Spring Reading

Spring is always when I get back into my habit of reading a lot. For some reason, in the Winter, I can't do anything but lounge around. But Springtime and I -- we like reading. As I recently explained to Ben, after reading everything I could get my hands on as a kid, I've become very, very picky in the fiction authors I enjoy. Evelyn Waugh is one, "The Lost Generation" writers are always great, but Jack Kerouac is my favorite writer far and away. I adore him enough, in fact, that I got "mad to live", a line from his book On The Road, tattooed on my wrist.

A few months ago I picked up a copy of the fabled book And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Kerouac and William Burroughs, a book that has been talked about for years but was only published following the death of Lucien Carr, one of the people the book is based on. It tells the story of the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, an event both Burroughs and Kerouac were involved with indirectly through their friendship with both men. They were in New York at the time of the murder, and relay what happened in the days leading up to and the day of the murder from their own perspectives in alternating chapters.

The book is sitting at Ben's apartment now (figured I'd leave it there after Ben finished reading it, since I'm moving there soon anyway) and I'm dying to read it again! It's just a wonderful, well written story, and a real gem from the early years of the Beats, before they were thrust into the limelight. If you haven't yet, check it out!