Blogcritics

Interview With A.J. Jacobs, Author of The Year Of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible - Part 3 of 3

Scott Butki — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:24:39 EST

"I became far more aware of my actions and their consequences." - AJ Jacobs on how the project changed him
This is the third part of a three-part interview with AJ Jacobs about his book, The Year of Living Biblically.In the first part I talked to Jacobs about his career and earlier book. In the second part we talked about the response he has received from his new book. And now... the final part, where he discusses what he has learned during this...

An Interview With Howard Kurtz, Author of Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War, Part Two

Scott Butki — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:27:33 EST

"I think Katie Couric made a number of mistakes when she got to CBS and is paying the price."
This is the second part of a two-part interview. In the first part we talked more about the author and for this part I focus more on his book Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War.Howard Kurtz is the media reporter for The Washington Post. In Reality Show he looks at how network news has changed in recent years, partially due to...

Part 2 - An Interview With Writer Kinky Friedman, Author of You Can Lead a Politician to Water, But You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics

Scott Butki — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:57:56 EST

"Texans are big-hearted and they know that killing people is not our job."
This is the second part of a two-part interview with Kinky Friedman. The first part ran last week.I want to begin with an excerpt so you can get a taste for his flavor: There once was a zoo that some folks liked to call Texas politics. In this zoo were hawks and doves, bulls and bears, crocodiles and two-legged snakes, and lots and lots and lots of...

An Interview With Writer Kinky Friedman, Author of You Can Lead a Politician to Water, But You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics

Scott Butki — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 19:33:02 EST

"I wrote this book for the same reason I ran for governor � to try to make Texas a better place."
This is the first part of a two-part interview Where does one even begin in introducing an interview with someone as… as… eccentric and interesting as Kinky Friedman?As leader of the Kinky Friedman and The Jewboys in the 1970s he sang off-beat songs like “I’m Proud to Be An Asshole From El Paso” and "They...

An Interview With Howard Kurtz, Author of Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War, Part One

Scott Butki — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:14:09 EDT

"I get valuable information and insights from bloggers. And if it's a rough neighborhood, so be it."
This is the first part of a two-part interview. I know many who regularly flog Howard Kurtz but while I have my quibbles with some of his pieces he writes as The Washington Post’s media reporter I generally am interested and like what he writes. While the quality of his writing, specifically his choices of subjects and sources, has been much...

Interview With Bill Bryan, Author of Keep It Real Part Two

Scott Butki — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:59:39 EDT

"Since reality shows are so much cheaper to produce, they have proliferated like crabs at Woodstock."
This is the second part of a two-part interview with Bill Bryan, author of Keep It Real.In the first part we talked about his career. For this part I focused more on questions related to this book.He also threw me a curve ball near the end which I had to address. Dang TV writers giving me more work to do. Grr...:)The book’s acknowledgement...

An Interview With Wesley Stace AKA John Wesley Harding About His Novel, By George

Scott Butki — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:33:13 EDT

"Writing books is more difficult, by far, though ultimately more rewarding. Making music is much more immediate."
This is the first part of a two part interview I’m a fan of the musician John Wesley Harding, which is the name Wesley Stace goes by when doing music. You may recognize the name from one of Bob Dylan’s albums. Harding writes clever, witty songs and he is an eloquent lyricist. In recent years Stace has written two books and I asked to...

Interview With A.J. Jacobs, Author of The Year Of Living Biblically

Scott Butki — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:22:43 EDT

"I'm Jewish in the same way that the Olive Garden is Italian."
This is the first part of a two-part interviewIn recapping my five favorite books so far this year I mentioned how much I was looking forward to the new book by the author A.J. Jacobs. I loved his last book, The Know-It-All and went a bit wild with enthusiasm quoting excerpts from the book as part of the interview.He mentioned in that interview...

An Interview With Charlie Huston, Author of The Shotgun Rule, Part Two

Scott Butki — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:32:55 EDT

"I try and give the locations in all my books a certain amount of texture" - Charles Huston
This is the second part of a two part interview. The first part was published on October 3, my birthday. Last weekend I finished The Shotgun Rule which is as gritty and dark a novel as I’ve read in several years. It explores violence and life in a fictional Northern California town. Is it good? Let’s put it this way, Stephen King was...

Inteview With Bill Bryan, Author of Keep It Real, Part One

Scott Butki — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:41:39 EDT

"Yes, there is definitely an element of revenge in my writing Keep It Real" - Bill Bryan
This is the first part of a two-part interview. The first, this part, will focus on his background. The second part will focus more on the book.As with Tom Straw, who I interviewed last month, Bill Bryan writes for television and wrote his first novel about television. But while Straw’s book focuses on the paparazzi, Bryan’s book is...