Entries Tagged 'couch' ↓

Here are a few pics from the book tour journey, all taken with the shoddy camera on my phone.

I’m here at the Liquid Planet cafe in Missoula, Montana – across the street from Fact & Fiction where I read tonight.

The ugly house I lived in while I went to Evergreen

Two cyclops

I heart The Stranger

Secret Garden books!

Embedded scissors near Third Place Books

I rented a Prius - and spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about gas and bickering with the passive-aggressive, know-it-all (but generally fun) car. One example: I have a habit of leaning my arm on the passenger seat, which Prius would then interpret as a passenger there and would sound its PASSENGER SEATBELT! alarm. It was spooky, as if I'd picked up a ghost rider along the way.

A propellor plane! I was too shy to talk to my seat-mate who was cute and reading articles on astro-physics. Instead I went deep into reading The Manual of Detection and laughed into my sleeve half the ride over.

Fact & Fiction - so nice. They made their own posters! I want one.

Thanks to Kevin Sampsell (of Future Tense Publishing) for the interview on  Powell’s Books blog today – which contains a picture of Dave Eggers’ couch, a section on premonitions at a basketball game and a photo of me wearing a hat. It also links to the strange little bike film made with my co-conspirator, Levin Schersvanaskitty.

Yes, the rumors are true: I’ll be in your town searching for the perfect cinnamon roll.

<—- IS THIS IT?!

If I find the time, I may also read at a book store. The cinnamon roll quest is scheduled around the following divine cinnamony space-time manifestations:

Portland, OR – Powell’s Books, March 16th, starting at 5:00pm. I’m part of Powell’s Smallpressalooza put on by Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense, so there will be a lot of readings this night. Here’s the full list and it looks great:

5:00 Starlite Motel (“Night Bomb”)
5:15 Zachary Schomburg (“The Pond”)
5:30 Tim Sproul (“How to Leave Your Hometown for Good”)
6:00 Ronault L.S. Catalani AKA Polo (“Counter Culture”)
6:15 Emiko Badillo (“Broken Hipster” zine)
6:30 Matt Briggs (“The End Is the Beginning”)
7:00 Moe Bowstern (“Xtra Tuf” zine)
7:15 Karen Giezyng (“Bumpstart” zine)
7:30 Lia Cunningham (“The People I Love Best” zine)
8:00 Molly McNett (“One Dog Happy”)
8:15 Benjamin Parzybok (“Couch”)
8:30 Evan Schneider (“Boneshaker” zine)
9:00 Samuel Ligon (“Drift and Swerve”)
9:15 Jeff Stewart (“March of Time & Skin”)
9:30 Riley Michael Parker (“Our Beloved 26th”)
9:46 – 12:01 – Dionysian cinnamon roll engorgement!

Should be a great night. I have no idea what I’ll read, but there certainly seems to be quite a few books in the store to choose from.

The rest of the schedule may be seen in detail here: http://booktour.com/author/benjamin_parzybok

March 17th – Olympia, WA – Orca Books!

March 18th – Tacoma, WA – Garfield Book Company at PLU

March 19th – Seattle, WA – Seattle Public Library – Ballard Branch (via Secret Garden Books)

March 21th – Bellingham, WA – Village Books

March 23rd – Missoula, MT -Fact & Fiction

March 24th – Dillon, MT – The Bookstore

March 25th – Spokane, WA – Auntie’s Books – oh look, an Ugly Couch Contest at Auntie’s! – click to see fullsize:

Please help me find the perfect cinnamon roll.

Yours,
Ben

How exciting is that? Well, I’ll tell you – I’ve been dancing drunk on top of my desk since Friday afternoon when I first saw it, and now I’m not sure how to get off, and I think I’ve done some irreparable damage to my keyboard and stubbed a toe, and no one will hand me any more liquor, but other than that it’s pretty damn cool. Now -hand me that bottle please?

The reviewer, Ed Park (author of Personal Days) talks about Charles Portis and quotes side-by-side from one of his books and Couch, which is fun to see. I was given True Grit by my friend Mel Favara (of 1000 reading series) last year and loved it – I’ll have to pick up the others.

At any rate, here’s the review of Couch in the LA Times.

Thanks, Ed!

(incidentally – here’s Ed Park at length on Charles Portis: Like Cormac McCarthy, But Funny)

Want to know how many of y’all’s blogs I subscribe to? That answer and more is covered in my interview with Charles Tan of Bibliophile Stalker.

Thanks Charles!

Also: this morning the pseudo-fog was lovely over the school and afforded a photo of a white sun, which Sylvie called the moon.

Click for large version.

Also, Powell’s mentioned that they have a few signed copies of a book called Couch if that’s the kind of weird fiction you’re into. I wouldn’t know. Watch out for the fingers!