Quotes From Summer Reading

Just thought I'd toss up some quality quotes from some recent books I've been reading/completed. Since the beginning of the summer, I'm proud to be doing my part in reviving book loving of this nation without a digital Amzon doohickey. Is it just me or is one of the major parts of the book reading experience the difference between the books? The way the cover stares at you over and over every time you put the book down until you finish it. The way the pages are worn by how many times you've shoved it in your bag or dripped some coffee or sweat on it. Or just the process of reading a used book that anyone in the world could have read previously...



From Denis Johnson's much shorter/easily digestible Tree of Smoke follow-up Nobody Move:

This guy didn't know much about follow-through... He wasn't wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the moment but undoubtedly possessed several. (Page 28)

A few from Dave Eggers' short story collection How We Are Hungry:

The sideburns had come and gone and now was back and this was a mistake. (24)

She wanted to rub herself in bananas. She wanted to open umbrellas into the faces of cats, make them scurry and scream. (33)

She's watching a move on Adam's TV - Fred Thompson is playing the president, and it using that dissatisfied look he uses. (68)

From Patrick Dewitt's debut Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, an alcoholic bartender in LA's downward spiral into despair with a collective of down and out patrons, this quote is about waking up with hangover:

You are your own doctor, sympathetic but ultimately disconnected. (23)

From James Wood's New Yorker Essay "A Fine Rage: George Orwell's Revolution"

So Orwell was contradictory: contradictions are what make writers interesting; consistency is for cooking.

Also read an excellent graphic novel history of the Beat movement, primarily written by Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame called The Beats which I learned quite a bit about a generation that always interested me, a bunch of John Le Carre novels including his most recent A Most Wanted Man, Elmore Leonard's latest novel Road Dogs, the return of the Jack Foley character from Out of Sight, a perfect breezy summer read.

If you'd like to see what I'm reading bookwise, check out my goodreads profile. Read any good quotes yourself lately?

I Read Something... on June 8 - Random Bits

What is that??? Google's way of celebrating the 25th anniversary of the greatest time eater created in the last part of the 20th century, Tetris. Those damn Ruskie blocks are still the ultimate communist ploy to make American's useless time-wasters. Too bad it didn't work.

-----
I'm all for all the modern technological advances but I'll never "get" twitter. I think Jon Stewart said it perfectly tonight, "Why do I have to follow CNN on Twitter? If I want to follow them, I can follow them on CNN."

I recommend watching the first segment on tonight's Daily Show once it goes up on Dailyshow.com. And if you love twitter, Time Magazine feels the need to give you "The World of Twitter," which is described in the RSS feed as "An excerpt of tweets from some of the most popular twitterers." What has the world come to when people need to read a magazine to get an excerpt from 140 character or less messages. Enough twitter hate for today.

Also looks like Thom Yorke has a solo follow-up to the Eraser en route. I Read Something... must always report any small bit of Radiohead news.

Quick Film Review
I saw Away We Go at a preview screening like 6 months ago but since it's finally being released I guess it's time to let you know that if you are the type of the person that wonders why there aren't any good, intelligent comedies released anymore, you should probablt support a great film like Away We Go. It's a interesting modern (and hipsterish) take on the road trip film.

Award winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) diverges from his standard harsh, gut wrenching dramatic affair to bring to life a road film in which a open-minded, new age couple about to have a child (John Krasinski AKA Jim from the Office & Maya Rudolph from SNL) decide to take a trek to various locales to see if they can find a good place to raise the child. I don't want to go too much further into it but I want to credit one of my favorite authors Dave Eggers and his wife for crafting an interesting, meaningful story about that 20 somethings/early 30 somethings in the US can relate to. Those who can choose the path of the future of this country and while many will point to the recent election as a reflection of their involvement, individually, many of us of that ilk are lost and meandering through life. It's sad especially with all the amazing tools at are disposable.

Away We Go is a tender, comedic piece of intelligent small-time filmmaking, the proverbial "labor of love", a great ensemble cast complete with excellent supporting performances from everyone from Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Magie Gyllenhaal, and many more. The film is rolling out little by little but should be available in most areas so if you want to see more small yet excellent films and not more terrible $200 million+ reboots of the Terminator franchise, check this film out. Here's a trailer:

And if you like Away We Go, you'll probably want to check out 500 Days of Summer when it comes out in the near future (I'm just jealous I didn't write it):