Monday, July 15, 2002 Books books books So I just did some updating to my sidebar, removing books I finished and adding books I started recently. Also took XF off the watching list. Which made me a bit sad and nostagic. And then I thought about, well, seasons 8 and 9. And I felt better. *g* So here are quick recaps of two books I removed, and one I read so quickly that I never had a chance to add it. Bruce Campbell - If Chins Could Kill: Interesting. Very interesting. Bruce on low-budget productions, his personal life, and life on Hercules. Writes about how there are some people in Hollywood whose brains have been taken over by evil spores that... Well, Hollywood-ize them. And yet Bruce has escaped infection, and the book proves it. Fight on, Bruce! Stephen King - On Writing: I liked this a lot more than I was expecting to, especially when I figured out that half of the book was Mr. King, this is your life! The autobio was interesting when it showed what made him into the kind of writer he became, and the second half actually kicked my ass into writing, which was cool. Simple, uncomplicated advice - nothing too brilliant, but still intriguing and worth a read. Like most of King's writing. Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors: Mmmmm. I gobbled a lot of this up last week - lots of yummy, dark, disturbing stories and snippets. I had to skip the poems, because I can't read poetry while in non-poetic situations (read: while at work), but I'm gonna highly recommend this. Love the Gaiman. Both I and das roomie have big to-be-read piles by our beds right now - a combination of books borrowed from friends, books accumulated from this free book promotion, books from the library, and books purchased. I need a new bookcase, because there is NO room any more on my old one and I want to get more of my books from home. Was looking for a used one on Craig's List - does anyone know of any other used-furniture services? I started reading The Corrections today, because of my fervent desire to be Just Like Everyone Else, and I got really frustrated with the language - "My dear Franzen, there are too many words!" I thought to myself. And then I felt stupid and ridiculous for being a wanna-be writer who has a hard time reading flowery prose. I don't know why this is - my personal taste just runs to simpler language, with the emphasis being on the story, rather than the words, and recently I've gotten kinda pedantic about it. And there's so much great writing I'm missing out on as a result, and I DON'T want to be one of those people who turns up their nose because the words are too big. So, even though my first reaction to Franzen was that of "eh", I'm going to make myself read at least five chapters, and I'm going to read the pretty pretty words and appreciate them. After all, I can watch - and appreciate! - French art films. I can most certainly do this. | permalink blog • archives • photos • about • contact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All content © 2004.