I Hereby Solidify My Status As A Bookworm

I can pinpoint exactly when my penchant for non-fiction and memoirs began; Mr. Perry's 10th grade English class. Mr. Perry was a really cool teacher (as most English teachers in my experience have been) he talked to us like we were his peers and made class, dare I say, fun. One day, Mr. Perry photocopied a chapter of a then unfamiliar memoir: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. The chapter he photocopied was "The Youth In Asia." In one part of this story, David writes of his sick cat and being faced with the prospect of euthanasia. At the sound of that polarizing word, he immediately recalls a cartoon he watched as a child, of Japanese children playing in a school yard. The Youth In Asia. I was hooked; his deadpan wit and inappropriate sarcasm was something I didn't even know I liked, but liked I did. I must confess that it wasn't until years later in college that I once again immersed myself in more of his writing. Nonetheless, I always think back to that 10th grade English class where this little seed was planted in my nerdy brain.

As much as I love to sink my teeth into a great story created out of the ether, I constantly find myself drawn to stories created from real life experiences. David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, David Eggers, Chuck Klosterman, David Foster Wallace, Nic and David Sheff and Frank McCourt are among my most beloved authors, and all happen to shine in the latter category. That's not to say that Infinite Jest by the late, incredibly great Foster Wallace isn't a wonder to behold ¹, but I find reading his short essays more enjoyable. One of the things I like about delving into a writer's personal musings, is that you start to feel like you really know them, like you have this (albeit manufactured) connection to their life.

I've come to realize that quite a few volumes lining my bookshelf deal with pretty heavy subject matter; addition, abuse, sexuality, traumatic family situations etc. I don't know what it is, but for someone who has never abused illegal drugs, I can't help but empathise with writers who graphically expose the miseries of drug addition. Case in point, Tweak by Nic Sheff. Over and over throughout the book, Nic recounts his horrible experience with addiction in such a human way, that it ends up translating into a universal struggle that even I can relate to. Or maybe in some sick, twisted way I am just fascinated by the cycle of addiction and keep reading in the hopes that this time he'll overcome it! Apologies for going off on a tangent here, but I've often wondered why I like reading the subject matter I do. Maybe they're just damn good books, pure and simple.

ANYWAY², with all of this being said, I was recently thrilled to learn that I could meet two of my favorite writers in the flesh.

Last week, I attended a reading panel at Book Court in Brooklyn with my high school friend Dan and his girlfriend Michelle. The panel featured writers from the sports and pop culture-centric website, Grantland. While I'm not a regular reader of the site, I have been a regular reader of Grantland contributor Chuck Klosterman for years. Each writer read a piece they had published on the site and then a Q & A ensued. Topics ranging from social media's effect on the pop culture experience to the Penn State scandal were discussed. It was one of those nights where you feel like part of something really creative. It was just a bunch of people sitting in a book store bouncing ideas of one another. For me, the pièce de résistance was listening to Chuck Klosterman. He spoke about America's infatuation (for better or worse) with Tim Tebow. Now, for someone like me who does not follow sports (aside from a few Yankees games here and there) I did not feel like a fish out of water. Hence the reason I enjoy reading Chuck Klosterman, everything he writes is told in the tangible context of pop culture. Regardless of whether he writes about a theory connecting 9/11 and Radiohead's Kid A or the Boston Celtics and the band Poison (the latter two I know little about) his subject matter is attainable because of his smart writing style. At the end of the Q & A, we were invited to mingle with the writers, so my friends and I shuffled over to Mr. Klosterman. We shook hands with him, chit chatted about something he wrote in Eating the Dinosaur and then he signed my friend's book. He didn't seem as jaded or cynical in real life as he does in his writing. He was approachable and wildly (almost comically) animated, which suffice it to say, completely reinforced our admiration of him.

I Googled this picture of Chuck and *fun side story* completely love the fact that he is wearing a t-shirt with Memphis, Tennessee's Sun Studio logo on it. I have the same emblem hanging in my kitchen. We're in sync.

The second piece of news that has got my inner bookworm smiling, is that Augusten Burroughs announced via Twitter that he will be at the Union Square Barnes & Noble on May 8 promoting his new book, This is How. I've fallen out of touch with his recent releases so I'm happy to get back into his world. Burroughs, like many of the writers I mentioned above, is a multi-dimensional storyteller who unapologetically reveals the deepest and darkest experiences from his life (Running with Scissors and Dry) and can also make you laugh in a world he creates (Sellevision). From what I've gathered, This is How seems to be a self-help book of sorts. This is one genre I'm not usually a fan of, but I'm intrigued either way.

I can't wait to see what Augusten Burroughs will sign in my book. When I met David Sedaris at a book signing a few years ago, he smiled and thanked me for coming. He then asked me a question I can't remember now, but for whatever reason it led him to emblazon the following message in my copy of When You Are Engulfed In Flames: To Christina, I'm so happy you can walk. David Sedaris

That's what I love about these guys, you never know what to expect.

¹It took me six months to read Infinite Jest. Six months. The 981-page book contains almost 100 pages of footnotes (not unlike the one you are currently reading) that contain substories independent of the main story at hand, and are also longer and more complex and than those found in some college text books. But, alas, it was worth it.
²Please see any Chuck Klosterman essay.