A while ago I mentioned that I was taking part in a summer reading program for the Providence chapter of Books Through Bars. For every book I read between now and Labor Day, money will be raised to pay shipping costs to send books to people in prison. There’s over 2 million people currently in American prisons, and a lot of them don’t have any access to books, despite the fact that education is basically the only proven method to keep people out of jail.
Visit the website to sponsor me, or anyone else for that matter. You might be more interested in supporting someone with fewer sponsors, or someone who reads a lot more than me, or the person you think is the cutest, or whatever. But if you’re going to have a few extra dollars laying around in September, you should definitely consider sending them that way. So far donations range from 25 cents to 10 dollars per book, so feel free to donate whatever you want to (or can).
So far I’ve only read two books, which is totally lame, but I’ll try to do better in August, I promise.
Funny I should have just admitted to buying a John Mellencamp album, because fifteen years ago this week he topped my weekly singles chart. I had a weekly countdown (in notebook form) from fall of 1993 (aged 12) to summer of 1997 (aged 16) and it’s kind of hilarious reflecting on what I used to like. At the same time it’s also kind of amazing how all over the place my listening habits were. I only listened to commercial radio at this point–with the exception of the Milla Jovovich number at #13, which I doubt got any airplay–but listened to every station just about equally. There’s kind of an alarming number of cheesy slow jams on here, though, of all varieties: cheesy R&B (Gerald LeVert), cheesy country (Garth Brooks), cheesy adult contemporary (Elton John) and cheesy alternative (Counting Crows).
40. Stone Temple Pilots, Big Empty (DEBUT)
39. Gerald LeVert, I’d Give Anything (DEBUT)
38. M People, Movin’ On Up (24)
37. Collective Soul, Shine (25)
36. Soundgarden, Black Home Sun (37)
35. Jon Secada, If You Go (28)
34. Tony Bennett, Steppin’ Out With My Baby (35)
33. Green Day, Basket Case (36)
32. Tevin Campbell, Always In My Heart (27)
31. Aaron Neville and Trisha Yearwood, I Fall To Pieces (34)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: books, brothels, eastern europe, fart party, local, olympians, paula fox, premature ejaculation, prostitution, radiohead, romance writers, sausages, tony comstock
New Zealand athlete Logan Campbell has decided to pay for his Olympic taekwondo training by opening a brothel. (Prostitution has been legal in New Zealand for the past six years.)
Back in April, Intelligence Squared hosted a debate on the morality of prostitution, which escaped my radar until a friend forwarded me this link to Tyler Cowen’s presentation. The dormant NPR enthusiast in me is kind of excited about this series.
The book tour for Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life Love Money and Sex kicks off in San Francisco tonight and heads to New York late next week.
Asking where you like to hide your sausage is apparently too risque for UK radio.
Lynn Harris reviews some new books about sex for the Washington Post. I already had Jessica Valenti’s The Purity Myth on my to-read list, actually, but the blurb about Victor Malarek’s The Johns sounds so over the top that I actually kind of want to read it.
Carnal Nation reports on Eastern European migrant sex workers.
Tony Comstock’s rants about the porn industry are always lengthy, but also entertaining and educational.
Despite making up an enormous chunk of an unstable market, romance writers could still use a self-esteem boost.
What’s not to love about premature ejaculation?
This is pretty much my life every time I step away from the computer.
These sixty ladies wish they were special.
Melanie Rehak, author of an interesting book about the business behind Nancy Drew, presents her list of overlooked classics you might want to add to your summer reading list. Once again, I’m left wondering what it is exactly that people like about Paula Fox. Aside from the fact that she’s Courtney Love’s grandmother, she’s totally snoozy. Including Desperate Characters, which everyone seems to love for some reason. Or maybe I’m just bitter because she wrote the single worst book I had to read in elementary school.
Trendily calling things local is the new trendily calling things green.
