"Thinking As A Science" by Henry Hazlitt. I payed 50 cents for it at a fuggin' garage sale and it's the best thing i've found in at least a few years.

I just read "Island of the Sequined Love Nun" by Christopher Moore. First book of his that I've read - liked it a lot. Moving on to "Lamb" next.

Steve V. wrote:Sparky, Ted Hughes is magnificent. Great find.

He had a fascinating, often tragic life. His first wife Sylvia Plath killed herself after he left her. Then six years later the next woman that he lived with, Assia Wevill, committed suicide in the same manner, this time taking their four year old daughter with her. There's a some fairly convincing arguments that the tone of Crow came partly from that.

A good friend of mine went to school in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire near where Ted Hughes lived, and once Hughes came to speak there. I should ask him more about this, but I remember him saying this was inspiring. Cool too, considering that the guy was near reclusive during this time.

I just finished a 'Flashman' book that was given to me as a joke - what fun! I shall read more of these, probably on hols.

Been in war-mode of late for some reason - prior to the 'Flashman' book, it was 'Naked and the dead' and I'm currently re-reading 'Meditiations in green'.

I need something full of silence and peace next - suggestions welcome.

"Tinnitus, Turning the Volume Down: Proven Strategies for Quieting the Noise in Your Head"

Out of necessity unfortunately...

I picked up both Suttree and the Norton Critical edition of Melville's short stories for seven dollars yesterday.

Scandalous.

I highly recommend to all of Tod Wodicka's first novel, All Shall Be Well and All Shall Be Well and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well. Don't let the title scare you off, nor the fact that it's about an alcoholic medieval re-enactor who brews his own mead. This is one of the smartest, funniest, saddest books I've read in a long time. I absolutely loved it.

I'm really digging Julian Cope's japanrocksampler. It's a testament to the writing (and the research) that I've been totally engrossed reading about music that, at least 98% of it, I've never heard.

I also recently read the 50th anniversary edition of On the Road, a book I'd been underwhelmed by when I read it in my twenties. Turns out it had been severely edited down--including most of the sex and drugs and visits to William Burroughs--and the new edition reproduces the text of the original scroll. That's right, it's one unbroken 300-page paragraph, which really does capture the frenetic rush of these experiences. I think it makes for a fine summer read, so long as you can stomach healthy doses of both boozy Romanticism and old school macho sexual politics masquerading as seize-the-day. The writing's first-rate, though--it really moves.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:This is one of the smartest, funniest, saddest books I've read in a long time. I absolutely loved it.

I'm buying this, right now, based solely on your recommendation.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:I'm really digging Julian Cope's japanrocksampler.

Some useless piece of fuck nicked my krautrocksampler. It was in my bathroom as toilet reading and somebody snagged it at a party. I love reading Cope. japanrocksampler is superb. Have you checked out his Head Heritage site?

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/

Always fascinating, this guy.