Agent Palmer

He’s written fiction, non-fiction, and essays about music, death, history and pop culture, but now Chuck Klosterman has turned his attention to villains with I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined), a book published on July 9th, 2013 and reprinted in paperback on July 1st, 2014.

Before we get into the book, let’s first look at the definition of the word villain, a noun. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, Villain is “a character in a story, movie, etc., who does bad things,” “a person who does bad things,” and “someone or something that is blamed for a particular problem or difficulty.”

Sterling Malory Archer has written a book about how to be him. That’s right, Archer, code named “Duchess”, the narcissistic, misogynistic, suave, hyper-sexed, alcoholic, spy of all spies has written a book about not just being a spy, but about being the best spy – himself.

From the beginning Archer sets up the tone of this humorously entertaining educational how-to book.

“A how-to book?! A book can’t teach someone how to be equal parts deadly and sexy! That’s like asking a cobra to write a book about how to be a cobra!”

Beginning with the heart-wrenching bus accident that claimed the life of Cliff Burton and then chronicling the band and its many players through the release of Death Magnetic, Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica by Mick Wall is brilliant.

Who better than Mick Wall, as classic a name in Rock journalism as there is, to chronicle the life and times of one of the biggest bands in the world.

Marc Maron isn’t just a comedian and podcaster. He is a philosopher, as well. If you need proof of this beyond some of the profound things he says during his comedic sets and podcasts, look no further than his book Attempting Normal. He airs out his life, not like dirty laundry but much more like freshly laundered shirts on a warm spring day.

The stories are all personal to Marc: some are issues he may still be dealing with, but they aren’t written as if he’s airing dirty laundry. In fact, he spends time making sure the other side of the story is there as well.