Books and stuff,

Last night on the PBS show Independent Lens they did a profile of John Fante. I was really pleased to see them doing this. Terrence Howard did an introduction to the show with the question, "Would you rather be famous or a genius?" Although he has some fame mostly coming from Bukowski promoting him, he is still a relatively unknown except among authors. He is less known for his books than the authors that were inspired by his books; an authors author. Ask the Dust is his most well known book and was made into a movie last year. I highly recommend reading him.

I just finished reading the guy that runs IAVA book, "Chasing Ghost". The book tells his story of being in Iraq shortly after the start of the war, to the rise of the insurgency, to his coming home and getting involved in the 04 election to starting up the IAVA. I consider myself antiwar or at least I think that the U.S. has been way to eager to use it's might war machine since the end of WW2. But for some strange reason I am very drawn to war books and movies. I got really into this book. I think John Crawford's "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell" and Paul Rieckhoff's "Chasing Ghost" are must read for all Americans to know what is going on over there.

Last Thursday after I wrote three post I looked at my counter and seen that while writing I got a hit from someones senate office and the New York governors office. I have gotten letters in the mail form both my senators and more than one from my congressman, but I felt pretty good that my blog drew the attention from a couple of people in government. Even if it was some intern that only read a couple of sentences, I drew there attention.