I was looking through my books for something to inspire a thoughtful and interesting post...Instead, I got sucked into a biography of Raymond Chandler. Right now, in the book, he's trying to stay away from the bottle, struggling with a screenplay that will become The Blue Dahlia and caring for his ailing wife Cissy. He's convinced he can't finish the project sober and Paramount is afraid he won't deliver a final script. He decides the best way to complete it is to go on a two week bender. The studio is to provide round-the-clock limousines to fetch doctors, collect script pages and drive the housekeeper to the liquor store for more gin.
I've just got to find out what happens.
So, what are you guys reading?
20 comments:
"God Is Not One" by S. Prothero.
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro). The Black Mountain (Rex Stout).
Nice bookcase! Looks like an enjoyable place to read!
I've been trying to read "Eat Pray Love" for the past 3 months and can't seem to get into it. I like Elizabeth Gilbert, but maybe I'd do better to just go back to my beloved Pablo Neruda poetry, or the old school Robert Frost. I can still recite his "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" after memorizing it in the 7th grade.
I like the idea of the Kindle but there's just something about the printed word bound in either a shiny paperback or a beautiful leather bound volume of some sort.
Blogs, blogs, local newspapers, emails, and blogs. Someone bring me a phone book.
@Judy Having trouble getting into Eat, Pray, Love? Try doing one at a time!
I'm reading "Spunk and Bite", a writers' guide.
I've wondered if the alcoholic older writer in "Barton Fink" was based on Chandler, but I guess it could be any number of Hollywood writers.
I seem to recall that was Faulkner, Vanda. But you're right -- take your pick.
I'm working on several, including "A heartbreaking work of staggering beauty," and "First-Person America," a collection of interviews/essays that grew out of the WPA writer's project.
I'm trying to cram in some fun reading before the quarter begins - just finished the Chronicles of Narnia series, and I'm in the middle of Rickwood Field, a book about America's oldest ballpark.
I like the looks of your library! We need to build some proper shelving for all of our books.
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. What a crazy book. Written in 1975, yet it reads like it was written yesterday. The authors cite books and papers that really exist, yet it's fiction. And it reads like Douglas Adams.
I'm reading "the lost city of Z" by David Grann. Non-fiction account of Amazonian exploration in the Victorian age (and the disappearance of the famous explorer Faucett) and his own inept explorations in the present day. Good adventure...
Now, why didn't you write this post when I was reading Raymond Chandler about 3 monrhs ago?!!! I'm in my "reading to occupy my mind but don't get intellectual" mode so right now I'm reading David Baldacci's True Blue...
Ben...when you're done building Laurie's bookshelves, think about a trip to Mammoth!!! I've got a bunch of books with no place to put them!!!
I'm reading Eric Clapton's autobiography. He was either stoned, drunk or both for most of the 60s, 70s and early 80s, yet never arrested, and never exposed by paparazzi. Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton were born too late.
Such a cool bunch of readers, my readers!
Thanks for a peek into your pages!
I'm reading "Winchell" (by Neal Gabler) and am really enjoying his time with a broke and dying Damon Runyon, both past their prime, driving around NYC at three in the morning listening to the police radio until the sun comes up.
Clifford Odets I think is at least part fo the model for "Barton Fink."
ha!
jinkx
The Long Embrace; Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved
Judith Freeman
In the breakfast nook I've got "Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner, on the bedside table it's "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon, and here on the desk is "South Pasadena" by Rick Thomas. I kid you not.
Judy, I tried, too. I found "EPL" to be worthy of reading on the john--just a few minutes at a time was all I could take. My review: very good writing, dull subject ("me me me").
Damn, I need bookshelves. The boxes are piled in the garage.
Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. It's a novel masquerading as non-fiction about the love affair between Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright
I just finished reading American Tabloid by James Ellroy. I bought it a few years ago and found it hard to read (in English), at first but I picked it up again a few weeks ago. Brilliant.
Fabulous books, people. I've made several notes for future reading. I should do more reading posts in the future!
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