Chris Kluwe has had a book published: "Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies"
The overall theme of NFL punter Chris Kluwe's Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies can be summed up in a sentence from his piece called "Graduation." He advises his audience, "Our world is only as good as we're willing to make it, and that means treating others how we want to be treated, letting others live in freedom so they'll let us do the same." In the letters, essays and stories that make up this debut, Kluwe emphasizes empathy with humor, passion and even philosophy.
The collection includes some content previously posted to Kluwe's former blog on the Pioneer Press website, as well as his famous open letter in defense of same-sex marriage (with a revised version for those who took issue with the profanities in the original). He employs side-splittingly funny analogies, like a comparison of toilet paper to short-term/long-term gains. When he talks to or about his family, there's genuine warmth under his clever wit. But he's also vehemently frank when he addresses topics such as societal values or gun control, challenging readers to "never be afraid to stand your ground for something worth fighting for."
These pieces are short, but Kluwe's unpredictability will keep readers curiously turning the pages all the way to his self-composed eulogy that includes a funeral drinking game and mandates cake and ice cream. Intelligent and thought-provoking, Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies is relentlessly honest; Kluwe pulls no punches, spares no language and writes a rip-roaring debut.
Interview with Kluwe:
"Chris Kluwe grew up in Southern California among a colony of wild chinchillas and didn't learn how to communicate outside of barking and howling until he was 14 years old. He has played football in the NFL, once wrestled a bear for a pot of gold and lies occasionally. He is also the eternal disappointment of his mother, who just can't understand why he hasn't cured cancer yet. Do you know why these bio things are in third person? I have no idea. Please tell me if you figure it out."
Kluwe's first book, the essay collection Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies: On Myths, Morons, Free Speech, Football, and Assorted Absurdities, will be published by Little, Brown on June 25, 2013.
On your nightstand now:
A lamp.
<snip>
Your top five authors:
Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Iain Banks, Brandon Sanderson, L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Book you've faked reading:
None. I wish I faked reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Book you've bought for the cover:
All of them. The pages get very damaged if the book lacks a cover. Plus, if you swat a fly, you're going to want to protect the words from fly juices.
Favorite line from a book:
"Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!" --"The Call of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft.
Why do you like sci-fi/fantasy so much?
Because sci-fi/fantasy allows us to take scenarios from what was/is, and imagine what could be. Without that imagination, the sun is just a flaming ball of gas around which boring chunks of rock orbit on a regular basis, and death comes far too quickly.
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=208
Gonna have to read this!
