In his new biography, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising, author Ken Roman details the life and times of one of the most interesting, eccentric, and brilliant minds of the 20^th century.

Roman, a former colleague of Ogilvy’s and one-time CEO of the firm Ogilvy & Mather, gives readers an inside look at David Ogilvy, advertising genius and creator of some of the most well known advertising campaigns in history. The Rolls Royce tagline Ogilvy wrote in 1958 is still considered by many advertising experts to be the greatest tagline of all time: “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise comes from the electric clock.” Roman details this and many more of Ogilvy’s advertising exploits, but these stories are only a prelude to the heart of this book, which is all business.

Cleverly disguised as a riveting biography, Roman’s book is actually a tome on business management. Regardless of your interest in advertising, marketing, or public relations, this book has much to offer every business executive about management and what it takes to build a successful business.

For example, readers learn how Ogilvy was able to take a small, London-based advertising firm with virtually no U.S. clients and turn it into one of the most powerful communications companies in the world? He achieved this feat by drawing from his sundry experiences as a salesman, chef, college dropout, spy, farmer, and researcher to build a company and culture that attracted, fostered, and retained some of the best minds and best clients in the world.  One example of Ogilvy’s unique leadership and management style comes from his use of Russian Matryoshka dolls. Ogilvy would periodically send these dolls to each of his company’s directors. Inside the largest doll was a smaller doll. Inside the smaller doll was an even smaller doll, and so on. Inside the very smallest doll was a note from Ogilvy that read: “If we hire people who are smaller than we are, we will become a company of dwarfs. If we hire people who are larger than we are, we’ll become a company of giants.”

Ogilvy, in stark contrast to many modern day business executives, constantly communicated his philosophies, thoughts, concerns, successes, and ideas via notes, letters, memos, drop-in visits, books, speeches, Russian Dolls, and “Magic Lanterns” (slide and film presentations given by Ogilvy to new hires). When you went to work for Ogilvy & Mather, you weren’t just going to work for any company. You were going to work for the company with the red carpet in the hallways and the high ideals. Ogilvy used to compare his firm to a great hospital. Ogilvy said, “Great hospitals do two things: They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we touch young advertising people.”

At times, Roman gets mired down in tedious details about the history of advertising and those who shaped it. Those readers who have a true interest in the field of advertising will appreciate the detail, but the average reader will find himself wanting to skip ahead to the timeless business lessons. Roman, an advertising man through-and-through, can’t be faulted for his devotion to his craft.  But don’t let these sections deter you from soaking in the aspects of this book that will alter the way you run your business.

In parting, let me leave you with a few of my favorite Ogilvy management maxims:

“There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second-rate work.”

“If you ever find a man who is better than you are, hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself.”

“Only first-class business and that in a first-class way.”

“First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.”

“The most effective leader is the one who satisfies the psychological needs of his followers.”

“When people aren’t having fun, they seldom produce good advertising. Get rid of sad dogs who spread gloom.”

- R. Stephen Prather, Guest Reviewer

Between the Covers, The Book Babes’ Guide to a Woman’s Reading Pleasures, will satisfy your reading urges in a most pleasing manner, providing well researched and well written recommendations for your every mood and need. Whether you want to “Make Peace with Mom,” “Save the Planet,” or “Get Involved” you’ll find a book that feels as if it had been hand picked for you. Halfway through the book, and over half a deck of post its later, I stopped marking each must read and decided to always keep this book nearby.

– Jozi Hall, BWB Aquisitions & Guest Reviewer

Before a recent trip to Savannah, Georgia, I was asked the same question each time I mentioned the city: “Have you read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?”  I wondered why so many people found this book to be synonymous with Savannah and decided I’d better check it out.

The author, John Berendt, explains how he came to Savannah on a whim in the 1980s and became fascinated with the city and people he met.  He recounts the decade-long murder trial of wealthy antique dealer Jim Williams, weaving the lives of his circle of friends and enemies into the storyline.  It’s easy to forget that the book is based on actual events as the eccentric characters blend with a suspenseful murder mystery and make it read like fiction.

Berendt includes interesting facts about the city’s history, giving insight into modern Savannah where the book has a noticeable presence in the city.  It is referenced at almost every tourist attraction.  Additionally Mercer House, former residence of Jim Williams, has been transformed into a museum and replicas of the “Bird Girl” statue from the book’s cover can be found throughout the city.

So now I get it.  If you’re taking a trip to Savannah…this is a must read.  And you might want to check it out even if you don’t have a trip planned!

- Kathryn Gosaynie, BWB Aquisitions & Guest Reviewer

In his latest book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, shatters many popular notions about success and proves again why he is one of the most interesting, intelligent, and talented writers of our time. Gladwell’s book helps readers understand what an outlier is-a value, observation, event, etc. that is numerically distant from the rest of the data -and why outliers matter.

In Outliers we get what business books should really be like; part psychology book, part business book, part history book, part sociology book, and part anthropology book. You don’t have to worry about going cross-eyed from reading too many business buzz words or meaningless platitudes. Outliers is chock full of amazing, interesting, and educational lessons about opportunity, success, and failure.

One such lesson is the triumph of hard work over natural talent. Gladwell demonstrates that bands like the Beatles, programmers like Bill Joy, chess prodigies like Bobby Fisher, and billionaire software gurus like Bill Gates didn’t achieve success because they were talented. They achieved success because they were talented and willing to apply 10,000 hours of practice to their respective crafts and trades. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”

To illustrate the value of the 10,000-hour rule as he calls it, Gladwell introduces readers to some interesting history about the Beatles. What most people don’t know about the Beatles is that they perfected their craft playing seven days a week for eight hours at a time in front of live audiences in strip clubs in Hamburg, Germany. Over a two-year period from 1960-1962, the Beatles played 270 nights in strips clubs throughout Germany. By the time they had their first bout of “real” success in 1964, they had played 1,200 times together as a band. The Beatle’s success is more a result of their hard work than their natural talent.

But Gladwell doesn’t stop there. He challenges our notions of success in every chapter with questions like: Why are so many of Canada’s elite amateur hockey players born in January or February? Why of the seventy-five richest people in human history are fourteen Americans born within nine years of each other? Why is the smartest man in the world (at least according to his IQ) living on a horse farm in Northern Missouri writing a book on the theory of everything no one cares about? What does rice farming have to do with being great at math? Why are there so many family feuds in Kentucky? Why are so many of today’s top Wall Street law firms run by people of Jewish descent?

If you think these questions are intriguing, wait until you read the stories that accompany them.

This book will amaze you, frustrate you, inspire you, and leave you wanting more. But, most importantly, it will help you understand the roots of and pathways to success. Here’s a hint: it’s not just about natural talent. And isn’t that good news for us mere mortals?

– R. Stephen Prather, Guest Reviewer

One book, I currently see from time to time, is entitled Blink.  Blink examines the value of a quick decision.   One of the studies Blink discusses involves showing a group of people short clips of teachers giving a lecture (with no audio).  Another group is shown still photos of the same teachers from the clips.  Both groups are asked to rank the teaching ability of the teachers based on either the photo or the silent 30 second clip.

The results showed the ratings each teacher received based on photos and clips were remarkably similar to the ratings the same professors received from their full time students after a semester of teaching.   From what I have read so far, Blink supports the notion that a quick decision is often an educated decision.  Although I feel this study simply illustrates our species loyalty to superficial conclusions.

Some people have a natural fear of snakes and others have a natural fear of spiders.  These fears make sense considering the problems our
species has experienced over the centuries do to both species.  Perhaps these fears are based on the same instinctual knowledge that
allows us to make smart quick decisions.

The human brain is the product of years of learning things the only way us humans truly learn anything…the hard way.

I discovered my fear of electricity by touching an electric fence.  Twenty minutes later I discovered that it is impossible to touch a electric fence
twice.  My curiosity made me want to “make sure it was an electric fence” but my brain would not allow my hand to make contact.

Just as I learned not to touch the fence again perhaps the human race has learned from collective experience and perhaps there is something to that gut feeling that helps us make life’s quick decisions.  Although I have only read the fist 50 pages of Blink, I feel I am able to review the book with confidence using the “blink of an eye” decision making the book examines.

Now you want to know if you should read it, right? You should. If for no other reason than to know what kids today are up to–not that they’re hanging out with vampires, but you know what I mean. The book is long, at almost 500 pages, but like Harry Potter it’s a fast read. I’m not saying this is the most literary book you’ll ever read but it is fun. Stephenie Meyer’s take on the vampires is a new slant with some good and some not so good. Her writing is very visual so you can really picture the characters and the locations. She also has a very good grasp on Bella the teenage girl that is the main character. The book is written in the first person and for the most part Bella is believable. She experiences the kind of devastating fully committed love in that special way teenagers do.

There is also a great baseball scene in the book that reminded me of the Quidditch matches in Harry Potter and that I am very much looking forward to seeing in the movie.

If you’re worried about it being gory or too much for your teenager or pre-teen, I wouldn’t worry about it. There’s very little violence in the book and surprisingly very little blood.

There’s some good set up in the story for book two, New Moon – so if you like this one, which I think you will, you’ll most likely have to read on.

Inherit the Land, by Gene Stowe (non-fiction)

Last month marked a historic time in our nation as we elected our first black president. It was amazing to see the emotion on children’s faces truly filled with hope, that  anyone could become president someday.

As we celebrate this important moment in our history, it is important to remember the victories that occurred along this long road to breaking down racial barriers.

Gene Stowe’s Inherit the land tells of the south in the early 1900’s, when it was common place for white mobs to ignore the laws of the land and routinely beat and torture blacks. Yes, slavery was over, but white America was far from accepting blacks as their equals.

Stowe’s book tells of the Ross Sisters, white women who dared to be different, showing everyone love and compassion, regardless of skin color.  They  took a black family in with them and lived with them like  one family. When the last Ross sister passed away in 1920, they left their entire estate to the black family that had been living with them. This decision outraged the local community, and several of the Ross’ cousins came forth to file lawsuit against the will.

Amazingly enough, the will was upheld, showing that even in these dark times, there was hope for a brighter future.

Inherit the land is a great read, a good tribute to the heroes that have been fighting civil right battles in America years ago that helped pave the way to our historic election this year.

I have heard so many great things about Christopher Moore over the years that I finally had to go check him out for myself. And where better to start than at the beginning. Practical Demonkeeping is Moore’s debut novel and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Not to use a phrase that could come back to haunt me, but I was totally sucked in.

The book has the pace and intricacy of a Carl Hiaasen mixed with a sort of sarcastic and silly demon world. Think Sick Puppy meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer except the heroes are not so attractive or nice or successful.

If you’re not drawn in by the premise, check out some of the characters – you’ve got a small time drug dealer called The Breeze, an obese police data expert called The Spider and sometimes the Nailgun, a demon named Catch who postpones his killing to enjoy the Magic Fingers of a motel room bed, Billy, a cross dressing hotel clerk who is sometimes called Roxanne and Gian Hen Gian the king of the Djinn.

And if that isn’t enough to get you reading, here’s my favorite quote from the book. When Travis, our hero, is asked what morality is, he replies, “It’s the difference between what is right and what you can rationalize.”

(If you like Christopher Moore, check back for an interview with him coming as his new release approaches in 2009!)

Everyone has a favorite cult book.  Maybe it’s Fight Club, maybe it’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, maybe it’s something else.  For me, it’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Robert Pirsig does an amazing job of exposing the less philosophy educated, but interested, in a whole new way of thinking about the world.  As a young man brought up in a Catholic household, his concept of “Quality” as the divine, in its way, was racy and delicious.

Fewer have read his effort: Lila: An Inquiry into Morals.  Lila delves deeper.  In the same way Atlas Shrugged was used as Ayn Rand’s soapbox after priming the pump with the superb “The Fountainhead,” Pirsig knows you’re bought in to an extent, so he’s going to dive in deep.  At one point he chirps “Metaphysics is a diner menu with 30,000 pages and no food” and thusly seems to wash his hands to the need for food in the text.  He weaves around a story down a river, as opposed to on a bike, with his own morality in his sights and that of other characters, be they real or created for the vehicle of the story.

Fundamentally, the problem with Lila becomes not that it fails to entertain; it is dense but appeals to the inquiring mind.  Rather it is that this text is a kind of basis for the same mysticism based new-age philosophies that become relative and in their relativity become dangerous.  Although Pirsig thankfully shies away from “The Cloud of Unknowing” concept in which any attempt to attach names to “the Divine” furthers us from understanding it, he still clings to the fact that connotation refracts the light of knowledge and thusly obfuscates the reality of experience.  Even in his oft-cited example about a hot stove and the “low quality experience” of sitting on it, he muddles something tangible and physical with conclusions much deeper than “that was uncomfortable” opting instead for the “dynamic” nature of realizing the issue andb amending it and the consequent “static” nature of writing into your mental code “do not sit on hot stove.”

Regardless, Pirsig’s writing is clean and anyone interested in the concepts will be satisfied not only by his execution, but by his elocution.  And besides this is the stuff that dorm common rooms were made for.

When we get entrenched in something that takes so much of our day, be it work, a significant other, or the curious amalgamation of the two in the form of our “craft” (be it writing, playing music, dancing or whatever), we often fail to see anything else.  As someone who went to school for classical guitar and English, I picked up Glenn Kurtz’s Practicing: A Musician’s Return to Music.  I figured “Hey, I lapsed from guitar too and need to return!  I like to write too!”  But even I, in my love of these simple joys have trouble at times delving into the indulgence of Kurtz’s writing.

His tacit statement of genius is part of the affect of the book.  I get that.  His descriptions of the music and practice are excellent, and if nothing else, perhaps that is his true genius, even when he can be bogged down in technical details that only a player could truly appreciate.  “The Inner Game of Tennis” talks about Tennis strokes, but it’s hardly only applicable to that field, right?

Trouble is, Practicing never decides what it wants to be.  Is it a memoir?  Is it really just cataloging a journey (one that gets muddy around his trip to Europe)?  Is it a book about the artist’s challenge as human?  Through the end, one is never clear on what the point is.  In a society so prone to oversharing, it’s hard not to feel as though this is one giant well-written nostalgic blog post.  I’m not knocking Kurtz’s writing–it’s very functional–and hey, I’d read the blog.  I know the pain of losing contact with your instrument.  I understand the constant tension between achieving and faltering and being an artist or a worker trying his art.  I merely wonder if this book helps that understanding along or his instead is merely an affirmation of the sentiment.

I have always been a fan of Lisa Jewell, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Remember a few years back (okay more than a few) when Bridget Jones’s Diary hit the big time and we all wanted to read anything British? Well that’s when Lisa Jewell hit it big in the states

Ralph’s Party and Thirty Nothing were really great – and though Ms. Jewell is marketed as chick lit, her characters are very real and likable as well. I think it’s fair to say she got that label because chick lit was all the rage at the time. In fairness, her books should really just be considered contemporary fiction.

Vince & Joy is kind of like a British When Harry Met Sally except that instead of starting out friends, the pair in this story start out as lovers – each others first, in fact. Circumstances separate them and they go on to live their own very normal, very that-could-be-me lives. We experience them over a nearly twenty year period as they live their lives and bump into each other every several years along the way. The supporting cast is well thought out and interesting from the parents to the roommates to the transgender neighbor and the psychic cat.

This book piqued my interest not because of the obvious timeliness of the release with the election, but because Dave Eggers contributed the writing for Illinois. I don’t recognize any of the other authors, but What is the What and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius were both great reads.

I just ordered my copy and I am interested to check this book out. So far I’ve only seen 32 states and this book might be a way to check some others out. Look for a review in future posts…

Thoughts on SABC review of The Night of the Gun:

One thing that the reviewers seem to miss (although I think the moderator gets it about halfway in) is that this book isn’t intended to offer emotional insight to “why I used drugs” or anything of the sort.  In the same way that it eschews catharsis it must then avoid the lure of nostalgia and emotionalizing the situation.  Although perceived at times as its weakness, the coldness and detached nature of his writing may not offer the insight that you’re looking for, but it at least makes an effort at being more of an “objective” account than most of the crap recovery novels out there.  The point at which I am frustrated by the review is when they discuss someone else’s recovery novel in which the author kills himself before the end of the book (and it’s a true story).  The desire and tendency to romanticize the work of those that are gone becomes tiresome.  No, that author can’t engage in the “smugness” that Carr does about his current life, and I too am somewhat suspicious of the complete turnaround Carr had considering the brevity of the process, but that doesn’t make one book better than the other, it just captures two people at their most disparate states: alive, and still struggling versus dead and “at peace.”

Fundamentally however, I like a lot of the points raised, most notably that the book, by design lulled me in and out of caring about it.  On one hand the construct was interesting and on the other the nature of the book had a kind of alienation effect in which I would remember I was reading a book and was not longer lost in the story.  This was frustrating.

I don’t know why I thought I would do better with the topic of The Almost Moon.  It’s a tough one to swallow, too.  I’m not giving anything away by telling you that on page one we learn that the main character has killed her aging mother.

While the work is crafted with great skill – the main characters are all fairly unsympathetic and the opening chapter is so disturbing I almost put the book down.

That said, I do think The Almost Moon would make a good book club selection if you can stomach it.  The conversations it would open up and the character discussions could be very meaningful and engrossing.  I can just hear my book club both complaining about it and really getting into it.

However, after she answered a question I had for her on twitter (in regards to the capitalization of the word “minister” in a strange context), I thought I owed her text a chance.

It arrived a few days ago, looking very orange and not overly imposing.  I delved right in and within some 15 minutes I had already found a number of intuitive rules that I knew previously as well as fleshing out those I was definitely confused about.  She even sometimes supports splitting infinitives (Ah! The horror!  Meh, whatever… I’m OK with it).

In any event, for the casual writer or anyone who wants to improve their written communication (especially those Wall St. suits that are busy making resumes?  Man am I glad I got out of there when I did…) this is a solid addition to your bookshelf.

To give you an idea of why his book is particularly boring, try this quote on for size: “[Web 2.0] worships the creative amateur: the self-taught filmmaker, the dorm-room musician, the unpublished writer. It suggests that everyone — even the most poorly educated and inarticulate amongst us — can and should use digital media to express and realize themselves. Web 2.0 ‘empowers’ our creativity, it ‘democratizes’ media, it ‘levels the playing field’ between experts and amateurs. The enemy of Web 2.0 is ‘elitist’ traditional media.”  Oh heavens no!  Next thing you know people with degrees in History and Poli Sci will be writing books about the internet!  Come, help me scoff at the so-called “art” of the proletariat.

For that matter, isn’t that the best part of the internet?  I love being able to see and hear the creative output of thousands of people with no budget, who would never be signed by a major label and never would have Payola to get them on the radio, people who would never get a book deal selling tons and filmmakers with a whole new canvas to go with their liberation.  Not everyone can afford NYU film school, talent or not.  The Web provides us with an unbelievable view, not into the uber-educated necessarily (although those people are certainly represented online as well).  I wonder how someone like Keen can be so displeased with the collective editing of information when the past has been riddled by books in classrooms dominated by serious biases of the authors (hence the wild popularity of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn).  Really, he’s just an opportunist: it’s always sexier to disagree with the populous on something-to criticize the great work of art-to try and make a name for yourself than it is to agree and try to innovate.

His elitist, aristocracy loving, democracy hating pandering can be read here I would get busy eviscerating the tedious, pedantic tripe that is this text, but Speak Media did a great job.  Enjoy! (and notice the reviews of the book, 198 reviews, 2.5 out of 5 stars).

Robert Giroux, who passed away on Friday at age 94 was the editor for the first list and the publisher for the second.  The man had a freakish connectedness in the literary world, having done everything from publishing Orwell’s 1984 to having the following conversation with T.S. Eliot (which I liberally steal from the NYT):

“His ambition to write might have prompted an exchange with Eliot, then in his late 50s, on the day they met in 1946, when Mr. Giroux, “just past 30,” as he recalled the moment in “The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes,” was an editor at Harcourt, Brace. “His most memorable remark of the day,” Mr. Giroux said, “occurred when I asked him if he agreed with the definition that most editors are failed writers, and he replied, ‘Perhaps, but so are most writers.’ ””

Giroux was a man who went from high-school drop out to publishing house luminary and did so with considerable skill and success.  Anyone who loves great literature should take a moment and think about an extraordinary man whose talent and risk-taking produced some of the finest works ever published (and even wrote a book himself).

In any event, this level of connectedness is not to be ignored, and therefore let me suggest that you both pick up the excellent article by Smith, if you enjoy writing, and the solid, if at times dusty, work of Wood.

This won’t affect us TOO much so the vitriol is dialed down, but this kind of exclusivity, should it become more commonplace, won’t exactly make booksellers love Chelsea Green.  For that matter, with B&N leading the way, it would be surprising if other booksellers didn’t take the hint and get on board for next time.

The reason this is such a problem is that this book is poised to make some noise in the book market.  This summer, two of the 5 bestsellers in this area (hardcover non-fiction) have been Obama bashing books, namely, current #1 seller Obama Nation and current #6 The Case Against Barack Obama.  With the wild popularity of this polarizing figure, the time for a well-written positive book to come out is now, where sales will be massive in counter to these bashing books sales.  The lucrative nature of this means that Amazon paid a premium for this exclusivity and that it hurts local and indie stores even more on a guaranteed success.

For those of you not in the know, the OED (or Oxford English Dictionary) is the bible for our language.  Have a question about a word?  Check the dictionary.  Having an argument with a Ph.D or need an etymology?  Check the OED.

Personally, I only have used it online, but apparently for those of you who are stonger than I, there is a print version.  To give you an idea of how intense this really is, the subtitle of the book is “One Man, One Year, 21,730 pages.”  YIKES!  This task sounds David Blaine-esque, but I like it.

Haven’t read it but sounds by all accounts to be really interesting/funny as it doesn’t pick apart the words so much as the words and task pick apart the author.  The OED I’m sure is fascinating, but I’ll stick to light reading, CSI or ping pong…

I’m not going to weigh in on the societal effects created by product names, it’s not what I’m good at.  What I am good at, however, is finding books for you to check out if this kind of thing interests you.

It’s a little bit of a heady book at times, and don’t let it’s small stature fool you, it’s a bear, but “I and Thou” is also a fantastic philosophical look into the way our own language and understanding of it changes our feeling or tinges it.  Martin Buber navigates claustrophically narrow nuances of language and blows them into vast expanses of thought.  Whether it’s the difference between saying “I’m sorry” where you just free yourself or asking someone “forgive me” and putting the power to them to free you, this book endeavors to show that sometimes the Thesaurus is not more factual that a bad English translation.

Currently we have none in stock but we do have this excellent analysis:

On the left we’ve got Delaware Senator Joe Biden as the Vice Presidential candidate.  From him we’ve got last year’s effort: Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.  (Note, this has a 4.5 rating averaged from 41 reviews… whoa.  That’s quite high for a political book…)

For the right side meet your offering, the 44 year-old Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.  Unless your name is Rudy Giuliani there’s not much of a chance that you’re below Washington level politics and have written a book, so we can’t see any of Palin’s scribing, but we can go to old faithful, Wikipedia for some info.

When more (book related) info comes out, you’ll be the first to hear it.

Pick up at Newberry Library, Chicago, with Better World Books and Endless Eye

In other news an official letter was sent out to Pacodes (Walk Sudan’s partner) with details of Better World Books participation in the project. The highlights include that Better World Books has committed to front the money for the shipment of all the books to Southern Sudan. This will allow us to begin coordinating the spring shipment with Books for Africa. We look forward to working with Walk Sudan, Endless Eye and PACODES to fill the library in Panyijiar, Southern Sudan.

In any event, the article is sharp and can be found here but the point of most note is the end:

Those concerned about the compression of our sped-up language are directed to “Linguistic Ruin? LOL! Instant Messaging and Teen Language,” by Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis, an article in the spring 2008 quarterly “American Speech” (dukeupress.edu). My choice for most influential and seminal language book of the year is “Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World,” by Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University in D.C. (Oxford University Press, $30). She’s a scholar who can write in real time with real words.

I haven’t read it yet but consider it ordered.  Anyone read this one?

In my quest I even went so far as to read One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish, The Aeneid in Latin and tried to muscle my way through Dante’s Inferno in Old Italian (this, admittedly, proved to be too difficult).  I was ready.  Armed with my library card and Half.com I plowed through books on my hour long train ride and subway commute to and from school each day and in classes and at lunch, but eventually, an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, and that object was Jane Austen.

Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was simply too much to bear.  As a 17 year old boy, commuting to school everyday with thousands of others on their way to New York City, I couldn’t make the jump to that era and persona.  I could struggle to breathe with Vonnegut in Dresden, I could tackle an enormous beast (and play the cuckold) with Sir Gawain and I could even serve in a field with a Jesus-esque slave, but I could not for the life of me wear jodhpurs and muscle down the clandestine courtship of a big house novel.  This would prove my undoing as I would later be derailed by Hardy’s Far from the Maddening Crowd.

So I ask you reader, at what point do you know to put down a book?  I feel that there are too many great books to be read to suffer bad literature, but when is the point where you say “I give up?”  Or do you soldier on, looking for the redemptive qualities as your eyes cross and head turns to mush?

On the plus side, my education up to that point (it was about halfway through my senior year) had been solid on the literary front and I loved books so I didn’t actually have to cover all 100, probably only about 70 of them.  The quest enraptured me though, so I found other lists, differing in selection, to make sure that I had truly read the greatest 100 and not just a crude selection made by a team of marketers and all of the sudden I was up to more than 100.  Yikes.

I started taking out 7-10 books each month and soon became well known to the librarians who gave me help with inter-library loan and quizzical looks when I offered my quest.

I was coasting through senior year and the help came from teachers as well.  I had gotten into Holy Cross and was killing my classes so most of them let me read whatever book I was working on instead of listening to the lectures in exchange for hearing how it was going or talking with me about the books (thanks Doc Kennedy!).

For the most part the effort was amazing, I opened books I never would have thought to read that I loved (Call It Sleep by Philip Roth, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Federalist Papers, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and others that I loved anyway (Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand) and books with some of the most troubling and engaging characters of all time (Humbert Humbert of Nabokov’s Lolita, Raskalnikov in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey).

[Continued in next post...]

I realized in my viewing fervor as they repeatedly mentioned old greats or referenced Olympic glories or disasters that my own knowledge was limited at best.  Sure I remember Barcelona, Atlanta and Athens just fine, I even have my thoughts about Nagano, Lillehammer, Turin and the others (Oslo maybe?).  But if I’m going to spend this much of my life on this, I need to educate myself better.  Come along:

Owning the Olympics First things first we need to know about this one.  After watching the CRAZY opening ceremonies, I want to know more about this Olympics and about China as it appears they’re coming into their own as the world’s superpower.  1.3 billion people and a massive martial arts/explosives presentation with lighting up war drums.  Yikes.

Get Talking Chinese This simply couldn’t be a bad idea.

A Century of Olympic Posters This is perfect, I love graphic design and you can tell so much from the promotional material of any event.  Besides, is this not a supreme coffee table book?

Triumph No history of the Olympics would be complete without information about Jesse Owens.  This particular is written by Jeremy Schaap, who also wrote Cinderella Man, the book that became a movie starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zelweger (directed by Ron Howard I believe).  Jeremy is not as sharp as his father, Dick, but I trust that this account will be excellent.

Rome 1960, the Olympics that Changed the World I keep hearing about this book as it’s rather new.  I’m inherently reluctant to read something with a decidedly histrionic title, but if this Olympics truly changed the world and I have no idea what happened there, sounds like I had better get reading.

Pre As a runner and lover of athletic lore, there is no better story than that of Steve Prefontaine.  He was the first athlete to ever wear Nike shoes (his coach was building them by hand) and he was an all-around running stud that made Oregon into the track powerhouse it has been since.  His story is both invigorating and tragic, but totally worth reading.

His story is at once inspirational and sticky, covering everything from addiction to various related illegalities (no doubt the capillaries of such serious problems) to raising children and the foibles of relationships in a life when you can’t even handle personal responsibility.

On the plus side he is no apologist, he is very clear about who is at fault and that he was making serious mistakes–for which he has atoned to whatever extent one can in a perhaps short stint of sobriety.

His approach as journalist rather than nostalgist is a placement that should prove more appropriate than other stories about substance abuse that create a carefully arranged menagerie of facts, but qualms are still to be found.  For one, undoubtedly you are going to make some other people look very, very bad, including possibly your own family, if you engage in something like this.  Although the idea could be to clean one’s own slate, the fact is a story like this can smack of a certain self-indulgence–the duality of dragging oneself down to try and come out cleaner on the other side.  I’m not going to indict Carr for selfishness, hopefully that behavior was at least mostly left by the wayside along with his affection for drink, but the possibility is there and the risk is high when relations have already been strained.

Ultimately, I would say check it out, see for yourself.  David Carr is a great writer, and perhaps it behooves us to give him a chance, recognizing the lack of makeup, even if his cross-bearing is live and in HD.

In the same way that the Russian composer group: “The Mighty Handful” of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakriev and Borodin defined what it meant to be a Russian in music, Solzhenitsyn takes his place among brilliant minds and realist Russian philosopher/writers such as Tolstoy and Doestoevsky.

Having brought the world around to see the terrors of the Gulag, the prison system in Russia, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in literature in 1970.  Like Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn was increasing critical of the cultural systems of the west (particularly lashing out against rock music when he was exiled to the US) but fixed on a goal of ameliorating a situation many had given up hope on in his home country, then the USSR.

The amazing part about him though, is the time and tenor under which he wrote his works.  Today, if someone as prolific as Solzhenitsyn were to go to a publisher he would be awarded a lucrative book deal and a massive marketing campaign, but because his work was deemed “subversive to the Russian state” he stated this in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: “…during all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared this would become known…”  But luckily for us, his works would see the light of day and cause a huge uproar in the USSR and USA alike when the three volume Gulag Archipelago came out and rocked the public in a fashion similar to if a prisoner were to release a tell-all about Guantanamo (and there were even less info about it currently).

Hitchens writes that “Solzhenitsyn lived as if there were a thing as human dignity” and one is tempted to believe him.
_______________________

Find his works here.  My suggestion would be not to start with Gulag, but rather with A Day in the Life… or if you love Dante’s Inferno try on The First Circle which is about the first circle of hell where the writers and intellectuals are cursed to stay for eternity.  His writing The Cancer Ward is also unique as he spent time in a ward while cancer almost took his life in 1954.

Amidst the spatterings of James Patterson’s Cross and Danielle Steele’s The Long Road Home it is admittedly a breath of fresh air for the twenty something male, but I can’t help but wonder how 12 years of books aren’t able to take a somewhat mediocre tale off the shelves…

If we’re going to assess Kay Ryan, we’re going to need to delve deeper than her experience, we’re going to need to, as my former “Modern American Playwrights” teacher would say, “please use the words, Mr. Hanlon, not the ones in your head but from the page.  Or at least try a mixture of the two.”

Before we do that however, it’s important to note some things.  First of all, Ryan has an decidedly alternative background from your average Poet Laureate.  She’s a left coaster who opts to teach at a small community college north of San Francisco.  Next to note is her engagement in the community could not be less like Pinsky or Collins (with his Poetry 180 project to bring poetry into high schools), from her own speech:

I have always understood myself to be a person who does not go to writers conferences. It’s been a point of honor: the whole cooperative workshopping thing, not for me. I have never taken a creative writing class, I have never taught a creative writing class, and I have never gone, and will never go, to anything like [The Association of Writers and Writers Programs], I have often said.

Once, when I was about twenty-five and not yet entirely aware of the extremity of my unclubbability, I did try to go to a writers conference. Thirty minutes into the keynote address I had a migraine. It turns out I have an aversion to cooperative endeavors of all sorts. I couldn’t imagine making a play or movie, for instance; so many people involved. I don’t like orchestral music. I don’t like team sports. I love the solitary, the hermetic, the cranky self-taught. Make mine the desert saints, the pole-sitters, the endurance cyclists, the artist who paints rocks cast from bronze so that they look exactly like the rocks they were cast from; you can’t tell the difference when they’re side by side. It took her years to do a pocketful. You just know she doesn’t go to art conferences. Certainly not zillion-strong international ones, giant wheeling circuses of panel discussions.

It is interesting then, that she has been handed the mandate of “promoting poetry” (in the vague sense) as Ryan has been more low-profile loner than academic and promoter and in her hermitage, more Solipsist than Ascetic.  How will this mesh with the “office” of PL and will it force Ryan to step outside her comfort zone?

For that matter, when one relies on a

writing process [described] as “a self-imposed emergency,” the artistic equivalent of finding a loved one pinned under a 3,000-pound car. These “emergencies,” she says, allow her to tap into abilities she wouldn’t normally have, much like a father who single-handedly lifts a vehicle off his child. (from here)

one can’t help but wonder the frenzy inspired by writing for assorted State events.  If a normal writing in Northern California is lifting a 3,000 pound car then a gathering of the most powerful men and women in the world must then be a Superman like feat.  One can only hope that adrenaline doesn’t eschew technique for ideas of talent.

Ryan’s no slouch, though, that can’t be denied.  Winning the Ruth Lilly Prize in 2004 netted her $100,000 and being picked from obscurity like a hopeful on American Idol, and this time with no Simon (nor drunk Paula Abdul) to stop her from ascending to the most prestigious position around in her profession.

Her writing at first glance is a study in William Carlos Williams (a previous Laureate himself) in its shape and dependence on white space on the page, but her own frenzy disallows her from the poignant conciseness of his work.  Instead, she maintains a degree of precision and opens the doors for further commentary, not just painting a scene, but shading in it’s emotional landscape.

The aesthetic quality of Williams never seemed overdone, and rather it seemed a necessary element, whereas Ryan’s can become tired.  There are only so many times I am willing to accept the need to put every single line
in a three
or perhaps then a
four line phrase,
and her work is
rife with it.

I was ready to maintain my frosty front against Ryan, I was ready to scoff at her approach and wait to either by wowed or to make myself motion sick from constant eye-rolling, luckily, the wow came first:

“Repulsive Theory”

Little has been made
of the soft skirting action
of magnets reversed,
while much has been
made of attraction.
But is it not this pillowy
principle of repulsion
that produces the
doily edges of oceans
or the arabesques of thought?
And do these cutout coasts
and in-curved rhetorical beaches
not baffle the onslaught
of the sea or objectionable people
and give private life
what small protection it’s got?
Praise then the oiled motions
of avoidance, the pearly
convolutions of all that
slides off or takes a
wide berth …

Undeniably carrying her own sense of solitude, or repulsion from groups (or you name it), “the tone is both ironic and sincere; it is the case, I think, that repulsion is genuinely seen as a virtue, but there is a loss that the speaker skates over—namely, the loss of true intimacy, of the possibility of sustaining a genuine “private life” while also not withdrawing from the clamor and love and pain of the world around you.” (Slate)

In an America that lives with the reality of terrorist attacks, ongoing war with no end in sight and rising costs with a drooping dollar, one wonders if the withdrawl is more appropriate for citizen than Laureate but tiny emergencies won’t be hard to conjure.

After dabbling in Collins I was drawn naturally to his predecessor, Robert Pinsky, who was (and remains) teaching at my college sweetheart’s Boston University.  At the time he was engaged in a fantastic process that I learned about (via Slate), the Favorite Poem Project.  Although his own writings, take At Pleasure BayEliot but relatively “sexless” in the decidedly non-literal sense (think Pinsky is to Mozartian flute as Eliot is to on the street nighttime tenor sax)–his project had something real and meaningful to it.  It involved famous authors, commonfolk and Pinsky himself reading the favorite poems selected from some 18,000 Americans. for example, were decidedly too “Etudes in Modernism” for me– the aforementioned poem reeking of the lyrical quality of

In their ways, Pinsky and Collins each brought something decidedly American to the role of Poet Laureate, Pinsky in the ultra-literal: taking his post and creating a forum promoting both poetry and patriotism in its way, and Collins in the less expansive but more interwoven: investing (and inventing) himself in the tradition of American Poets with a sense of oral tradition-like storytelling.

Since then the (rather silent) tenures of Glück, Kooser, Hall and Simic have gone untested by my eyes and work-feebled brain.  It’s time I reentered the field; let’s talk about latest Laureate, Kay Ryan.

[to be continued tomorrow]

In Pittsburgh, a graffiti artist decided to tag the library with the quote “I wish I were a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”  Now the careful reader recognizes the lack of a line break after “claws” as the author would have intended.  But the best part is really that the graffiti artist attributed the quote to a “J. Alfred Prufrock.”

The line, cribbed from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is arguably the most famous work (although some would say The Wasteland) of expatriate Modernist master T.S. Eliot.  The question here really, is how do you have the level of education to quote the line exactly, but so grossly botch the attribution thereof?  God forbid someone mismatch his own work with that of Banksy (although Banksy would never be so sloppy).

Oh, and who tags a library, I mean really.

Sidebar (from yours truly, a total Eliot nerd):

For your enjoyment, the full poem is here, but I personally can’t stand reading poetry online, in which case you want to pick up any of the following:

-A great copy of The Wasteland (with annotations from Ezra Pound, who was his introduction into London society when the premiere critic of the time read “Prufrock” and said to Pound something to the tune of “Your friend doesn’t need a publisher, he needs an asylum.”  This is a great text with which you can work through the poem).

-The Complete Poems and Plays (this one is just great, try “Four Quartets”)

-Old Possums Book of Practical Cats (this is not good, just don’t go here)

-The Sacred Wood or Christianity and Culture (if you like G.K. Chesterton you’re going to love these, when Eliot delved into Christianty he did so with restraint and a distinctly intelligensia/modernist tinge, very interesting!)

Randy Pausch, notable computer science teacher at Carnegie Mellon died today, finally succumbing to the pancreatic cancer that he knew would take his life eventually.  Pausch, perhaps more known for his inspirational Last Lecture, given on September 18th 2007 (and subsequently published), was 47 years old.

From the AP –

The talk was videotaped and subsequently criss-crossed the world via the Internet. More than 3.2 million people had viewed the “Last Lecture” on YouTube alone as of Friday, and according to Carnegie Mellon, tens of millions have watched Pausch’s inspirational talk.

“If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you,” said Pausch, the married father of three young children, at the start of the lecture.

He focused in his talk not on his illness but on “my childhood dreams; how I believe I have been able to enable the dreams of others; and, to some degree, lessons learned… how you can use the stuff you hear today to pursue your dreams or enable the dreams of others.”

Pausch outlined his own childhood dreams, which included writing a World Book Encyclopedia entry, experiencing zero gravity and creating Disney attractions — all dreams that were fulfilled…

“If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself,” Pausch said. “The dreams will come to you.”

The talk spawned a book, called “The Last Lecture,” which was translated into 30 languages and topped best-seller lists around the world.

The book was an attempt by Pausch “to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children,” he was quoted as saying by Carnegie Mellon.

Here we have the hardcover (and large print) + audio CD.

G. Norman Collie said, “In free countries, every man is entitled to express his opinions and every other man is entitled not to listen.”  Well here in the US of A, we’re facing a huge election–involving the first fresh face in our leadership in eight years.  The success of any election in democracy relies on those same platonic ideals as free capitalism: perfect information for all involved.  Well, I don’t have that information for you reader, and here’s a hint, neither Fox News nor Drudge Report nor Keith Olbermann nor Pat Robertson nor the Daily Show has it for you.  You’re going to have to go out there and cull it for yourself from all the myriad places.  There’s going to be a lot of opinions, reader, and you’re entitled to listen, or not.

On the plus side, we’ve never had so many different sources of information, but at the same time we’ve never had so many sources of misinformation at the same time.  One thing you can be sure of however, is that your own thoughts and arguments are infinitely bolstered by knowing those of the other side (little debate tactic for you, yeah, I was in forensics in high school).  In honor of that, it doesn’t matter who you think is the best candidate, get out there and educate yourself.  I promise you that there are facts about each presidential candidate that you don’t know and may change your view.

Don’t let this come down to “I’m a _______ so I’m going to vote for their candidate.”  McCain is one of the most liberal Republicans in many years, tempering conservative ideals with an understanding of the problems of the people and Obama is one of most likely to spur on positive change in the political process and to be willing to do whatever is necessary for those in need.

Educate yourself, reader.  Besides, everyone knows that “reading is sexy” and as Oscar Wilde would quip “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”

To get you started, the latest texts from the preeminent candidates:

P.S. – for the eco-inclined, Cradle to Cradle is also waterproof.

Not that:

For the hundreds of our BetterWorld.com customers who are still buying James Frey’s book, A Million Little Pieces, and the hundreds more thinking about it, I have one suggestion: you deserve better.

If you’re looking for a memoir about addiction, scrap Frey’s book and check out An Officer and a Junkie.  Here you’ll find a well-documented story about a humble guy named Mike Winder going through the horrible realities of addiction.

The story begins as his parents drop him off for his first day at West Point Military Academy and chronicles how he became addicted to various drugs. His drug use at first is reminiscent of a Hunter S. Thompson dope journey but changes course as the years of drugs take serious toll on his body, his mind and his relationships with family.

Mike and I grew up together and he was one of my first friends when my family moved to a new town.  We often played hoops together, caused trouble here and there, but also stayed up late occasionally doing homework or studying for physics tests.

The fact is that An Officer and a Junkie simply has more value for people and society. Chances are that, whether you are aware of it or not, you know someone that is an alcoholic or a drug user and functions in his or her everyday life. Some people can even achieve at the highest of levels while simultaneously stuck in the snare of addiction (some examples – Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, and Mickey Mantle).

I saw my friend Mike during most of the stages of his book, from his acceptance to the Academy, his drug abuse, graduation, addiction and recovery. He lives with the physical and mental repercussions of his drug use everyday – his doctors assure him a lifelong sentence of antipsychotic and mood-stabilizing medication – but he is committed to sobriety and living a healthy life.

We all know about the James Frey Oprah debacle. If you think it’s important for a memoir to be true and want to read a good book, check out An Officer and a Junkie.

Which is more important in this case: the story or the truth?