Books & Authors : It's JUNE (best month of them all!) and I am reading.

Much better then your usual Dave, good work.

Just finished Flashover.

Starting Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell.

Awesome. I hope you guys inspire others to further my dominance of this (page of the) thread. heh heh

Me, I'm still on Confederacy, but taking in some poetry on the in-between. Vincent Millay at the moment. Also breezed through Sammy Hagar's autobiography the other night. Isn't much to the writing, but I'm a massive VH fan from way back, so I wanted the dirt on all that.

At the Mountains of Madness - Yes, it has taken me 30 years of reading to get to it.

My vision has been dropping precipitously over the past 7 years, (coincidentally the same time frame I've been with my fiancee) and I finally got a Kindle so I cna enlarge the fonts. My reading life has never been more radiant, so if you have any suggestions for a die hard admirer of Cormac McCarthy, Salinger, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and I could go on and on, I would love to hear them, either here or via PM.

@Jack, The Road is devastatingly perfect. Definitely in Cormac's top three. Yeah, I used his first name, we're pals. We hang out. Honestly, I'd probably wet myself and curl up in a fetal position if I ever got the profound honor of shaking his hand.

Hey, look at that!  Phil was here 6 minutes ago.  Coincidence?

What am I reading this month?  Phil's book.  Not whatever my avatar line says.  I think it still says I'm reading the Mailer.  I did not finish that one.  Phil's book is better.

Great success!

A Good Man is Hard to Find is amazing.  That story is so sweet and horrible at the same time.  It's a masterpiece.  

I'm in the middle of The Ceremony by T.E.D. Klein.  It's a slow starter, but that guy can build a story up.  The darkness in it is really intimidating.  It reminds me of the Exorcist a bit in its style.  I love it, but haven't had enough time to read much this month.  (writing, riding, and video games are fucking up my time)

I'm a huge fan of Flannery O'Conner. I bought The Complete Stories about a year ago. A great investment. I love her work. If you are expecting forgiving, you aren't going to find it from Flannery. She's pretty ruthless at showing how ugly people really are.

If Perfectly Natural was pulling punches, I'm really interested in what comes next.

I like when he says about she would have been a good woman, if there had been someone there to shoot her every day of her life. Some people are only genuine when there is a gun pointed at their face.

I think I'm one of those few rare human beings that are genuine even when there isn't a gun pointing at me. I think it scares people away, being totally honest as much as I can.

Just finished The National Virginity Pledge. I'm surprised I haven't heard / seen more people talking about it. The style kind of reminds me of Bukowski. It was pretty entertaining.

Starting Bonk by Mary Roach.

Also going to start another fiction book, just haven't made up my mind on what yet.

I think her stuff is great too. I've only read Stiff and Spook. Both are awesome. Stiff I liked a little more.

I kind of forgot about her. I had Bonk and Packing For Mars sitting on my shelf here for a long time now. Gonna try to get to them both in the next couple weeks.

So far, Bonk is pretty interesting. I'm only through the intro and some of the first chapter.

Everyone is fake, even when they are pretending to be real, even when they have convinced themselves they are real. There is always an ulterior motive, and underlying motivation for what they are telling people. What we express isn't our true self, but the image we think will fit the situation, putting us in the best light. I talk to people, and they lie, even when they have no reason to lie, there is the flick of the eyes, the twitch of the mouth, a momentary pause before denial, and I know this person lied to me.

That's why I write the things I write. When horrible stuff happens and people have given up hope, you start to see what sorf of person they really are. When hope is gone, all you have is yourself.

I'm a real downer today, for no apparent reason. I've been reading The Road a lot. Maybe that is why.

"think I'm one of those few rare human beings that are genuine"

You and Nick Caraway - am I right???

Nick Carraway...sighs.

So you just kind of called all of us liars. I'd disagree.

Dwayne, I should explain myself. Hopefully, I can redeem this confusion.

I was reading about somewhere AD made a good point about writing. You don't have to act it in order to write it. Something about stalking people in real life or murdering them.

Honesty is really hard to digest at times, and perhaps you're taking this personally? I can't speak for anyone but myself and I'm becoming stronger as a writer (and feel very elated about it) because I'm accepting the unleashing of my creative side that has been denied of breathing room for quite some time.

Sometimes we use fiction to convey the real truth. If I hadn't written that one story three years ago (or tried to), then I wouldn't have had so many life changes. I wouldn't have gone on the path I am taking.

There's a fine line between lying and telling the truth. Sometimes telling the truth is horrible, and sometimes telling a lie is bittersweet. I've been interrogated my entire life, so I have a hard time of making things up. I secretly envy those that make up stories.

I rather suffer the consequences of telling the truth than to live in a lie. (I'm only verbose when I'm passionate about something.) You can call me a truth martyr.

I guess I could say that lying can be two different things, depending on how the rear-view mirror is adjusted. It can be good and it can be otherwise. Just like telling the truth. Like admitting to being a stalker, and then being shunned for being one. Well, bad example. But I guess online stalking is a trend nowadays. If it wasn't for a certain group, I would try to be off all social networking sites.

Well Dwayne, you know I love you, in a kindred spirit way, right? Right? I know it's bad, but I try to take almost every writing seriously on here. Call me gullible, but don't send me away. I like it here. You have no idea how hard it is to find a decent writing group locally that would fit my weirdness.

That's why I write the things I write. When horrible stuff happens and people have given up hope, you start to see what sorf of person they really are. When hope is gone, all you have is yourself.

I'm a real downer today, for no apparent reason.

Hey there, we all have our ups and downs. Hang in there. You'll be okay. When hope is gone, it's true that all you have is yourself, but when you reach out...someone will do his/her best to reach you back. It's a matter of timing and luck. You may think that you're alone and no one can help you, but that's what is so great about being a writer, you create characters to solve your problems. Give me a little roar here. Tiny roar. You can do it, dude. (Okay, I'll try to be less goody-goody here.)

I started out loving House of Leaves.  I thought it was the most intriguing book I ever read.  But then it began to get annoying.  Long sections that just didn't resonate with me.  I bought and read the Whalestoe Letters; the entire thing didn't do anything for me, I just didn't connect, didn't care.  So, House of Leaves...I feel like I should be loving this book, but it's hard to love a book that annoys so.  I'm reading Love in the Time of Cholera for a book club I run, so for the moment, House of Leaves has been put on hold, but I plan to return to it.  Will soon start audiobooking A Study in Scarlet for another book club I belong to.  

Sounds comprehensive.

Reading Volt by Alan Heathcock. After seeing it show up in some magazine columns on here I figured I should pick it up. It's a total page-turner. I'm about 60% though it and so far I would give it my seal of approval, if that's worth anything.