Book Brahmin: Ryan Adams
My name is Ryan Adams. I am going deaf from Ménière's Disease. I am 34. I am a recovering drunk and amphetamine addict. I am a visual artist first, a writer second, and I bang on guitars to sell my poetry to the dulled masses. I love, love, love donuts, skateboarding, my girlfriend, our dog, sunshine, Los Angeles, reading and daydreaming. I used to live in New York City for a long time. I fought like hell for the city when people left for Brooklyn and dumped every penny I could into the mission and the museums. I got shat on by the New York Times for long enough so I moved. I will always love David Letterman and 2nd Ave Deli forever. Akashic Books has just published my collection of non-music pieces, Infinity Blues.
On your nightstand now:
Cup of coffee, digital shitty hotel clock, broken channel changer holding up computer cable into wall socket and Reading & Writing Chinese: Traditional Character Edition by William McNaughton and Li Yang.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Light in August by William Faulkner.
Your top five authors:
Edward Estlin Cummings, Henry Miller, W. H. Auden, Sylvia Plath and Anne Frank.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Paul Auster's New York Trilogy.
Book that changed your life:
Roget's Thesaurus.
Favorite line from a book:
"Once you have given up the ghost, everything follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos."--Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Bell Jar.
Why you write:
It feels like the noble thing to do in a world of fake smiles, cowards and so, so many undocumented miracles if standing in the middle of parking lots and laughing for no reason was one. And to see how many times I can get away with the word unicorn in otherwise unsettled text. And vanity. Vanity. Vanity.
Book Junkie: Jessica
My name is Jessica. I am 23. I am a recovering shoe and tote bag addict. I am a performer first, a writer second, and I'd probably be a florist in some other life. I love, love, love french bulldogs and pugs, clothes, my boyfriend, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, spring, New York, reading and restaurant-ing. I used to live in Georgia for a long time. I still love the South and wax nostalgic, but mainly I just miss my family. I worked in publishing for a while until I got dumped. I will always love book parties and the New Yorker forever. I hope someday to publish a book of essays, the most unpublishable kind of book, ever.
On your nightstand now:
Glass of water, my journal, The Diaries of Louise Bourgeois, The Complete Unabridged Diaries of Sylvia Plath, The Complete Poems of Robert Lowell, and Brad Gooch's biography of Flannery O'Connor.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Scarlett Letter. Young Young: Slightly Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Your top five authors:
Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, J.D. Salinger, Vladimir Nabokov, and William Styron.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Ha! Paul Auster's Collected Prose.
Book that changed your life:
To the Lighthouse.
Favorite line from a book:
"Life; London, this moment of June." - Mrs. Dalloway
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Franny and Zooey.
Why you write:
Writing I think is the ultimate test for the brain. I write nonfiction, so I'm always trying to hone in on getting my point across and being as concise as possible while introducing some artistry and creativity into the idea. I find it challenging, and I like a challenge.
2 comments:
just never,ever give it up
great song, made me cry. insightful look into a songwriter i thought, at one time, very shallow.
thanks for sharing.
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