Rhoda is selfish and unfiltered in a way that reminds readers of ourselves at their worst, so naturally we love her.” Handler also cites Raymond Chandler as an influence in this regard: “When I teach writing I often teach the opening paragraph of ‘The Long Goodbye,’ which ends, ‘He looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other.’ People think of Philip Marlowe as tough,” he said, “but he’s surprisingly snarky. “My first novel, ‘The Basic Eight,’ has a smart, mean narrator,” he said, “and I stole as much as I could from Humbert Humbert, as well as the ‘Rhoda’ stories of Ellen Gilchrist. Reviewing John Brandon’s “Citrus County” on the cover this week, Handler celebrates the appeal of smart, mean protagonists. The book is a version of the diary of high-schooler Flannery Culp. It’s not surprising that that book is full of happiness and sex, two things you won’t find in the work of Lemony Snicket. The Basic Eight is the debut novel by author Daniel Handler, published in 1998. He wrote it, he said via e-mail, “in stolen afternoons over a long period of time, often when I was supposed to be chronicling the lives of miserable orphans. As always, I love to hear your suggestions for books to feature in Young Adult Education.But over the past 11 years, Handler has also written three adult novels under his own name - most recently “Adverbs,” in 2006.

What about you guys? Did you love The Basic Eight as much as I did? Let me know in the comments! Seriously, there’s not a ton of information about this book on the internet, and I would love to talk about it with somebody.

According to the source of all knowledge (Wikipedia), The Basic Eight was rejected 37 times before it was published! 37 times, you guys! That should encourage every writer out there to never give up (I mean, as long as you’re as good as Daniel Handler). The Basic Eight - read free eBook by Daniel Handler in online reader directly on the web page. Learning the eight-step basic then allows the dancers to learn and improvise with the rhythms of the music. If you’re a fan of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (and, duh, why wouldn’t you be?), you can check out Daniel Handler’s episode here. The basic 8 usually relies on this phrase with the dancers stepping on each beat, though more advanced dancers often subdivide these four beats into eighth or even 16 th notes. The fact that he can write so many amazing books means that he could possibly be a genius. Even if you’re not familiar with Daniel Handler, you probably know him as Lemony Snicket, the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The basic eight