome author dude.

As his other books, self-published through DeadXStop, it is, in a way, a "greatest hits" of 4 years of blogging taken directly from his LiveJournal entries of Jan 24th 2004 to October 30th 2008. Spanning from the original 2 line entry informing people he had the answers to the questions (he had been getting harassed with over email/aim) through various personal events up to the recently posted blog (ending) "You talk about it all the time, / Just fucking leave... / / And find yourself." Entries contain the original failboat spag etc. and annotated retrospectively within the last few months.

I admit I've not read his 3 previous books (the 1st being out of print and I've not finished the 2nd yet) but they all flow in the same vein, non-fiction about himself; anecdotes, thoughts, impressions and even a few morals are throughout, in an easy to read first person kinda way.

It's only recently that I started reading his blog so this book is perfect for a bit of background reading into not only him but Fall Out Boy (and others) too. (He even got Pete Wentz to write the foreward).
Although you'll be hard presed to get your hands on a copy, originally set for a limmited print run of 250 to be sold for only one week Chris had to increase the run to 500 because he over sold within the first couple of days and I believe it sold out well before the week was up too. Mine's book 236 which is pretty much the best book I could've gotten tbh.

It's had to choose a favourite bit, even more so because it's non-fiction, but id have to go for September 28 2005's annotation:

"When people ask for advice, I tell them everything I know, everything in my arsenal.
'Every day I try to be just a little less shitty.'

If I don't believe that I deserve it, I can at least try to earn it.
The kids deserve that much"

Don't ask me why, I just love the quote "Every day I try to be ... less shitty" and for the record I don't think he's shitty, I got the pleasure of meeting him on his most recent uk book/reading tour thingy and he's lovely.

At an arty indie café in Manchester's Northern Quarter I didn't know what to expect. What I got was awesome, Chris talking could happily keep me engrosed for hours. His adorable accent asside he's a true storyteller, bringing the audience along on his adventures. Sure, ~80% of the audience was emo kids with their side swoop fringe and battered converse but everyone was captivated by what he had to say, be they a follower of him from the begining or, like me, a newbie that wanted to hear from the dude Patrick Stump wrote into a song.
I was late in (couldn't get out of work any earlier) but the interuption didn't faze him, he just continued on, I can't remember how long he talked for but it was all interesting. Awesome for a dude that does this for free, just give him some of your money at the end (in the tin or buy merch) and he's a happy bunny.
After the talk I bought both the books (did I mention how I wish he'd reprint the first one?) and a t-shirt (which, coincidentally, I'm wearing right now) the next thing was to find him and have a chat.
He is one of the lovliest people I've met, I said sorry for being late and he was sweet about it then asked him to sign my books, which he happily did dedication and all, even with my redic spelling of my name! We had a nice little chat about how he saw FOB play a few days previously (I had my clan hoodie on and I think his exact words were "Did you see that lot *points* the other night?").
My mission for April is to get a photo with him. (ets apr09: I failed in this, maybe October)

And I've gone off on a tangent but if you get a chance to read it I really recommend it, or at least go and read the blog posts.

[Jesse Richman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rough and honest.

[Trisha Sales · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't need to explain myself why this book, for me, deserves a rating of 5. Go read it for yourself. :)