Books Inc. Online Book Discussion Group August August 19, 2008

Books Inc. in the Castro proudly announces this month's selection for our online reading group: Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk.

In Rant, our August selection, Chuck Palahniuk locates Buster “Rant” Casey within a violent subculture—yes, a nod to Fight Club—and employs multifarious oral histories of those who knew him during his life, transforming this novel into one where everything that rises about Casey must not converge. Discontinuous, conflicting narratives throughout the novel vividly evoke the documentaries Palahniuk watched to see “how editors cut together different parts of a spoken story and then using those different forms to tell an ongoing story.”

Stories on Casey, then, neo-mythologize him as an anti-hero within Rant—and for good reason: the boy Casey is so bored with Halloween rituals, he ends up entertaining eight-year-olds with real eyeballs, blood, and gore. He finds painful pleasures in insect stings and plunging his appendages into coyote dens; Rushdie-like, Palahniuk blesses our boy with the unnatural ability to sniff out owners of discarded condoms and tampons. Casey acquires rabies and moves to a big city where he finds himself addicted to the libertine subculture of “party crashing”: every week, party crashers don outfits, affix fake babies and deer to vehicles, and stalk each other on the streets—with intent to ram each other. Chaos ensues. But everyone’s bored, still. When crashing cars fail to entertain, “peak boosting” instead kills time with six recorded hours of someone else’s experiences. Even after turning into the Typhoid Mary of rabies, Casey’s unfulfilled and ends up strapping a Christmas tree to his car, sets it aflame, and drives off a bridge.

We at Books Inc. Castro can only begin to speculate what happens at the end of Palahniuk’s novel. On one hand, why is Casey bored to begin with? On the other, is his boredom really contempt for life’s bullshit? Maybe he’s addicted to pain? We will have more questions and answers to discuss which we’ll post on August.

* * *

We are excited to welcome all readers to participate in discussing various works of literature. For those of you with busy schedules, who still long to join invigorating, provocative literary discussions: our cyber reading group is dedicated to you. Joining our group is simple:

- Log onto Books Inc. Castro’s Myspace page at www.myspace.com/booksinccastro.

- Near top page, subscribe to our Cyber Reading Group blog by clicking on [Subscribe to this Blog]. This takes you to a confirmation screen where you either click “Confirm” to confirm your subscription or click cancel, returning you to our Myspace page.

- If you do not have a Myspace account you can either: - Open one for free—myspace will walk you through the process.

- When purchasing our reading group’s books at Books Inc. Castro, let your bookseller know and receive 15% off!

- Read, Read, Read!

- Finally, log in and discuss, ask/respond to questions, and meet other fellow readers! Have fun learning!
Books Inc. Book Group is free and open to everyone. We encourage inclusiveness and promote diversity.

* * *

Books Inc. is a locally owned and operated independent bookseller with 10 locations in California. Books Inc.’s origin dates back to the Gold Rush Days of 1851 when Anton Roman struck it rich in Shasta City, California and set himself up in business selling books. That small bookstore was moved, bought, sold, burned, rebuilt, renamed and became Books Inc., as we know it today, in 1946.

Today, with 10 Stores and 200 employees, Books Inc. serves as a shining example that independent bookselling can survive and prosper, even if we must dance among the elephants.

Sponsored by Books Inc. 2275 Market St. San Francisco 94114
For Questions:415.864.6777 or on the web at www.booksinc.net and
www.myspace.com/booksinccastro

Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/booksinccastro