The Pen Pal Club

So Beth and I haven’t been so great at keeping up to date with our original goal of a book a month. But because I’ve been in work limbo where I never seem to know what my next assignment will be or how many hours I’ll actually end up working throughout the week, I had been devouring books like candy. Here are my brief views on the books I’ve read on the side of our little project.

After finishing War and Peace I knew I needed to tackle something a little lighter. But I also knew that I was going to be spending a lot of time being useless backstage of the Reps as they figured out tech and didn’t require my assistance except for the occasional thing to run downstairs for. So I decided to read a book that came highly recommended to me by various people on crew and actors (Aaryn had read it during Midsummer). American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it to others. It is epic and brilliant, engaging and unique. It gives life to all the old gods of religions you remember briefly talking about in old history classes and makes you wonder, what does happen to all those gods once the people have moved on? I was immediately drawn into the story and although it had a slow build to the giant war, I was not bored or hoping for a swift conclusion. Which is one of the only complaints I have about the book. After such a drawn out foundation, the ending came way too quickly for me that I was sadly wanting more.

So I turned to another Neil Gaiman book, Stardust. I figured that I had already enjoyed his longer book and I had less time as I was starting to actually do some work on the Reps so I picked something short and familiar. However this short book that was then turned into a halfway decent movie, was not one of my favorites and fell flat after reading such an intriguing fantasy. I didn’t really care about any of the characters and although it had that fairy tale feel, I never really understood the point of the story. So I decided to leave the fantasy genre and going after something a little darker.

World War Z was another book that’s been on my to-read list for a while but I didn’t own it and didn’t really want to shell out the money when I’m so anti the zombie-phase that everyone seems to be obsessed with. But when we were packing and moving into the new house Emily decided to donate most of her books and offered me first dibs before she gave them away, which included this book. I was a little surprised to say how much I enjoyed it. Written as a collection of interviews explaining the build up to, survival tactics during, and consequences after the Zombie War. It’s presently in a way that seems so factual and possible that you can’t help but buy into this world that is created. In the way that Michael Crichton would mess science and history and fiction to create these amazing novels, Max Brooks created a history book that I actually liked.

After finishing up reading an actual book instead of my digital books on my kindle, I dove back into my digital world with abandon. Not quite knowing what kind of mood I was in when I wasn’t running Christopher’s track for Coriolanus and Wallenstein when he got strep throat I chose my “classroom homework” book of Walden by Henry David Thoreau and my “pleasure reading” book of continuing the Sherlock Holmes series that I had started earlier with The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I then found in one of my daily emails of digital book deals this satirical and totally inappropriate dry humor gem How to Fail: The Self-Hurt Guide. So I currently have been flipping between these three books depending on my mood. Walden is hard to pick up but although I may not agree with all of Thoreau’s extremist hermit ways, I can appreciate the sentiment behind them. Sherlock Holmes stories are pretty quick and fun, so easy to pick up and put down. And The Self-Hurt Guide is funny in a black comedy sense but something, it’s hopelessness can get too much for me so I much switch back to one of the other “light-hearted” books I’m reading. Winter’s Tale tech starts on Wednesday, so hopefully I can finish one or two of these books and less my self-imposed literary load which will nag at the back of my mind.

This action packed movie took a really long time to watch what with life and my move to NE getting in the way. Then we had to wait to actually install our cable and internet, so I couldn’t watch the movie until that was done. After all that I really enjoyed the movie. Of course it reminds me of the beautiful similarities of that genre with such colorful costumes and locations, a poetry of motion to the fighting, and a sense of pride and honor that is never quite conveyed in an American (or Western) film. In the same vein of House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon this film really showed a myriad of fighting styles and sacrifice for the greater good. I enjoyed it and recommend it highly.