Excerpt of Greatness
Lou introduced me to Jack Dempsey, the great boxer. Jack shook his fist at me.
"You look too light for a heavyweight kid, you'll have to put on a few pounds. You're gonna have to dress a little finer, look a little sharper -- not that you'll need much in the way of clothes when you're in the ring -- don't be afraid of hitting somebody too hard."
"He's not a boxer, Jack, he's a songwriter, and we'll be publishing his songs."
"Oh, yeah, well I hope to hear 'em some of these days. Good luck to you, kid."
Outside the wind was blowing, straggling cloud wisps, snow whirling in the red lanterned streets, city types scuffling around, bundled up -- salesmen in rabbit fur earmuffs hawking gimicks, chestnut vendors, steam rising out of manholes.
None of it seemed important. I had just signed a contract with Leeds Music giving it the right to publish my songs, not that there was any great deal to hammer out. I hadn't written much yet.
Bob Dylan, "Chronicles, volume one," c.2004, Simon & Schuster
Finally started on the first of what will hopefully be several volumes of autobiographichal tales by Mr. Bob Dylan, who will be coming to Louisville with Willie Nelson on Wednesday, June 29 at Slugger Field.
Music afficianados can probably see Dylan's style in the above paragraphs. That's an excerpt from the first and second pages -- I have 290 more to read! Bliss!
I just finished a Victorian novel, loaned to me by someone (a little someone) who evidentally wanted to see me broken, crying like a baby. This novel took me through scenario after scenario of peril for the heroine. Then, in the end, she died. Drowned. Like a sad Celtic shanty. I read the page of her demise twice because I couldn't believe it.
In my mind, I have rewritten the ending. She lives, the bad guy dies, and the Catholic priest who loves her resigns his office so they can marry. And they live happily ever after. So there.
What have you Monkey Maniacs been reading lately, besides my ground-breaking blog? What is on your reading list for the next couple months?
posted by Bobby @ 4:54 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Just finished "48 days to the job you love"....then started "every man's battle" and that got interupted by "Growing in faith" and when that is finished I might try to finish "the jesus i never knew" and then move back on to "mere christianity". Oh yeah I'm also reading the bible and blogs if they count.
My blog counts. Literary treasure that it is ....
I just finished book 10 of the Wheel of Time Sci/Fi series by Robert Jordan. It is dynomite, although I am afraid he will die long before he finishes the series. Just started The Art of War by Master Sun Tzu.
Oh my goodness! Books! How I miss them! One of my objectives in quiting, er, graduating early, was to read/reread all the great books I never really had time for. But, alas, work has become more time-consuming.
I did, however, recently manage to enjoy several C.S. Lewis books (namely, The Screwtape Letters, Chronicles of Narnia, The Weight of Glory, and bits and pieces of others), Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (which I read in school but didn't really READ until now), and some of my favorites, How to Be an Evil Villian and A Tale of Two Cities. Oh, and I recently translated St. Augustine's Confessions. That was tough. I consider it a great accomplishment. Took forever.
I have SO many other books I'm longing to read. My dad lives in the country (complete with a near-lake-sized pond, rolling fields, forested hills, and numberous animals), and I can't wait to get a day to hang out in the hammock and just READ. The pile of unread delights is really too much for me to bear. *Sigh*
Ooh, and, hey, B-Dog, I stole, er, borrowed my parents' Bootleg Bob Dylan collection. *tears up* Wow. I assume you own/have heard these. Not that I was really surprised by them, but still... I think I had subconsciously traded in my Dylan, Beatles, etc., for Radiohead and Garden State soundtrack-esque artists. It's refreshing to come back to the stuff my musical tastes are rooted in. Talk about rockin.
I must clarify. I did not actually steal the Dylan collection. And it wasn't my parents', but my mother's. She is, after all, the music savvy adult in the house...
Tom, Brian, and E. We four are the only readers out of thousands of Monkey Maniacs. Amazing, but sad.
E: your taste in music is sublime, even if it is causing you to steal.
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