Bibliofile - April

Well it was another fairly eclectic month on the reading front in April. Several novels from several of my favourite writers. A couple of music industry books. A behind the scenes movie-making book and a dud. That's right, a dud.

I'd read Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice in March and although it was a bit of a tough read it had it's moments so I thought I'd give his Gravity's Rainbow a go. Mistake. This was the most complicated and difficult novel I've ever undertaken. I lasted about 150 pages and then threw in the towel...and the book.

The latest Archer and Lehane efforts were excellent but then I buy nearly everything these two put out.

There were two highlights of the month. The first was As You Wish, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Princess Bride written by "Wesley" Cary Elwes. If you liked the movie then I find it inconceivable that you won't like this book.

I picked up Bill Buford's autobiography and was pleasantly surprised by the former drummer for Yes, Genesis and King Crimson's erudite and knowledgeable tale. Not only is he an accomplished musician and music historian as it were but the man is extremely well-read. This book was a real pleasure to read. Not your typical, or stereotypical rock and roll tale.

The other music book does it's best to prove the Beatles Revolver album was far more influential and timeless that Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The author makes some excellent points and it was an enjoyable read.

Here's the full list for April, seven books bringing my year's total to 24.

Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon **
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins ****
Mightier Than The Sword - The Clifton Chronicles Book 5 - Jeffrey Archer ****
World Gone By - Dennis Lehane ****
As You Wish - Inconceivable Tales from
The Making of The Princess Bride - Cary Elwes ****
Revolver - How The Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n'Roll - Robert Rodriguez ****
Bill Buford: The Autobiography - Bill Buford *****

I caught up with several TV series this month including the Borgias, wonderfully acted by Jeremy Irons, the wonderfully quirky Twin Peaks and the fabulous and thought-provoking Angels in America starring Al Pacino, Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep.

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

Hello Goodbye

Today a bit of a reflective piece. Rather than being funny, this is about the funny. It's a day of mixed emotion at nonamedufus . You see, after several months of inactivity I've dropped a couple of former blogger buddies off my blog roll. I kept hanging on and hanging on hoping they'd return to active blogging but, alas, after waiting in one case five months I've decided to let them go. I'm going to miss - going to? I have been missing - Margo at the Screaming Me-Me . She was one funny lady. From time to time she and I would engage in a feud or two for several days at a time but it was all in fun both for us and, I think, for our readers. And we'd leave each other funny comments, poking fun at each other. I miss her friendship and our humorous exchanges. The other blogger I'm letting go is Chelle, The Offended Blogger . Chelle was a special lady. In addition to her own blog she created and managed Humor Bloggers Dot Com where humour bloggers like m...

The Dangling Conversation

There's a debate underway in my household between my wife and I. I say "underway" because it hasn't quite reached the "raging" stage. If you want raging, my wife (a Francophone) and I (an Anglophone) from time to time (usually in a weak moment of my own making) slip into our number one discussion around why we don't speak more French at home - ergo - when am I, a former public servant who learned French at the expense of our gracious taxpayers and was technically rated bilingual (even though I hardly used it), going to improve my use of Canada's other language? This one never gets resolved, hence it's ongoing nature. But the current debate is over a remark I casually made the other day. I'm no geek, but with a lot of time on my hands I surf the web, converse on Facebook and such and - I have to admit - "I'm nonamedufus and I'm a Twitterholic". In an epiphany-like moment I was struck by the apparent impact of social networkin...

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