Mike's Picks

[fletcher munson]

Mike have you seen "Old Boy" or the Korean "Breathless" ("Shitfly" in Korean)?  Both harrowingly violent, but Old Boy is more twisted and has cooler cinematography.

[B_Buster]

I saw Old Boy. I thought it was silly.

[Lyle Hemmings]

My off-topic, (non-)contribution to this thread: have you ever read any Breece D'J Pancake?

[B_Buster]

No, Lyle. What do you recommend?

[Lyle Hemmings]

I'd offer up this or this as an introduction

his entire body of work is sold in a single scrawny paperback so there's not much direction to set

[B_Buster]

In my top five books i've ever read.

What are the other four?

One Hundred Years Of Solitude

The Trial

are two of them.

I need time to consider the last two.

Have you had enough time? People are waiting, fonpr.

[fonpr]

In my top five books i've ever read.

What are the other four?

One Hundred Years Of Solitude

The Trial

are two of them.

I need time to consider the last two.

Have you had enough time? People are waiting, fonpr.

I did think of one more.  Status Anxiety by Alain de Button.

I just got a new copy and was planning on rereading it.  What I remember: If you don't want to go religious to be free you gotta go bohemian.  At least that's what I got out of it.


What number is that?

I started City of Fear and Hollywood destroyed itself again (2012) and I'm still on the first chapter.  Prescient.
p.s. Neil Young nailed it in Revolution Blues.

[B_Buster]

I enjoyed Closely Watched Trains so much I watched it twice this weekend. Check it out!

[buffcoat]

I'm watching I Love You, Alice B. Toklas.  It's not bad.

[Pat K]

I enjoyed Closely Watched Trains so much I watched it twice this weekend. Check it out!

One of my all-time favorites.

That director released a film in 2008, I Served The King Of England, that was adapted from another novel by the same author who wrote Closely Watched Trains. It's worth checking out if you liked Closely Watched Trains. It's kind of a neat companion piece - a young Czech kid whose only ambition is to live easy gets caught up in WWII, but it takes the story a lot further. It's still as breezy and funny as CWT, though. They're fun to compare.

[B_Buster]

Will do, Pat. Did you get the sense while watching Closely Watched Trains that David Lynch was deeply influenced by it? I did.

[Pat K]

You know, that never ocurred to me till you just mentioned it, but that's an interesting take on it. I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I watch it.

[Chris L]

I watched Closely Watched Trains this Christmas on the Net Flix and concur that it's great.  It was much funnier and more endearing than I expected.  Feels very fresh today. 

[Joe Rogaine]

This will be where I post about stuff I really like. First up: Marilynne Robinson's novel, Housekeeping.

This has is it all, people: family tragedy (twice!), family dsyfunction, social awkwardness, loneliness, transience, hoarding (!), and the writing is fantastic!

There's also a movie version which I saw in the 80s when it came out (I was a big Bill Forsyth fan at the time--whatever happened to him? Local Hero is an all-time favorite), but I don't remember much about it. I will be checking it out again soon if it's still available.

Next up: Gilead and Home. I like to read authors in chunks.

Sounds like Fried Greens Tomatoes are there any immigrants in it?

[JonFromMaplewood]

Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death

I second that this is essential reading. 

Thirded.  We are all gods with anuses.