Which in my case means curling up with a good book. After my theft confession, Martin asked what I am currently reading. Oh, Martin you silly man. You will come to regret that boldness, as my list is towering. July's reads included:
Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and About a Boy. Thanks to my readers for the suggestions. Lovely and wise and funny. Though all the odd punctuation: hard to read.
The Every Boy by Dana Adam Shapiro. New release hardback. Soon to be a Major Motion Picture; get your copy now. It's my childhood in the eighties. Okay, it's actually Henry Every's childhood in the eighties, and probably quite a bit of Dana's. If you can't relate to this beautiful story, why are you reading my blog?
The Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants, in preparation for a tween sci-fi/fantasy script I'm prepping. Honestly, wasn't crazy about it. Just so-so. Better prep was the long weekend I just spent with my brilliant second cousins. Was I that together at fourteen?
Medium by Alison Dubois. Read as research for my current spec script. As someone who grew up in San Francisco during the hotbed of Newage spiritual exploration, I wasn't pleased. Found it a trite "homage" to the worst occult nonsense of the eighties. No wisdom to be gleaned here, and I liked the real medium less than Patricia's sharp version. Never thought I'd find someone that made Kevin Ryerson sparkle like a jewel, but there it is.
David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Dave, Dave, Dave. I could turn you straight Dave, I just know it. Dump Hugh and we'll live in Anne Frank's house together.
Stephen King's The Dead Zone. Didn't know I could love Johnny more. What a fabulous world the movie, book and show have built. I'm going to enjoy writing the spec this fall. According to the show mythology, my head injury was a month after Johnny's. Who is going to be the first to ask if I have psychic powers?
Successful Television Writing. A screenwriting book I highly recommend. (Shocking, right?).
"Purchased" at That Corporation That Had it Coming to Them:
The Dogs of Babel
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Handmaid's Tale
Little Earthquakes
Bergdorf Blondes
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The Metaphysical Club
Diary (go Chuck!)
The Best Awful (go Carrie!)
Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way (let's go, she-bitch!)
Legitimately Acquired From Samuel French:
Oona; Living in the Shadows
Crafty Screenwriting - thank you Mr. Epstein
The WB TV Writers Workshop Guide
Television Writing From the Inside Out
Exhausted yet? I am. Thank Zeus I'm not reading as many friends' scripts at the moment. Up next is Dogs of Babel, then probably Bruce's mocku-tell-all.
Almost done reading Dave Sedaris and Dana Adam Shapiro to Mom in her hospital room. Then we're either going to reread Narnia or Hitchhiker's guide. Her choice, of course. She's not a fan of the audio books, but she loves when I read to her. Says I'm the only one who has ever done it for her, other than her grandpa.
You realize of course that I'm not including script or comic consumption on this list. That topic has been covered ad nauseum elsewhere on this here blog. Look it up, peeps!
13 comments:
I love David Sedaris! Your comments about turning him strait and living in Anne Frank's house CRACKED ME UP!!!
BTW, how the heck do you keep all that strait?!!!
WOW, you are impressive!
You have some good taste in literature there. I haven't read "Dress Your Family..." yet but caught a few of those pieces in The New Yorker. That Anne Frank piece is particularly good. He's gotten a little lazy with the laughs lately. I kind of miss The Old Dave who wrote all sorts of crass stuff about his family. They really emerged over time as these fascinating characters. I think the isolation in France has made him a little too insular. Though it's interesting how he keeps painting himself as the victim in his relationship.
I second "The Sisterhood" review. I didn't much like it either. On the bright side, it made writing a y.a. best seller look like the easiest task ever. Take heart!
"The Handmaid's Tale" is one of my favorites.
Bruce Campbell once left a message on my home answering machine. (I had emailed him through his site asking for screenwriting advice.) I really need to get a copy of that book! Maybe we can do a book swap at the rumored L.A. blogging screenwriters get together.
How fast are you capable of reading, Elizabeth? I'm shedding tears of jealousy just reading this list that doesn't even include your comics consumption.
I had the chance to meet David Sedaris just before on of his readings just a few months ago. Hope to catch him back here on Kalamazoo on his next tour. I love reading his work. Sometimes the humor just creeps up on you.
"Reading Lolita" is a great book, and it made me go out and purchase Nabokov's book (it sits on my shelf, along with dozens of other books I'm dying to read). For future summer reading, I'd also recommend:
Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible"
Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" (dark and challenging, but probably my favorite book of all time. I never saw the movie - it would only have defiled the book...)
JDC, no Bone yet. I want to borrow. My friend is planning on hosting a comic night, where we all switch comics and read there at the party. Dead Zone isn't a good spec script for getting an agent, but you're aware Michael Piller is still the only showrunner in town instituting an open script submission policy. Things have changed since the ST:TNG days when Brian got a foot in the door. Now if you send a spec, they send it to an agent first to evaluate it and protect themselves legally. It could be a dying show, but I'm in love with it and want to meet Michael. So there.
Mo, thanks! Me loves David S. Too. Me talk pretty one day to him. Meesa think his sis funny as well. How do I keep what straight, my gay friends? Or all the books? They blend in baby. I've learned to just enjoy them in the moment and move on. Can't quote them to impress people at cocktail parties like other people I know. But I like to think my writing improves with every book I devour...all those pretty words comingling with my neurons.
Lynne, thank you for the gold stars. That's exactly why I did it. Now I can stop reading to the old bat ;) Totally kidding. Mom would be howling if she read that. Our favorite moment last week was when an orderly told her how pretty the two of us looked when I was reading to her, what a sweet moment it was...and we cackled about that and said the orderly must not have heard all the swearing going on.
Kristen, that's swell! Glad you like my taste. Interesting assessment of DS's work. We're still enjoying it, but I can see your point. The memory of those brown towels will probably be the last thing that flashes before my eyes when I die. I'll think "shit" and then..."who wiped their shit on the brown towels." And then God will tell me I'm in the wrong place. V.jealous about Bruce. I want his voice on my answering machine.
Patrick, not sure. Shall I time myself? Medium took maybe three hours. I was underlining stuff that could be used in a script. I think About a Boy was about the same. High Fidelity and The Every Boy both took two days because I was underlining beautiful wordings and thoughts. And touching myself...no wait, I mean they were touching.
Meg, thanks for the suggestions...Though Nurse Sis has some books I want to borrow first, like that Hunt Sister book and the CIA lady. Think it's going to be a while. I'll put them in the queue for fall.
Kristen, would love to meet you at the thingie and exchange books!
Wow -- I am a lazy excuse for near-literacy.
MIM
I laughed at that brown towel story for, like, three weeks after I'd finished reading it. I still laugh just thinking about it. I don't believe it can possibly be true.
How are you finding time to read all this? I can hardly make it through the L.A. Times Calendar section. Although I guess I could be cutting out some of my blogging and watching TV time... but what fun would that be?
Now that I think about it, I don't even have time to hang out with my male stripper friends anymore.
Kristen, I thought it was so gross it MUST be true! :)
Neil, the TV season is over so I have more time off that job of memorizing/analyzing shows...and I'm blogging and sleeping less. This is really the last month I have to write full time, so I'm going to do everything I can. Shame about no time for the ex-stripper friends. Mine is a brilliant writer/director now. Fun guy to hang with.
:)
Hey there -- CC sends her best. She also sasy, if you don't feel like giving money or doing further stealing from big bookstore chain, she has about half the books you just bought, so she is more than willing to do a foreign (if Alhambra is truly foreign compared to Hollywood) exchange program.
BTW -- she also clocks in at 75 pages/ hour. I picked up her copy of Potter at 10, and she finished it by the time the kids woke up from afternoon naps.
MIM
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