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Archive for the ‘Brock Clarke’ Category

Brock Clarke–An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England (2007)

Posted in Books about writers, Boston, MA, Brock Clarke, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Marillion, Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Meta, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator on September 27, 2007| Leave a Comment »

arson.jpgSOUNDTRACK: MARILLION-Fugazi (1984).

fugazi.jpgAh, the delights of Marillion. My best friend in high school, Al, got me into Marillion. And he started me off with this record. As such, I can’t imagine how I could realistically critique it. I must have listened to this thing hundreds of times at this point. I also got into the other Marillion albums (until the theatrical madman and lead singer, Fish, departed). I did get one post-Fish album, Season’s End, but didn’t think too much of it. Although I still regard them highly, and anyone who names an album Anoraknaphobia is still alright in my book, I haven’t heard a note of anything post-Season’s End.

Fugazi, on the other hand is still fantastic after all these years. Fish’s lyrics are often bitter, but always eloquent. (more…)

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What I learned…(14) [Judging a book by its title]

Posted in Brock Clarke, Digression on September 19, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I was walking past the New Books shelf in our library last week and saw a book called An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke. What a great great title! How could I resist? Now, I know you should never judge a book by its cover (but of course I do), but should you judge a book by its title? We’ll soon find out, as I put aside the two other books that I had started (and by jiminy, there’s a new terry Pratchett coming out any minute too!) to dive into this wonderfully titled book. So far (70 pages in) it lives up to its title. We’ll see if he can keep it up, and we’ll see if I have a started a new superficial way of deciding books. Frankly, this title is quite a relief, after spending all day looking up books called Destiny (8 different authors in our library system) or Second Chance (8 authors…shame on you James Patterson and Danielle Steel) or Darkness (4 authors), and if nothing else, Clarke should be applauded just for the title. Of course, today, I saw a positive review in Entertainment Weekly, so I’m going to try and jump on the bandwagon before there is one.

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