My current bathroom book is Wild Ducks Flying Backward. It is a fine collection of short writings broken down into 5 sections: 1) Travel Articles, 2) Tributes, 3) Stories, Poems, & Lyrics, 4) Musings & Critiques, and 5) Responses. A wonderful idea for a well-acclaimed writer.

The funny thing is, I’ve never finished a Robbins novel. I’ve started on four separate occasions: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume, and Still Life With Woodpecker (twice), but I didn’t get even halfway thru one until recently (I put Woodpecker down a few months ago, but will try to resume soon).

I think that Tom (don’t call me Tim or Tony) Robbins is a masterful writer who can be very enjoyable, but perhaps his prose gets too flowery for me at times (altho I wish I had just 12% of his delightful descriptive skills). Since smaller bites of Robbins are much easier for me to swallow, I was pleased to find this collection of short writings recently.

Here is one of my favorites thus far. It’s a 10 page “Musing & Critique” that may not be as mouth-watering as expected, but is certainly an interestingly sweet read. It’s also a question that I will be pondering for awhile, with the answer perhaps coming in “Grindy of the YEAR” form!

A Few of My Favorite Parts:

-Mario Batali’s signature Lamb’s tongue vinaigrette dish (layered with chanterelle mushrooms and topped with a poached chicken egg) sounds pretty epic. Here’s a picture:

-Robbins is serious about his mayonnaise! You don’t read about Kewpie every day.

-His footnote ode to HST is awesome:

“Where are the men today whose lives are not beige;
Where are the writers whose style is not gray?”

-You’ve gotta love the explosive Naomi Watts/ black Ferrari ending. If Tom Robbins isn’t a Northwestern outlaw, then I don’t know who is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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