Bwog Book Club is a “club” in which readers are encouraged to read modern works of literature, and then to read what we think about them. You can say what you think with the handy “post a comment” button. This time we’re reading the articles in soft-core porno mags.

   For the next Bwog book club, you’ll have to acquire a Playboy magazine – just like the old days. (If they don’t have it in your local corner store or gas station, you can pick it up at Border’s).  You may be buying it for the breasts, but for the purpose of the book club we’ll be discussing the Johnson that’s inserted between them – all 263 inches of it.  That’s the length of the first sec tion of Nobody Move, the new Denis Johnson novel, which will run in the July, August, September, and October issues of the magazine.  This book club is a pretty good deal – for about $20, you get a wide array of articles as well as a full novel, and an intellectually stimulating conversation as well as some visually stimulating imagery. 

Here’s what Playboy has to say about Nobody Move:

An Exclusive Noir Novel

Written in Four Parts

On Deadline!

Publishing History Begins Now

Here’s what we have to say about it: It may not be “publishing history” but this is pretty cool – an accomplished author (fresh off winning the National Book Award for Tree of Smoke) writing a book in serial form, and in a magazine that shows he’s probably taking it easy. The novel is a noir, which means that it’s going to be pretty accessible and entertaining, and Johnson is so talented and poignant that anything he writes is worth reading. If you need further reason to get siced, read some of his pieces from the lesser-read New Yorker magazine or a few stories from Jesus’ Son ; if you don’t like them, we don’t want you in the club anyway.

We’ll discuss the first section on Thursday, and then get on to the August installment.

– DHI