“Every other day there’s a new crusade that all Right-Thinking, Moral People must support. Crusades are popular because they allow the average moron to think he’s important.”

– Matt Forney, When Good Men Do Nothing

The following review will be the most controversial post to have ever appeared in the history of this site. Read at your own risk, you’ve been warned.

Matt Forney is by far the balliest blogger that I’ve ever read. Writing under his real name, he’s managed to incur the wrath of groups such as Anonymous, and have all of Portland declare a Fatwa on him (seriously, it was like the Salman Rushdie controversy but with hipsters substituting in for radical Muslims).

The reason that Forney is so controversial, is due to the fact that nothing is too sacred for him to satire and criticize. Feminism, Men’s Rights Activists, voting, and other bloggers are all fair game for Forney to call out and lampoon. Because of this, you will get offended by some of his writings.

Because his latest book, Trolling for a Living: The Best of Matt Forney, Volume One, is a compilation of Forney’s various blog entries, it contains a lot of controversial material. I found myself unable to objectively review this book. It’s well written and interesting, but there were several points where my own personal biases overtook my ability to objectivity critique certain articles. As such, I’m simply going to list my likes and dislikes about Trolling for a Living:

Good

• I really enjoyed Forney’s articles on masculinity, especially Why I’m Manning Up which is one of the best social critiques I’ve ever read.

• You’ve Got Bigger Problems Than the Game and How to Start a Game Blog are both hilarious satires of the pickup culture.

• Anatomy of a Hater is a fantastic article that any blogger can relate to. It also contains this gem of a passage:

“Because I’m open about my identity, I get angrier and more deranged haters than the average manospherian. I haven’t achieved my goals of being ripped and accomplished yet, but I’m working on them, a crucial step most people can’t even take. I’m doing something epic and incredible that few have the balls to attempt. If you think I’m just a fat bum with delusions of grandeur, I ask you a legit question: what do you think I should be doing? I mean, since you’re so much cooler than I am, clearly you can point me in the right direction.”

• The two essays on social interactions for introverts are insightful and useful.

• There’s some great humor throughout the entire book. Almost every article has at least one memorable joke, my favorite being:

“She’s war booty, and you’re Genghis Khan.”

• All articles, including the ones I disagreed with, are still well written and contain valid arguments.

Bad

The following complaint applies to the entire manosphere, which is a blogging collective that both Forney and myself are associated with, in essence this is a criticism of the entire genre, rather than a single work: there’s too much negativity and too many complaints about women. I personally don’t really like reading about how society is going down the tubes and how [insert group] is to be blamed. Because of this, I didn’t find the book’s articles on Men’s Rights and Feminism to be all that interesting.

Conclusion

If you like his site, which I actually do, I recommend supporting the Forney by picking up a copy of Trolling for a Living. The good far outweighs whatever nitpicks I have, and I found the majority of the book to be quite entertaining and interesting.

As an added incentive, Trolling for a Living is available for half it’s regular price from now until Sunday.

“Despite all my mistakes and all the obstacles thrown in my direction, I made it to the West Coast. It was treacherous at points, but it was also exciting and exhilarating at others. Even with all the pain I went through, I wouldn’t trade my experience for the world.”

– Matt Forney

Before reading The Hitchhiking Crash Course: How to Travel the World and Meet Cool People, by Matt Forney, I knew nothing about hitchhiking. As a child I was taught that thumbing a ride was dangerous and illegal, so I never even bothered trying it. In fact, my only exposure to hitchhiking came from television. As a result, I believed that everyone who tried bumming a ride ended up being raped and murdered by sadistic hobos.

Fortunately, The Hitchhiking Crash Course cured my ignorance. From the very introduction I was learning tons of valuable information, one of the most interesting facts being:

“The claim that hitchhiking is dangerous (to the hitcher and the driver) is completely bogus. It was invented by the FBI in the late 1950’s as a means of cracking down on beatniks, hippies and other countercultural groups. The only agency to actually study the subject, the California Highway Patrol, found in 1974 that hitchhiking was a factor in a whopping 0.63 percent of crimes in the state. You have a better chance of being killed in a car crash than killed because you were hitchhiking.”

This is a comprehensive guide that covers everything from what to pack, to dealing with police, to etiquette when getting a ride from strangers. While some of the material is a little obvious (bring a sturdy backpack, don’t dress like an axe murderer), it’s outweighed by the helpful advice that I would never have even considered (like the fact that cities are the worst place to score a ride). The book’s section on dealing with law enforcement is especially useful and is a mandatory read for anyone who finds themselves dealing with police:

“There are still honest men carrying the badge, who truly want to fight crime and protect the innocent. If you go into every police encounter assuming the worst, you’re going to get it. On the other hand, if you approach cops with an open mind, you’re far more likely to get a helping hand, or at least not be punished.”

The Hitchhiking Crash Course is on sale from now until Sunday. If you plan on doing any kind of travel this summer I’d recommend picking up a copy. The book’s content is as interesting as it is useful, and has plenty of information that’s applicable to any type of adventurer.

“Barbarism is the natural state of mankind, civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.”

– Robert E. Howard, The Conquering Sword of Conan

I have no shame in admitting that Robert E. Howard is one of my all time favorite authors. Even if you’re unfamiliar with his works, you probably already know quite a few of his characters like Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja.

Within The Robert E. Howard Omnibus you’ll find a variety that runs the gambit from cosmic horror, to sports, to fantasy; and often within the same story. One of my favorite tales from this collection was Almuric, a story that reads like a fusion between Minecraft and the Paleo Diet.

One of Howard’s strengths was that, unlike contemporary fiction writers, he celebrated the the power and raw savagery associated with masculinity. These are old fashion tales of men being men. In the era of skinny jeans and effeminate hipsters, these stories are a much welcomed relief.

Writing wise, I think Howard had tremendous talent. Unlike most pulp writers of his time, Howard was able to convey excitement and energy without falling back on hyperbole. Take his description of this thieves den from The Tower of the Elephant:

“Torches flared murkily on the revels in the Maul, where the thieves of the east held carnival by night. In the Maul they could carouse and roar as they liked, for honest people shunned the quarter, and watchmen, well paid with stained coins, did not interfere with their sport. Along the crooked, unpaved streets with their heaps of refuse and sloppy puddles, drunken roisterers staggered, roaring. Steel glinted in the shadows where wolf preyed on wolf, and from the darkness rose the shrill laughter of women, and the sounds of scufflings and stragglings. Torchlight licked luridly from broken windows and wide-thrown doors, and out of these doors, stale smells of wine and rank sweaty bodies, clamor of drinking jacks and fists hammered on rough tables, snatches of obscene songs, rushed like a blow in the face.”

It’s easy to forget that this quality of writing was appearing in magazines like this:

My only complaint with this collection is that it gets redundant. Like most anthologies, the reader tires of the subject matter before the book is over. As such, reading one or two stories a week would be more than sufficient. There are also a few racial slurs, Howard wrote during the 1930’s, that some might find inappropriate. Nothing said is too offensive, and I don’t think anyone’s life will be ruined by derogatory terms that infrequently surface.

If you’re looking for some inexpensive entertainment this weekend, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy of The Robert E. Howard Omnibus. For the two dollar price tag, this collection is a great way to get acquainted with Howard’s life work.