Alanis Morissette and Jack Kerouac

According to this story on chartattack.com, Alanis Morissette has a book coming out that was inspired by Jack Kerouac. Here's a quote from the article:

"There's a book I have here that's like a Jack Kerouac reader with all these different writings of his, from prose essays to little prayers," she told the website. "It's one of my favourite books, so I bow down to that form of book."

Gee . . . a hippie songstress with a recurring role on the TV show Weeds is writing a book influenced by Kerouac? Who'da thunk it?

You go, Alanis. Maybe your book will inspire people to buy Jack Kerouac-style readers (like The Beat Handbook)!

Jack Kerouac's FBI Files Part 3

Here is Part 3 in the on-going saga regarding my attempts to determine if Jack Kerouac has an FBI file (and get copies if one exists) under the Freedom of Information Act. As you can see by the above letter, my request to the San Francisco field office (contacting multiple field offices was recommended at the website Get Grandpa's FBI File) was forwarded to FBI Headquarters, which I had also contacted directly. The FBI has now assigned the same FOIPA number to all three of my requests. As I posited on December 16, perhaps one letter to FBI Headquarters is sufficient in such matters.

Writers write

Jack Kerouac was a writer. How do I know that? He wrote. Writers write. So, if you consider yourself a writer, you must write. Pretty simple, huh?

To wit, I wrote the below letter to the editor that was published on p. A7 in today's Kennebec Journal. Now back to writing my novel . . . .

Approaching 10,000 visitors!

As I write this there have been 9,865 visitors to The Daily Beat since October 2008. We're approaching the 10,000th visitor to my blog! I wish I could tell who it is when it happens - I'd send them a free book.

When 10,000 happens, I'll make sure to blog about it. A real milestone!

Customer reviews on Amazon

This is a reminder to readers that customer reviews on Amazon are very important in attracting additional customers. So far, my average rating on Amazon is very high - 5 stars - but I only have 8 reviews (out of 48 books sold). So, if you are someone who has my book and has not yet written a customer review on Amazon, I'd dearly appreciate your taking a couple of minutes to do it (and of course I'd prefer a 5-star rating to go with the review).

Same goes for Charlie's book, Life Lines: if you own it, please consider reviewing it on Amazon. I don't know what to do to get his sales happening. I guess poetry just isn't where it's at these days, which is sad because he is really an excellent poet and deserves a wider audience.

Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman, and Levi's

Perhaps you're familiar with the excellent PBS series, Connections, narrated by James Burke. It's a unique look at history by making unusual connections between events and people. I am always fascinated by connections - I think most people are - and today in SouthCoastToday.com is an article that connects Levi's jeans, Walt Whitman, and Jack Kerouac. You can read the article here.

Now, go read some Whitman. He was a big influence on Kerouac, you know.

First edition of Kerouac's On The Road: STOLEN!

See this story on The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. What would ol' Jack think of someone stealing a first edition of On The Road?

As an aside, On The Road is on Modern Library's "100 Best Novels" list, both The Board's List and The Readers List (see Modern Library 100 Best Novels). The only other beat writer represented is Burroughs (Naked Lunch is on The Reader's List).