Nick's updates http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/269132 en-US Sun, 04 May 2008 20:11:45 -0700 60 Nick's updates http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 24095586 Sun, 04 May 2008 20:11:45 -0700 <![CDATA[Nick took the never-ending book quiz]]> http://www.goodreads.com/trivia 269132 Nick took the never-ending book quiz.
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]]> 24095165 Sun, 04 May 2008 20:06:19 -0700 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11027376 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars to: On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director (Paperback)
by Alexander Mackendrick
The best book on the craft of filmmaking that I've read--and at this point, that's a lot of books.

Mackendrick tells it to you straight. He wasn't a theorist, he was a legitimately famous British filmmaker (who hasn't at least heard of "The Sweet Smell of Success?") who became a college professor for 20-odd years. This allows him both the knowledge of what makes a film good and also the ability to communicate this info to the reader.

The examples Mackendrick uses from personal experience are invaluable. For instance, he shows the script of "Sweet Smell of Success" before and after Clifford Odets helped him revise it, showing the improvements. On the other hand, I remember reading a book that analyzed the brilliance of "Annie Hall's" script and then subsequently reading another book by Allen's editor, Ralph Rosenblum, that talked about how the film was 9 hours long and had no story, and how Rosenblum basically created the film in the editing room. Only a filmmaker who was there can truly tell you how a film came into being.

The book is divided into both screenwriting and directing, both parts equally enlightening. My only wish is that I'd read this book sooner.

]]> 21816627 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:20:54 -0700 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19878046 Bleak House (Penguin Classics)
by Charles Dickens
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> 20881910 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:28:17 -0700 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19157846 The Importance of What We Care About: Philosophical Essays (Paperback)
by Harry G. Frankfurt
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> 20881769 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:27:21 -0700 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19157718 Selected Writings of Paul Valery (Paperback)
by Paul Valery
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 18479760 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:24:23 -0700 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17210709 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars to: Six Memos for the Next Millennium/the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures 1985-86 (Vintage International)
by Italo Calvino
Calvino is just so effortlessly wonderful. He and literature have a very intimate relationship and she tells him secrets about herself that no one else gets to hear. Until now! Calvino spills the beans on what are the qualities he feels are most important to the literature of the future: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity.

I think my favorites were lightness and multiplicity considering that quickness, exactitude, and visibility seem to be very self-evidently positive qualities of literature (who wants to read a slow, vague, abstract novel?) But the idea of lightness as a positive quality was fresh for me: not lightness as insubstantial but rather, "be light like the bird, not the feather." And the goal of literature as a connector of the wildly disparate knowledges of the modern world, the multiplicity of knowledge in every book, I think is a courageous call to arms, especially if coupled with quickness and lightness.

Calvino occasionally meanders a wee bit too far from his topics in the essays but his digressions are terrifically thought-provoking. His vast knowledge of world literature is also inspiring--he basically provides a list of great authors you should read (if they're good enough for Calvino...).

Although this has the potential to be a little bit too academic for some, I heartily recommend this as caviar for a hungry mind. ]]> 20470462 Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:11:17 -0700 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6713763 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars to: Up in the Old Hotel (Paperback)
by Joseph Mitchell
I have not quite finished this book but I took a break, came back, and now have read enough of it to feel I can write a review (it's four books in one, it's a collection of profiles, I'm allowed).

This book is a brilliant collection of investigations into the lives of fascinating, and oftentimes eccentric, New Yorkers, mainly from the first part of the 20th century. Gypsies, bohemians, deaf people, Native Americans, turtle famers.

There are also short stories that Mitchell actually wrote but I don't find them nearly as compelling as the reporting he actually did.

There's not much to say about this book except it's really terrifically fun to read, the best kind of non-fiction. ]]> 17655683 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:32:47 -0800 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16548902 Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa (Paperback)
by Peter Godwin
bookshelves: taking-a-break
]]> 17655528 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:31:08 -0800 <![CDATA[new review from Nick]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16548767 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars to: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Paperback)
by Dave Eggers
Fun but a bit boring at times. Needs to cut down. ]]>