Jack Murnighan is the author of the just-released
Beowulf on the Beach:
What to Love and What to Skip in Literature's 50 Greatest Hits (http://tinyurl.com/r5v4p8)
as well as The Naughty Bits  and Classic Nasty.

Beowulf on the Beach is a user-friendly guide to reading 50 of the biggest, toughest, but most rewarding classics of all time.

-- Click the widget below to see the first 30 pages
of Beowulf on the Beach. --

"Cliffs Notes meets Sedaris. Jack Murnighan... has given us a ridiculously entertaining guide. Beowulf on the Beach is funny, smart, passionate and wise. Just having it on your shelf will raise your IQ."

-- A.J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically


"Jack Murnighan's enthusiasm for the great books -- and his understand of why they still matter -- is genuinely infectious. Reading Beowulf on the Beach is like belonging to the most stimulating and hilarious book club you could possibly imagine."

-- Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good For You and Emergence

"Murnighan's…fresh, funny voice... will attract devout readers [and] the less-well-read will be pleased with Murnighan's accessibility and charm."

-- Publishers Weekly

"Jack Murnighan unveils a lot more sexiness— and pleasure of all kinds— in classic literature than most people would ever dream of.

-- Susie Bright, editor of The Best American Erotica series

Buy Beowulf on the Beach here: http://tinyurl.com/r5v4p8

"This is a fantastic prompt to revisit these books that too many of us failed to fully appreciate on the first try. Many thanks for this outstanding service!"

-- Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor -    Harvard University

"I don't know how he does it, but Mr. Murnighan always manages to remove all pretense from even the most pedantic of subjects. Always a pleasure…"
-- Jere Paolini, 215 Magazine

"Clearly a wonderfully important project... Challenging the two dominant contemporary ways of teaching and approaching books (the Romantic claims of the author-as-genius-to-be-worshiped and the claims of the scholar/critic as expert on 'literature'), and, instead, giving books back to the reader (and student)."
-- Ron Jennings, Columbia University