Signing at Back of Beyond
Back of Beyond Books is a very cool name for a bookstore. Especially a book store located in Moab, Utah, which, if you didn’t know, is the same place where you can find the magnificent Arches National Park.
Back of Beyond got its name from the Edward Abbey novel, The Monkeywrench Gang, which I admit to reading back in college a, ahem, few years ago. The fellow newspaper colleague who pressed it upon me was Rod Pressley, and he smoked a lot of the ganja. I knew this. Therefore, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get the book. At 21, freshly out of Mormonism and newly de-virginized, Abbey was still a bit much to comprehend. I’d barely learned to drink BEER, for hell’s sake. How was I supposed to comprehend Edward Abbey? My world view had been fairly small up until that point. I knew more was out there. I knew others had seen it. I just had a hard time finding it myself.
Of course, after I read Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, another book recommend by Rod, I was right in line with Abbey. At least there were no big-thumbed hitchhiking women in it. I think. Did I mention I learned to drink BEER at this point?
Back to Back of Beyond. I’ll be there on Wednesday, May 11, at 7:00 p.m., for a reading and a signing, and a discussion, should anyone want to discuss Wives and Sisters. Moab is a fairly small town with a fairly liberal population, despite the fact it is STILL located in Utah, so it should be interesting.
Hope to see you there.
