Reading Tab

MacBeth (again)
Shakespeare

The Illustrated Man
Ray Bradbury

On Writing (again)
Stephen King

From The Dust Returned
Ray Bradbury

Poems and Prophesies
William Blake

SQL Server 2000 Database Design
Microsoft Press

The Burning Shore
Wilbur Smith

To Kill A Mockingbird harper lee
Stranger In A Strange Land robert a. heinlein

books:

king arthur (movie tie-in based on screenplay)
a widow for one year

magazines:

people
entertainment weekly

local newspaper

Naked Lunch
by William S. Burroughs

The Regulators
by Stephen King

One More For The Road
by Ray Bradbury

I've got to get caught up here, so, a sampling of the past few months:

Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Helen Fielding - Yes, seriously, I hadn't read them until now. Yes, seriously, I feel like a fool for waiting so long.
Preacher, Garth Ennis (currently up to #25) - Finally, I've gotten back to the comics after being stalled for so long. And now I can't remember why I stopped.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen - For the umpteenth time. I had the inexplicable urge to read it again after finishing BJD. But even TEoR couldn't make me want to read Persuasion again...
Airships, Barry Hannah - A quite lovely and damn funny collection of short stories from one of the masters. "Love Too Long" almost tore my heart out, but "Testimony of Pilot" might be one of the best literary short stories ever written.
Anything and everything, Jennifer Crusie - Like fudge-and-cream-cheese brownies, this woman is just the bomb--too smart to be labeled "romance" and too fun to be termed "literary." She hasn't written a bad one yet (subpar, maybe, but even those have their moments).
Danse Macabre, Stephen King - Wow. Just... wow. Made me spend hours online looking up old Twilight Zone eps just to see what I'd missed, and gave me several new entries on my "Need to Watch/Read" lists.
Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias - My sister lent me this one, and I went into it expecting something completely different from what I got. I was hoping for an insider's view of Christianity through the viewpoint of a converted Hindu, comparing Christianity with other religions and contrasting Jesus with... well, with those "other gods" in the title. What I got was a rundown of the same theological points and arguments/rebuttals you'd get from just about any Christian in the world--albeit much more eloquently and intellectually stated.

And this one is the one I'd recommend to anyone. This is the book I'm glad I've finally read...

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski - This isn't just a book. It's an experience, a genius bit of exploration into what can really be done with "form" in its purest--and flat-out creepiest--sense. I'd try to explain it, but that would just be a waste of time. It's funny, it's exciting, it's sad, it's scary, it's chilling. Check it out.

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You were a demon and a lawyer? Wow. Insert joke here."

I've read both of those! Very very cool.

Okay, I'm reading a pile of books right now. I dunno if I'll ever finish any of them. lol.

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. This is a really good book, too bad the ending is already ruined for me because I just saw the movie...

Bad Grass Never Dies, More Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by Chuck Barris. Chuck Barris is possibly the world's greatest liar, or worse, he's telling the truth, which is just insane.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Wicked Willow 1: The Darkening by Yvonne Navarro. Pretty decent first book in a trilogy where Buffy DOESN'T stop Willow from going totally evil at the end of season 6. A good "what if?" kind of story.

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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

When the Hell did Mary get back?!

Letters by François Truffaut

Very, very beautiful and moving stuff. It's a rare thing for me to read something and be inspired to change my life in some small way as a result of it, but Truffaut's love for not only the cinema, but for the people in his life and humanity in general, is the really sort of thing that just can't help but inspire you. In fact, in the hope of one day having my correspondence published, I've almost done nothing but e-mail people since I started reading the book.

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www.esotericrabbit.com

Just now. Well, "just now" in the sense of "last night."

Forgot a few... as I knew I would...

The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold - I wasn't planning on reading this at all, but I got roped into a book club dealy, so I had to read it for that. And I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Some very lovely bits, and very funny, too--not what you'd expect from a 14-year-old dead narrator. And even though Sebold kinda lost me about 4/5 into it (a certain scene that makes not one whit of sense and doesn't seem to serve any real purpose, and yet seems to be meant as the big "epiphany" moment), she pulled it back together for a satisfying end. All in all, however, I would rather have read her husband's debut, Carter Beats the Devil... but that's next on my list, anyway.

A Drink With Shane MacGowan, Shane MacGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke - Just good fun, set up as a series of conversational interviews, with the occasional domestic argument, between MacGowan--who was lead singer of the Pogues and the Popes--and his wife, Clarke. Pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about Shane MacGowan from childhood to the present, including original drawings, pictures and handwritten (and well-nigh illegible) poems and lyrics. I really dug the format, too, which made you feel like you were hanging out in a pub around four in the morning, listening to them talk about the old days--and Shane MacGowan's always been fairly high on my "It Would Be Fun To Get Drunk With..." list.

Yeah, that book was way cool! I'm a huge fan of the pogues and the popes (which at one point counted Johnny Depp as a member, believe it or not....) and I absolutely LOVE everything about Ireland, so I read that NUMEROUS times. I would definitely drink MANY guinesses with Shane MacGowan.

Welcome back, meanwhile, I read the introduction to King's Everything's Eventual last night. This man sure does love his writing. He can make even an introduction interesting, and intriguing where you know that in skipping it, you would be missing something crucial to the book you're about to read.

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Totally. The introduction that always sticks out the most in my mind is the one for Night Shift--my favorite of his short story collections. He goes on and on about "the body under the sheet" and talks about how people will always slow down to look at a train wreck, etc., etc. I wish I had a copy, because there's a lot of cool stuff in there and I'm mangling it by not explaining very well.

Anyway, it's all thematic, and ties in nicely with his work--the way a good introduction should. Plus, the intro always creeped me out in the same way as the stories themselves, if not more so. There's something about that matter-of-fact tone King gets when he's writing non-fiction...

Two that I just finished reading:
C+; this book does not live up to the hype.
A; my new favorite Kinsey Millhone.

I'm also listening to "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on audio book. The reader does an awesome job. I sometimes take the long way home just so I can hear it a little longer.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons.....for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

I bought this today.

interesting im going borrow it from a library

Great Stuff


Greater Stuff

This weekend, I read Steve Martin's play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", on a recommend from Holden Pike. It is the most fun play I've ever read, and I've read about 500. Great, funny, snappy dialogue and some thought-provoking material.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Reading:

Darwin's Radio (Greg Bear)

Film Noir Reader II (Various)

Terra Obscura (Alan Moore)

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Reading Stanley Kubrick The Complete Films by Paul Duncan

Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What Movies We Can See by Jonathan Rosenbaum

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

Best horror novel I've ever read.