Going on a Reading Jag!
Okay, last night I watched the Paul Newman movie "The Hustler" for about the millionth time (I first watched it when I was a kid because my father liked the movie) and it's a great movie (academy award nom's for Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, and George C. Scott) and I've known for maybe 20 years it was based on a novel by Walter Tevis, and since then it has been in the back of mind to read it. Watching it last night it really resonated with me (especially Laurie's performance). So this morning I went to Amazon and see if a copy of The Hustler
was reasonably priced. Looking through the books he wrote I discovered he wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth
(might have already known this). I also discovered an interesting novel Mockingbird, and a book of short stories. I ordered Hustler and Man Who Fell to Earth from Amazon (cool covers, right?) and went off to my local library to order Mockingbird and the short stories.
I went to Wikipedida and looked him up and he had a pretty interesting life but I was disheartened to find there's no biography of him (any would be biographers out there looking for a subject?) So, with the books on their way (Hustler and Man scheduled to arrive Tuesday) I'll be reading them right away (I read some of The Hustler on Amazon and it had some pretty descriptive language that I thought was pretty cool, so, after the books arrive the reviews will be coming!
was reasonably priced. Looking through the books he wrote I discovered he wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth
(might have already known this). I also discovered an interesting novel Mockingbird, and a book of short stories. I ordered Hustler and Man Who Fell to Earth from Amazon (cool covers, right?) and went off to my local library to order Mockingbird and the short stories.I went to Wikipedida and looked him up and he had a pretty interesting life but I was disheartened to find there's no biography of him (any would be biographers out there looking for a subject?) So, with the books on their way (Hustler and Man scheduled to arrive Tuesday) I'll be reading them right away (I read some of The Hustler on Amazon and it had some pretty descriptive language that I thought was pretty cool, so, after the books arrive the reviews will be coming!
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Harry wrote: "The Hustler is one of my all time favourite films. Have probably watched it more than any other film - and I still haven't read the book!(Shame The Color of Money was so shite though!)"
Hi Harry!
Definitely feel the same on all counts. I've watched the movie, The Hustler most of my life and even went so far as to see that it was from a novel, something clicked last night, this AM and decided to check Tevis out. His Wikipedia bio was pretty interesting I was disappointed to learn that there was no formal bio of him, maybe that will remedied soon. It seems "The Color of Money" was at first a Tevis novel too, but because as you said the movie version sucked I didn't want to take a chance on the novel (also Amazon Prime didn't have a copy) and I think ordering 2 books from Amazon and two through the library is a pretty good start. The guy didn't write very many books so reading these 4 may constitute the bulk of his literary output.
Jim
I'm on completely the same page as you Jim. I only looked up the novel of The Hustler last year, and I had no idea the guy had also written The Man Who Fell to Earth - which is another favourite film but haven't read the novel.I probably watch The Hustler once a year. I can't even put my finger on why I love it so much, but love it I do. (In one of my poems I wrote: "Faster than Eddie" and wondered if anyone picked up on the reference!)
(Shame The Color of Money was so shite though!)