Bookburger

happy holidays from your burger-flippers

snowed in...

til the new year...have a happy one, burger fans!

PS...we'll be choosing the winner of our Official Punk Rock Book of Lists giveaway on January 2! Enter now!

giveaway: The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists

We make to-do lists, shopping lists, wish lists...but somehow our lists just don't ROCK. The ones in this new book do....The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists is the handiwork of Handsome Dick Manitoba of the  Dictators and Amy Wallace of the original Book of Lists. They're billing this book as "Essential bathroom reading!!!! " but we like it at the breakfast table, actually. We loved learning how about The Pogues got their name and what Mario Batali's favorite pizzas in the world are. (What does that have to do with punk rock? According to this tome, pizza is the MOST punk rock food of all.)

Anyhow, we have a brand-new copy of The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists to give away....so lace up your Doc Martens and add a comment to this post to be automatically entered to win! [contest ended 1.2.2008] (Just kidding about the Doc Martens--you can be wearing fluffy bunny slippers and we'll still give you your prize if you win!)

Also, we figured we'd give our bookburger pop quiz to the punk authorities who penned this book. Both Amy Wallace and Handsome Dick answered....


Who is your favorite writer that most people have never heard of?

Robert Aickman, Algernon Blackwood -- Edith Wharton --- you may know her -- Yasunari Kawabata who remains the only Japanese Nobel Prize for literature winner, T.E.D. Klein -- 4 stars. - Amy

What kid or teen books rocked your world growing up?

First horror -- Roald Dahl's grown-up then kid books; Peanuts; Dr. Seuss; a British fruitcake workaholic named Enid Blyton, who never hit over here. A Wrinkle in Time.  Ray Bradbury. "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster; and (HOW COULD I FORGET!): COMICS!  ALL KINDS, especially Marvel, early Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, etc.  I was never without a comic in my hand and was allowed to read them at the dinner table.  That's how I acquired a very large vocabulary really young. Any dirty books I could steal from my parents' shelves. - Amy

Describe your ideal place to write.

In bed by hand. - Amy

Your life is a TV series. Name the theme song, one event that would be on the "best of" episode, and one that would be on the blooper reel.

-The Handsome Dick Manitoba Program
"The Party Starts Now"
EPISODE..."HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE"
500 Rock and roll fans in Gijon, Spain,DEC. 1, 2006 singing , "Happy Birthday",in English, to my son Jake Koufax Manitoba on his birthday, while I was about to start singing "The American Ruse", with DKT/MC5.

BLOOPER EPISODE:  "One Too Many Quaaludes"...The band was at rehearsal already on Manhattan's west side,and didn't know where I was, and neither did I, 'cause I took one too many Quaaludes, and fell asleep on someone's floor...somewhere in Westchester with my pal Claire, from The Bronx. - HDM

Burger-flippers want to know: have you ever had a job that required you to wear a geeky uniform? Details, please!

From the age of 19 to 29, I worked as a professional psychic reader.  Even got written up in Cosmopolitan Magazine.   I sometimes resorted to geeky crystal rings and a crystal ball, hippie clothes and mu-mu's, and Birkenstocks (even Earth Shoes!! Shame on me.)  I had a homemade smocked dress that was really the pits. - Amy

We'd like to name a burger in your honor.  What kind of fixins should
it have?

-THE PERFECT MANIBURGER...No fixins...Whether char-broiled or pan grilled...The right kind of meat(a decent amount of fat)...The right bun..Slightly toasted on the pan,w/seeds...A soft "classic" hamburger bun ONLY...Burger btwn. 4-7 OZ., NEVER BIGGER!...More is NOT BETTER in BURGERWORLD......rare to med-rare ONLY....A little ketchup and salt...If done right...That is the PERFECT BURGER and needs no fixins other than these two burger staples. - HDM

crooked canada

We at bookburger have some Canadian fans. They always seem nice...a crew of well-behaved and well-scrubbed individuals wrapped in many soft layers of wool and down. But apparently, there are Canadians--young, hot Canadians--or actually Canadiennes--who live lives of dark turmoil and intrigue. Just get a load of this description of a new title, Be Good:

In this gritty first novel by Stacey May Fowles, a group of Canadian twenty-somethings wrestle with sex, love, and lies. Each character has a distinct persona made of secrets and deceptions, which is shattered by the end of the book. Set against the acutely drawn urban landscapes of Montreal and Vancouver, Morgan and Hannah struggle to navigate the maze of love affairs, failed relationships, obsessions, and departures from the familiar.

Deftly shifting perspective from the innocent and idealistic Hannah to the streetwise and damaged Morgan, to their friends and the men in their lives, Be Good eloquently exposes the lies we tell ourselves and others in order to cope with life and reveals the ongoing alienation and isolation of a world where the only reliable narrator is the future.

WOW! Intense, huh? Now we're actually kind of SCARED of Canadiennes....and we'll probably want to dip into this book...though don't ask us how to get a copy since it's not available on Amazon and the publisher's website at www.tightropebooks.com gives no buying info...