Here's a cool little gem from our Twitter feed via 'ThatDrunkViking.'  It's a helpful Tyler Durden, giving sage advice on dating and relationships.

Some of my favorites:

CALL SEX LINE.  ASK THE GIRL HOW HER DAY WAS, DON'T HANG UP.

HIT ON MARRIED WOMEN IN FRONT OF THEIR HUSBANDS.  YOUR BRUISES REKINDLED A DEAD ROMANCE.

START A FIGHT WITH LONELIEST GUY IN BAR.  INTENTIONALLY LOSE SO HE GETS LAID.

You can find this at this link: http://imgur.com/CofCd or just scroll down after the break to download it from our site. read more »

Continuing our trend from last week of showcasing some of the coolest international Chuck Palahniuk covers, let's take a look at some of the recent selections from Italy.  In my opinion, Italy has long had some of the more stylish and unique covers for Chuck's books.  Unlike a lot of other countries who just use a slight variation of the U.S. cover, Italy's usually stand out on their own.  I'll even forgive them for mucking up my dedication in Lullaby, seen here as 'Tennis Widmyer.'  Sighs.

Props to Michele Ponte for sending us some of these.

See more in our Book Covers Gallery.

A Chimp Divided

I have to admit it wasn’t easy. Pitching an interview of an as yet unknown author, in fact an author who wasn’t even technically published two weeks ago when I interviewed him, is a challenge. But the book, oh the book... THE EVOLUTION OF BRUNO LITTLEMORE came to me via such high recommendations (Dave Cullen, author of COLUMBINE under Twelve, and Cary Goldstein, now the EIC of Twelve), well, you read the book. Never mind what Jonathan Ames[1] had to say about the author[2].

Almost 580 pages? This book flies in the face of the incredible shrinking fiction phenomenon many (even the great Cormac McCarthy prophesied as much) hailed as one of the final blips before the flat-line of books. But I’ve had to choke down books a third this size, whereas this book, in all its bulk, went down easily. I’ll leave the reviews to the professionals (or rather those bent on quantifying the subjective), but I can tell you that when you read this book, you’re left with that Chinese-food hunger: as soon as you are done, you want more. So for me, that was tracking down and talking with the creator of Bruno Littlemore, Benjamin Hale.

This is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in the past year. I'm smitten, I'm biased, and while I love minimalism, sometimes a vocabulary buffet is the perfect indulgence. Language isn’t dead just yet. And an original idea that began as a riff on Kafka, or rather a riff on Roth’s riff on Kafka, proves to be an entertaining vehicle with which to give us a truly memorable character. Bruno, the narrator, is unique among his kind, in fact, in the world, as he is the first chimpanzee to make the leap from simple (this is a relative term) sign language to fully articulated speech. But as Bruno learns, this newfound skill/gift comes with crippling side-effects such as alienation, forbidden love, loss, murder, incarceration and so much more.[3] But that’s the book. You'll soon read it and soon read about it. For now, I’d like to introduce you to the author, Benjamin Hale. read more »

Today is Chuck's birthday.  Not going to tell you how old he is, but if you do some research on this site, you can find the year he was born and then do some simple math.

Now, let's hear some well wishes, folks!  This man's earned it!

This might be the clearest example of two paperback covers of a Palahniuk novel that DESTROY the hardcover image.  The one on the left is the U.S. paperback edition for Tell-All which is due out on May 31st.  On the right is the UK version, dropping June 2nd.

Click each of them to pre-order the book today or,

Pre-Order 'Tell-All' in Paperback! - US

Pre-Order 'Tell-All' in Paperback! - UK

You can see each image larger in our Book Gallery.

Jose Saramago's memoir, Small Memories, is a simple book. Ostensibly it aims to do nothing more than tell anecdotes. Saramago, who recently passed away, was, along with Antonio Lobo Antunes, Portugal's most famous and respected author of his generation. He was notorious for his politics, his public disputes, his outspoken contempt for the Catholic Church. So it is surprising and wonderful to read a tiny collection of memories of life as a country boy — memories of a time before Saramago was in the public eye, before Stockholm had honoured him with the Nobel Prize, even before Saramago cared very much about writing. Small Memories is a book mostly void of political, religious or moral concerns: Saramago tells stories and describes the countryside, sorts through his experiences as a gifted but naughty child to bring us only what he thinks proved to be important in his development. The result is a delightfully innocent book. read more »

Buy Small Memories From Amazon.com

It's that time of year again at The Cult when we appropriate Valentine's Day (close enough) for our own celebration as book smitten fiends. That of course, means publishing our second annual Top Ten list of books from the previous year.  It's not only fitting to post this on V-day, but pragmatic too, as I get a lot of books in December and need a month or so to finish up my year-end reading.

These go to eleven.

Or rather, this list goes to eleven, but let me explain.  Friday, a friend mentioned a book to me with such an intriguing title that I immediately looked it up and read an excerpt.  After reading a couple of pages, I downloaded it and finished it over the weekend.  (Thanks, Richard!)  As it turns out it was released in 2010 and I would feel remiss in not adding it to the list. I promise not to let this evolve into a top twenty or thirty over time, but in this case, this list goes to eleven.

Caveats: This list is based on my own highly personal and promiscuous reading habits and does not necessarily reflect our other voracious readers at The Cult, nor are they Chuck’s personal favorites or recommendations.  I notice there are quite a few short story collections this year, and I wouldn’t say I’m inclined towards that form in particular, it was just an amazing year for story collections. So without further ado…
read more »

Hot damn, is this well done.  Check out a great mash-up of Fight Club as cut to Florence + The Machine's song "Kiss with a Fist.'  It was edited by Jeff Yorkes and is titled 'Fist Club.'

Watch the video on Vimeo here.

And be sure to check out all of Jeff's CINEMASHUP's at his Vimeo page.  I've basically become addicted to them since yesterday.

We're so close to the big wrap-up on on Chuck's reviews of our top workshop stories! I've got his incisive and helpful December feedback for you below, and only one more month to go before we shift gears completely to the next phase and put this anthology into print. Congratulations to all the finalists. For the protection of their work, these stories are made available to Workshop Members only. If you're a member, you may click inside and read these at your leisure. You'll find loads of great lessons on the writer's craft within. So read on.

The finalists include:

Love in Standard Definition - Fred Venturini

Overboard - Peter Bentzen

Tatterdemalion Peregrination - Adam Daniel Joseph

Chasing Ghosts (revision) - Richard Thomas

All In - Kasey Carpenter

Things Falling Apart - Blake Gentry

If you'd like to participate in our ground-breaking workshop, read exclusive How-To craft essays from Chuck and just network and meet other writers,

Join Our Writer's Workshop

Dayuuuuuuum, Brazil ain't got NOTHING on the Czech Republic.  These are some of the coolest international Palahniuk covers I've seen in a while.

Props to 'Petra' for these ones.  Check out more of these in our Book Covers Gallery, and if you have some that you don't see represented on our site, send them to us at submissions @ chuckpalahniuk. net.