Would he sell them…
To me?!
Found some really cool bookstores in the French Quarter and bought a couple classic noirs. Finished The Maltese Falcon and am about 30 pages from the end of The Long Goodbye.
Also bought Los Angeles Noir, a collection of contemporary noir stories based in L.A. Looks promising…
[quote=“klinteastwood, post:264, topic:1204”]just finished the graphic novel “Maus” by Art Speigelman…its the true story of Speigelman’s father Vladek and how he survived the holocaust…the characters are all drawn as animals…Jews are Mice…Germans are cats, ect…i recommend this to anyone who like comics or just great storytelling
[/quote]
i read both volumes a couple of months ago i really liked them!
I hope you are enjoying them - these two are among my favorite novels.
Just finished Barry Gifford’s pithy The Devil Thumbs a Ride and other Unforgettable Films, a collection of essays on (mostly) films noirs.
Highly recommended for anyone seeking a leftfield appraisal of American noirs.
Gifford wrote the books on which Wild at Heart and Perdita Durango are based.
[quote=“Starblack, post:286, topic:1204”]Just finished Barry Gifford’s pithy The Devil Thumbs a Ride and other Unforgettable Films, a collection of essays on (mostly) films noirs.
Highly recommended for anyone seeking a leftfield appraisal of American noirs.[/quote]
What was his criteria for the selection of films?
They’re all hard-boiled, loosely speaking. He doesn’t concentrate on one period in particular, but roams freely through a variety of noir-esque features. It’s an entertaining read.
Rereading Kurt Vonnegut’s wonderful Slaughterhouse 5 after a gap of 25 years or so.
Always remembered it fondly but had forgotten how brave a book it is in terms of style. Marvelous writing and so much packed into such a short space. Superb.
[quote=“Phil H, post:289, topic:1204”]Rereading Kurt Vonnegut’s wonderful Slaughterhouse 5 after a gap of 25 years or so.
Always remembered it fondly but had forgotten how brave a book it is in terms of style. Marvelous writing and so much packed into such a short space. Superb.[/quote]
I also like the movie it’s not a bad adaptation from the book, I’ve seen a lot worst
I’m reading Robert E. Graves’s (author of I, Claudius) book, Lawrence and the Arabs at the moment. Graves was a personal friend of T. E., and the book was first published in 1927, so all the events related in the book were still very recent and most of the people involved (including Lawrence himself) were still alive. The book takes a non-biased approach to Lawrence, spending a whole chapter on his personality and it doesn’t shirk away from revealing his faults. The main chunk of the book is dealing with the Arab revolt and their fight against the Turks in World War I, precisely detailing all the major events and battles and when they happened. It’s a very good read that I would recommend to anyone who has any interest in this patch of history.
Just finished Robert B. Parker’s Appasloosa.
I’d read some of his crime stuff before (Spenser etc) and knew he was a fine genre fiction writer but hadn’t tried one of his westerns. Very glad I did now. This is a terrific read and a great example of how a good western should be written. Very similar style to Elmore Leonard in that it is tight and economic while conveying plenty of atmosphere. Also like Leonard you will be hard pressed to find an adverb used to describe dialogue which I always appreciate.
Some of you will have seen Ed Harris’ recent film adaptation of this book of the same name. If you liked the film you’ll like the book. I have rarely encountered such a close adaptation to film. It is pretty much identical, word for word, scene for scene.
Recommended.
Recently finished A Clockwork Orange.
It was interesting to read especially after I liked the film a lot. It had a good foreword as well that also explained the newly made language a bit better. I really enjoyed the book. Even though I am not very happy with the ending, which is interestingly (and to the unhappiness of the author) different to the film, as it is based on the american version where the final chapter was omitted. I think a grittier ending would suite the book. Enjoyed the read anyway.
Rereading Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest, the novel that was the base for Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Leone’s A Fistfull of Dollars
You can’t read it of course without constantly having both movies in mind.
I’m also studying some medieval Japanese history and Samurai culture, in order to say a few sensible words on the subjects (in relation to A Fistful of Dollars) in the near future
The Wars Of Gods And Men
Sh*t My Dad Says.
I’m reading Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). I’ve have never read Goethe up until now, I chose this volume simply because it is quite short - I expect it’s not even a novel, more likely a novella. I am enjoying it a good deal at the moment, especially Goethe’s unremitting look at Werther’s mind.
Read this one in school and hated it. I guess it happens to a lot of books you have to read in school. But the constant whinning is just horrible. Werther would be an emo these days, hehe. I can understand that the book showed teenage angst at a time when it was probably not discussed and is thereby ahead of its time. But i could not enjoy reading it. Maybe I should give it another chance. But right now I dont wanna read books in german.
I am reading Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray at the moment. Some quotable one-liners in it. It is also quite easy to read. Not a bad book.
I agree with Valenciano, an absolutely awful book
Read it when I was a student and never went back to it, so maybe I’d have other ideas when i gave it another chance, but like Valenciano says, this constant whining is unbearable
His complaints, in my humble opinion, are quite artfully then: from the flowing language you tell that Goethe was also a poet. But most books you are forced to read at school our destroyed. Thankfully this didn’t kill my love of Shakespeare.