All right, here’s the deal:
I put this together back in 2005. It’s a collection of essays and columns from several years prior to and including that one that gives you the high (and low) points of pulling out of Maryland and coming here. It’s damn good, if a trifle uneven, considering the source material. I’ve never really marketed it the way I should have because I doubted my own right to breathe, but that is Grade A bullshit. What you see below is not!
The real deal…
I’m proud of this book, and it won’t be my last. You can still buy it (print-on-demand). It’s a high-quality paperback, and there’s a synopsis at the sidebar link. No more Mr. Nice Guy, just buy the damn thing and help me pay my Visa bill. America needs art!
Comment by Ty Smith
1 May 28, 2008, 7:18 pm o'clock |
Hey Gang- I purchased this book back in early 2006 and have read it three times… It’s positively brilliant (especially the meaning behind the title:)…). Anyway, if you enjoy John’s blog as much as I do… you will be completely delighted after reading his book!
Comment by kkarger
2 May 29, 2008, 8:24 am o'clock |
Hey, John. I bought your book about 6 months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it! You are right to brag about it a bit.
Comment by Steve Ingham
3 May 29, 2008, 11:22 am o'clock |
I can “Third” those emotions having ALSO bought the book. As if I didn’t already want to live in Taos - PART TIME - NOT RETIRE there, etc……but LIVE there as much as possible, it certainly opened my eyes and amazed me how you managed to maintain and make it all these years!
Thanks for the Lessons John….and the Book is thoroughly full of helpful - not to mention entertaining AND enlightening information!
GOOD JOB and Hope you sell a TON of Books John!
Steve
Comment by GravelPit
4 May 29, 2008, 2:57 pm o'clock |
I’ll FOURTH that one. I read the book, moved there ANYWAYS, and moved back east again. But I’d go back to Taos in a heartbeat-and plan on doing just that.
Comment by K.J. Webb
5 May 30, 2008, 5:08 pm o'clock |
I helped you pay your Visa bill, my friend. I liked your book. I liked it because it’s full of bullshit, and bullshit is the stock in trade of the natural-born writer. Kerouac was full of it. So was Hemingway. All my favorite writers were either bullshit-detectors or outright bullshitters. Plaster saints try to strike arresting poses but their writing ain’t worth much. If you avoid that temptation your next book will be even better.
Comment by dar
6 May 30, 2008, 7:31 pm o'clock |
At last,prof John, we of the ‘great white north’ are able to order Yr book thru amazon.ca
no doubt,after lending it to pals,they’ll want their v.own copy…
cheers
Comment by John H. Farr
7 May 30, 2008, 8:54 pm o'clock |
Plaster saints are very highly revered in these parts, although most of them are made of wood. There’s one — a Guadalupana, actually — resting in a nicho in the wall above where I’m sitting. The original owner of this 100-year-adobe bought the little plaster statue, went down to the St. Francis de Assisi church in Ranchos to see how their Virgin was painted, then came back and painted his the same way.
Damn, K.J., I do think you owe me another 10 copies for that comment! Fortunately, they’re easy to buy [click here] and you can afford it, so do your Xmas shopping early and cleanse your soul before it’s too late. One book doesn’t do squat for that Visa bill anyway, and you know it! I wanna see some contrition I can take to the goddamn bank…
Comment by K.J. Webb
8 May 31, 2008, 4:41 am o'clock |
That’s the spirit, my friend! You make plaster saints sound kind of interesting when you put it that way. It would improve if not quite cleanse my soul, I reckon, if one were guarding that enormous pile of “Buffalo Lights” stacked up at my own casa.
In Venice a few years ago I saw one tucked into a niche below the hammer and sickle at the HQ of the Italian Communist Party. Who was cleansing whom, I wondered? Being Protestant in provenance if not in belief, I was somewhat mystified - but maybe that’s the point of sainthood. Anybody care to speculate on the psychology of it - or got a story about a plaster (or actual) saint?