July 18, Wednesday evening -- Reading Cormac McCarthy

At the door of the Elbo Room on Valencia Street

Reading The Crossing, by Cormac McCarthy. He let me read one of the many pages he'd dog eared so he could go back to passages he liked. The one I read was about a man who, twice in his life, is the sole survivor in a community--one hit by natural disaster, the other hit by war. Instead of marveling at how he was spared, the survivor thinks he's cursed.

While we talked, we were continuously interrupted-- he checked IDs, answered questions about the band; however, he said that usually, in a five-hour shift, he can read about a hundred pages.

He started reading when he was just two-and-a-half. By the time he was four, he was reading novels. The first one, which he picked up off the coffee table--The Eyes of the Dragon, by Stephen King. After that it was murder mysteries.

His favorite book of all time--1984, by George Orwell. What he finds interesting is how it's exactly right on, as if it had proved to be an instructional manual instead of a curb.

If he were to write a book, it'd be about being a punk rock high school student in North Carolina--forming bands, getting beat up. Here in San Francisco he's in Th' Moonlight Sexy. Check out their MySpace page.

What would your book be titled if you wrote about your high school years?