The First Ammendment Project is putting together an auction to raise some money. There are a number of authors including Amy Tan, Michael Chabon and Stephen King who are auctioning off the oppourtunity for your name to appear in an upcoming book. The web page lists Chuck Palahniuk as well but he isn't listed on the Ebay auction page. He would be my personal first choice if I had the any chance of wining this kind of auction.
Books: August 2005 Archives
I finally got around to reading "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx.
It took me a little while to adjust to her writing style, but I found that I really enjoyed her amusing descriptions of the characters and scenes in the novel. I didn't have to read very long before I found myself quite interested in the fate of Quoyle and his family. I'll definitely check out some other books that she has written.
There were a lot of lines I really enjoyed, but perhaps the last paragraph in the book was the most haunting.
"For if Jack Buggit could escape from the pickle jar, if bird with a broken neck could fly away, what else might be possible? Water may be older than light, diamonds crack in hot goat's blood, mountaintops give off cold fire, forests appear in mid-ocean, it may happen that a crab is caught under the shadow of a hand on its back, that the wind be imprisoned in a bit of knotted string. And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery."
Annie Proulx, "The Shipping News"
I love the idea of "The Ministry of Reshelving". Check out the photos of people who are reshelving 1984 by George Orwell from Fiction into the Current Events category. I really want to do this next time I am in a bookstore.
[Link Courtesy of boing^2 and jennie.]
For sometime i've been meaning to read some of Edward Abbey's books. After coming across the quote below I think I'll have to bump this up on my priority list.
"Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am -- a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in and head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe-deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards." -- Edward Abbey
[Link courtesy of Anita Sharpe. Sadly she found that inspiring quote printed on the funeral program for her friend.]
