Entries Tagged 'couch' ↓

I just got a very lovely message via GoodReads

Hey Ben, 
I just voted COUCH for the 2009 Puddly Award on the Powell’s website. 
Good luck! 
~Stephanie

Awesome, thanks Stephanie!

Of course, I’m competing against a phenomenon known as Twilight, but it’d be awfully fun to place. It looks like you could walk away with several hundred dollars in prizes no matter who you vote for (though they’re not exactly clear on that). If you get the hang of the voting deal, here’s another spot…

Second: Look at all these handsome posters with Andi Watson’s artwork on them.

As I mentioned, these will be sent out as part of Indiespensable along with Paul Harding’s Tinkers. It’s got a secret letter from me on the back as well as postcards from Thom, Tree and Erik and I signed the front — or rather, I was half way through when my index finger crashed and burned, leaving a fiery skid mark across the table and setting off the fire alarm.

I need to send the rest back back to my publisher, but I think I could probably sneak a few off the deck.

If you want one send me an email at ben at ideacog.net with your address. I could probably make off with about 5 or so?

Happy inauguration all!

Powell’s books has this really lovely program called Indiespensable, which both my spell checker and I agree is a very poor way of spelling indispensable. It’s like a grab bag delivery service of excellent indie lit and other goodies, usually in original printings/signed/etc, shipped every six weeks. 

Check it out here www.powells.com/indiespensable/

The next installment includes Tinkers by Paul Harding – which looks really amazing. There’s also a very nifty, limited run item from Couch in the next Indiespensable box, which I’ll be signing shortly. 

If you’re in Portland – please come to the Indiespensable #8 happy hour at the Someday Lounge, Monday January 19th from 6pm – 8pm. Paul and I will both have a short reading and then we’ll be all like dancing on the tables and breaking the lamps and slamming tequila shots.

The more I look at the word ‘indispensable’, the more I get confused. I’ve had to look it up twice now.

Here’s a couple of updates to Couch:

Couch is now officially an Indie Next List pick since it’s now January.

Read about other Indie Next List picks here or, if you’re a bookseller, get yourself some very fancy Shelf talkers or download them directly as PDFs here.

Three new reviews:

Paul DiFilippo, writing for Barnes & Noble Review, said about Couch:

“…comic and pratfall-laden on the surface, but surprisingly affecting and mythic underneath. Parzybok’s easy voice is guileless and contemporary, fluid and colorful as that of Tom Robbins, yet concealing considerable craft.” 

Read the whole review here.

Thanks, Paul! (Paul’s books are here)

John Enzinas of SF Site wrote:

“The story gets stranger and stranger as the adventurers find themselves riding the rails on an electric cart, drifting on the couch in the Pacific Ocean, stowaways on a freighter bound for the Ecuador, and carrying the couch through the jungles of South America on a cart with a fog propeller. In between there is action, philosophy, violence, sex, drinking, fishing, terrorists, shadowy cabals, fishing and gluten intolerance.

 The story is fun, the characters are sympathetic and the writing is tight.”

Read the whole review here.

Thanks, John!

Mark Flanagan of ContemporaryLit.About.com said:

“Literary and historical allusions sprinkled throughout make the novel something of a treasure hunt, and a bit of bathrobe philosophizing in parts will make you go “hm.” Couch is a quick and funny read, a short fable that ensnares us in its quixotic intentions and encourages us to believe for a short time in something magic, even if it is just a couch.”

Read the whole review here.

Thanks, Mark!

I will be doing another mini-tour come the end of February – oncet we work out the details, yo.

Happy New Year all, my lovelies. Stay safe and warm. It’s raining devilishly outside. This year is going to bring a whole lot of awesome, especially since we have nowhere to go but up.

Complete awesomeness.

Couch got selected as an Indie Next List pick for January by Josh Cook of Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA.

Also – I learned a new term: “Shelf Talkers” are those little piece of paper that hang under books in book stores (or under wine bottles in wine shops?) to recommend a book. I like this. I wish I had talkers for lots of other bits of my life.

Here’s the website for Indie Bound.

I’m finally getting caught up on email and the like – here’s a quick newsy post:

I will be at The Willamette Store tomorrow in Salem, OR. Here’s the event on Facebook if you’re on there, or on Book Tour. And then I’ll be at the Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, OR at 5pm on Friday [facebook, booktour]. Please come and say hi if you’re in the area.

Here are a couple of blog reviews of Couch:

Rat’s Reading – a very cool seeming book review site, said:

“A strong debut novel, and worth reading. Bring an appreciation for the absurd, cause you’ll need it.”

Stephen Granade of Live Granades: (home of, among other things, the awesome LOLTrek) felt less enthusiastic about the belief in magic in opposition to science, citing two specific character’s speeches. In the end, Stephen said:

“Absent those speeches, the story is strong and affecting.”

Thanks, both!

Apparently Couch is now available on the Kindle, if you’ve got one of those gizmos, and can be previewed in Google Books.

Can you believe this is December? It’s been lovely here. This cell phone photo from today.

Speaking of LOLcats – Kitty Carper is asleep on my lap. It’s nice to be home.

Several people have pointed out the children’s book “He Came with the Couch” by David Slonim. It’s great fun.

I have a ping pong table now! I think it’s inevitable that I’ll be watching Balls of Fury. Honestly, it looks terrible – but Christopher Walken!

Tomorrow? Some exciting news…

To finish out my battle madness set of photos I will, as promised, post photos of the readings here to prove to myself that I attended these events, in some form or another. I am working under the assumption that I took these photos, since they came from my camera, and not some doppleganger that filled in while I lay fainted on the floor. 

At any rate – these were all lovely audiences, smaller than the incredible ones at Elliot Bay Books and Powell’s, but certainly no less sharp.

Amherst Books (note: in the end neither I or Amitav Ghosh showed for my proposed duel, as I’d described in this post. It’s for the better, as I really only had one performance shirt and it would have looked sad with a hole through it.)

I was on Amherst College radio too and that was a blast.

This is what the window of Raconteur Books looked like when I arrived. So cool.

The reading was dark and intimate and there was free wine!

Take a look at this dictionary that was there with an opening letter to the KING – I photographed the first page (click for large view). I post this for ‘the happinefs of the people’:

And then finally I read (presumably) at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge, MA:

There are some incredibly nice people in this photo.

Many thanks again to all.

And now I’m home – where I seem to have caused an altogether impressive amount of havoc by introducing slide whistles to the children, and vice versa.