INSANITY. DAY-GLO. LSD.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Peter Wolf
Although seeming like a fiction novel, Wolf documents the adventures of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters through several years out of the Psychedelic 60's as they travel from L.A. to New York in a painted bus doing a variety of drugs including marijuana, hallucinogenics and methamphetamines, travel California performing Acid Tests where beatniks, hippies and sometimes cops were esentially LSD guinea pigs, and Kesey's exile in Mexico. It's as insane as it seems, written in a sporadic and spontaneous style enjoyable by teens and Baby Boomers wanting to reminisce about their-wait, of course, your parents never did drugs.
photo: the Prankster's 'Acid Test Graduation' via Britannica.com

Le book, c'est chic.

So. What's literacy.
Literacy-
1. the quality or state of being literate; the ability to read and write.
2. possesion of education.

This is supposed to be a...literacy blog. I am literate, obviously since I'm not typing gobbledy-gook. But words aren't my prime form of communication, I'm an image-driven person, I use my eyes to see what looks good and to convey emotions through images rather than words. I just happen to be able to read and write on top of that.
However, I've been raised to be a literate person, my mom shut off the cable at age 6 and with a lack of Beavis and Butthead, Hey Arnold and other shows, I retreated to a book world as my nightly soap opera. My earliest memories of reading are with my mother, in her huge bed reading classics such as Ann of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie. Maybe my mom meant to feed me slightly feministic-angled novels, maybe she just thought I'd connect more to a female protagonist, but either way these strong female characters shaped a lot of the image of myself that I grew to have.
My mom took control of the 'book knowledge' while my Dad took me to art museums, bought me paint sets and sketchbooks, and took me camping and taught me how to live in nature. It was a priority to her that I read, so I devoured books almost whole, reading even the biggest Harry Potter tome in a week, in 4th grade.
So what does literacy mean to me?
The passion connected to books, to have more than the skill to read but the passion to enjoy it.

Nikki Sixx wants you to read, even cheesy cheap vampire gore from a rack in Rite Aid.

THE BEST BOOK EVER

Slash by, uh, Slash with Anthony Bozza. Anthony Bozza also wrote books about Eminem, Tommy Lee, and is a music journalist. It's a real book, not some sugar-coated rock'n'roll fantasy.