Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn (2013)

From amazon.com

“He is what the land and the country are all about, the heart and soul of it personified…”. Bob Dylan.

“It’s called country music and western music, but the truth is it’s American music. It speaks in story about America in a way that speaks to all of us, north, east, west, and south.” Richard Nixon at a White House concert.

With the holiday gift giving season fast approaching, there’s no surfeit of books on musical artists. Books on Charlie Parker, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Robert Plant, Jimi Hendrix, and no doubt others will be on the bookshelves. But certainly one of the best is Robert Hilburn’s book on Johnny Cash.

Hilburn began this book in 2009 when Cash’s manager told him “only about twenty percent” of Cash’s life had been told. While previous books on Cash put his life and music in some kind of perspective, Hilburn…

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December 28, 2013 0

Monoculture: New reading for the new year

December 28, 2013 0

pyrajane’s review #33: Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones

Cannonball Read V

When I heard there was a massive biography of Jim Henson coming out, I was excited and worried. I wanted to know more about the man who created so many things that I’ve enjoyed throughout my life, but I knew I was going to cry when they talked about his funeral. I was also worried that he might turn out to be a jerk, even though I had no reason to worry about this. But still, what if the guy who brought Kermit to life ended up being kind of a dick? I don’t want that knowledge in my head.

Happily and not surprisingly, Jim Henson was lovely.

Brian Jay Jones spent several years with those close to Jim and the result is a wonderful book. Reading it was pure pleasure because of Jones’ writing style. It’s conversational, emotional, smart and incredibly informative and was extremely satisfying. The combination of…

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December 28, 2013 0

Quotetastic Friday

November 24, 2013 0

On the Books: Cary Elwes to write book about ‘The Princess Bride’; J.R.R. Tolkien biopic in the works

November 24, 2013 0

“Another orange juice, with a little vodka in it this time” (Donald Barthelme)

Biblioklept

SNOW WHITE had another glass of healthy orange juice. “From now on I deny myself to them. These delights. I maintain an esthetic distance. No more do I trip girlishly to their bed in the night, or after lunch, or in the misty mid-morning. Not that I ever did. It was always my whim which governed those gregarious encounters summed up so well by Livy in the phrase, vae victis. I congratulate myself on that score at least. And no more will I chop their onions, boil their fettucini, or marinate their flank steak. No more will I trudge about the house pursuing stain. No more will I fold their lingerie in neat bundles and stuff it away in the highboy. I am not even going to speak to them, now, except through third parties, or if I have something special to announce — a new nuance of my mood…

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November 24, 2013 0

10 Reasons Why Cormac McCarthy Is A Badass

November 24, 2013 0

“Directions for the Construction of the Text” — Albrecht Dürer

Biblioklept

“Directions for the Construction of the Text” — Albrecht Dürer

(From Of the Just Shaping of Letters).

THE letters which are usually called “text,” or quadrate, it was formerly customary so to write, although they are now imitated by the new art, as presently I shall show below. Although the alphabet begins with the writing of A, yet shall I (not needlessly) in the first place undertake to draw an I; because almost all the other letters are formed after this letter, although always something has to be added to it or taken away.

First make your I of equal squares, of which three are properly set one over the other; and the top of the top one, and the bottom of the bottom one, divide in two points, that is to say, into three equal parts: then set a square equal to the others in an oblique manner…

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November 18, 2013 0

Quest For Mars Continues

Eleventh Stack

Today in 1971 the Mariner 9 became the first space vehicle to orbit another planet–Mars. With India’s recent pursuit of its own mission to the red planet, the allure of Mars remains a fixed point on humanity’s collective horizon. As you might imagine, plenty of ink has been spilled over Mars exploration. We’ll take a moment on this auspicious day in the history of space exploration to highlight a few items from our own collection.

Red Rover : Inside The Story Of Robotic Space Exploration, From Genesis To The Mars Rover Curiosity by Roger Wiens. As the chance for a manned mission to Mars within the next decade or more grows less and less likely, this book focuses on the history and future of the next best option, robotic proxies. Equipped with state of the art tech that delivers the next best thing to actually being there, robotic…

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November 18, 2013 0

BREAKING: A (Not At All) Exclusive Q&A with Anchorman & Literary Legend Ron Burgundy

BookPeople

Let Me Off at the Top: My Classy Life & Other Musings, the riveting new memoir from Anchorman and Literary Legend Ron Burgundy, hits our shelves in a storm of mahogany-scented wonder this Tuesday, November 19. In the most highly anticipated book of the year, Burgundy reveals his most private thoughts, his triumphs and his disappointments. He takes us from his boyhood in a desolate Iowa coal-mining town to his years at Our Lady Queen of Chewbacca High School. Let us tell you – it’s one wild ride.

Pre-order your tickets to the gun show right here and we’ll have one of these puppies waiting for you when they come out of the box Tuesday morning. In the mean time, we’ve landed a not at all exclusive interview with the man behind the book jacket – Ron Burgundy.

What aspects of your childhood or upbringing have endured with you…

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November 17, 2013 0