James and Ted’s Excellent Literary Adventures
Posted on October 26, 2004 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
Hey, look at that: James Lileks has got a new book out: Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible ’70s. It’s a follow-up to his Gallery of Regrettable Food, except this time, instead of mocking 50s food, he’s mocking 70s interior decorating. And rightly so, I’d say.
James and I go back a ways, to the time when I was a humor editor at AOL and I called him to beg him to write a weekly column for me, and he did (thus marking the first and probably last time that he and Ted Rall worked for the same editor). He helped make me look good; therefore I’m inclined to recommend him to others. I haven’t seen the book yet, but I’ve seen the dry runs off of Lileks.com, and they’re the patented Lileks midwestern-hipster snark, so I can’t imagine this one not being damn funny. I’ll be picking it up the next trip to the bookstore.
As long as I’m making a tangential reference to Ted Rall, I should also note that he has a new book out as well: Generalissimo El Busho: Essays and Cartoons on the Bush Years. Sadly for me, this book meant that Ted was on a book tour while I was in New York, so our paths did not cross in Gotham. But I allow that shilling his book may have been moderately more important than seeing me at the moment. This is actually Ted’s second book of the year; his previous one, Wake Up, You’re Liberal!: How We Can Take America Back from the Right makes the argument that most conservatives are actually closer to liberals than they suspect, in terms of values, but that they’ve been more or less brainwashed to see an “us vs. them” worldview versus the libs. I imagine hearing this from Ted Rall would be enough to make conservatives explode in rage, which is of course only proving his point. Anyway, it’s a fascinating book, and not just because of my cameo appearance on page 53 (in which Ted references my theory of the “original sin” of both the Republicans and the Democrats, which you can see via Amazon here).
There, I think I’ve done enough ecumenical book pimping for the day.
I’ve heard there’s this book coming out soon: “old man’s war”. Ever heard of it/care to comment on it?
Old Man’s War? Yeah, the author’s a real hack. Also, I hear he smokes crack and sodomizes cats.
“Interior Desecrations” is currently ranked #44 on Amazon. Sheesh! I’d love to have a book ranked at 440.
Tom Nixon
Well, it’s being plugged on Instapundit.com too. So it may be do to that plug more than this one.
Hey, isn’t that a typo on the cover? Isn’t it the “Gallery of Regrettable Food,” not Foods?! Is it just a mock-up of the cover or is that the final version?
My word, Bob. I do believe you’re correct. I don’t know if it’s the final artwork or not.
As much as I’d like to read that, I’m not giving Amazon.com my credit card number and personal billing information just to read an excerpt from somebody else’s book that references you. Amazon.com can go blow. That’s a porn website trick.
-Paul
Paul and others,
I was able to view said page by simply supplying a valid email address.
What is this shit? 70s interior design is cult! It can’t get trashy enough.
Dude, you’re four and a half years too late.