Intro to the Series
Your Catfish Friend Book Reviews
Adding Depth to the Page
I’ve fallen into the trap of “I must read ___ books this year!” From a variety standpoint, very rich. But depth… this book review series will add layers of meaning and authenticity to those readings, which will be recommendations to you.
Some of the books are recommendations from friends and acquaintances. Something deeper inside told me to open and finish others, no matter how tough (here’s looking at you, Haruki Murakami). Novels, self-improvement, short stories, nonfiction, alt-fiction… there are personal connections to every review I’ll write. Maybe “The Count of Monte Cristo” gets reviewed. Maybe the appropriately obscure “The Honorable Obscurity Handbook?”
The series is inspired by one of my favorite poems-“Your Catfish Friend.” It comes from the excellent “The Art of Angling: Poems About Fishing,” edited by Henry Hughes, a super nice professor whose reading and discussion of the book I was lucky to host. The poem has never failed to broaden and deepen my outlook on life:
Richard Brautigan: “Your Catfish Friend”
If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one…
