Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Geez, I didn’t know the PC guy was an author. John Hodgman’s his name, and this blurb by Tribune literary editor Elizabeth Taylor piqued my interest. (I mean, I didn’t even recognize him from his appearances on The Daily Show – what gives?)
His new book, More Information Than You Require, is billed as a satirical almanac.
Here’s his Wikipedia page, and here’s his interview with Boing Boing TV.
Posted on September 30, 2008
By The Beachwood Obituary Desk
1. “After David Foster Wallace became a twentysomething literary phenom – after the publication of his first novel (The Broom of the System, 1987) and short-story collection (Girl With Curious Hair, 1989) got the Thomas Pynchon comparisons flowing – he checked himself into a hospital and asked to be put on suicide watch,” Mark Caro writes in the Tribune.
“‘In a weird way it seemed like there was something very American about what was going on, that things were getting better and better for me in terms of all the stuff I thought I wanted, and I was getting unhappier and unhappier,’ he told me in 1996 upon the publication of Infinite Jest, the 1,000-plus-page novel that would cement his status as one the few modern-day literary giants.”
Posted on September 15, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
Books on my table that I’ve recently read and/or re-read and/or have been meaning to write about for a long time.
1. Drunkard. Neil Steinberg’s memoir of his battle with alcoholism.
2. Five Ring Circus. An account (and cautionary tale) of Vancouver’s successful 2010 Olympic bid by a University of British Columbia professor who led the opposition.
3. Moneyball. The Michael Lewis classic about how the sabermetricians have revolutionized the way thinking people look at baseball, using the Oakland A’s and their general manager, Billy Beane, as his case study.
4. Clinton in Exile. The unauthorized (and sleazy) biography of Bill Clinton’s post-presidential life.
5. See You In Court. Subtitle: How the Right Made America a Lawsuit Nation. A counterintuitive yet persuasive account by Thomas Geoghegan.
Posted on September 10, 2008
