My dad tried very hard to get me into The Hobbit. I was probably about 8 years old at the time, though, and it just wasn't my speed. It actually turned me off of the whole LotR thing for years (and I was overjoyed to find him a used copy of the Harvard Lampoon's "Bored of the Rings" featuring Dildo Bugger when I was…

We the jury find in favor of … BIG AMERICAN PARTY!

In more Michael Chabon news
Apparently he's signed on as screenwriter for Disney's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars."

I've gotta say, I'm pretty "meh" on Robbins. I think I would have liked his stuff a whole lot more if I had started reading it when I was a teenager, but I think I got to it too late for it to be really appealing. All I ever get from it is "Wackiness! Sex! Ooh, here's some self-serving pseudo-philosophy! Watch out,…

Yes, definitely! As a fan of both historical trivia (I like to annoy people at parties with anecdotes about Cornflakes and electricity, etc.) and books 'bout killin' people, it made my brain happy.

Kid Gorgeous, I'm reading Blood Meridian right now, and you're not alone. I'm used to reading books where any action is explained and over-analyzed, or at least motives are offered. Here, it's just one act of brutality after another, without much context or reason. (I'm still very early in the book, so while I know…

I'll throw my vote in for House of Leaves. Particularly appropriate for AV Club, given its ties to Poe's "Haunted" album.

Bowie's Klaus Nomi backup BLEW MY DAMN MIND. Seriously.

If I'm reading him correctly, the OP is merely curious whether the book explores the relationship of the church scandal (which ended up destroying the author's faith) to aspects of the culture in which it occurred. Which would definitely make the book a valuable read rather than just a look at one guy's loss of faith.

Was anyone else a fan of the books of misheard song lyrics? I believe the misheard lyric on that one was "Like a drifter I was born to wear cologne."

I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

Phantom Menace: awful movie (-going experience)
My worst moviegoing experience, from when I was young enough to not know better than to date assholes, was opening night for Phantom Menace; I had bought tickets in advance to surprise my somewhat nerdy boyfriend, but we still had to wait in line to get into the…

Awww, I always take too long to check old threads. OtP, if you run across this, I'm close enough to stalk you! I live in Makiki, but work near Waikiki, so I get a fun sampling of all the local flavors. I usually see Shellacked Hair Guy over by the convention center.

And, though it has no relation to anyone in this movie, it bears noting that Keith Richards is starting to look like Abraham Lincoln.

"Side effects may include dry mouth, nipple inversion, spontaneous extra digits, death, hairy uvula, itchy spinal syndrome, and nausea."

I went to one of those parties once. Voluntarily, even, because it was a "sleepover" held in a supposedly-haunted old hotel that was too expensive for me to otherwise stay in. Sales pitch aside, it was an interesting night — the friend I went with puked on the front lawn, and I witnessed the single most uncomfortable…

OtP, you live in Makiki? I love that lady. Although I think my favorite random locals are a little closer to Waikiki — there's the one dude with the hair so shellacked and glossy he looks like he's wearing a scale model of a Lego knight's helmet. And the hobo who always runs around with his shirt on his head like a…

It would have been "sects," but he finished too early.

The Do Not Want Ads have a lot of potential.

I'll bite. Tell me your adorable cat stories!