The Rough Guide To Fiction

Any person that enjoys reading and has the time for it should buy "The rough guide to Cult Fiction". It has profiles on a bazillion authors complete with recomendations and it tells what works are the best to start with.

This American Life

http://thislife.org/

A man plays a prank in the office, a person gets up in a dinner party to use the restroom, ordinary even mundane things become suddenly interesting on the NPR show "This American Life". A show broadcasted out of Chicago, it has been on for 10 years and shows no sign of stopping anything soon.

The show can be described as interviews set to music but there is so much more to it. The editing is done in such a way that usually the interviewer cannot be heard and it sounds like the subject is just telling a story. I read a small zine/comic book where Ira Glass shows how to do it and it is not a simple task.

Of course it isn't all interviews as several writers have also read short stories on the show as well. David Sedaris and Nick Hornby come to mind off the top of my head. In fact, Davis Sedaris sounds nothing like I expected.

Streams of all the shows are available on the site.

Recent Books I have finished.

Hey it's rare when I finish a book. I dunno why but it just is. I always start on really huge books and then give up. My worst offences are religous material. You would not belive how many books I have half finished. Dune, Peoples History of the united states, Soledad Brother, The Koran.

So you can see why finishing a few books is a big deal to me. As you can see from my listal account, I have a ton of books that I haven't read yet.

1. Sirens Of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Excelent piece of satire, I was laughing out loud quite often. This is my first Kurt Vonnegut book and I know for sure I will be reading more of his work in the near future.

2. Guns, Germs and Steel: The fates of human societies by Jared Diamond
Quite informative, I learned several things from this book and I often find myself quoting it in conversation. Of course it's sometimes hard to find people to chat about history and evoloution with. Some things are repeated several times and alot of people had that to complain about. I thought it really helped with my retension of the knowlege. I would read it again.

3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Extremely well written piece of literature. It took me about 6 months to read it. Of course I am always reading a few things at a time so some things just take a long time. Alot of people don't like this book or Ayn Rand in particular. I found it to be quite entertaining and I often find myself comparing real life people to characters in "The Fountainhead". Of course I see myself as Howard Roark. I would probablly read it again.

I am currently reading: The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond, Me Talk Pretty One Day by Davis Sedaris and Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keilor.