Apologies to Sissy Hankshaw
It dawned on me, several days after I had written my "book tag" post, that I had somehow, in a fit of total soap-opera amnesia, forgotten to include a single thing by my favorite author. What the fuck is wrong with me? But that's a post all in itself.
Tom Robbins. Tom Robbins. Tom Robbins. I have been in love with Tom Robbins since I was about 12 years old, and Squirl gave me a paperback copy of Another Roadside Attraction. While a lot of it sailed right over my head at the time, I was still instantly hooked by the whimsical, irreverent tale being spun before my ever-widening eyes. It made me want to start a band with a name half as cool as Hoodoo Meat Bucket.
Since then, I've read all but two of his delightfully wrong books (I still haven't read Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas or Villa Incognito). I heartily recommend any and all of them to readers who want something that is simultaneously profound and silly, touching and blasphemous, panties-drenching sexy and pants-wetting hilarious.
So, to Sissy Hankshaw and her sugar-sack sized thumbs, to the Woodpecker with his glasses and his sticks of dynamite, to Switters with his stilts and his born-again virgin, to Marx Marvelous who chose his name to piss people off, to Ellen Cherry Charles and the giant roast-turkey Airstream, to all the characters I don't know yet, and mostly, to the importance of keeping one's heart lighter than a feather, I apologize for this glaringly stupid omission, and I promise not to forget y'all again.
Tom Robbins. Tom Robbins. Tom Robbins. I have been in love with Tom Robbins since I was about 12 years old, and Squirl gave me a paperback copy of Another Roadside Attraction. While a lot of it sailed right over my head at the time, I was still instantly hooked by the whimsical, irreverent tale being spun before my ever-widening eyes. It made me want to start a band with a name half as cool as Hoodoo Meat Bucket.
Since then, I've read all but two of his delightfully wrong books (I still haven't read Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas or Villa Incognito). I heartily recommend any and all of them to readers who want something that is simultaneously profound and silly, touching and blasphemous, panties-drenching sexy and pants-wetting hilarious.
So, to Sissy Hankshaw and her sugar-sack sized thumbs, to the Woodpecker with his glasses and his sticks of dynamite, to Switters with his stilts and his born-again virgin, to Marx Marvelous who chose his name to piss people off, to Ellen Cherry Charles and the giant roast-turkey Airstream, to all the characters I don't know yet, and mostly, to the importance of keeping one's heart lighter than a feather, I apologize for this glaringly stupid omission, and I promise not to forget y'all again.
Katy Barzedor proclaimed this to be so at 11:21 AM
15 of you felt the overwhelming need to say somethin':
At first I'm like...Tim Robbins and Shawshank what??? Just kidding, but do you see it?
I've never heard of these stories or Tom Robbins. Thanks for the recomendo. They say don't judge a book by it's cover, but can you judge a person by the books they read? I'm seeing some serious insight into the steel trap mind that is Bucky (a.k.a. Katy)
Well I can see Im going to have to make a trip to the library now. Oh the horror!
I too have not read anything by this author, but now I will have to.
And dont feel too bad, I didnt list a thing by Stephen King on my list, and I have been reading him forever, there were just too many choices and too much pressure! Making people choose books, unfair I say! I need them all! I am such a book whore.
It's been a few months since I've picked up a good US Toys catalogue. I'm starting to feel the urge for the next release. Oh wait, that's just those Starburst Jellybeans I just had, sorry.
Greenie - Yeah, I never thought about it, but Sissy Hankshaw/Shawshank, then Tom Robbins...I can see it. I'll allow it!
And you will be frightened to know that the inside of my mind is much like a Tom Robbins novel.
Jess - You won't be sorry once you read his stuff. I'd recommend Even Cowgirls Get the Blues or Another Roadside Attraction for your first taste. And if you've seen the movie of Cowgirls, don't hold that against the book!
Mr. B - is your joke sailin' over my head, or you makin' a Bonanza Jellybean funny? I just had a big Easter dinner, so my thinking is a bit dulled. Yeah, that's it.
I'm gonna have to work on my delivery that's all. That and I need to read more. Or wait, I don't read at all... except for the fine postings and comments on this that is TBFEC...and some other unknown blogs.
Bucky, I'm glad you mentioned Tom Robbins. I remember loving Another Roadside Attraction. The very end is absolutley the best part.
Jessica, I'm a book whore, too. Every time I move, and it's been quite a few times in the last few years for one reason or another, the worst part is my books. Granted, Ichabod likes books, too. But he doesn't get sentimental and have to hang onto all of them. Every time I go ahead and donate some I find at least one that I need to reference for some reason.
Hello, my name is Squirl and I'm a bookaholic.
I had to read Even Cowgirls... & Still Life With Woodpecker back in an Intro to Novel class. I haven't read anything else by Robbins, but I love those two. I think my favorite parts are when he switches from typing to freehand in Cowgirls, and the little chapter in Woodpecker on Mickey Wrangle's (wait-is that his name?) favorite bomb recipes.
huh huh Squirl's a whore! huh huh
Grimm - I can't remember the Woodpecker's name! Isn't that awful? I'm pretty sure you're right about Mickey. And he would always look at the girl and say "Yum"
Bucky, I had forgotten these books; I read them when I was much too young, as well, but didn't revisit as an adult. Never lost the image of that giant thumb, though. Larry McMurtry (Texasville, Duane's Depressed) reminds me of Robbins. He's like Robbins-lite. Clever and outrageous, but not quite as over-the-edge as Robbins. I like both.
Bucky, I'd be a book whore any day. The problem with that is that I end up paying. You, at least, make $2 per transaction.
Squirl I feel you on the book moving. I waited to do mine last when we moved last year and it was a whole load on its own, like ten boxes of books, big ones, and 4 laundry baskets of magazines that no one could really lift. hah.
And that was just my stuff, the kids have their own books. And my guy has his own serious magazine collection going on, we could really just start a library in our house.
Crazy ole Tim Robbins! Haven't thought of him in a while...
What book was it where that old grandmother had a ceramic frog full of cocaine?
Amy, I think that was in Still Life With Woodpecker.
yeah! That's the one, with all that Ralph Nader shit.
Love Tim Robbins. And Tom Robbins too, that talldrinkawata.
What a retard I am. I mean, Love Tom Robbins, and TIM robbins, who is the tall hunk from the movies.
Not that it matters, I just gotta correct my mistakes for the record.
IMPORTANT people visit Bucky's blog, you know!
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