"haunted" by chuck palahniuk

so during my little 'maternity' leave from working, aside from the thankfully decently steady dj gigs, i have become a voracious reader! in the past ten years i've probably read about five books if that but just in the past two months i've read at least three! i must say there is nothing better than becoming addicted to an amazing book...only you are reading it at the moment...and the joy of discussing each particular book with someone who gave it to you to read or someone who has read it before is sublime (thank you rowan for reinstalling my reader chip)

i just finished one of the most remarkable books i've ever read and i must say i'm thrilled yet exhausted! chuck palahniuk, author behind the film "fight club" and the soon to be released if not released already "choke", is absolutely from another level of consciousness! i read "diary" by him before this one and i am in complete wonderment at his writing skills, fantastic originality, unearthly imagination and violently powerful storytelling. "haunted" is comprised of about 21 or so short stories interspliced within a story and seperated by short poems about each of the interestingly named characters. comrade snarky, agent tattletale, miss sneezy, mrs. clark, mr. whittier, miss america, saint gut-free, lady baglady, mother nature, earl of slander, the missing link, duke of vandals, director denial, reverend godless, the matchmaker, sister vigilante, chef assassin and countess foresight make up the bizarre world that is haunted. i could go on and on about the plot and how frighteningly woven it was but you just have to read it for yourself. i've never really reviewed a book before but if anything i must leave you with an excerpt of the afterword that completely helps you digest the delicacy that is mr. p's masterpiece. go out and get it and read it!

"a motion picture, or music, or television, they have to maintain a certain decorum in order to be broadcast to a vast audience. other forms of mass media cost too much to produce to risk reaching only a limited audience. only one person. but a book...a book is cheap to print and bind. a book is as private and consensual as sex. a book takes time and effort to consume--something that gives a reader every chance to walk away. actually, so few people make the effort to read that it's difficult to call books a 'mass medium'. no one really gives a damn about books. no one has bothered to ban a book in decades. (this was published in 2005 before senorita palin got a number one single on the charts)

but with that disregard comes the freedom that only books have. and if a storyteller is going to write novels instead of screenplays, that's a freedom you need to exploit. otherwise, write a movie. that's where the big money's at. write for television.

but, if you want the freedom to go anywhere, talk about anything, then write books...."

an alternate cover for the novel

i've wanted to be a novelist since as long as i can remember. i have come up with ideas...starting forming a literary skeleton, but then my laziness or my short attention span causes me to put those aspirations aside, but i must say if anything that these reading voracious reading adventures of mine have caused a resurgence, if you will, in that longing to publish finally. i think i'm going to start with some short stories and work my way up to a novel. you'll be the first to hear about it...

thank you chuck palahniuk! i owe you one!