Looking for that perfect Yankee Swap gift?

With the holidays and associated gift-giving frenzy approaching, and stores starting to gear up for the season, I thought I would remind readers that my book, The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions, continues to be available at Amazon. Here is the link: goo.gl/cHL36S.

It's getting a bit long in the tooth, but I'd like to think that its message is universal and eternal, given that it is based on the thesis that to be beat one need only look to Jack Kerouac's characters in his novels. In this particular instance, I used On The Road and The Dharma Bums.

Inside my book you will find advice on everything from eating to romance to parking to careers to spontaneity to sex to hitchhiking to spirituality to . . . well, there are 100 entries based on the actions of Kerouac's characters. Each entry includes a brief description of a Kerouaction (that's what I call the answer to the question, "What would Kerouac do?") and then a suggested Kerouactivity that exemplifies or edifies that action.

But that's just thinking about the book as a gift for someone who reads! It has millions of other uses as well. There's white space for journaling. It can serve as a conversation piece on your coffee table. Its pages can be ripped out and crumpled up for starting a fire. It can be used to stabilize a table with a short leg and it's extremely adjustable in that regard (from the thickness of one page to 3/4 of an inch). You could use it for toilet paper (but I don't recommend it unless it's a true emergency). The cover makes for good target practice, darts or otherwise, especially if you hate long-hairs. It can provide a small amount of ballast in a backpack that might otherwise flop around empty. You could throw it at a burglar. Use it as drink coaster to save the top of your coffee table. Grab some duct tape and patch a hole in the wall with it. Make it a drinking game (open up to a Kerouactivity at random and do it or drink). Deploy it to discourage a spider from building a web in the corner of your kitchen.

Finally, it's perfect for that Yankee Swap* gift exchange, especially if you are looking for something that is going to cause a groan of despair when opened. "OMG, a book about Jack Kerouac by someone I've never heard of!"

The best way to remember to buy a copy this holiday season is to click on the link above and order it now. Then store it in your bottom dresser drawer along with the other stuff you think your mate doesn't know about, and when you hit a snag trying to think of a gift, voila! Problem solved.

We love to solve problems around here.



*My apologies to all the Yankees I just offended.