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Cormac McCarthy

is my favorite author of all time.

If you haven’t read any of his stuff, check him out.

I got started reading No Country for Old Men after the film adaption received so many awards and I fell in love. I think The Road is my favorite, even though it was featured in Oprah’s Book Club. He’s a lot like William Faulkner, and it’s almost as if he belongs in the modern period, rather than today.

Try one of his books. They’re great.

APO 96225

A young man once went off to war in a far country,
and when he had time, he wrote home and said,
“Dear Mom, sure rains a lot here.”

But his mother — reading between the lines as mothers
always do — wrote back,
“We’re quite concerned. Tell us what it’s really like.”

And the young man responded,
“Wow! You ought to see the funny monkeys.”

To which the mother replied,
“Don’t hold back. How is it there?”

And the young man wrote,
“The sunsets here are spectacular!”

In her next letter, the mother pleaded,
“Son, we want you to tell us everything. Everything!”

So the next time he worte, the young man said,
“Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm
on women and children.”

And the father wrote right back,
“Please don’t write such depressing letters. You’re
upsetting your mother.”

So, after a while,
the young man wrote,
“Dear Mom, sure rains here a lot.”

By Larry Rottmann

It was raining today, and I thought of this.

Suicide’s Note

“The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.”

By Langston Hughes

This was my favorite poem from Language Arts last year. It’s so simple but it has so much depth.