Tuesday, March 11, 2014

This Book Will Change Your Life - I Was a Fat Drunk Catholic School Insomniac by the Jamie Iredell.

Is reading in and of itself a selfish act? It involves time that can be spent on other things. Acts of social justice. Time you might spend with your family. Taking care of yourself. And if you read like we do, all of these things may fall by the wayside along with housework, paying work, and on and on, yo. Now what if we were to read an essay collection like I Was a Fat Drunk Catholic School Insomniac by the Jamie Iredell and think how so much of the work reminds us of ourselves, the insomnia, the substance abuse, the love of superheroes, and the love of our children. Which is not so selfish in and of itself, except that we are struck that there are parallels not just with our own lives, but our own upcoming essay collection Lost in Space, and that in wanting to write that are we in essence backhandedly hyping our own work? Because that may very well be selfish. Now does it make a difference that we love the book? That we love everything Iredell does? And that this focus on nonfiction excites us because it expands the wealth of possibilities he can explore with his gifted, rough-hewn, searching brain? We hope so. We also hope that you take a look for yourself, be that for reasons selfish or otherwise, because it just might change your life.

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