Thursday, September 04, 2008

Men say that. They all say that. Then they cum.

I'm surprised to have to say this, but I was pretty disappointed by the Charlie Huston book I recently read, The Shotgun Rule. I really enjoyed Already Dead, but this was...dull. And there was something really wrong with the edition I had--the last fifth of the book or so had the last word missing from much of the dialogue. It was truly bizarre and I wrestled with my sanity.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed The Last Lecture, which wasn't nearly as depressing as I imagined.



I think reading it was almost preferable to watching it online, though I'm sure both are enjoyable. It just seemed to have more material, including a few stories about his wife that he would have been too emotional to speak about. (FYI, the book was written by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon who had pancreatic cancer.) The link goes to his website, where the lecture can be viewed. Obviously, it's fairly moving and interesting material. I highly recommend it, it can certainly help put things in perspective...

The most recent book I read was called Boy Proof, and I can't recall for the life of me where I read about it.



It was kinda cute, and was basically written for nerdy girls. (The main character is a girl in high school who renames herself and dresses like her favorite character from a science fiction movie. I'm cool with that, but a white cloak, really? That would have gotten so dirty...anyhoo.) It was a little too neat and trim with its ending but still made for an okay one-sitting fluff read.

I just picked up Up in the Air, which I expect will make my skin crawl from having worked in that particular department of the airline industry.

Also, another James Ellroy--though this one, My Dark Places, is his memoir about his mother's murder when he was 10 and his search behind his obsession with violence against women (think Bud White, I guess).

And lastly, a book I've been curious about, Fierce People, which promises to be twisted and offbeat. (It was also supposed to be a film, directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Diane Lane...I think it finally sputtered out onto DVD, it probably blows donkey balls, but I'll watch it anyway...siiiiiigh).

2 comments:

SkylersDad said...

I saw the video of the Last Lecture and was tremendously moved by it. Haven't read the book though.

And, you title might be the best ever...

Ellen Aim said...

I thought it (The Last Lecture) was very moving, I enjoyed it muchly.

And thanks! It's from Parenthood, a movie with so many lines that are all, despite its growing age, still completely right on the money.