Catch up on my awesome Myspace Blog

Below I have posted my Myspace blogs just to get this thing going. I feel like it is appropriate given that Corey and Parker are the only people that have read them.   Saturday, December 15, 2007 A Farewell To Arms/Harry Potter Part I First of all – this is not another embarrassing weekend night post where I have nothing better to do than blog about the books I claim to have read. I was at Melissa’s Christmas party tonight, and we were forced to come home early because I was sleepy. On a side note, I made the rash decision to forgo wearing my suit, and instead decided to “dress up” my work clothes with a sweater vest. After arriving at the formal Christmas party, to my surprise, about half the male guests were in tuxedos, and the other half in suits. But whatever, fuck those squares. As you may have noticed in my previous blog, I took a little stab at Ernest Hemmingway. Well, that happens to be because I was halfway through the disaster that is “A Farewell to Arms”. The gist of this book is to describe the struggles of love and war during WWI. Well, Ernest gives you a first hand experience of this misery by forcing you to read this terribly boring and depressing story. I will give Ernest props though for pioneering an American writing style with shorter prose. I hate long and descriptive sentences/paragraphs/pages/chapters, and we can all thank Hemmingway for making them unpopular in American literature. At the end of the day though, you really should pass on “A Farewell to Arms”. There are books that are depressing, but still are very interesting – like that Kite Runner book. Then there are books that are depressing because the story sucks really bad and wastes about 10-20 hours of your life like “A Farewell to Arms”. Part II I held out for a long time on the Harry Potter series, but recently caved. Everyone demanded that I should read it because “Kevin – you are a fantasy nerd and will love these books. There are wizards and stuff”. Well, that may be true – but I am a more sophisticated fantasy connoisseur than that. Any jerk can write a book about dragons. You can try and dress it up any way you like, but Harry Potter is a kids book. Just like The BFG or James and the Giant Peach. These books are OK – nothing more. Everybody needs to wake up. If Harry Potter is your favorite book, then most likely it is the only book you have recently read. If you liked this book that much, it probably just means that you enjoy reading period. Try reading more than one book a year. The point I am trying to make is that if the only books you have read in the last 4 years are Harry Potter and The Davinci code, then I think I am better than you, and I don’t want to hear your suggestions about what book I should read next. Comments: Corey A few notes from the peanut gallery, - Hemmingway’s “Old Man and the Sea” is not only really good, but also very short. I read “old man and the sea” in one sitting at Barnes and Nobles. I really enjoy the short classics because it allows me to say I have read a lot of “good” books without actually having to go through the usual unenjoyable experience of actually reading them. See all George Orwell books. - Harry Potter books are a lot of hype and they are not GREAT books. Yet I have to say that I really did enjoy the books. As the books progress they grow with the reader, who admittedly is an 9 yr old boy for the first book. I dont really want to say much more about Harry Potter, but they are good books. - A question. Have you read the Thomas Covenington Books by Stephen R. Donaldson? They are said to be the best fanstasy books since Tolkien. I agree with that statement. - See the movie and read the book “into the wild.” I would actually recommend seeing the movie first. They are pretty similiar, but the book just gives you some enjoyable background.     Kevin Glad to hear that I am not the only jerk who tries to read entire books at Barnes and Noble for free. Your suggestion of reading short classics is brilliant. Unfortunately I just started reading Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”, which will be by far the longest book I have ever read. I agree that Harry Potter books are good, and I will probably read the entire series. I just don’t understand the wild enthusiasm for them from people over the age of 14. I did read the entire Thomas Covenington trilogy, at your suggestion actually, like a year ago. It was insanely good, but I am not ready to call it 2nd best. You should probably read The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks before you claim any other fantasy trilogy to be in 2nd place. I am going to a movie with Melissa today – I’ll try and get her to “Into the Wild” with me.     Corey The Thomas Covenant series is now a 9ology. With 7 of the books written so far. I read 4 through 6 in Australia and loved every second of them. You should check out the second cronicals of Mr. Covenant. Let me know what you think of the movie in post form.     Parker Good work on the blog, I don’t know what I was thinking missing out on it for this long. I remember liking A Farewell, but mostly because no one else in my English class did and I tried to make them feel stupid for not liking it. Plus that Catherine chick was pretty hot and the dude in the story boned her alot. I picked up Atlas Shrugged earlier this year but only got about a 3rd of the way through before the library stopped letting me check it out. Can I borrow your copy? It will probably take me most of 2008 to get through it. So far there is not a lot going on but the characters are very interesting and it seems to be building towards some big event. Let me know how it is.     Kevin The highlight of A Farewell is definitely the healthy dose of erotic stories. So far I am on page 289 of 1192 in Atlas Shrugged and I think it is awesome. It also does not shy away from some sexual content, which is kind of awkward given that this book came recommended to me as my Mom’s favorite book. My thought on this book is that it is too long for it to not be exciting, so if it goes for more than 30 or 40 pages of boring me, I am going to quit. So far I’ve been facinated.

Friday, December 07, 2007 East of Eden If you thought Of Mice and Men was good – which if you read it then you did, because it was awesome – then treat yourself to this epic version that is about 15 times longer, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. John Steinbeck is the best author of all the authors that teachers force students to read. Most of the standard “classic” books on teacher’s recommended reading lists are terrible. People either pretend to like them because they think they are supposed to, or they never actually read them because they are too long and boring. Yes, I am talking about you Ernest Hemmingway. Your books are boring as shit. I typically agree with the premise that any 750 page book is about 650 pages too long – but Steinbeck doesn’t waste a word. Or maybe he does waste a few. Similar to when you try to read LOTR and it takes about 200 pages to get out of the fucking Shire, it takes Steinbeck a little while to set the scene. But LOTR still ruled, and so does East of Eden. Check it out. Comments: Corey Another masterpiece I will borrow the book from you when I get home.     Corey Oh also I wanted to check if you were going to be coming out on the 14th to the Dutchess.     Kevin I’ll be there.     Maria Kevin – I’m glad to see you will be going out next Friday night instead on blogging at 11:00 on Friday nights about books. I do appreciate that you started these blogs again that you’ve were hyping so much a year ago (kinda like Eragon lots of hype, kinda disappointing). I look forward to what’s to come     Kevin Damn, I didn’t realize that. I guess I will have to write my next blog on Saturday night.     Brian You need to write a review of Wicked and let people know not to waste their time. I’m not sure if I am not smart enough to get that book or if it really sucked as bad as I though it did. Either way, it needs to be known that that book should not be circulated around people of my general IQ. ]   Kevin Brian – that was a very funny minny review of Wicked – I don’t think I could have expressed how I felt about it any better. It doesn’t have anything to do with how smart you are though – just how gay you are. All homosexuals enjoy that book.

Friday, November 30, 2007 The Golden Compass Read The Golden Compass before the movie comes out. It was a sweet book – and the movie looks very well done. I know what you’re thinking – “Kevin, you hyped Eragon last year, and then it was terrible. You are obviously an idiot who knows nothing about predicting what movies will be awesome.” Well… like you have never made a mistake. Or maybe you will hold my excitement for the movie “The Pathfinder” against me. That would be completely unfair. Who the frick doesn’t get excited about a movie based on a Viking vs. Native American war? (sidenote – checkout the previews for the movie 10,000 B.C. coming out this year. Caveman wars.) Bottomline, The Golden Compass is a sweet book. Nothing in the movie previews suggests that it will not be just as good. It is a trilogy too, so if you get in now, you won’t be that lame ass LOTR fan who never even read the books, or read them after the fact. Comments: Kevin Yes, this blog about a fantasy trilogy was made at 10:30 on a Friday night.     Corey Your blog is without a doubt my favorite thing on the web right now. Also on a side note I never got to see Pathfinder are you trying to tell me it wasn’t completely awesome? Another side note I tried to hack into myspace and give you 3 kudos but have yet to figure out how. If you know how please make a post about it. On a serious note I actually really do like reading your blogs, they are very similiar to the planned comedic bits you throw into the middle of conversation that make you such a treat to chat with. Hope all is well buddy. Love, Corey     Kevin I appreciate the kudos from my 1 man fanbase. It is not surprising that my blog reminds you of our conversations – given that both are scripted on Word in the middle of the night.     Kevin Update: I saw the movie tonight. It was very good. My only critique would be that I would add about an hour or two (more like LOTR) so that the film could better portray the depth of the world and characters in the book. I look forward to the sequal, as this one just sets the scene

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance So I am considering jumping into the blogging game, and decided to get my feet wet with a little review of a book I am currently reading titled “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. I generally believe that all blogs should be funny, but I find something awkward about sitting here trying to think of something funny to write, so this is just a regular book review. Mostly I just think of my friends reading what I am writing, and thinking “that is not funny”, and then I second guess my joke, and erase it. Hopefully humorous writing will come a little more natural after a couple of just regular unfunny blogs. The good thing about this book is that he has some cool ideas, and it makes you exercise your brain. The crappy thing about it, that I just discovered today, is that about two thirds of the way through, it turns into something amazingly complex and difficult to read. Actually, I don’t know what the hell he was talking about in the couple chapters I read today. Just out of nowhere, he started using words that normal people do not understand. He should take a hint from some authors of some of my favorite books such as LOTR, Dune, and Eragon, and put a freaking dictionary in the back for the weird words that nobody understands. Anyways, I look forward to bulldozing my way through the next 120 pages that it appears I will not understand. That is fun reading. Comments: Corey Good book though? His next book “Lila” is really good, but also gets really complicated a little way into it. Well keep up the good work in the blogging. I look forward to the next post.     Brian I got to where you are and decided the bulldozing was going to be too much work after having to bulldoze through the previous couple chapters. You will have to let me know how it turned out (if you were actually able to make it through….).