Books Read 2006
Submitted by heyrocker on Mon, 01/02/2006 - 13:02
Tags:
- The Fortress Of Solitude - Johnathan Lethem (A) - Ultimately a story of how it is fruitless to try and deny who you are, and even more pointless to try and escape from who you were. It is a novel that is very much about growing up in a place at a time, and how a city or neighborhood shapes you at every phase of your life, even after you leave. I first read this around the time I was moving from the place I called home for 36 years, and it hit home very deeply. Lethem is a great writer and I love this book.
- Our Band Could Be Your Life - Michael Azerrad (B+)
- A Life In Movies - Michael Powell (A+) The best book on film I've ever read
- Movies - Manny Farber (w/o) Just couldn't get into it
- In The Blink Of An Eye - Walter Murch (B) Some of it is just Editing 101, but there's a couple really fascinating sections too. I highly recommend his book of interviews The Conversation.
- V For Vendetta - Frank Miller and Dave Gibons (A-) Its so great how you can see all the seeds of The Watchmen being sown in this, although it doesn't capture the personal characterizations which really pushed The Watchmen over the edge for me.
- Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (A) I was enjoying but not blown away by this until the last 50 pages or so, which are insanely awesome. Movie's great too.
- What I Really Want To Do Is Direct - ed. Bill Frolick (B-) A somewhat interesting but also somewhat tedious and hard to follow account of seven film school graduates and their attempts to break into the industry. The tedium is to some extent caused by the fact that attempting to break into the industry is in itself tedious. No real shocks here, new directors need good scripts, everyone wants to make money, etc.
- Across The Table - Johnathan Lethem (C+) Not as good as Motherless Brooklyn or Fortress Of Solitude so don't get your hopes up cheese.
- Sex, Lies and Videotape - Steve Soderbergh (B) The book is actually a pre-production diary, then the shooting script, then a production / launch diary. Soderbergh is an immensely entertaining writer (see also Getting Away With It) who consistently hits just the right amount of self-deprecation, but I found myself wishing for more film-making insights rather than gags, and on the whole this is "fun" more than "enlightening". The one aspect I would describe as honestly fascinating is watching the scripts go through revisions and lines/scenes getting added and dropped. Appears to be out of print.
- Because The Night - James Ellroy (C) - Not the best Ellroy by any means, but still quite the page-turner. Ellroy is obviously still feeling his away around the story-telling style he later perfected with masterpieces like The Blue Dahlia, L.A. Confidential and American Tabloid. Last couple chapters are real winners as always.
- Destination:Moon - Rod Pyle (C+) - A fluffy coffee table book covering the Apollo program with lots of pretty pictures. Its main success is it got me interested enough in the topic to go out and buy some more books to get the real scoop.
- The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe (B+)
Author Comments:
IN PROGRESS
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Harrington On Hold'Em Vol I - Dan Harrington
ON DECK
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A Man On The Moon - Andrew Chaikan
I Lost It At The Movies - Pauline Kael
Hitchcock - Francois Truffaut
So now that I am taking public transport to work again at least part of the time, I've been getting back on the reading wagon. W00t! New list!
have you read The Kid Stays in the Picture yet?
No I haven't, is it worthwhile? I remember when the movie came out it just sort of seemed like another "Hollywood star crashes and burns" story.
I personally am looking to find a copy of it to read.