Reading anything?

[Derf]

I just started reading Fart Proudly, a collection of essays by Benjamin Franklin that don't normally get read in schools. It shows more of the mischievous side of Franklin. It includes portions of Poor Richard's Almanack, which he shamelessly used to lampoon marriage, morality, the Crown, and often, even the almanac itself (he wrote his own letters to the editor when he felt like it). The book also contains essays that Franklin published elsewhere, many of which have to do with farting. Apparently Franklin never killed off his inner 8-year-old. Ya gotta admire that in a man. 

[lester1/2jr]

includes "nightmare at 20,000 feet" short story

[InformationGeek]

I just read through all three big volumes of DC's Blackest Night.  The Blackest Night one that has the main story, the Green Lantern one, and the Green Latern Corps one as well in order to complete and make the story at very least understandable.  Very good work.

[The Gravekeeper]

"Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed" by Patricia Cornwell as part of some research for an upcoming project.

[indianasmith]

Do you think she really closed the case?  I'm not so sure, although it was a good read.

[The Gravekeeper]

Do you think she really closed the case?  I'm not so sure, although it was a good read.

For the purposes I'm using the book for, it's a moot point. I'm just doing some general research on the Victorian era and reading a few horror stories from that period in order to get a good feel for how to write a pseudo-gothic horror story.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es.

The A.V. Club's "Inventory"

A book of 100 pop culture lists.

As with all such books, it has the normal faults.

Inclusions
"The Simpsons"

Exclusions
In a list of movie drunks who sobered up enough to save the day, they forgot the classic Kid Shelleen played by Lee Marvin in "Cat Ballou," who not only sobered up enough to saye the day, but then fell off the wagon, only to save the day again.

Uptodateness
In a list of TV animated series loved by both adults and children, they forgot "Phineas and Ferb," which is loved by children for the title characters, and adults for the jokes, most of which go right over the heads of the children in the audinece.

Still, I like to see another edition of the book. If only because the last list is a list of pop culture items that did not make the first book. For me "Heady Entertainment: 11 Memorable Beheadings Not Found in Horror Films." And for everyone else 'Going Postal: 5 Uwe Boll Films That Are Actually Good."

Nex time: The Vampire Archives

[Vik]

The Running Man was really good. I'm now reading a few other screenplays and I've been reading the 'Preacher' comics. They're awesome. I also ordered 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' of Amazon 

[Rev. Powell]

"Moviemakers' Master Class: Private Lessons from the World's Foremost Directors."  Advice from 20 top directors, including Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Martin Scorcese, John Woo.... should be very interesting.

[Vik]

"Moviemakers' Master Class: Private Lessons from the World's Foremost Directors."  Advice from 20 top directors, including Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Martin Scorcese, John Woo.... should be very interesting.

Sounds like something I need to read  Let us know how it is.

[The Burgomaster]

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson

[Rev. Powell]

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson

I read that for the 1st time not very long ago.   

Wanted to tell Vik that the Moviemaker's Master Class book is a definite must read if you're at all interested in filmmaking.  I'm about halfway through, and some of the directors are starting to repeat themselves... which suggests they're all onto something.  Topics include philosophy in dealing with actors, planning vs. spontaneity, what kind of lens or shot to use to get an effect.  Very interesting for anyone who loves movies.     

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es.

"The Vampire Archives"

81 of the best vampire stories as selected and edited by Otto Penzler.

Vampire stories fall into three categories: pre-Stoker, Stoker, and post-Stoker.

Pre-Stoker, we get stories from . . .

Ambrose Bierce
Lord Byron
Von Goethe
John Keats
Sheridan LeFanu
Edgar Allen Poe

Stoker
"Dracula" was the first vampire novel he wrote, but his first vampire story was the short story "The Fate of Fenella," which was published some five years before "Dracula."

Post-Stoker, we get stories from the normal suspects . . .

Clive Barker
Robert Bloch
August Derleth
Stephen King
Richard Laymon
H. P. Lovecraft
Brian Lumley
Richard Matheson
Anne Rice
Dan Simmons

And maybe because science fiction is so close to horror, we get stories from writers who are better known for their science fiction, such as . . .

Ray Bradbury
Harlan Ellison
Fritz Leiber
Roger Zelazny

And then we get stories from people you don't suspect to write a vampire story, such as . . .

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
D. H. Lawrence
Guy de Maupassant
Gahan Wilson.

The collection also contains a one page short bio on each of the writers, and for some of the writers their bio is stranger than any piece of fiction they could write.

And there seems to be an inclusive bibliography containing every vampire story ever published. Chronologically it ranges from Dr. John William Polidori's "The Vampyre" from 1819, which is considered the first vampire story ever written, to vampire stories published as late as 2008. And alphabetically it ranges from Tony Abbott's "Trapped in Transylvania" to Susan Zoon's "Vampire Lover."

Next time: "This is not your father's omnibus."

[Vik]

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson

I read that for the 1st time not very long ago.   

Wanted to tell Vik that the Moviemaker's Master Class book is a definite must read if you're at all interested in filmmaking.  I'm about halfway through, and some of the directors are starting to repeat themselves... which suggests they're all onto something.  Topics include philosophy in dealing with actors, planning vs. spontaneity, what kind of lens or shot to use to get an effect.  Very interesting for anyone who loves movies.     

Awesome, I'm going to check that one out 
Right now I'm reading 'The Mist' by Stephen King and a bunch of other short stories out of 'Skeleton Crew'

[AndyC]

Needed to put Koko down for a while. It kind of started to drag as the guys were wandering around Singapore. Give it a week or so, and I'll be able to pick it up again.

Right now, I'm about halfway through Watchmen. I remember seeing it in comic shops in the 80s, I remember hearing a little bit about it, but I never actually read it, and until the movie came out, I didn't really know what it was about. The whole graphic novel thing was something I never got into when I was reading comics. I just assumed it was some new, edgy team of heroes and forgot about it.

So far, it's very interesting. Well thought-out and well written. Very dark and grim though, but I suppose that's part of the premise that a world with real superheroes might be worse, not better. The alternate history is very good, and the psychological analysis of the characters is interesting, if depressing at times. Visually, it's excellent.