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Ranking Chuck Palahniuk’s novels from Most Important to Least Important

September 29, 2012

Chuck Palahniuk is an important writer. Love him or hate him, he’s done more to bring reading to uninterested demographics than almost any other author. But how do his books rank? I decided to take some time to (as) objectively (as possible) rank all of Chuck Palahniuk’s novels from Most Important to Least Important as a way to help hew readers find the right Palahniuk book. What makes for an important book? It’s not necessarily a good story or well-written prose. I believe it’s a mixture of both, along with contextual relevancy, or “impact. For purposes of this list, I will be weighing the social impact of the book above any other metric. Here’s the list Socially relevant Fight Club (machismo and consumerism) Survivor (cult of celebrity) Invisible Monsters (cultural importance of and priority placed on beauty) Maybe socially relevant Haunted (the reality TV obsession and “Truman Show Syndrome”) Pygmy…

Getting the Signed Book – Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson (Video Blog ep 028)

September 22, 2012

A few years ago I attended a writing conference in Portland, Oregon called the Tin House Writer’s Workshop. During the event, I met a lot of great authors, one of which was Denis Johnson, author of, among many other books, Jesus’ Son. This newest installment of Getting the Singed Book features my heroic story of how I got my copy of Jesus’ Son signed by the author. It involves, among other awkward situations, the author nearly, almost, kinda drinking my pee. Read all about this almost happening at Dark Sky Magazine, here: http://www.cjrlit.com/DrinkingPee And don't forget: subscribe to my YouTube channel, subscribe to my YouTube channel, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe!

Video Review of The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (Video Blog ep 027)

September 15, 2012

The Orphan Master’s Son is a remarkable book. I’ve been a fan of Adam Johnson’s work since his story collection Emporium (which I credit as being a primary impetus to my own fiction writing), and though both books are stellar, they are so in such different ways. It’s hard to believe that the man who wrote Emporium is the same guy who wrote The Orphan Master’s Son. Perhaps the two personalities are a Jun Do/Commander Ga thing (reference to the book). In this video review you’ll suffer through my overt praise as well as my amazing Photoshop skills. Who knew Adam Johnson could so easily become Kim Jong Il?

Video Review of F*ckload of Shorts by Jedidiah Ayres (Video Blog ep 026)

September 8, 2012

The stories of Fuckload of Shorts by Jedidiah Ayres, which includes the stories that inspired the short film Fuckload of Scotch Tape, are the best kind of short stories. Each one takes an idea that, realistically should make for a horrible, shock-driven story, and instead delivers amazing noir fiction with beautifully rendered characters. Ejaculating a dead man? Yep. Selling corpses to a dog foot plant? Yep. In the hands of a lesser writer, these ideas would amount to nothing more than throwaway snuff fiction. But in the hands of Jedidiah Ayres, these ideas are simply climaxes of and catalysts for truly compelling stories. This video book review examines one of those scenarios in-depth: how exactly, logistically speaking, can one ejaculate a dead man? Yes, there is a whiteboard and drawings included.

100 YouTube Subscriber Giveaway – Open Through September 30th

September 1, 2012

100 subscribers! It’s a milestone, to be sure. The first milestone of what I hope to be many, many more. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed (and will subscribe, after getting a whiff of what’s being given away to celebrate this 100 subscriber achievement). As a thank you to all subscribers of this book channel, I am giving away a one-of-a-kind, handmade, leather bound edition of Warmed and Bound, an anthology in which one of my stories appears. Warmed and Bound is a truly exceptional collection of dark, noir-inspired stories of sometimes dystopian, sometimes too-real-I-wish-it-were-dystopian fiction. Authors include: Matt Bell, Blake Butler, Vincent Louis Carrella, Craig Clevenger, Brian Evenson, Stephen Graham Jones, Bradley Sands, Paul Tremblay, me, and many, many more, including a forward from Steve Erickson! Click here to watch a video trailer promoting the original Warmed and Bound anthology. I warn you, I’m no professional book binder.…

Getting the Signed Book – How the Hula Girl Sings by Joe Meno (Video Blog ep 025)

August 25, 2012

Hear the amazing, mostly made up story of how I got my copy of Joe Meno’s How the Hula Girl Sings signed by the author during the 2004 Association of Writers and Writing Projects conference in Chicago, IL. You’ll hear the first-hand account of how I knew Meno as a musician first and an author second, why I should be more sensitive to Hula throat issues, and why Joe Meno owes me a royalty check.

Who Wrote FCJR? Video Evidence from Skip Papersly

August 19, 2012

Skip Papersly, the newsreel voice behind Booked Podcast, attributes my existence to some sort of humanity. The fool!