A fine original post, which I completely agree with.

This post should have come with a disclaimer
about how much Kyle Ryan likes Fallout Boy.

For a cover,
that was pretty great. Totally unsettling, though. Just so strange.

Well, I'll read it.
Both of them. Though that elevator one has dampened my enthusiasm for it all just a little.

What a great interview.
Thanks for posting this. I've read all of Taibbi's books, love his RS articles, and am really looking forward to this book. The intelligence and thoughtfulness of both of the people in this exchange was undeniably apparent.

I guess I'm just not that into moderation.
It was okay, and I'm glad the event had a good turnout, but it hurt its credibility a bit when Jon Stewart talked about Kid Rock and then actually had Kid Rock play a song, and then Kid Rock was actually there playing the song. KID ROCK?! Seriously. Why didn't they get the…

That has got to be
Cher's worst song. Why doesn't she just retire already?

But many of the Stalin-era prisons ARE still in use.

This sounds eerie and good.
Though I think I'll read "The Half-Made World" first. I imagine he finds that the prisons are still in use, right?

…
AVC: You've said people either absolutely love or absolutely hate Fred. Have you had much experience with meeting the people who hate him?

They've probably already got a place for Albuquerque
since Jeremy Barnes (also of NMH) lives here, but I'm going to invite them to my house anyway. How cool. I can't wait to see this band.

Nice discussion.
It kind of makes me want to finish the book. Good points, all.

BLONDE ON BLONDE's amazing, one of the best albums ever. But still: it could have been EVEN BETTER with the inclusion of that song.

The late? That's too bad. Also, has anyone else noticed that the whole archive of "Justify Your Existence" columns has been deleted? (Except, thankfully, the East River Pipe one.)

I've read almost all of his books, and they all kind of bleed together, P.G. Wodehouse-style, but are all various degrees of entertaining. I really like the Shakespeare book, particularly the chapter on proving Shakespeare wrote the plays that bear his name. A WALK IN THE WOODS, at least the first half, is probably…

Same here, DP. I think I was the only one not in love with PKD by the end of A SCANNER DARKLY. Still, that looks great in my memory compared to this book. I should have been kinder to it; it at least kept the pages turning.

My least favorite WUIB book, I think.
I look at the nice things almost everyone is saying about this and they really don't even make sense to me. Almost everyone seems to have read this in an alternate Universe where elevators are fetishized, dry and boring prose is considered fluid and masterful, flat stock…

Just because it's one way in the book doesn't mean all that backstory carries over to the film. In the film, it really does seem as if Hakan was just the previous Oskar—and I really like that thought. I think it may be a huge improvement. Great write-up, Tasha. I hope you'll update it sometime to include the…

There's a nice William Donahue joke in the new Daily Show book, about him being the first to condemn Martin Luther in a press statement issued on his website.

That would be so great. I still don't see how it didn't make it onto BLONDE ON BLONDE. It's better than half the songs that did.