J. J. (now on BookWyrm) > Recent Status Updates

Chapter 2 on Pat Morita is a tearjerker!

Love it already. Focuses on English handwritten works from the millenium leading up to the printing press, particularly ones from lower social status, women, or people of color.

I see a lot of reviews commenting on the overly-technical explanations in this book, but to me that is its strength. It clarifies the succession of inventions from the 1870s to 1890s that eventually made moving pictures a reality. I'm now halfway into the book, 1886, when LePrince filed his moving picture patent.

It's not a terrible book, I just lost interest. Definitely had me laughing to the audiobook, though. I just prefer books with more nuance.

It's not until chapter 4 that we see Keaton start working in movies. The detail that biographer James Curtis has revealed about his early life is impressive. Keaton was in his parents' vaudeville act at 4 years old. Anti-child-labor agencies tried to stop it, but he continued touring until the age of 21, when he made his first film, already a stage comedy expert!

Over 500 pages of prose and more than 350 photographs of early motion pictures. I'm really enjoying this last section of "the wilderness" (polar expeditions and the South Seas).