Video Games are Real

Tag: Caleb J. Ross

  • Spoiler Alert Alert: This Video Burns Spoilers (Video Blog ep 033)

    Spoiler Alert Alert: This Video Burns Spoilers (Video Blog ep 033)

    Click the image to watch the video

    I don’t agree with the avoid-them-like-the-plague concept of spoiler alerts. To me, if a book can be spoiled by a simple plot revelation, then it’s not a book worth reading. I read for the journey, for imagery, vivid description, the language, concept, and on the list goes, but what remains interestingly absent from this list is plot. I don’t care much about the plot of a book.

    But that’s me. I know I’m in the minority. So don’t be surprised when I continue to write *SPOILER ALERT* every time I tell you that Tyler Durden and the narrator of Fight Club are the same person.

  • Why I Couldn’t Finish Reading The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano (Video Blog ep 032)

    Why I Couldn’t Finish Reading The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano (Video Blog ep 032)

    Click the image above to view the video

    It takes a lot for me to abandon a book once I’ve started reading it, and that struggle becomes more and more serious the further I progress through said book. So, perhaps this is why I was able to drop Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detective after reading just over 1/3 of the book (though, 1/3 is often too far for me to abandon a book; I suppose this speaks to what a true waste of time I felt The Savage Detectives to be).

    First, to address any of the friends who suggested I read this book: my faith in your taste is not diminished in the least. I believe my grip is mostly a matter of personal disinterest in the subject matter. I mean, no matter how good a book about baseball is written, I wouldn’t be excited to read it. The Savage Detectives is about teenagers without responsibility who worship poetry, yet refuse to do anything to enhance its gospel. I can respect people who share their world-saving ideas. I can’t respect people who claim to have world-saving ideas but keep them for themselves. Okay, I’m getting convoluted here. So, these kids think poetry is amazing. They think it has the power to change the world for the better. But instead of acting on that belief, they sit around, get drunk, have sex, and…that’s all.

    I’ve heard Bolano’s most famous novel, 2666, isn’t much different, in terms of what gripes I have with The Savage Detectives, so I’ll likely avoid it. But his short novel, By Night in Chile, seems different enough and might be worth my time.

  • Write Even When You Aren’t (Writing) (Video Blog ep 031)

    Write Even When You Aren’t (Writing) (Video Blog ep 031)

    Click the image above to view the video

    No book review from me this time. Judging by my recent history, it’d be a wise guess to say I do little more than read and review books. But such a guess would also be wrong. I also lounge in hotel chairs and talk about the problem of not writing as I—get this—don’t write.

    Are you a writer who sometimes has trouble…performing? Then this pill…uh, video… is for you. Don’t kick yourself for letting your partner down. Lack of writing happens to everyone. Really. It does. Even me.

    I hope my courage can be your courage.

    Also, did you know Jim Lehrer writes fiction? Yep. A lot of it.

  • Look mom, I made the cover of Noir at the Bar 2

    Look mom, I made the cover of Noir at the Bar 2

    Back for another round of booze, blood and bad taste, Noir at the Bar continues its assault on the literate world.

    Contributors include: Jedidiah Ayres, Frank Bill, Jane Bradley, Sonia L. Coney, Hilary Davidson, Les Edgerton, Nate Flexer, Matthew C. Funk, Jesus Angel Garcia, Glenn Gray, Kevin Lynn Helmick, Gordon Highland, John Hornor Jacobs, David James Keaton, Tim Lane, Erik Lundy, Jason Makansi, Matthew McBride, Jon McGoran, Cortright McMeel, Aaron Michael Morales, Scott Phillips, Robert J. Randisi & Christine Matthews, John Rector, Caleb J. Ross, Duane Swierczynski, Mark W. Tiedemann, Fred Venturini, Benjamin Whitmer and Nic Young

    You will definitely need to order this collection. Available (exclusively, I think) via Subterranean Books (online and in person), based in St. Louis, Missouri. The store is amazing. Help the indie bookstores, order a copy now!

    Click here to order Noir at the Bar 2

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

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

    UPDATE: While I still read most Palahniuk books, my main focus now is YouTube videos about video games. Check out my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross

    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 (Xenophobia, terriorism)

    Not socially relevant

    • Rant
    • Choke
    • Lullaby
    • Diary
    • Snuff
    • Tell-All
    • Damned

    The video is long, averaging about 1 minute per book (totaling about 12 minutes), but it’s a good enough primer, I think.

    In addition to this one 12 minute video, I recorded a series of mini-reviews of each book. Check out any of the videos in the playlist below. At the end of each video, you’ll see a series of links that you can click to continue watching other Palahniuk book reviews.

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

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

    Click the image above to watch the story of getting Denis Johnson to sign my copy of Jesus’ Son.

    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!

  • Day 2 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Day 2 of Does a Free Kindle Promotion Work?

    Some of you may have caught wind of the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin free Kindle giveaway that is currently going on now through August 28th. What you may not know is that I am also planning to post details about the giveaway—details such as the giveaway totals and the tactics I used to make people aware of the giveaway—every evening here on my blog as part of my Book Marketing Tests and Studies category. This post serves as the second in the 5(ish) part series.

    For full details about the test, see the first post here.

     Day 2 tactics

    • I was informed by a generous friend that $50 has been donated to promoting a Facebook message about the giveaway. Thanks to you, anonymous SuperPac donor.
    • 12:00 am (CST): Goodreads CPC ad at a $0.50 CPC bid and a $5 daily cap.
    • 5:28 pm: I sent an email blast to my 145 email newsletter subscribers. I assume many of these subscribers already caught wind of the giveaway via my 8/24 whorings, so I was sure to include a bit of an apology at the front of the email.
    Goodreads Ad

     

    Day 2 results

    As of 9:15 pm, 8/25/12, the metrics are:

    • Total copies downloaded: 677

    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the free Kindle store: #607
    • Daily highest rank (that I happen to screen-capture) in the book’s category/genre (which is Fiction > Literary Fiction): #23

    How am I feeling after this second day?

    Still pretty great. I’ve over half way to my download goal of 1,000. Though I’ve dropped some places in the free Kindle store ranking, I’ve gained a position in to overall Literary Fiction category. I do think, however, that I’ve about exhausted any distribution lists, so now I’m having to rely on word of mouth.

    Click here to read day 3 results > > >