Grateful Dead

I love to read and I love to listen to music especially the Grateful Dead. Here are my favorites to read when listening to the Dead. 1. The Beats and their poetic descendents - the direct literary forefathers of our band 2... Tom Robbins 3. Other poetry besides the beats; Charles Bukowski, Robert Bly, Rilke, Blake,Vallejo, Neruda, Whitman 4. Herman Hesse 5. Henry Miller 5. Zippy the Pinhead commix 6. Ken Kesey 7. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. 8. Zen, other Buddhist and Taoist works, Chinese poetry during Dark Star and other Jams 9. Magazines. - Parabola, The Sun, Heron Dance, Orion, Revision 10. Philip K. Dick Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

Nice list Hal R! The Beats and the Dead are responsible for my pursuing a degree in literature and my desire to become an English teacher. I've read so much over the years, a mere rote list would be too long and boring, so I'll try to list a few books that have really stood out for me, and that I think you all might enjoy: --"Contemporary" Lit-- The God of Small Things- Arundati Roy The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay- Michael Chabon And You Shall Know Our Velocity!- Dave Eggers (Also anything by McSweeny's) Collected Stories of T. C. Boyle Little-- David Truer --A few "Classics" I love-- One Hundred Years of Solitude-- Gabiel Garcia Marquez (possibly the greatest novel ever written) Blood Meridian-- Cormac McCarthy The Things They Carried- Tim O'Brian Collected Works of Franz Kafka Catch-22 Joseph Heller Edith Hamilton's Mythology A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-- James Joyce Good 'ol Shakespeare! Some Non-fiction: History of Western Philosophy-- Bertrand Russell (He's bias and sometimes unfair, but you'll never read a more accessible and concise explanation of the great philosophers of the western tradition from one of the great philophers of the 20th century. Hey the guy popularized the peace sign). The Elegant Universe-- Brian Greene (String Theory explained for novices!) The Old Weird America-- Greil Marcus No Logo-- Naomi Klein Bill Moyer's interview with Joseph Campbell on PBS (Book titled: Masks of the gods) Baseball Encyclopidia I also enjoy reading websites like (this one!), Truthdig, and Salon.com. Actually, I think I've even read a few of Marye's articles on Salon! Yo Soy Boricua!

they're REALLY OLD! but I hope you liked 'em... The Tonga one led to grand adventures. I don't read much "serious" stuff these days. On the other hand, I love good mysteries. Margaret Maron and Donna Leon, love 'em.

light reading with a bit of wry humor, I have always dug Robert B. Parker's Spenser series... 'Spenser with an S, like the English poet' especially Double Deuce, Pot Shot, A Savage Place... etc etc.

Though I realize you might assume some bias in my recommendation, I can heartily recommend the novel my brother got published a few years ago called "After Lucy." And honestly, I wouldn't have any problem NOT recommending it if I didn't think it was a good read, in spite of it being something he wrote. It's very well-written and kind of a page-turner that sucks you in, and it's got a fairly heavy dose of GD-related content (no pun intended). Even better, it sold well enough that it's now generally available in paperback. If you're looking for a good summer beach/airplane/camping book to read, check it out. Oh yeah, the author's name is Daniel Jones.

Leadbelly 27- How are the Beats and the Dead responsible for pointing you in your career direction? Here are some of the major lessons I got from them 1. To hell with the system . 2. We create ourselves. 3. Follow your Bliss (actually Joseph Campbell - Beats and Dead lived it) 4 Experiment, try something new. 5. It's OK to be a freak, it's OK to be weird. 6. Be yourself 7. Don't sell out Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

Hal R- the Beats and the Dead pointed me toward a different way of looking at things. They were my first exposure to literature and serious "Rock" music, and my gateway to literature, art, philosophy, and culture. I still remember first listening to Live/Dead and reading On the Road when I was 14. I don't think I've fully recovered, lol! I've kind of outgrown the Beats over the years, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for those writers. On a side note, Kerouac's idea of "bop prosody" is almost identical to the approach the Dead took with their music. I guess I've always had a faculty for language and writing, so I just sort of followed that path (it's been a crooked path, a long strange path, but it's been pretty interesting). For me, the best thing in the world is guiding students toward that moment I had when I was 14; the literature or the music needn't be the same, but that recognition they see in literature that attempts to relate human experience, using the inadequate tool of language (and the students actually getting it!), or that flash that the world is wonderful and terrible at the same time, is really something. I get to spend (most of) my days in the world of ideas, literature and writing. the same world that completely blew me away at 14. How cool is that? I consider myself extremely lucky to have finally found something I'm really good at and enjoy (mostly). Yo Soy Boricua!

leadbelly 27: It is cool that you got exposed to both On The Road and Live/Dead when you were 14 and got it. Both are works of magic for me. It was Dylan that hit me first and altered my sense of the world when I was 14 and listening to his Greatest Hits Volume 2, it blew me away and then Bringing It All Back Home. I lived on a farm in Iowa...music and literature kept me from going crazy in the midst of a time when the Vietnam War was on tv every night.. I did have fellow spirits in high school.... Started to listen to the Dead at age 16 and reading Beats at age 19. After I read On The Road and Dharma Bums I took off one summer, driving and hitchhiking with friends along the Mississippi River and then from the Midwest to Wyoming and Montana and 2nd real back backpacking experience. Then to California, San Francisco, Big Sur - I crashed near the beach for a whole week, Los Angeles. In San Francisco I stopped at City Lights - it was a Mecca for me probably as the Vatican is for others. I bought lots of books and mailed them back to myself in Iowa because I had never seen anything like these books there - The First Third, Maggie Cassidy and other Kerouac, big volume of Patchen and and the two Collected Short and Long Poems of Rexroth and others. When hitchhiking I was carrying books of Snyder’s poetry and Goddard’s Buddhist Bible - the one Kerouac read. It was my trip of a lifetime. Lots of strange, wonderful experiences which could fill another book. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

Wholeheartedly actually, that Love in the Time of Solitude COULD be one of the best novels ever. Love the Latin American writers in general, and especially Marquez and Allende. Keep digging out Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective from Douglas Adams, as it never fails to crack me up. Can recommend that for people who appreciate the absurd, and enjoy to laugh out loud while reading. Is one sentence that goes something like "An electric knight sat on a bored horse" that slays me every time I read it. Is my favorite sentence that I ever read, I think. And if I can be so bold as to reply to Hal R as well, your point number 5 from the Beats/Dead CERTAINLY was absolutely responsible for pointing me in my career direction.

I do enjoy to laugh out loud when reading - although I might be disturbing others in the household - ha, ha. A Confederacy of Dunces is ideal for this - as is Don Quijote. I also like to re-read favorites - a lot - keeps the cost down and often times can reveal details missed in the first go-round. Muy buenas. "From day to day, just lettin' it ride, You get so far away from how it feels inside, You can't let go, 'cause you're afraid to fall, But the day may come when you can't feel at all."

Deadicated-had spaced out Don Quijote, which is my absolute Fave Fave Fave classic! As a matter of fact, think it is time to read it again. :-)

Okay, it's definately not literature, but this is a funny tongue-in-cheek "survival manual" for surviving zombie outbreaks. I recommend it because sometimes the dead are not grateful; sometimes they are just flesh eating killing machines. Organize before they rise! http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/zombiesurvivalguide/ Yo Soy Boricua!

Mr. Nice, by Howard Marks www.howardmarks.co.uk The hilarious true tale of Howard Marks, the most notorious hashish smuggler in history. A great read. You'll laugh your ass off!

skye1965 ive recently read a book callled tiger in a trance a very compeling journey of this kids grateful dead experience i recomend it to any dead head

By Markus Zuzsak. Anybody out there read that one? Just finished it, and is the most amazingly awful book that I have read in a long time. I mean awful, not because is poorly written (au contraire-is brilliant) but in that the subject matter is so rough and bleak. The story is narrated by Death, and is told in a completely unique style of prose. Is set in WWII Nazi Germany, and is about how a little girl learns to love literature, despite her world crumbleing around her. I am completely blown away, and can highly recommend this book.

Thought I’d visit some other forums (fora?) in a more serious mood (..ish) I will certainly seek out the Book Thief. If like ‘em beautiful but bleak, try ‘Snow’ by Turkish Nobel Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk. I was working in Turkey a lot earlier this year and bought it to learn a bit about the country and its culture. If you want to know what its like to be an innocent standing in the cross fire of left and right, religious and secular, democracy and dictatorship it’s the one for you!! I must say though that (for an outsider at least) Turkey is far far more fun than Pamuk suggests. ‘Collapse’ by Jared Diamond is enlightening stuff, but I find him an annoyingly repetitive writer at times In the spirit of Douglas Adams, Rob Grant’s ‘Incompetence’ is a real laugh. It is a detective story set in a world where, according to Article 13199 of the Pan-European Constitution: ‘No person shall be prejudiced from employment in any capacity, at any level, by reason of age, race, creed or incompitence’ …does anyone else still read Alan Watts? A genius (for me) who tried to reconcile Zen, Acid, Beat and the realities of the Western Culture that shape so much our lives…..

A friend just sent me a copy of the Alice Walker poem, Be Nobody's Darling. I think it applies to many of us here. Google: "Xkot: Be Nobody's Darling, a poem by Alice Walker" and enjoy. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

Classical DeadCosmicbadger - I read lots of Alan Watts when I was in my late teens and early 20's. He served as my introduction to Buddhism, Zen and the Tao which I have continued to explore throughout my life. Once in a while I will reread his essays but I find some of his work a bit naive and his own painting of Buddhism, Zen and the Tao are a bit off from what I feel they are and have found in my studies. He did not do a great amount of meditation so it is difficult for me to see him as a master but his role as a popularizer was key. I really loved his critiques of society and he helped me see that there were other ways to view the world and to live. Read a biography about him recently, Zen Effects The Life of Alan Watts by Monica Furlong. So sad that he was victim of his own abuse of alcohol We named our 40 acres of mountain property Cloud Hidden after his book Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown. That is also the title of a great Van Morrison song dedicated to Alan Watts. Thank you Alan Watts for opening many doors for me. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

..interesting Hal. Sad too about Watts' demise. Given your comments and your personal studies who would you say have been Watts' successors in popularisng Buddhism, Zen and the Tao? Any recommendations?

I have not read a lot of the books mentioned here, the classics got burned out of me at school, not much disecting of Dickens and Shakespeare. I have always read a lot but very different books, when i was at school i would rather read Scifi than the stuff they tried to force on us. Living in Spain i have not even read Don Quixote. I like most of Kesey's stuff, i even have signed copies of Sailor Song and Further enquiry from when the bus came to my home town Apart from that my reading tends towards fantasy now Bob .- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Anybody read this one by Max Ludington? A sort of road novel about the darker side of freedom and growing up. A pretty powerful statement by Ludington.

New novel, "Slipknot," features a county sheriff who is also a Deadhead. He quotes GD lyrics throughout, while solving the murder of an ecologist. Dennis McNally wrote one of the cover blurbs: “A hardcore Deadhead county sheriff is my idea of good law enforcement. Slipknot happens to be a darned good mystery where the Grateful Dead stuff is central and real.” Officially out Nov. 1st.

who's the author?

It is me, actually, Gary McKinney. The publishing house is tiny and has no marketing budget to speak of, so they've ask me to do some posting. It's kind of embarassing to tout your own book, but it really is very good. Certainly Dennis wouldn't have blurbed it if he hadn't liked it. Like him, a lot of people are interested in what I've done with this theme. And it's been great for me as an author, because I've been a Deadhead since 1969 (Springer's in Portland), and it was so much fun to immerse myself into this character's (dead) head. Among other things I had fun with was interpreting the lyrics via this character and bringing them into everyday life situations that so many of us can relate to. Thanks for taking notice!

Gary,That's great! I'll definitely have my eye out for your book on November 1!

That book will be on my list to read!! :)

The wife and I enjoy true crime novels, but I just mentioned to her the Slipknot novel, might make a nice christmas gift. We'll see.

thanks for the heads-up! (And yeah, Dennis is not in the habit of praising stuff he doesn't like, so good for you!)

Thanks so much for the interest in "Slipknot". Everyone in the GD community has been wonderfully supportive, starting with Alan Trist who actually called me at home and chatted with me at length about the project after I had timidly contacted him. (Ice Nine allowed the limited and reasonable use of the lyrics. Very indebted for that.) Both David Gans and John Henrikson, too, have been gracious. Sometime in the next couple of months there will be some "Slipknot" coverage on their shows and/or blogs. But however "well" the book does, for me the best part is it offers some small insight into what it means to have embraced the Dead ethos then struggle to bring it into our daily lives. It's nice to have some artistic expression of that feeling.

You asked me "who would you say have been Watts' successors in popularizing Buddhism, Zen and the Tao? Any recommendations?" A huge question for me because there is so much on this flowering of Buddhism, Zen and the Tao over the past 50 years. Kind of like someone asking us to recommend a book about the environment. Watts and his contemporary Christmas Humphreys did a lot to open the doors for the west to Buddhism. D.T. Suzuki wrote volumes on Zen and translated and was very important and an influence on Watts and Humphreys. I would say that the next wave after them were the teachers that came to the U.S. and to Europe and the folks that studied in Asia, mainly Japan at first. In Zen, Shunryu Suzuki founded Zen Center in San Francisco and wrote, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" which was very influential. Also very important in U.S. were Taizan Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles and Katagari Roshi in Minneapolis, both of whom have books that are out and I relish. These three were all Zen priests from Japan. Then of course there was Gary Snyder, the central figure in Jack Kerouac's the Dharma Bums. Many of the beats were involved at some time either directly or indirectly in studying, practicing and popularizing Zen and/or Buddhism. Snyder and Ginsberg lived it. Another important book was Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps which had short versions of many classic Zen tales and also Koans which are a type of Zen riddle to open your mind beyond rational thought. Then there were the first American students to become Zen teachers or priests and to write. The earliest in the 60's was Phillip Kapleau and his "Three Pillars of Zen". Also Robert Aitken has many works out and is my main teacher’s teacher. I highly recommend anything by him. End of part 1 If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

More on this. You asked me "who would you say have been Watts' successors in popularizing Buddhism, Zen and the Tao? Any recommendations?" The major history on the opening of the west to Buddhism is "How the Swans Came to the Lake" by Rick Fields and is a very nice read. The two major figures internationally are of course the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, both of whom have many books out. A good one by Thich Nhat Hanh about the Life of the Buddha and his teachings is the story told by a fictionalized buffalo boy in "Old Path White Clouds". My favorite introductory books to Buddhism are "The Heart of Buddha's Teachings" by Thich Nhat Hanh, "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula and "Light on Enlightenment" by Christopher Titmuss. An easy intro is the comic style Introducing Buddha by Jane Hope and Baron Van Loon. As an introduction to Zen my first choice would be “Taking the Path of Zen” by Robert Aitken, along with the” Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” and “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”. One that covers many of the facets of Zen and of Zen in the arts is The World of Zen by Nancy Wilson Ross. Can't forget Chogyam Trungpa the great and controversial Tibetan teacher. You could start with his The Essential Chogyam Trungpa". There are so many more incredible teachers and books and I want to acknowledge and thank them all here even though I can't mention them. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

Hey guys, Wanted to make the boards aware of an amazing coffee table photo book by Deborah Chesher that pays tribute to 48 musicians she shot in Vancouver and LA b/w 74-79 who have since passed away. Keith Godchaux is one of the musicians featured in the book. It shows never before see photos and includes Deborah's own behind the scenes memories. You can get the book on Amazon.com or through her website at: www.cheshercat.com. The blog about the book is at: www.everybodyishotisdead.blogspot.com. Would love to hear what anyone thinks of the book as well - getting great response this week as the Vancouver gallery show just happened on Sat. You can see 90 prints if in Vancouver at the OH MY GODARD GALLERY, LA, Austin, etc...shows coming soon!

Sorry I forgot to post that amazingly important tidbit. You can get the book on Amazon.com or through her website at: www.cheshercat.com. The blog about the book is at: www.everybodyishotisdead.blogspot.com.

wow I just found my way back here and read Hal's comprehensive spiritual reading list! So kind of you to share that with us. I read Christmas Humphreys long long ago have had and loved the Paul Reps since an old hippie in the hills turned me on to it 30 years ago, but much is new and I will make some selections for my Christmas wish list. So here's a quiz question Which UK chart single from way back mentions Christmas Humphreys?

well, I dunno about the UK charts, but Van's "Cleaning Windows," which is one of my all-time favorites, mentions it as something the narrator's reading in between the fenestral labors.

easy for fans of Van the Man I suppose 'I went home and read my Christmas Humphreys book on Zen, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Kerouac's Dharma Bums and on the Road' From Cleaning Windows on Beautiful Vision reached 41 in the UK singles charts. Van was always touring the UK in the 80's , sometimes he was grumpy and really awful, and sometimes he just tore the place down. Glastonbury Festival 1982 with my 3 month old son in my arms and Van and the Band in full swing in the Vale of Avalon...what a time to see Van singing 'Cleaning WIndows' in 1982 go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QiZgl7jQxo As for literature, I'm reading Tom Wolfe's 'I am Charlotte Simmons' at the moment, an entertaining and scathing indictment of modern US Ivy League College life. For a foreigner it's like reading an anthropological study from another planet, full of unfathomable cultural references....if it's really like that I wouldn't spend my life's savings sending my kids there I can tell you For izzie's benefit it does have an excellent paragraph on the modern usage of her beloved f-word...I shall copy it if she wishes

If someone else wishes it, Badger? Like me? I would like to read "an excellent paragraph on the modern usage of her beloved f-word". :-)********************************** Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you will still exist, but you have ceased to live. Samuel Clemens

Cosmicbadger, glad to share.Good to see you and Tigerlilly again. Right now I am reading Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death and Dogen's Treasury of The Right Dharma Eye. Dogen is one of the greatest writers in Zen and this book examines his work from a modern perspective. Also rereading some classics slowly over the past months; Walden and other writings by Henry David Thoreau, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and Leaves of Grass and Other Writings by Walt Whitman. All three of these very important to me over the years. But it is not all serious as I am also reading t.c. boyle - stories. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

I have a fun Grateful Dead/book story. In 1986, I was on a train from Paris to Amsterdam, listening to the Dead on my Sony Walkman. The girl sitting next to me asked if I was listening to the Dead. She was about 15, from New York City, and said she'd never seen the Dead but wanted to. Being a bookworm, I recommended a long "hippie canon" to her. I don't remember the details, but I'm certain you all could guess some of the titles as well as I could. I saw her diligently write them all down. In 1989, I flew to Charlotte, NC, to see a show. I ran into the same person in the hallways. She said, "I read all of the books you told me to read!"

I feel a bit nervous posting this after a school teacher (great story Barbara) but below is Mr Wolfe's grammatical analysis of current usage. My excuses are as follows Tom Wolfe is a major literary figure and I'm only quoting him He is also of course a documenter of early Dead history (I bet 'Acid Test' was on Barbara's booklist) The mods have tolerated and even encouraged a culture of liberal and libertarian attitudes to language (so long as the grammar is OK!) TigerLilly asked for it and she needs cheering up! ' Without even realising what is was, Jojo spoke in this year’s prevailing college Creole: Fuck Patois. In Fuck Patois, the word fuck was used as an interjection (“What the fuck” or plain “Fuck”, with or without an exclamation point) expressing unhappy surprise; as a participal adjective (“fucking guy”, “fucking tree,” “fucking elbows”) expressing disparagement or discontent; as an adverb modifying and intensifying an adjective (“pretty fucking obvious”) or a verb (“I’m gonna fucking kick his ass”); as a noun (“That stupid fuck,” “don’t give a good fuck”); as a verb meaning 'go away' (“Fuck off”), beat- physically, financially, or politically (“really fucked him over”) or beaten (“I’m fucked”), botch (“really fucked that up”), drunk (“You are so fucked up”); as an imperative expressing contempt (“Fuck you,” “Fuck that”). Rarely - the usage has become somewhat archaic - but every now and then it referred to sexual intercourse (“He fucked her on the carpet in front of the TV”)' Tom Wolfe (2004). I am Charlotte Simmons Later on he also provides a similar and even longer analysis of 'Sh*t Patois' . You'll have to read the book to get that!

Am more cheered up than you might know-I HAVE THAT BOOK! And have even read it. Now have to retrieve it from Germany next weekend, and re-read it. Que cosa mas mona!!********************************** Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you will still exist, but you have ceased to live. Samuel Clemens

Tom Wolfe rocks! "All energy flows according to the whims of the Great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy him."

Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90Mar 18, 2008 (7:24p CDT) By RAVI NESSMAN (Associated Press Writer) COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90. Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said. Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer. He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits. He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s. Clarke's non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment. "Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer." From 1950, he began a prolific output of both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes publishing three books in a year. He published his best-selling "3001: The Final Odyssey" when he was 79. Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956, "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986. When Clarke and Kubrick got together to develop a movie about space, they used as basic ideas several of Clarke's shorter pieces, including "The Sentinel," written in 1948, and "Encounter in the Dawn." As work progressed on the screenplay, Clarke also wrote a novel of the story. He followed it up with "2010," "2061," and "3001: The Final Odyssey." In 1989, two decades after the Apollo 11 moon landings, Clarke wrote: "2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined." Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989. Born in Minehead, western England, on Dec. 16, 1917, the son of a farmer, Arthur Charles Clark became addicted to science fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" at Woolworth's. He read English writers H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and began writing for his school magazine in his teens. Clarke went to work as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel. It was not until after the World War II that Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London. In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system. But it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications - an idea whose time had decidedly not come. Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched. Clarke married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children. He moved to the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka in 1956 after embarking on a study of the Great Barrier Reef. He discovered that scuba-diving approximated the feeling of weightlessness that astronauts experience in space, and he remained a diving enthusiast, running his own scuba venture into old age. "I'm perfectly operational underwater," he once said. Clarke was linked by his computer with friends and fans around the world, spending each morning answering e-mails and browsing the Internet. At a 90th birthday party thrown for Clarke in December, the author said he had three wishes: for Sri Lanka's raging civil war to end, for the world to embrace cleaner sources of energy and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings to be discovered. In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke once said he did not regret having never followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit. "One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King." If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake

I guess the cosmic pod bay doors have opened...

As one of my friends says "he ( meaning me) has been hearing that for 40 years", but it still makes me smile when I hear it knowing that the person is 2001 fan and my name is part of it. Released in 1968, what an amazing year. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake

I remember going to that movie quite a few times in 1969 with my buddies, and every time we went we tried a different chemical. I guess we wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything.

it freaked me out BAD! No chemicals involved. Later in life we got along better.

My son, who will be 12 tomorrow, just discovered the series of books. I had forgotten how much fun they are, and we are having a great time reading them aloud (while am here, that is, am leaving again the day after his birthday)********************************** Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you will still exist, but you have ceased to live. Samuel Clemens

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead I feel kind of like I'm on Reading Rainbow: Very interesting spiritual short stories, check it out. Oh, its not a Dead book. PEACE

The Fabulous furry Freak-Brothers (not allways politically corecct hehe) The Stories of WonderWartHog