My paperback copy of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy arrived today. I read it on my Kindle ages ago, thought it was superb, and meant to purchase a proper copy of it ever since. Finally got round to it, now I’ll no doubt get stuck into it again.
[quote=“last.caress, post:601, topic:1204”]My paperback copy of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy arrived today. I read it on my Kindle ages ago, thought it was superb, and meant to purchase a proper copy of it ever since. Finally got round to it, now I’ll no doubt get stuck into it again.
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Read it a couple of years ago, I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. Oddly enough I prefer (and was deeply impressed by) some of his other novels
I’ve got a bunch of his novels on my Kindle in addition to this one - All the Pretty Horses, Cities of the Plain, The Crossing, No Country For Old Men and The Road - but I’ve never looked at any of them, which is really a bit silly given how much I enjoyed Blood Meridian. I really need to have a look at them but, alas, I’m not as much of a reader as I have been previously. Perhaps I should place “Books!” on the New Year’s Resolution list.
Not reading but but I listened Greg Sestero’s audio book of Disaster Artist about Tommy Wiseau and making of The Room. This stuff is so bonkers that it’s hard to believe it’s all true. I need to see the film adaptation.
Before reading your post, I had never even heard of that film, let alone the mythology surrounding it. You’ve made me curious … and the omniscient Wikipedia has a lot to say about The Room and its director.
Ghost Town (1998) isn’t Robert Coover’s best work but still funny and witty enough to keep you entertained throughout. The reason why I’m mentioning it here is that one of the book’s stereotypical characters, a hapless old prospector, unintentionally comes up with an almost perfect definition of the Spaghetti Western filone (first Grove Press edition, pp. 55–56):
“So it aint about gold at all nor land neither nor freedom—hoo! freedom, shit!—nor civvylizin the wilderness and smoothin the heathen encrustations from the savage mind, oh no, hell no! It’s about, lissen t’me now, it’s about style. They aint nuthin else to it. Cept fer the killin, a course, caint even have style without the killin, but thet’s easy, aint nobody caint kill, it’s like eatin and fartin. But dustin em with class, with a bitta spiff’n yer own wrinkle, thet’s one in a million billion.”
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Currently,Name of the Game by Charles Kelly whenever I have more than a few free seconds.
However, 
I will take this opportunity to post this list I made in 2012 when I was trying to understand storytelling better. The numbers are the number of times I read the book. I not only read hardcover book Story 10 times(broke the binding in multiple places) but listened to the book on tape at least that many times. I only read Hero with 1000 faces 2x but listened to the audio version about 10x as well.
10 Story McKee
3 Anatomy of Story Truby
1 Adventures in Screentrade Goldman
2 Hero With 1000 Faces Campbell
3 Between the Lines Page
1 Screenplay Field
1 Characters, Emotion, Viewpoint Kress
1 Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out Dannenbaum
1 Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters Tierno
1 The Writer’s Journey Vogler
1 The Screenwriter’s Bible Trottier
1 The Art of Dramatic Writing Egri
1 Writing Screenplays That Sell Hauge
1 Making Movies Lumet
1 Creating Unforgettable Characters Seger
1 Setting Up Your Shots Vineyard
1 Setting Up Your Scenes Pepperman
1 The Hollywood Standard Riley
1 Screenwriting 101 Hicks
1 Myth and the Movies Voytilla
1 Masters of the American Cinema Giannetti up to page 108
4 Horror Movies Hutchings
4 Stealing Fire From The Gods Bonnet
1 Cinematic Storytelling Van Stilj
1 Understanding Movies Giannetti
1 The Conversations Walter Murch interviews
2 Film Noir Spicer
1 In the Blink of an Eye Murch
1 Save the cat blake snyder
On an Mesoamerican/Incan 
history binge 
since August 22…
Read and/or listened to:
The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 1
Olmecs, A Captivating Guide to the Earliest Known Major Ancient Civilization(In the Americas)
(Ancient Civilizations: A Captivating Guide to Mayan History, the Aztecs, and Inca Empire
Life in the Aztec Empire)
Aztec History: A Captivating Guide to the Aztec Empire, Mythology, and Civilization
Aztec Mythology
Currently Reading and/or Listening to:
Aztec History
Huitzilopochtli: The History of the Aztec God of War and Human Sacrifice
The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2
(Aztec: A Captivating Guide to Aztec History and the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan (Mayan Civilization, Aztecs and Incas Book 2)
For the fun I am reeading Captain underpants. I have 1 to 8 and I am currently at #3
Furthermore I am re-reading Klondike fever about the goldrush at the turn of the century. I also have the picture book composed by the same writer (Berton) to accompany the readings.
Currently reading movie screenplays starting with what’s available on Kindle Unlimited.
Read Hell or High Water and now La La Land, neither of which I have seen.
I’m going through King’s The Dark Tower series, which, if you don’t know, features a taciturn gunslinger Roland situated in a high fantasy style secondary world called Mid-World. The Wolves of the Calla is the fifth part in the series and Roland and his gunslingers had decided to protect a town against mysterious oppressors called Wolves. So, it’s the Magnificent Seven theme once again. The name of the town they are safeguarding is Calla Bryn Sturgis, so no space for doubt there. Anyway, with Magnificent Seven theme goes hand in hand kind of substantial socializing with a townsfolk. Well, the heroes are socializing with them in this case for about 400 pages already! But I kind of expected that, the book looks like a brick.
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I’m currently working my way through Harry Gray’s The Hoods, which is a book that I’ve been wanting read ever since I saw OUaTiA for the first time, however I haven’t been able to find it up until reccently. It’s nice to read the book and see what and what not made it into the script, and get some more depth to the characters - Noodles in particular. It’s also very interesting to see how Leone turned this book into a script, which is genius IMO. The man had eyes and heart for details and would re-use them in a different way in the movie, he certainly put his touch on a lot of things. Oh, and the casino heist in Ace High turns out to come from this book as well, I know that Ace High was loosely based on this book aswell.
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Haven’t done too much book reading myself lately, the last great physical book I read was Double Play by Robert B. Parker for an online college English course a few years ago. What a great mixture of Film Noir, Romance, and baseball in a single novel. To briefly summarize, burnt out ex soldier Joseph Burke becomes bodyguard to baseball icon Jackie Robinson as he breaks the color barrier in the sport. During his job, he learns a former client is being harassed by her crazy ex-boyfriend, the son of a powerful Chicago crime boss. Jackie’s life becomes in danger when the mobster’s son teams with a low level hoodlum to take out the ball player who won’t be intimidated. Burke now must save both the woman he loves, and the man he’s grown to respect. A highly recommend it.
Recently I’ve been listening to audiobooks, particularly Agatha Christie’s Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.
Slowly working my way through the ‘The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe’, which I bought several years ago, and occasionally delve into…usually just before heading to bed.
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I have a few books I’m reading right now, but tonight I’m enjoying Sacred Flesh by Robin D. Laws. I always love reading Sword and Sorcery on the weekend.
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What happened to this topic?
Anyways, finished the Tarantino novel, review forthcoming. Also finished the Morricone book, review onntarantino.info
Why is our royal family so popular? Not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad. Why do the Oranges enjoy the status of pop stars? How did they deserve this veneration? Is it their performance? Their abilities? The merits of the kings and emperors who have disappeared into the mists of history were once praised sky high. Today there are only a few kingdoms left in Europe. They only survive in Scandinavia, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands. In our country, the House of Orange is the chosen family that, solely on the basis of birth, is assigned the special place it occupies in the Dutch system. That’s how it is in our Constitution. So far there has never been an Orange who has refused the throne. Being a king is therefore a lousy job, although you have to be hungry for it. It is generously paid and the secondary conditions are enviable: free living (in various beautiful locations in beautiful palaces), free travel in all imaginable types of (own) transport, a tax-free benefit (as the king’s salary is euphemistically called) and exemption of inheritance tax. The star status of the members of the royal family is also a wonderful phenomenon. Under the watchful eye of the Government Information Service, the Orangist press actively contributes to the illusion that the monarchy is the connecting factor that brings the Dutch people together and unites them. In this book, historian Gerard Aalders examines the widespread adoration for our kings: Willem I, II and III, our queens (Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix) and finally Willem-Alexander. The husbands and wives of our head of state also receive the necessary attention. Because without a partner there would be no successor to the crown and that would mean the end of the monarchy: the nightmare of every dynasty. Aalders wonders what reasons there are for continuing the monarchy. Strictly measured by its merits and stripped of all frills. He dives into the turbulent history of our royal family, makes special discoveries and comes to striking conclusions. It is precisely the heredity of the king’s function that shows its absolute insignificance: it does not matter who is king, so let us agree to take the eldest child of the previous king. Kingship is the only social function that is constitutionally established that anyone, even the most stupid person, can assume it.”
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