false 42 1582 584 true 5621773 read 5 true 2644296 currently-reading 993 true 2644295 to-read 1017 false 5157142 in-my-collection 292 false 5163038 celebrity-famous-bio 183 false 5163363 warfare 167 false 5025606 movies-non-reference 143 false 5025605 movies-reference 125 false 4672318 2009-reads 118 false 5163958 pop-culture-misc 112 false 5165381 history-americana 109 false 5164320 sexuality 107 false 5163043 dumpster-rescues 105 false 4720767 world-war-ii 104 false 5165262 history-euro 88 false 5163761 philosophy 84 false 5164414 politics 80 false 5163051 adventure-truelife 79 false 5163059 antiquarian 71 false 4617289 epic 70 false 5163047 gay-interest 69 false 5163946 humor 66 false 5164010 asia 65 false 5077388 deliciously-nasty 62 false 5163292 adventure-fiction 61 false 4629787 my-faves 60 false 5163275 muckraker-expose 60 false 5163252 music-non-reference 59 false 5127843 1920s 57 false 4570912 modern-library-top-100-list 55 false 5163056 kiddie-fare 53 false 5163260 essay 52 false 5164173 yearning 50 false 5163928 travel 48 false 5163457 1960s 48 false 5163971 russian-soviet-etc 47 false 5164711 fucked-up-women 47 false 5305528 arr-matey-seagoing-fare 47 false 4570932 world-literature-top-100-list-poll 44 false 5196453 retro-lounge-funky 42 false 5163309 theater 39 false 5163045 poetry 39 false 5164893 nazi 39 false 5164050 religion 38 false 5164650 science-and-nature 36 false 5165223 artsy-fartsy 36 false 5165822 history-other-places 34 false 5163046 african-american 34 false 4974940 tami-tomes 32 false 5203282 french-euro-erotica 31 false 5213124 survival 29 false 5163987 espionage 29 false 5163883 tv 28 false 5163743 scifi-utopia-dystopia 27 false 5163246 music-reference 26 false 5210696 tinseltown-decadence 25 false 5164018 journalism 24 false 5163054 booze 24 false 5346235 afrique 24 false 5163200 crime-for-real 23 false 4719505 currently-reading-slowly 23 false 5235309 matts-collection 22 false 5165110 crime-fiction 21 false 5163060 graham-greene 21 false 5346162 ebook-special-coll 20 false 5164907 vietnam 19 false 5326239 horror-macabre 19 false 5364066 jewish 19 false 5163297 paranormal-unexplained 19 false 5165259 language 18 false 5127823 algonquin-round-table 18 false 5163228 freethought 17 false 5163050 native-american 17 false 5165983 despots 17 false 5234699 beatnik-types 16 false 5164749 holocaust 16 false 5326295 architecture 15 false 5163805 labor 15 false 5173498 chicago 15 false 4570913 pulitzer-prize 15 false 5358220 classical-music 14 false 5271999 to-acquire 14 false 5163660 seuss 13 false 5358223 jazz 13 false 5165937 wc-fields 12 false 5163775 environmental 12 false 5186407 oprah 12 false 4888172 none-too-good 12 false 5163427 mountaineering 12 false 5357872 brasil-meu-coração 11 false 5165830 mencken 11 false 2661583 books-i-bailed-on-but-may-retry 10 false 5163304 sports 10 false 5346245 middle-east 9 false 5157206 modern-library-top-100-nonfiction 9 false 5164877 kentucky-interest 8 false 5165915 orson-welles 8 false 5326197 faustian-bargain 8 false 5234665 roth 8 false 5235604 hst <![CDATA[Evan added 'George Cukor: A Double Life: A Biography of the Gentleman Director']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77693809 George Cukor: A Double Life: A Biography of the Gentleman Director (Paperback) by Patrick McGilligan
bookshelves: celebrity-famous-bio, currently-reading, gay-interest, in-my-collection, jewish, movies-non-reference
OK, so this was on the clearance shelf at Half Price for $3. The first page I open randomly, and my eyes hone in on Clark Gable's references to David O. Selznick as "that Jewboy" and George Cukor as "that fag." (As it happened, Cukor happened to be both). Cukor is probably the greatest film director who also happened to be gay, with maybe James Whale in second place. OK OK, and Sergei Eisenstein, probably. The first part of the book talks about the Cukor family's challenges assimilating as Jews in America.
I just started it and what I like is that he captures the family tree and the flavor of Cukor's early family life without going into too much archeological detail -- the bane of a lot of bios these days that seem more intent on being "the bio of record" rather than telling a good story through judicious editorial selection.
But anyway this looks like a no-nonsense Hollywood bio; quite up my alley. ]]> <![CDATA[Evan is on page 20 of George Cukor: A Doub... ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77693809 Evan is on page 20 of 456 of George Cukor: A Double Life: A Biography of the Gentleman Director ]]> <![CDATA[new comment from Evan]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/51667577 Hannah's review of Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë

Ah, you've finished the masterpiece. I read that book a long time ago, like in the early '80s. I remember cherishing it at the time. There was a PBS version on recently. I didn't watch all of it, but some of it, and it brought the story back to me. ]]> <![CDATA[Evan added 'Against Nature: A New Translation of `A Rebours'']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58066094 to: Against Nature: A New Translation of `A Rebours' (Penguin Classics) by Joris-Karl Huysmans
bookshelves: 2009-reads
Because of the topsy-turvy nature of my life now, I won't be writing the kind of review this book deserves. I will say, it is one of those books that you will either love or hate, and whatever reason you would have for either reaction I would completely understand and accept as valid. The book is not unlike a laundry list: if your laundry list happened to divide the clothes into type and color of fabric, dimensions, history of the development of the materials used, the sensation of folding each item and ad infinitum. The protagonist of the book is not unlike the saints who debauched in their youth and then rejected their former lives to live in a kind of rarefied and refined world of ideas and artifice. The main character, Des Esseintes, is an epicurean par excellence. He withdraws into a solitary world of extreme artifice in an isolated country mansion, cut off from all humanity and life, with the idea of creating a perfect fantasy world of his own making. He believes he can create a world better than nature; indeed, "against nature" as the title suggests. His pursuit of idealized artistic perfection is almost fetishistic in its insistence on completeness. He is not content on just having a nice copy of a novel, but having it bound in a very particular and very expensive manner that complements his understanding of its philosophical aesthetic. He is an incredible aesthete, thoroughly well-read and schooled in the arts and fashion. He knows as much about the ecclesiastic writers of the Church as he knows about the vagaries of wines and perfumes.
There is one telling and disturbing episode in the book in which the aesthete literally tries to improve on nature, a living thing, specifically a large turtle, by encrusting its shell will precious jewels. The act of doing this kills the creature, and Des Esseintes, for all his supposed poetic intelligence utterly fails to be moved by this or see the irony in his actions other than to be miffed that his plan was dashed. Over time, he fails to see that this existence is driving him mad along with compounding physical ailments that various artificial means fail to cure.
The novel goes into exhaustive detail about his pursuits of exceedingly refined, and ultimately cold, aesthetic interests. I found most of this fascinating but also, to be honest, wearing. I can't fault Huysmans, though, for the superhuman patience and diligence it must have taken to write such a book in such unbelievable detail. This was not nearly as much fun as his barn-burning and sexy Satan-worshippers' novel, "The Damned," which I read earlier this year - but this book, in its own way was just as good. ]]> <![CDATA[new comment from Evan]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77759967 Tracey's review of Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer!
by Harold Schechter

Well, we all want to open Pandora's box. I promise you it will distress you. If it doesn't I probably wouldn't want to know you. :) ]]> <![CDATA[Evan is on page 224 of Against Nature: A Ne... ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58066094 Evan is finished with Against Nature: A New Translation of `A Rebours' ]]> <![CDATA[Evan made a comment on Evan Gilling's profile]]> http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1248986-evan Evan made a comment on Evan Gilling's profile:

You don't need chemicals to be invisible. ]]> <![CDATA[new comment from Evan]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/47480967 David's review of Hamlet
by William Shakespeare

You told, I didn't ask. Reminds me of a certain regulation...er ]]> <![CDATA[new comment from Evan]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76992708 Jennifer's review of The Stand (Expanded Edition)
by Stephen King

I stupidly passed up the chance to buy the hardcover off the clearance shelf at the bookstore for $2. So, of course, it has never again shown up there. ]]> <![CDATA[Evan added 'Asian Pop Cinema: Bombay to Tokyo']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77341308 Asian Pop Cinema: Bombay to Tokyo (Paperback) by Lee Server
bookshelves: asia, movies-reference, pop-culture-misc, to-acquire, to-read
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