December 2003
Al Franken, whom most of us first came to know as Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live, has emerged as one of the foremost Liberal spokespersons over recent years. His first book, in fact, was the Stuart Smalley epic, "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!" That bestseller (really) launched his career and allowed him to branch out into the humourous political commentary that most of his successive books have made their centerpiece.

I've yet to read "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations" and "Why Not Me? The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency" but they sound very similar to this, Franken's most recent book: "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right". Ah... what a witty title can do for book sales!

August 2003
By now we all know who Michael Moore is. There was a time, however, when only a few socially aware scenesters were hip to the vibe laid down by the Roger & Me creator. But since then, Moore's had his own TV shows (TV Nation & The Awful Truth), written a few books (Downsize This!, Stupid White Men, and Dude Where's My Country?), and won an Oscar for his latest documentary, Bowling for Columbine. So there's no need for me to "introduce" Michael Moore.

July 2003
This is the third Nick Hornby book I've read, the previous two being "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity". I read High Fidelity in the late 90s ('98 or '99) and at the time it completely changed my perspective on monogamy. For some reason, I identifed with the protagonist in High Fidelity despite our very different lives, ages, and dating proficiency and chose to abandon my single lifestyle, plunging headlong into a committed relationship. And while finding a long-term relationship was not an altogether bad decision, I see now that there may have been less drastic ways to express my love for that book.

July 2003
Willie Nelson and Steven Tyler once sang "Once is Enough". Well, that's how I felt after reading my second George Orwell book.

I read Orwell's first book, "Down and Out in Paris and London", a few years ago and was largely unimpressed. It was nothing more than an embellished journal of his time "slumming it" in those two cities (when he wasn't living with his rich family, that is). "Nineteen Eighty-Four" displays the trademark Orwellian flair for the literal and heavy-handed, leaving nothing to the imagination and reading more like an overwrought essay than a novel.

June 2003
I should start by exposing my biasis: "Aldous" is currently my leading (and only) choice for the name of my first-born son. Hell - if I read one more of his books, I might even name my daughter "Aldous".

Brave New World is of course a seminal, extremely well-known piece of literature, written in 1932 by Aldous Huxley. An Eton grad and all-round brilliant guy, Aldous was in his late thirties when BNW was published, but had spent much of the 1920s as a darling of the high society scene, his other works - among them, Chrome Yellow and Point Counter Point, making him extremely fashionable.