I've even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi.

I just finished Cash. I'll be the first to admit that I can't take his music, but it's a deep-seated prejudice that comes from being raised in the south. I am aurally incapable of distinguishing "good" country from "bad" country, the things that make it country just kill it for me. I know I'm not alone. [This is also why I cannot take Civil War books/movies.] But I can respect someone who has been doing it for so long, and he's a hell of a character.

So I have heard like 3 of his songs (and one is the NIN cover) but I read the wikipedia article when the movie came out, and then we saw High Fidelity when Steve was here - Rob says it's his favorite book - so I put it on reserve. It also goes well with my "drug memoir" theme this year. Although to be frank there's not a ton of drug stuff, which is understandable as it wasn't that much of a time chunk of his 50-year career. Still, as he put it, he was the first music star to be an asshole on drugs and trash hotel rooms and shit, although it's not exactly a legacy he's proud of.

The "assistant writer" really helped flesh things out, I thought. It's told in a manner more episodic than chronologic, and Cash the man's voice comes through. Even the Christian shit didn't piss me off too much, although him being friends with Billy Graham was a little yook. Anyway it's an imminently readable biography, once I got started. Kind of tempted to read his previous one now. And maybe interviews from the last few years.

Last night i finished The Demolished Man and started Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer's new novel. I don't know why Reg got that rather than Everything Is Illuminated, but anyway. It's about a kid whose dad dies in the WTC and how he finds a single key in a small envelope, and tries to find out what it's for. But it's kind of disturbing and I had really weird dreams about being manhunted in England. (There's also a nicely explicit section about the Dresden Bombing.)

I started reading The Gift of Fear last night and was so engrossed I read 3/4ths of it. I thought it was just going to be a self-help sort of book, but it's more of a bunch of case studies of stalkers, rapists, pedophiles, postal workers, wife beaters and assassins. The author carefully deconstructs these cases to show warning signs, all the while pointing out that you have the ability to detect these things yourself. He goes into details on the OJ case, and shows that restraining orders on violent husbands tend to lead almost directly to murder. The other bit is that he himself had a pretty troubled childhood and suspects the only reason he didn't become a criminal was due to a 5th grade teacher who believed in him.

I had a little trouble falling asleep though.

rats saw god, rob thomas

I woke up early, anxious about money, and cancelled a pending payment. Finished Another Day in Paradise by Eddie Little then headed to the grocery store. Bought fruits and meats and coffee, came home and made coffee, bacon, and smoothies. (Mix juice, banana, peach and raspberries in the blender.) Shook Reg awake, poured coffee down his throat, and he seemed to perk up a bit.

The Eddie Little book is pretty hardcore. Anyone who liked A Million Little Pieces should check it out. It takes place in the early 70s and is clearly pretty autobiographical. Junkie teenage boy and his girlfriend become thieves and learn to crack safes.

the web that has no weaver chinese medicine book
on wings of song thomas disch

thirty-nothing

Last night I was starving and I wasn't sure why. I had cheese on toast and then roasted a 4lb free-range chicken with olive oil and lemon juice and lots of various spices. Also, spinach salad. I became so amazingly full.

86% humidity. Fuck this.

I'm almost done with Paradise, an amazingly funny novel about an alcoholic Scotswoman and her alcoholic boyfriend. I wonder how much of it was based on her own life. I actually forgot it was a novel till someone in the book said her name.

I just finished The Economy of Cities, which is totally awesome if just a bit dated. Even the dated parts are awesome because you see what could have been done 30 years ago and still could be. Anyway the basic premise is that agriculture arose from cities, not the other way around, which actually makes so much sense that you wonder if you ever even knew how the other way round worked. And from there she lays out wonderful paths from which the gathering of people in a central place led to trade, manufacturing, and banking. And mass production and government. And why those last two things are bad in excess (Detroit anyone?). John, this one's for you.