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Ex-Marine sniper Anthony Swofford has recently had his memoir published of experiences in action and later also dealing with Desert Storm. Titled Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of The Gulf War and Other Battles, it is currently number five on the New York Times best seller list, and obviously with the new military campaign now in full swing in Iraq, the book has become extremely topical. Beyond it's topicality, it's very well written, a brutally honest and extremely compelling personal account of modern war. It is tinged with a bit of dark humor as well. Many reviews (which have been overwhelmingly glowing) have compared it favorably to the likes of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and even Joseph Heller's Catch-22 - though to be clear, Swofford's book is non-fiction.
Tony now lives in Portland, Oregon. He's an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark College, and the office where he does his writing is right downtown. A freind of mine owns an independent bookstore, Looking Glass Books, also downtown, and she befriended Swofford during his writing process, long before he even had a publisher. Last weekend (well, Monday, actually), C-SPAN recorded a reading and Q&A at the bookstore. I flew to Portland to help out, and everything went very smoothly. It should be a good show and a good introduction to Jarhead.
Anyway, the event is being broadcast this weekend on C-SPAN2 as part of their BookTV schedule. For anyone interested, it can be seen on Saturday (March 22nd) at 5:30pmEST, and Sunday (March 23rd) at 12:00noonEST and again at 10:00pmEST. In case those times change, the webpage can be found HERE.
And no, for anyone curious, I don't think I'm on camera anywhere. I do ask one of the questions in the audience during the Q&A session, but C-SPAN only sent a single camera and they didn't do pans of the audience. The only slight chance I'm on screen depends on how they framed the shot when Tony is doing the actual book signings at the end. I was standing near the front of the line making sure the books were opened to the title page to make the signing process that much quicker. Anywho, if I'm on there, I'll let you know.
Whether you catch the show or not, I very much recommend picking up Jarhead. A great read and, particularly this week, an important one.
Tony now lives in Portland, Oregon. He's an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark College, and the office where he does his writing is right downtown. A freind of mine owns an independent bookstore, Looking Glass Books, also downtown, and she befriended Swofford during his writing process, long before he even had a publisher. Last weekend (well, Monday, actually), C-SPAN recorded a reading and Q&A at the bookstore. I flew to Portland to help out, and everything went very smoothly. It should be a good show and a good introduction to Jarhead.
Anyway, the event is being broadcast this weekend on C-SPAN2 as part of their BookTV schedule. For anyone interested, it can be seen on Saturday (March 22nd) at 5:30pmEST, and Sunday (March 23rd) at 12:00noonEST and again at 10:00pmEST. In case those times change, the webpage can be found HERE.
And no, for anyone curious, I don't think I'm on camera anywhere. I do ask one of the questions in the audience during the Q&A session, but C-SPAN only sent a single camera and they didn't do pans of the audience. The only slight chance I'm on screen depends on how they framed the shot when Tony is doing the actual book signings at the end. I was standing near the front of the line making sure the books were opened to the title page to make the signing process that much quicker. Anywho, if I'm on there, I'll let you know.
Whether you catch the show or not, I very much recommend picking up Jarhead. A great read and, particularly this week, an important one.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Last edited by Holden Pike; 03-21-03 at 06:28 PM.