Drenched in a sappy 80’s soundtrack comes Imperial Bedrooms, Bret Easton Ellis’ follow-up to his juvenile debut, Less Than Zero. Like its predecessor, Imperial Bedrooms is also named after an Elvis Costello work. This time the title comes from Costello’s 1982 album Imperial Bedroom. Slap a plural on there and off we go! The book [...]

After the death of Esther Hoffe (long time friend and secretary of Max Brod, and sole executor of Brod’s estate), the attempts to seize the final documents of Franz Kafka and Max Brod from the Hoffe daughters have transitioned from passive-aggressive to completely aggressive-aggressive. Over the past two odd years since Esther Hoffe’s death, no [...]

This book won’t save your life despite the bold claims on its cover. This book won’t even give you many tips on how to survive WSHTF (the survivalist acronym for When Shit Hits The Fan, according to the book). What this book will give you is an insight into the mid-life crisis of a fashionable [...]

The freeloader: hated by parents, friends, and roommates. Always around. Say you run into that freeloader you know and you ask them how they’ve been: “I dunno, I’m like homeless, man. My parents threw me out … so I’m like  couchsurfing, ya know?” And that’s how it goes. Murky language: “I’m like …  I dunno, [...]

I was first exposed to William S. Burroughs years ago. I bought Naked Lunch on a whim. Right before heading off to Mexico. While I was there, the book was one of the only things that spoke English. I found the writing wild, hilarious, and especially perverted … the worlds described are twisted and sick. [...]

Part of the BBC’s Arena TV documentary series, this is on the life and work of Kurt Vonnegut. (If the title wasn’t clear enough for you.) I don’t know how you feel about him and his books, but I’ve always sort of enjoyed his opinions and attitude. His books were never as dense or heady [...]

Anyone who knows much about Philip K. Dick, has heard this tag-line: “The Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet.” It was coined in 1973, by Paul Wiliams, and was published in Rolling Stone magazine. (And it’s a damn good description … although, I’d probably shorten it to “The Most Brilliant Mind on Any Planet,” [...]

Everyone has had big dreams at one point. The American Dream, you know? Big ideas and plans that leave us all important, respected, and wealthy … many of us even take that wild trip and chase our dreams … and in Charles Portis’ world, people are no different. Lamar Jimmerson, an American soldier at the [...]