check out konagod he's a local austin boy. i'm sure he has the lowdown on bookstores, and the best tex-mex. tell him i sent ya and he might even bring himself to be polite. plus, he loves truffles and is easily bribed.
i'm finishing "a plague of doves," having already swallowed "eye of the king" i was semi-impressed with a first novel by a very young writer. i passed it on to a seventeen year old niece.
i have a campaigns of alexander book coming in, along with a few others that i forgot.
i plug through at least a chapter a day with "nixonland."
i also recommend "world made by hand" by james howard kunstler. not apocoplyptic bullshit, just ordinary people trying to regain some kind of touch with ordinary.
Yes MB, I am very easily bribed where truffles are involved. 
BookPeople is a great store and just across the street from where I work, and the Whole Foods Market is across 6th Street from it as well, so lots to do in that area.
Waterloo Records is just across Lamar & 6th from BookPeople for those wanting to check out a good music scene.
6th & Lamar -- a hotbed of activity.
Half Price Books is another local fave with a few locations scattered around town.
Also be sure to hit South Congress. Guero's Taco Bar is the epicenter. One of the best margaritas in town and good food. Veggie friendly.
I'm in Austin and will be seeing you. We have a chain of Half Price Books that are astoundingly cheap, and since Austin keeps topping the lists of the most literate city in America, the books being turned in for trade are about as varied as you can find.
We also have the only women's bookstore between Atlanta and the West Coast in the Southern half of the U.S., BookWoman. If you go, tell 'em Maggie sent you. If you want Latino/POC/radical selections you won't fine elsewhere, go to Resistencia on South Lamar.
As far as Tex-Mex, there's a lot of choices but many of them inferior. For breakfast tacos (start your day right), go to Taco X-Press on South Lamar or the landmark Las Manitas on Congress. I also love Nueva Onda on South Congress.
For the best authentic Mexican, go to Guero's on South Congress, Nuevo Leon on East Seventh, or Curra's Grill on Oltorf. For interior and Central American, go to El Sol y La Luna, also on South Congress. For more greasy but tasty Tex-Mex, there's Jovita's or Polvo's on South Lamar.
Stay away from Baby Acapulco's, Chuy's or Trudy's -- it's for people like the Bush's (one of the Bush girls got arrested at Chuy's for underage drinking), not people who want the Real Deal. Matt's El Rancho and La Fonda are for those who want to pay big bucks for the same thing you can get cheap at Jovita's, but have waiters fawning over them.
Other regional cuisine not to overlook is the confluence of German barbecue, Southern BBQ and Mexican barbacoa. I favor the first, and the best barbecue in North America (in my opinion) involves drives out of town, to Smitty's in Lockhart or the Salt Lick. But goddamn, it's worth it.
At Smitty's you file into an ancient storefront with caked-in grease on the walls, past the blazing firepit, and choose your meat from Smitty himself. It's slapped onto butcher paper, you have your choice of white bread or saltines, and you escape into the air-conditioned room next door to get beer, Big Red, or whatever. Oh, plus maybe a raw onion, jalapeno, or tomato to go with your meal -- no other veggies. It's about the meat. They have two kinds of brisket, hand-made sausages, chops you order cut from the loin according to your own preference, and -- no chicken. Just beef or pork. You eat at big tables with other folks, and if you don't get there early, the lines are staggering, despite the half-hour drive out of Austin. I've taken two different West Coast vegans there on day trips to get myself something, but once inside, they fell under the spell and ate all they could of beef and pork. It's THAT GOOD.
Also, Threadgill's for down-home (especially the veggie plates) and Hoover's for soul food (get the catfish and greens, no matter what). And we have a local ice cream chain, Amy's, that's glorious.
Now I'm hungry. Gotta go.
I jsut finished Nixonland--a very good book, though surprisingly rife with typos. (Uh, I meant to type "just," not "jsut"--see, this is why god invented copy editors).
Now reading Custerology, an excellent meditation on memory and history and the American West....
In Austin look for 12th Street Books, on (yes) 12th St between Rio Grande and Lamar. Very good used books....
Matt's El Rancho sucks. And saying so is sacrilege in these parts but I'm not a carnivore so that might explain part of it. And I think their margaritas aren't pure. I got fucked up on two of them so I'm assuming there was Everclear in that shit.
And no offense to Maggie but I don't like Threadgill's for the "down home" cooking either. I tried it twice in a desperate search for soul food and finally decided I can do better myself.
You want mac & cheese, corn bread, collard greens, and black eyed peas? Come to my house.
I'd recommend "Sundown Towns" by James Loewen. It's about the phenomenon of white only towns (and occasionally counties) that proliferated after the end of slavery. Various census reports from the period showed Blacks moving to the far corners of the US only to be forced into major urban population centers through violence and legal means.
Right now,..... going through Peter Goodwin's "The Ships of Trafalgar".
Took a break to watch the amazing Federer - Nadal final at Wimbledon.
Maggie mentioned Chuy's as a "stay away" destination.
I like the food but I stay away because of the crowds. It can be obnoxious. I call the place "Jack Rabbit Slims" for those of you who are Pulp Fiction junkies you'll get the reference.
I keep banging my head in the Cadillac bumper.
For burgers and fries and/or onion rings, go to Hut's on 6th -- it's walking distance from 6th and Lamar which I mentioned earlier.
Damn good burgers, and they have veggie burgers too, and certain days of the week they run 2 for 1 specials, so check it out. They even have a veggie chicken fried steak-type concoction although I've never tried that.
I recommend the Richie Valens burger, which as I recall is #17 on the menu.
That sounds very Jack Rabbit Slims in and of itself, does it not?
Go for the Frings -- half fries, half rings. You won't be disappointed.
this is why I LOVE u people.
all this good reading and good eating in one thread! Brain food and good food
hugs to all,
now konagod and maggie, don't forget to tell us about your reading these days too.
I am going to be so busy and book stores and restaurants, what's a literate foodie to do? not enough hours in the day.
By the pool: I take magazines. Bite-sized articles (take naps in between), no worries about getting water on the pages, and when you're done you can leave it behind for someone else to read (and not have to carry it home).
I subscribe to Harper's, MoJo, and The Nation. I don't subscribe to The Atlantic, but they keep sending it anyway. If it weren't for beaches, pools, planes, and border waits, the pile of back issues would be holding up my bedroom ceiling.
For your flight: an iPod full of great podcasts, and a bag full of magazines you got last winter and never quite got to. (I also use plane trips to do computer housekeeping -- sort files, prune my iTunes directory, organize photos, that kind of thing -- until the battery runs down.)
To get this year's election into a historical perspective: "The Fourth Turning," and then its new sort-of-sequel, "Millennial Makeover." Will definitely give you the 75-year-view of what's going on.
Most books are disappointments. The vast majority are good 30-page articles that somebody blew up into a 150-page book. The trick is finding the good 30 pages, and skimming past the rest.
Thanks, Maggie, for the food update. Nighshades -- which include tomatoes and peppers -- make me seize up from head to toe, but I'm basically going to say "fuck it" and go for it while I'm in Austin. Congress Avenue is why God made Tylenol III.
Damn, people!
It's times like this when I just have to pat myself on the back for going to Austin a day early, and staying an extra day. Much to do. (And hanging out around here, too!)
Thanks Maggie & Konagod. Can I get a ride to Smitty's?
I just finished a David Sedaris book 'Dress Your Family in Coruroy and Denim'. It was the first time I read one of his books and I liked it a lot. It's funny and an easy read.
I can lend it to you before you leave for the US, if you want. if you have a copy of Dreams from My Father, I'll trade you (temporarily, of course).
If you want a book that is all around funny and good for a long airplane ride, I would enthusiastically recommend Confederacy of Dunces, one of my favorite alltime books.
there's also Monkeywrench Books on North Loop, lots of used and troublemaking books and a great pizza joint, The Parlor right next door, as well as a couple cool thrift stores.
and for local transportation check out Waterloo Cycles for a Netroots Nation discount on bike rentals
I am reading Fela: An African Music Icon right now
Books? Huh? You kiddin me?
Me and my siblings were SO into reading as we grew up '50 - '60;s . . . somehow, I grew out of it.
Radio/TV work and school weaned me off the print pages of books . . . I read up to about age 30 . . . I'm now 55.
I don't read books anymore . . . various levels of education took me away, and now, I can't find the thrill or the attribution I need, in books.
Books are too much about someone making money anymore, anyhoots, IMHO.
I don't trust books, cuz I know the authors, and I know who will give me the info I can trust . . .
I get it all from the tubes . . . the internet's, the online papers from all over this world, and from the blogs and the sourcing the blogs do, which is as scholarly as any hours upon days I could spend, in a library . . .
Sorry, I don't DO books, anymore.
Way too slow, and behind the curve, once printed.
And such, is how, our vaunted journalism is going to go, tv to radio to print . . .
With the toobs, I can research online the best libraries in our universe . . .
I can get any info any PhD level course would require . . .
Books, they are gonna go by by . .
With access, as long as IT lasts for us all, we get the info we can't get from our usual sources.
And still, I sure hope, they don't burn the books.
Cuz that's like, a SURE sign of bad shit, ya know . . . . *G*
If the electricity goes out, without books, we're pretty much screwed, doncha think? *G*
If you want to read something REALLY revolutionary, read Sin Patron by the Lavaca collective, about the workers' revolution in Argentina.
If you want to read something disgusting and frightening but not boring, read The Secret History of the American Empire; Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption. The title says what it's about, and he's really a good writer. It reads almost like a novel (so far)(I'm just past a third of the way through it.)
If you want fiction and don't mind something so old it's out of print (as a stand-alone), I recommend The Warhound and the World's Pain. by Michael Moorcock. It is in print in a collection called Von Beck but the other three in the collection aren't anything. It's funny, romantic, fantastic, has great characters, and espouses a good philosophy. It would make a great movie (Steven Spielberg).
Have you read Island by Aldous Huxley?
I was trying to think of what's really the best novel I've ever read, and it would have to be Beauty by Robin McKinley. It's a novelization of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", and it is flawless. It doesn't change the story at all, just fleshes it out. Second best would go to Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. Any of his novels are good to read while traveling, except they go so fast you need more than one. Or maybe second is
sorry -- Haloscan ate the rest of my comment. I'm too tired to try to reproduce it.
Larue what about things that never make it to the internet? or scholarly work that is too obscure or old so no one would ever publish it?
I tend to read for escapism more often then not...Wrath of the Mad god was teh latest..addicted to fiests stuff.
ahh but july has started, as soon as mad god is done(lunch today) I start readign every scrap of football infomation I can get my hands on....FF season starts soon 
(ya m that typs of geek...no its never helped me win my league.)
Larue I get direct light blasted at my eyes all day at work...why would I want that when I relax...give me hardcopy anyday.
Absolutely agree with Mike that
"Confederacy of Dunces" is hilarious and is one of my favorites too. Its really sad that the author killed himself at around age 30 at least partly because he thought he would never make it as a writer. After reading this book you will never look at a lute again without laughing.
Recently read "Moscow 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March" by Adam Zamoyski. Very good history book on how Napoleon's invasion of Russia need not have been a French disaster. Lots of first person stories from both sides too.
Konagod, sure do agree with you about Matt's El Rancho (and it IS sacrilege to say so) plus Hut's, yes, yes. The veggie burger is GOOD, and the Frings a gift from the goddess of cholesterol.
I should also add, for those who really want to eat healthy, Casa de Luz (on Twomey off South Lamar) serves a macrobiotic meal every night that is one price, all you want, fixed menu, and even Hank Hill would find it tasty. (Well, maybe not Hank, but at least Peggy.) It's not very wheelchair friendly, is the only drawback.
Zen on South Congress serves Japanese fast food (create your own bowl kinda thing) that's cheap and good. Also on South Congress, Home Slice Pizza; Magnolia Cafe (chief advantage is it serves "hippie" food plus great pancakes and is open 24 hours); and Fran's for cheap, 50's style burgers, fries and shakes (NOT healthy).
As for reading -- well, if you want to reach Austin in a gastronomic fever, why not pick up and sample from the Two Fat Ladies Cookbook; Jacques and Julia Cook at Home; or White Trash Cooking (which is a cultural exploration as well)?
For the best of reading, especially on trips, I always turn to Annie Dillard, John McPhee, Anne Lamott (her essays, not the novels), Wendell Berry, Gretel Ehrlich, Barry Lopez, Sue Hubbell, Garrison Keillor, or the best African-American writer around, Sharon Bridgforth. Plus any of the comic collections or graphic novels by Alison Bechdel, who's way famous now for Fun Home and her strip Dykes To Watch Out For.
Just finished some new Chinese semi-fiction--"The People's Republic of Desire"--for kicks. For more serious stuff, I just finished "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Almost done with "The No Assholes Rule" and just started the original hardcover version of Erica Jong's "Fruits and Vegetables." Next up: "American Vertigo" and "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant." Also need to finish reading the "Transmetropolitan" series by Warren Ellis and getting around to tearing open my copy of "Lost Girls" by Alan Moore.
I just read 2 books that impressed the hell out of me: THE TOTEM by David Morrell and ORYX AND CRAKE by Margaret Atwood. The first is listed as horror and the second as sci-fi.
I'm reading "The Uprising" by David Sirota and it's really good. I also just finished "Outright Barbarous" by Jeffrey Feldman which was also very addicting. If you're going to Netroots Nation, check out the author signings they usually offer, (I organized it the first 2 years before I stepped down from the core planning committee). They usually have a pretty comprehensive schedule of authors and books for sale and we always use local and hopefully independant booksellers so you can support the local community as well. Since I'm no longer an organizer I'm not sure what the plan is for the author signings but it's worth checking into. In the past we've had David Sirota, Chris Mooney author of "Storm World" and "The Republican War on Science", Jessica Valenti author of "Full Frontal Nudity" as well as names like John Dean, George Lakoff and Tom Tomorrow. You should get the schedule when you check in at the registration desk. If you don't, ask them at the desk and they can find out for you.
Great American Hypocrites by Glenn Greenwald. It's an easy yet educational read about how the evolution of the GOP brand starting with Reagan.
Shanna!!! it is great to see you here. You did a fantastic job organizing the author gig in year 1 and 2! And you are surely going to missed this year.
You are *going* to NN though right?! we are totally counting on seeing you there.
I am a huge Frameshop fan but had not had time to read the book yet. Looking forward to it. Jeffrey Rocks. I met him for the first time at DEMFEST 04. Funny-sweet-smart guy.
I am volunteering for a bit at the author table. But they didn't ask me to do much organizing. oh well.
Can't recommend any food joints in Austin other than a few already mentioned, but if by chance you find yourself in San Antonio I recommend Los Barrios. Try the puffy tacos. As far as reading, try Carlos Fuentes 'The Crystal Frontier' for a better understanding of the relatioships between the US/Mexico.
Mrs. R, you really need to read the first two books I cite.
All,
Deer Hunting w Jesus. Dispatches from America's Class Wars. Joe Bageant. Had an internet cult following. Saw him first at onlinejournal.com. Good website. 6-8 insightful arts. a week.
Bageant was from Winchester, VA. Navy. Journalist. Returns 30 yrs. later and has a serious WTF moment. As in what happened to his town, where his kin had been before George Washington. Some of the most insightful and deliciously bracing writing I have ever come across.
If you want to understand the Scots-Irish, one of the core groups across America, if ya want to understand why people vote against their economic interests, if ya want to understand why 59 & 62 million voted for Kerry and Bush (leaving aside Diebold) and somewhere like 75-82 million DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO VOTE AT ALL; if ya want to understand your country and how, as they say in Oklahoma, we've been "screwed, blued and royally tatooed" read this book.
One of the best I've ever read on America.
In 92 Clinton talked up Bartlett & Steele's What's Wrong w Amer. If I had my way Obama and every Gov/Sen?Congresscritter thru dogcatcher would do the same this election cycle.
cont'd.
cont'd.
Kevin Phillips Bad Money. How the finance industry has screwed Amer. and we are meeting the fate of empires like the Brits and the Dutch before. Phillips is simply mandatory reading.
JFK and the Unspeakable. Haven't read it yet. Saw it advertised on Buzzflash.com. There was a coup d'etat in Dallas in '63. This country has never recovered. You cannot understand post WW2 (I'm writing a book about that period) Amer. w/o understanding the JFK/MLK/RFK assassinations.
Just finished - well 1 chap. to go -- Senator Jim Webb's A Time to Fight. There is so much that is so impressive about this man.
What wethornet said about "Deer Hunting With Jesus."
Am reading - disjointedly, which has become my pattern lately: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (her writing style totally hooked me); Jewish Literacy, by Joseph Telushkin; working my way through The Woman Who Defied Kings: The life and times of Doña Gracia Nasi (a Sephardic Jewish widow who took over her late husband's financial business to become a rescuer of her fellow Jews who were fleeing both the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions), by Andrée Aelion Brooks. A great and detailed (and heavily-footnoted) discourse on the lives of the Sephardim on the Iberian peninsula, the Low Countries, Italy and the Ottoman Empire of the early-to-mid 16th centuries.
Hoping to get to Nixonland (metaphorically speaking), along with some of the other gems listed upthread.
And whatever magazine article catches my interest (what Mrs. R said above).
I am working on a GNB Library post with links to all your fab recs.
will go up soon.
Pulling some from the LOST thread too.
Commenting by HaloScan
