My Brother is always harping on about this book Ishmael . Anyone read it?

I am presently reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I'm about 1/4 through it and it's excellent so far. It's a standalone fantasy novel, which as any fan of the genre knows is quite the rarity. It seems pretty orginal and well thought-out, looking forward to tearing through the rest of it.

Oh yes, that's why I'm reading it. I'm a huge fan of Heavenly Creatures, and if Peter Jackson can do that, he can do The Lovely Bones. I've heard that the script he wrote is excellent.

Underdog, I really liked this book. I am really into pretending that I have the ability to think existentially and amateur philosophy about life and all that. This book definitely provided that for me. While I would imagine a real philosophy person might find it trivial (though I have no basis for this), I really liked it and I think your average existential person is going to dig it.

Plus it is a quick read, if I recall. So it isn't like if you hate it you'll be sinking a lot of time into it.

And speaking of time sinks...I am finally done with Wicked! It's about time. It was mildly entertaining at times but it is a long book and really draaaaags at points. Up next is (finally) I Am Legend.

Wicked was perhaps the worst musical I've ever seen (granted i haven't seen many). It was as cliche as they come. I describe it as the MadLibs of musicals: here's the basic formula, just fill in the blanks.

I have to put a plug in for my lunchtime book: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by old friend Bruce Campbell. I read this book half a dozen years ago and liked it. Rereading it gives a real appreciation to the Campbell/Raimi relationship, and to independent film making, the business of Hollywood, and how three of my favorite films (The Evil Dead series) were made. It's a simple read, with four or five page chapters, and Bruce's corny humor permeates.

I met Bruce at a book signing for this book. It was a low key affair at an independent bookstore that had a bar. After we got our signed copy and a couple minutes with Bruce, we headed over to the bar for a snack and a drink. One drink turned into a few, and before long ole Bruce sauntered over and joined us (he had club soda) for fifteen minutes or so. He did most of the talking, asking us about why the hell we were there to see a washed-up actor/pseudo author. He basically teased us for our nerdiness, bought us a round, and was a very regular guy. He seemed to recognize that though we were just faces in the crowd, Dan and Jen would never forget having a drink with Bruce. He was right.

I actually just started reading "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. Going to take some time to get through (flipping to the back constantly for notes is annoying), but I'm blown away by his writing. There was this amazing section covering a character who is addicted to marijuana, but is ashamed of it, and the lengths that he'll go to to keep it secret/feed his addiction. Great writing.

I am in the middle of "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon. However, if it is late at night and my brain gets too tired from this, I switch over to "The Game" by Neil Strauss for something light. (I am about half-way through that as well.)

you read pynchon? wow, you have very poor taste in literature, sir or madam.

I have not seen the musical. I find it odd you say that it was the worst you have seen because everyone I have talked to "absolutely LOOOOOOOOVED it." I have only heard the opinions of about 6-7 girls though. The sample size is both small and female....so that might explain it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I just read Ghost World by Daniel Clowes for the first time. I didn't relate to it all that well. I'm not a teenage girl and I never had quite that dark of humor back then. Plus they seem ultimately depressed, possibly because of their family life. All in all, I thought it was all right, but I don't fit the mold for the type who have made it such a hit.

I'm envious... I read this during the summer and loved it. I've heard it has destroyed book groups though... this is a big book.

I wrote a review of the performance I saw back in February. Can't search from work, but it was in the Lounge.

Wicked is popular because everyone has seen it before, even if you've never seen Wicked. It's just a rehashing of every musical you've ever seen. The numbers are uninspired, unoriginal, and tedious. Immediately on exiting the theater, my wife turned to me and said, "Remember that funny number in Spamalot? The one where the cast and chorus sing, 'In every musical there is a song that goes like this...' That's how I felt throughout Wicked." Me too. It's like the score was ripped off from other musicals and the words rewritten.

The story is lacking, too.

It's dumbed-down musical theater that demands nothing of the audience and little of the cast. This probably leads to its popularity too. Like most weeknight TV, Wicked spoon-feeds the audience, gives only what is expected, and is basically a veneer of a play. Not nearly worth the $85 or whatever for the cheap seats. Go see Spamalot instead.

Thanks for taking the time to re-review it, KT. I sort of wanted to see it just because I heard the play was so great. Now, I think I can easily pass on it. Wicked the novel was just so long and dragging that it lost a lot of its edge. That said though, it is a dark novel and does have some good moments that I liked. Shrug. It was an interesting thing to have to read through, I guess. It DOES make me want to rewatch The '39 Oz.

Reading Oliver Twist for school.
John Grisham is a great writer if anyone is looking for leisurely reading

I've heard Pynchon is a ridiculously difficult read. Is it worth it?

Books I'm considering reading (anybody have any comments?):

What to eat

The Savage Detectives

Infinite Jest

Chasing Daylight

Blood Meridian

Deep Economy

Books I'm reading:

I Am America and So Can You! (audio read by Colbert himself, great light in-car reading)

The Squandering of America (good I guess, but it has lots of statistics, which I don't really trust)

Books I recently read:

No Country For Old Men (audio, good, looking forward to seeing the movie)

The Assault on Reason (audio, good follow-up to 1984)

1984 (audio, good precursor to Assault on Reason)

The Fountainhead (audio, great, now one of my faves)

Wow, of those books you listed, I have only read 1984. As far as wanting to read the books listed, only Infinite Jest is on my list. Innnnteresting.

I finished I Am Legend. I am blown away by how great I thought it was. I think that a lot of it was that I had a huge buildup and it just lived up to the hype for me. While it may have been a little slow at times, I dug that about it. Neville has an intriguing line of thinking that seems really believable of the last man around. There were even times that he thought of things that, sitting on my couch, I would not have considered to be thoughts of a last man, but were, indeed, entirely appropriate.

I am going to watch "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price tonight or tomorrow to prep for Will Smith and Legend (not Bagger Vance, lol).

Up next will be Orson Scott Card's Empire. I have been on a hell of a movie rush though with my free time.

Infinite Jest is, in my opinion, the greatest novel ever written. You'll want to have a decent dictionary handy, and you'll need to use 2 bookmarks, one for the story and one for the footnotes. Don't skip the footnotes, read them all!! If you're looking for a nice linear story with a clear beginning, end, and advancing plotline, this is not the book for you.

It's been over 5 years now since I read it; I really should make time to read it again, but it does require a lot of effort. I'm also the type that very rarely reads a book or watches a movie more than once, because there is so much out there that I still haven't read/watched at all yet.

All I needed - I'll hit this one up next! Thx.

Since the death of Robert Jordan, I have been reading the 'Song of Ice and Fire' series by George R. R. Martin. Fantastic stuff. I'm both dreading reaching the current end and having to wait for the next installment, and pleased that maybe I can stop wasting so much time and use reading time for study like I ought to be.

Kind of strange that it took Jordan's death to turn me on tho the SoIaF series. Not that I'm feeling guilty or anything.

Glad you liked I Am Legend, Solo. And Last Man on Earth was really good. A good deal of it had an incredibly lived-in feeling that made you feel like it wasn't a movie, but real life.

Blarg, I actually didn't find Last Man all that great. I think that Vincent Price was just wayyyyyy too unlike what I had pictured Neville (or Morgan, in the movie). He is almost so lanky and uncoordinated that I kept wondering how he lived for three years with those things. I don't know...his voiceover fit the part but his body didn't.

It was certainly nice to see the adaptation. However, I guess the one benefit of not being blown away by "Last Man" is that now Will Smith's I Am Legend might actually seem decent to me? I doubt it, though.

Also, the movie left out way too much awesome stuff from the book and the ending change was a bit goofy to me. It changed the themes of the story entirely.

Wow, you had very strong attachments to a body image in the book that I guess I just didn't have. I couldn't care less about Price's body. I loved the way his house and yard and the surrounding streets looked just fitting to the emptiness and emotions of the story.

Re other stuff, movies change things, sure, and the book is definitely better than any adaptations that have come out. Kinda par for the course. But I liked that there wasn't the feeling of ridiculousness that you got from The Omega Man.

I haven't seen The Omega Man. I get the feeling that watching that would make me appreciate Last Man a lot more. I mean, it wasn't that I didn't think Last Man was interesting. It really just couldn't get that element of isolation too well for me. I thought that the camera shots on the exterior were too tight sometimes. I think if they had done a few wider shots that showed how the houses around him weren't there or sort of desolate/destroyed I could have gotten a better feel for his isolation.

It was nice to see a screen adaptation, but yeah...this was a case where the book really wasn't done enough justice in my mind. I'm not a huge "Books are always way better!" person, but in this case I just didn't like some of the details of Last Man, like camera work, ending, etc....(and fwiw, the vampires were nothing like I imagined either....sort of...lame?)

Wait till you see how lame they are in The Omega Man! I got the feeling of isolation much more than you did, I guess. I may have expected less, based on seeing the Omega Man. By the way though, I actually enjoyed The Omega Man quite a lot. Perhaps it is something in me developed from a lifetime of watching horror movies -- I am very generous with my approval sometimes, if the movie manages to do just a few things that transport me sufficiently. So many horror movies barely try or seem to notice the need to.