💪 Books and Biceps Issue 239

American Psycho, 8,008 Pull-Ups in 24 hours and...

BOOKS

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis is one of the most unique, interesting authors we have. He melds memoir, fantasy, fiction and occasional non-fiction monologues into his work like nobody else. His rise to literary fame after Less Than Zero was remarkable… But for my money, American Psycho was one of the the most memorable, bat shit crazy but also awesome reading experiences I’ve ever had.

I mean, check out this passage from Psycho:

“It is hard for me to make sense on any given level. Myself is fabricated, an aberration. I am a noncontingent human being. My personality is sketchy and unformed, my heartlessness goes deep and is persistent. My conscience, my pity, my hopes disappeared a long time ago (probably at Harvard) if they ever did exist. There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have now surpassed.”

Wow.

The Christian Bale movie version is iconic, for sure… But the source material is undefeated.

All that being said, Ellis has a new thriller out that once again merges with his real life experience in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. This is a long book, and his prologue in the beginning about why it took him so long to write it is the kind of inside author baseball I love… He’s not for everyone, I get that. But if you know, you know. You can buy his book here.

BICEPS

As many of you know, I’ve been going through my own Flex Factory garage gym weekly challenge. Every Wednesday morning I bang out 100 pull-ups as fast as I can. Usually with two sets of 10 followed by ten sets of 8 with one minute or so in between.

My fastest time is 13:29…

But I have a loooooooong way to go if I want the world record (I don’t)….

Last week, Jaxon Italiano, a kid from Australia (not Italy somehow) set the record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours… with a mind-boggling 8,008 pull-ups.

That’s 333 pull-ups an hour… all day and night.

Absurd.

He’s a skinny little dude, but still. Impressive as hell:

QUICK FLEXES

Thread of the week:

Elmore Leonard was one of the most successful authors of all time.

Before that he was stuck at an ad agency with a pile of rejection letters.

But he made one last-ditch creative decision, propelling him to 20+ NY Times bestsellers & $100 million movies.

Read the story here.

JOCKS IN CHIEF

New readers may not know I wrote the only book that ranks every U.S. President athletically.

Zero politics. Just sports.

I developed an objective Moneyball-level formula, too.

Featured in: The New York Post & CBS: This Morning.

WATCH THE SWEET BOOK TRAILER HERE.

AND NOW THE EASY PART: BUY THE BOOK

Have a great weekend!

And please share this issue with anyone you know will dig it: