Rags Morales: Right Book, Right Time

Occupying; with moments of seismic shifts.

Most of the women I’ve dated are bisexual.

Sorry to say, I don’t have anything cooking right now. I read a lot of scripts for the books that I draw, so when it comes to ‘me time reading’ there’s little of that. I work on books 10-14 hours a day, so the impetus to read yet another story is minimal.

Me and My Flying Machine by Marianna and Mercer Mayer. I loved the idea of freedom and flying to the rescue.

Funny story. I was on my way to a dinner when my phone’s charge died. My car’s power output doesn’t work, so I pulled into a Barnes and Noble and found a plug to charge my phone, all the while apologizing to my company that I was going to be late.

Not trying to be conspicuous, I hid my charging phone and leafed through what books were available. I found a couple of classics I never got around to reading, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; I’m a soft-hearted progressive and they appealed to me. I also picked up My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem and When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago.

Travelling. I hate travelling, so in order to pass the time I tend to read. Mostly articles on my phone, but occasionally I bring a book.

That’s hard to answer because I’m mostly an information junkie, and as such, I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction. Memoirs, biographies-auto and otherwise, philosophy and anecdotes, etc. Ironically, one of my favorite books is The Winner Within by Pat Riley. As a life coach as well as an NBA coach and general manager, he’s a good motivator. At the time of that reading, I was unhappy with my work and life. It was the right book at the right time.

For the sake of this interview, I really wish I could be a Romney Wordsworth for you and come up with something really cool, but for now I can say I’ve been perusing The Pocket Rumi by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, his collections of poems from Rubaiyat, Ghazels, and some selections from the Mathnawi. I’m also fond of Kahlil Gibran.

To be honest, I haven’t found the kind of time to read anything lately, although I’m almost done reading Death of a King by Travis Smiley. It’s about Martin Luther King Jr.’s last year prior to his assassination.

Outside of fatherhood, nothing really. I keep thinking that’s up and coming. Reading wise, nothing like reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy in between layovers, if that’s what you mean.

I’m not in the market for impressing anyone because I hate pretension. I have comics, magazines and books lying about the house. If I clean the house, be impressed. I do have Growing up Absurd by Paul Goodman in my bathroom though.

A hard question. Depends on the alien and whether I’d want them to return. If I want them back, I’d give them Shel Silverstein, if not, the Bible or Mein Kampf. Honestly, I can’t think of 3 REALLY good ones for that. Maybe one is War is a Racket by Smedley Darlington Butler.

I guess that’s remains to be determined. There are good books, there are great ones…and I haven’t read enough to slam one on the table and declare, “THIS.”

Most of my books are still on my reading list. A pal from High School, Tom Kiesche, wrote a couple of novels. One I haven’t gotten to is Sympathy for the Devil. (Sorry Tom, it’s been started, but I haven’t gotten done with it!)

I’m always in the mood for Native American stories. I devoured Cheyenne by Judd Cole; probably the only fiction…pulp fiction, no less…that I adored; so-and even though it’s not Native American in the traditional sense – Havana Nocturne by T.J. English. I’ve been really interested in the Caribbean lately.