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Well, I meant political bias rather than geographical.

Not that I care really; a lot of great historians are biased in one way or another. Hence the winkie-face.



Well, I'm open to suggestions...but, given my hatred of anything even resembling a text-book, with few exceptions, I thought it best to give Johnson a more serious look...his books seem to have a more storylike feel to them, which makes them more palatable to someone like me.



Well, Johnson is a conservative (or neoconservative, to be more precise), so you'd probably enjoy his work.

That being said, being politically biased doesn't necessarily make your work trash or anything like that. Intellectuals was definitely biased (I illuminated many of the shortcomings over at MV). Modern Times, on the other hand, has been received quite well by mainstream historians.

I don't really have any recommendations, because I enjoy historical works by liberals like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (who is also considered a mainstream historian, despite having a stated political preference), so you should be able to enjoy your conservative historians.



In Soviet America, you sue MPAA!
A Dolls House was OK. Steve, Ryan, and I filmed a pretty terrible scene from it, but the analysis of it was genious.

What is poetic about Our Town?!?! It was a piece of ****!!!!
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Now With Moveable Parts
Originally posted by OG-
What is poetic about Our Town?!?! It was a piece of ****!!!!
That was rich!



I read a peice called "Lucifer's Tirade" by my friend which was about how he was cut from a performace/variety night because his subject matter [get this "A Warm Welcome" by Rowan Atkinson] was offensive to his audience.

!!!

It was a wonderful peice of writing though. There is one sentance that particularly stands out:

In my inner-world, I walk alone. All artist do.

Right on.
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I'm quite tempted to spill my guts on that supposedly wonderful sentence...but I won't, for the sake of what I hope will remain a mostly untainted and enjoyable thread. Anyway, I'm something like 15 pages into "Modern Times." Takes awhile to read...I've got to go over a lot of it more than once to make sure I really take it in. Good stuff so far, though.



PM me, NOW.
Spill your guts, just not here where people may slip up on them.
I'm interested in seeing what you have to say.

...



Originally posted by The Silver Bullet
PM me, NOW.
Spill your guts, just not here where people may slip up on them.
I'm interested in seeing what you have to say.

...
Sent.



Now With Moveable Parts
Wow. Too bad that's not a public debate. Shucks.



Well, I went to the Half-Price Books tonight with a friend of mine, and while she buys several books about depressed people dealing with grief, I picked up such titles as "Producing Great Sound for Digital Video" by Jay Rose, "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler" by Joe Queenan, "Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu" by Simon Callow and "I Am Spock" by Spock.... I mean, Leonard Nimoy. I'm thinking she and I may have different tastes in reading material.

I may never be able to finish that Orson Welles book. It's nearly 600 pages AND it's in really small type. But I hope I can.

I started with the Joe Queenan book, though.



Simon Callow's Orson Welles biography is excellent. I read it when it first hit the shelves back in 1996. It is the first of a proposed trilogy on Orson's life and career. The Road to Xanadu covers his childhood up through Citizen Kane. Extremely well written and terribly interesting.

You think the paperback is thick? I've got the bug-squishin' hardcover sitting on my shelf: 640 pages, counting the index.


*BTW, Simon Callow is an English actor. His most well-known high-profile role to date was as Gareth, the bloke who dies in Four Weddings and a Funeral. He's had a very distinguished stage career, mostly in Great Britain. Some other films you might have seen him in are Shakespeare in Love, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and he voiced the Grasshopper in James & the Giant Peach.
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Yesterday I started, and finished, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. It was an egregious offense against decency and good taste.



Originally posted by Arthur Dent
Yesterday I started, and finished, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. It was an egregious offense against decency and good taste.
What?!? Egad! I'm appalled! I love that book!

I just finished Lord of the Rings today and The Hobbit a couple days ago. So much fun. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the movie now, before I wasn't as interested.



Originally posted by Steve
I just finished Lord of the Rings today and The Hobbit a couple days ago. So much fun. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the movie now, before I wasn't as interested.
Can I get an amen? I've been preaching one thing for months: read Harry Potter, and read the first LOTR book, even if you don't have time for "The Hobbit" or the two LOTR books that follow it. You'll thank me later...the movies are SO much more exciting and enjoyable if you do. I specifically sat down and read both (the four Potter books and the first LOTR book) in hopes of getting pumped for the movies, and it worked brilliantly. There is NO other way to see the movies.

Well, I take that back...I envy those who get to experience the story of LOTR on screen without knowing what's going to happen already. It's good and bad, I suppose.



I ain't gettin' in no fryer!
Well those that haven't read the books will probably get lost when it comes to certain aspects of the movie.

Trying to get through Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz.

If any of you enjoy reading a thriller now and then, you might read one of Koontz's books. I've read 4 so far. Like them all.
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Now With Moveable Parts
I got into Koontz when I was done reading ALL of King's books. Koontz doesn't scare me as well as King does, but it is good stuff.



I ain't gettin' in no fryer!
I've never read a King book, I've only seen movies based on his books. One of Koontz's books-into-movie, Phantoms, I didn't like. Too much different from the book. Koontz doesn't scare me, but it does interest me a lot. Only books I have ever been drawn into.



Wow, Sadie, I'm a huge King fan too. I saved up all the money I could get my hands on to buy "Dead Zone" in hardcover when it first came out. I've bought every new one since. He doesn't scare me though, I just really like his prose and I get lost in his world when I read him. The one exception to that, though, was "Bag of Bones." That book gave me the willies in a serious way. The magnets on the refrigerator, the wind, the water scenes... eek!

I don't dislike Koontz. In fact I am halfway through "From the corner of his Eye" as we speak. So far it's really good but he's toeing the line of the supernatural. Koontz's style and readability are very good but he does not do the supernatural well. My favorite Koontz book is "Intensity" just because he avoids the supernatural and focuses on a nutcase.

I just finished "Aztec Blood" by Gary Jennings. Very good, but a bit pale in comparison to the original "Aztec".

Working on "From the Corner of His Eye" by Koontz
Next, I'm going to read some Mickey Spillane.. haven't decided which one.



Alright, I've been busy...should've posted on here awhile ago. I'm reading three books at once right now, but I think I'll be dropping one shortly. First up is Heroes of History by Will Durant. He wrote the book something like 20 years ago, but never did anything with it. Paul Little (I think that's his name), the manager of his estate, discovered it, unused, and had it published. It's quite good so far.

Next up: Out of the Silent Planet, the first in a trilogy by C.S. Lewis. Main character's name is Ransom. Very interesting sci-fi book. Really classic stuff. I'm digging it.

Finally: The Picture of Dorian Gray. To be honest, I'm not enjoying this too much. I think Lord Henry talks too abstranctly, and thinks he has a better grip on life than he actually does. You know the type I'm talking about: talks in really broad, deep-sounding terms. It'd be like talking to Morpheus from "The Matrix" nonstop. This is the one I think I might drop. I can't help but notice that the characters all seem rather, um, gay. I don't know that they are...but, well, it is Oscar Wilde. I'm not saying they are, but, well, the evidence does seem to point that way. How many men do you know that, when they're upset, fling themselves down on a couch in despair?