Signs that you are in a reading slump:
- It used to take you a day and a half to finish a 300-page book, although currently you are only a third of the way done after nearly a week.
- When given the option to read or watch repeats of Cupcake Wars, you choose the latter.
- You realize that you haven’t frequented your local bookstore in a month.
It’s no fun to start a book and lack the focus and concentration to
finish it, regardless of the book’s quality.
It’s doubly bad when it’s a library book, and you can’t renew it because
the book just came out last month.
All of this is to say that this week I read a 30 page children’s book,
and then listened to an hour-long audiobook.
I got 100 pages into a book, though, so that’s something…right?
Here’s what I read and watched last week.
Books
The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald: B.
Yes, that three hour Brad Pitt movie from 2008 was originally a short
story written by the author of The Great
Gatsby. I stumbled on this after a
co-worker went on an impassioned rant about how wordy and generally boring Fitzgerald
is, and not just with The Great Gatsby,
a book that I had to read twice in high school and three times in college
(because apparently Fitzgerald was the only author who came up with symbolism). After this conversation, I realized that I
*gasp* hadn’t read anything from Fitzgerald besides his most famous novel, and
remedied it by reading this short story.
I get what my co-worker is saying about the author’s wordiness, but I
didn’t have a problem with it. Moreover,
I liked that the author pulled no punches, as the narrative got increasingly bleaker
as the story progressed. Honestly, I’m
not sure why Fitzgerald didn’t make this into a full-length novel; the material
is certainly there, and as a short story it jumps around too much because it
has a literal lifetime to cover.
Charlie the Choo-Choo by
Stephen King (written under the pseudonym “Beryl Evans”): C+. Ever wonder how a children’s book written by
the king of horror would be like?
Honestly, I did not—especially with a title like Charlie the Choo-Choo. I
suppose this will be a dubious entry in the writer’s bibliography. Taking away the author’s name for a minute,
it’s a short story with good (albeit unintentionally creepy) animations and a
traditional ending which contains dark undertones if you know even the
slightest of the author, but appears harmless to those uninitiated. Would I pay $14.99 for a 30-page children’s
book? Probably not—but then again, I also
wouldn’t pay the $24.99 for Stephen King’s poem The Dark Man.
Movies
Under the Shadow: A-. I made the mistake of watching this
foreign horror film at 9 pm one night in my room, thinking that a film set
during the war couldn’t be scary in a supernatural way. This gripping thriller genuinely gets under
your skin. You dread the long shots because you just know that something is out of place, but you're
not sure if it's going to lead to a jump scare.
Closet Monster: B-. Strong acting propels this small LGBT
movie past run-of-the-mill status. It's rare that I get mad at a movie for
being too short. This needed about 15-20 more minutes to flesh out the
characters to make me care for their resolutions. I suppose there is magical
realism throughout, but that climax is a little kooky.
Pariah: A. Sometimes a critically acclaimed movie will fall off my radar,
and I’ll catch up a few years later.
Pariah came out in 2011, so I’m a little behind—even by my
standards. This LGBT drama ticks all of
the boxes you’d find in a film featuring a young adult lead: self-discovery and acceptance; drama within a
religious family; the beginnings of a romance.
Yet, Pariah takes these tropes
and blazes its own path. It’s one of the
best films of the decade.
Here’s what I’m hoping to read and watch this week.
Books
I don’t know. Didn’t you read
the part at the beginning where I said I’m in a reading slump? I hope to finish Our Chemical Hearts and/or Love
and First Sight. I might listen to
an audiobook (there are a couple non-fiction books that caught my
interest). Who knows?
Movies
I’m in the position where I’ve seen all of the Oscar nominated films in
my area, and I’m just waiting for some of the small independent documentaries/foreign
films to come in my area over the next month.
Here’s hoping I get a couple good ones this week!
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