Jer Jeremy's Lame Website Dome
Word.
The Scale: * - Run: fly away, for your literary well-being | ** - Mildly Tolerable: Like the sober end of a drunken conversation | *** - Out of the Outhouse: You needed to go, but it wasn't the best experience you've ever had on a toilet. | **** - Cautiously Optimistic: Like a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, with the parents. | ***** - Sweet Inebriation: Mind-bending drunk-good, but without the consequences of a hangover or a stranger person in your bed.
Child of the Appalachian CoalfieldsChild of the Appalachian Coalfields: by Robert C. Byrd (in progress)
**** - Get over the fact that this book is written like Tony Cavalier talks (the word "lad" is used a lot).  So far, I'm about 200 pages into an 800 page autobiography of the senior senator of West Virginia (and the entire nation), and I won't lie, if you can can get around the weird language, it's not bad.  Wrap your head around this: he calls his membership and leadership role in the KKK both a blessing and a curse.  How very odd.
Me Talk Pretty One DayMe Talk Pretty One Day: by David Sedaris
***** - If this guy had a lame website of his own, and wrote things on it every once in a while, and then somebody told him: "hey, you know what you oughta do?  You oughta take all of those things you wrote about stuff that happened to you and make that into a book," and if that actually all happened and he got published, you'd end up with this book.  Basically, it's a book of stuff about him growing up, being an unqualified teacher in Chicago, and moving to France and learning another language.  And it's funny.  All of it.
Hocus PocusHocus Pocus: by Kurt Vonnegut
*** - The dude in this book does a lot of killin' and gets laid a lot, and then wonders, I wonder if the number of people I've killed is equal to the number of women I've boned.  And then there's a story that fills in around that, with a college for the idiot children of rich people and the Japanese ownership of, everything.  This is the first Vonnegut book I've read, and probably not the best one out there, but it was cheap and at Taylor books on the sale table.
The Devil May CareThe Devil May Care, 50 Intrepid Americans and their Quest for the Unknown: ed. by Tony Horowitz
** - Did you know the Duncan Hines was a real person?  He was some dude that rolled around the midwest, and ate at a bunch of places, then reviewed them, and then got famous, and wrote books, and voila, he's got a cake mix named after him.  And that's his legacy.  And, oh yeah, he qualifies as an Intrepid American in this book, a collection of 50 encyclopedia articles about people who are now dead.  They're all introduced by little vignettes from the book's editor, which are all better than the actual articles.  Interesting people, bad writeups.  I now know why this sold for $3.99 at Taylor Books.
Cities and the Creative ClassCities and the Creative Class: by Richard Florida
* - I'll save you the time: The cities that thrive most lure talented people and have a lot of artists living there.  Business incentives don't tend to work very well.  That's it.  Oh sure, there are a lot of charts and bar graphs and such, but since I haven't been a nerd since high school, I don't really care.

War Reporting for CowardsWar Reporting for Cowards: by Chris Ayres
**** - Are you a wuss?  That's right, you're a pussy.  Admit it.  If you've ever been duped into doing something you didn't want to do at work, and then didn't have the guts to tell your boss that you didn't want the assignment, congratulations.  You're a girl in a party dress.  You're also very likely to like this book, which is a memoir from a reporter for the London Times who doesn't want to go to Iraq, then goes, is frightful for his life every day, and then comes home.  After nine days.  You hear a lot about intrepid reporters who go to the most dangerous ends of the earth with only the story in mind.  I'd be willing to bet that there's a lot more people out there like this guy.  I couldn't put this book down, although maybe that's because I was flying back from London and really didn't have anything else to do.  Still , it's good.

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