Mike's Picks

[B_Buster]

Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death

I second that this is essential reading. 

Thirded.  We are all gods with anuses.

I'm reading it again. This is my favorite Ernest Becker quote: "And yet this, after all, is the quintessential meaning of anality: it is the protest of all of man's cultural contivances as anal magic to prove that of all animals he alone leads a charmed life because of the splendor of what he can imagine and fashion, what he can symbolically spin out of his anus."

[B_Buster]

I really enjoyed The Phenix City Story. It's a semi-documentary noir about a corrupt city in Alabama. Great stuff! And still shocking 55 years later.

[mike_b]

I'm re-reading The Sot Weed Factor right now. I think everyone here would like it a lot.  Especially Mike and Fredericks.

It's a huge sprawling conspiracy satire about a gigantic dork set in colonial times.

Check it out

[fonpr]

I'm re-reading The Sot Weed Factor right now. I think everyone here would like it a lot.  Especially Mike and Fredericks.

It's a huge sprawling conspiracy satire about a gigantic dork set in colonial times.

Check it out

Whoa!

[B_Buster]

I've had the Sot Weed Factor on my bookshelf for a couple decades now. One of these days...

Right now I'm reading Final Cut by Stephen Bach about the Heaven's Gate fiasco. Then I'm going to read The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon about the Bonfire of the Vanities fiasco. I'm into fiascos these days. Maybe because I'm living in one.

[Wes]

Right now I'm reading Final Cut by Stephen Bach about the Heaven's Gate fiasco.

I seriously thought of the other Heaven's Gate as I was reading this post, since I could see them also falling into your field of interest, and the Final Cut title had a very different meaning until I realized my mistake.

[B_Buster]

Surprisingly, Wes, I have no interest at all in those other Heaven's Gaters. Compared to Jim Jones, that weird nerd was a piker.

[Christina]

I've had the Sot Weed Factor on my bookshelf for a couple decades now. One of these days...

Right now I'm reading Final Cut by Stephen Bach about the Heaven's Gate fiasco. Then I'm going to read The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon about the Bonfire of the Vanities fiasco. I'm into fiascos these days. Maybe because I'm living in one.

I fucking LOVE books about movie failures for some reason. In addition to the above I also loved Hit & Run about Peters & Guber. Those guys are failures more in a cultural sense rather than a financial sense.

PS Not only Barth but Gaddis as well for me. I have learned though. I have kept only one novel by those guys. If the spirit moves me, I'll read the one I've held onto, but I'm drowning in books enough as it is. I'm actually about ready to donate a fuckload of them to Housing Works.

[B_Buster]

I loved The Emporer's Naked Army Marches On! What a surprise, huh?

[Martin]

Yeah, it's great, isn't it? What a guy, that guy.

[fonpr]

a fuckload

What's That?

[Christina]

a fuckload

What's That?

One quarter of a pallet.

[DJ Clem]

Failed movie books are great, and I also love several books about music that I can't stand, particularly the 60s-70s So Cal scene. Any book mentioning the D.Geffen/Asylum Records stable, or CSN&Y and their ilk is going to be juicy. I'm also looking forward to checking out ..And Party Every Day: The Casablanca Records Story. But for sordid, ultra-sleazy Hollywood behavior, John Phillips's Papa John is the one to beat.

[DJ Clem]

PS Mike, I'm sure you already know about Fiasco, which dedicates a chapter to each of those movies along with Ishtar, Popeye, Paint Your Wagon et al...

[dave from knoxville]

I'm re-reading The Sot Weed Factor right now. I think everyone here would like it a lot.  Especially Mike and Fredericks.

It's a huge sprawling conspiracy satire about a gigantic dork set in colonial times.

Check it out

I should try it again; I tried about 12-15 years ago and couldn't get to page 100.