April 19, 2004

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

by Stephen King

So far, so good. I am starting to think I should reread some of his fiction. His writing about writing is fantastic, and it's hard to believe someone whose books are as bad as I remember thinking his were back in middle school/high school could be this good.

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If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor

By Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell is GOD. Bruce Campbell is a blue-collar working actor and I kowtow before him for this book. It's funny as hell, informative, and inspiring (or a dire warning, I'm not sure which...).

Read it.

'nuff said.

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April 03, 2004

Stardust

by Neil Gaiman

A fairytale.

This is a neat book about a young man who promises to bring his True Love a fallen star in return for "whatever he desires" (presumably her hand in marriage). Of course, finding the star (who turns out to be a young woman who glows and is really annoyed that she fell) and bringing her back turns into an oddyssey which changes his life forever.

Gaiman's descriptive, flowing prose is a joy to read as usual, and it's nice to read something by him that isn't incredibly disturbing/creepy/scary/whatever. Not that I don't adore his horror writing, but his prose is also well suited to this kind of thing.

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Siddartha

by Herman Hesse

Not sure how to classify this one. Short. About religion.

I suspect that this tale of an Indian youth's search for enlightenment more compelling if I were someone who believed in enlightenment in the Buddhist sense. As it stands, though, I was mostly pleased by the anti-establishment tone of it. Siddartha insists that enlightenment cannot be taught, that following a teacher and trying to achieve enlightenment that way is pointless (at least for him) because it is impossible for the teacher to explain exactly how he achieved enlightenment (because true enlightenment cannot be captured in words).

SO... yeah.

I mostly read it because I have a student working on it for school. I was unimpressed.

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