Reading Copy

The Guardian on why Ian Fleming might be a bit low brow but is still a brilliant read

As the 100th anniversary of his birth approaches, it’s tempting to characterise Ian Fleming as The Man With The Golden Pen, as a calculatingly commercial author of absurd misogynistic fantasies. Even his own wife Ann icily described him as “hammering out pornography” when he spent his disciplined three-hours a day writing the books in their Jamaican home.

Popularity: 21% [?]

The NYT blog is reporting that Ben Mezrich’s might have taken a little too much creative liberty with his nonfiction book about a young blackjack team that counts cards in Vegas.

Perhaps this will be the next addition to a long list of literary hoaxes

Popularity: 23% [?]

In recent years, Charlton Heston was more well known for his role with the National Rifle Association than his Oscar-winning acting performances. It is interesting to look at his career from several points in time, just to see how opinions have changed.

Heston himself has written a few books about his life and times:

From 1978 The Actor’s Life: Journals, 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston
From 1990 Beijing Diary: The personal story of a remarkable theatrical and political event by Charlton Heston
From 1995 In the Arena: An Autobiography

I think this weekend I am going to rent Ben Hur. Fans of the film should take a look at this, it’s a pretty amazing collector’s piece.

Popularity: 22% [?]

NPR also had a feature about hard-boiled crime writing this morning which reminded that we recently interviewed one of our finest booksellers - Kevin Johnson, who runs Royal Books in Baltimore. Kevin is one of America’s top sellers of modern first editions but he has another string to his bow - writing.

Kevin has recently published The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir 1940-1949.

The Dark Page is a major guide to 160 books, featuring full-page 9×12 three-dimensional images of the true first editions that inspired movies but The Dark Page also salutes the screenwriters and directors that turned the stories into Film Noir Silver Screen classics. If you love movies and books about flawed heroes, villians and dames, then this might be for you.

Popularity: 24% [?]

If you were listening to NPR today then you would have learnt that Lassie is 70 years old this year. Eric Knight created Lassie when the Saturday Evening Post published his short story, Lassie Come Home, in 1938. Two years later, it was published as a novel and we have some of those first editions for sale.

In 1943, Lassie was turned into that famous movie with Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, and the collie never looked back. In the novel, Lassie is living in England and her coat is mahogany and sable rather than the sandy colour of the movies.

How sad that Knight, who also published Song on Your Bugles in 1936 and raised collies on his farm in Pennsylvania, was killed in a 1943 air crash when he was operating a member of the US Army’s special services. He never experienced the worldwide phenomenon of Lassie.

Popularity: 24% [?]

The Golden Globes nominations have been announced and a number of movie adaptations have been nominated.

Atonement, based on the Ian McEwan novel, led all contenders with seven nominations, including best dramatic film, director, screenplay, actor, actress, supporting actress and score. Charlie Wilson’s War, adapted from the late George Crile’s book, garnered five nominations.

Other books honored with nominations for their film versions were No Country for Old Men, A Mighty Heart, Away From Her (based on an Alice Munro story), The Kite Runner, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Persepolis, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Into the Wild, Love in the Time of Cholera and Lust, Caution

From Shelf Awareness

Popularity: 16% [?]

There are no less then four novels being released to the silver screen this weekend and a couple of them don’t actually look too bad.

The one everyone is talking about is obviously Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the UK). The fact that the book has been out for a decade hasn’t stopped the media from going nuts over the alleged athiestic messages within the movie.

Lacking the same fan fair as Pullman’s book, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner also comes out this weekend after a 6 week delay in the films release. The delay was to allow the two boys who lead, a chance to escape their home in Afghanistan after fears public reaction to the story’s pivotal rape scene. I was lucky enough to see the advance showing this past Wednesday the pacing and directing are top notch and the acting really brings the story to life. It’s a really good film and I would recommend it.

Also coming out are Richard Matheson’s post apocalyptic I Am Legend and Ian McEwan’s tale of love and tragedy Atonement.

So you have lots of options this weekend. Or you can just curl up in front of the fire with a good book and forget all this film business.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Buried amongst the exceedingly plentiful and tedious ‘best books of the year’ lists is this gem from the San Diego Union Tribune - movies that were better than their books. I’d throw in WP Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe, which became Field Of Dreams. The book is good but the movie captures everything magical about that story and makes it even better.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Star Wars seems as big as ever… or it just the marketing? Today, we’re recommending for Christmas The Star Wars Vault: Thirty Years of Treasure from the Lucasfilm Archives. Hey, 1977 seems like yesterday to some of us.

This book is the official illustrated edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of George Lucas’ ground-breaking movie of an old story told with a new spin. It includes two CDs containing vintage radio ads, original cast interviews, commentary from Lucas, and even Carrie Fisher singing in the Star Wars Holiday Special. There are hundreds of photos and classic artwork too.

My favourite story from the movie is that Alec Guinness opted to take a cut of the profits rather than a salary. Of course, the movie earned him more money than he had earned in his entire career.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Today’s recommendation for Christmas gifts is…. The Sound of Music Companion by Laurence Maslon. Hold on a minute - don’t move on yet. This is something my mum would love. For Brits, watching movies like The Sound of Music and The Great Escape are an essential part of Christmas. They are rerun again and again and again. I’m no fan of The Sound of Music but I must have seen it from start to finish at least 10-12 times. I can remember most of the words to most of the songs - “Doe, a deer, a female deer. Ray, a drop of golden sun, Me, a name I call myself, Far, a long, long way to run.”

My mother went to the cinema to see The Sound of Music on the week it came out. Imagine that? I’ve only ever known the movie to be shown on TV on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.

Any way, this book - I’m sure it’s great if you love Julie, Christopher Plummer and those singing children. There’s 150 photos from the film, lyrics to all the songs (you know them all any way), a guide to the movie locations, and lots, lots more.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Today’s recommendation for a Christmas gift is Helen Mirren’s Snapshots of my Life. Helen Mirren has been around for as long as I can remember and she’s surely one of the best actresses treading the boards. I watched The Queen in the summer and, frankly, it’s a great film and should be watched by anyone from outside the UK who wants to understand the Royal Family. She was stunning in the Prime Suspect series, particularly the first one.

I find it hard to beleive that she’s been acting for more than 40 years now. This illustrated memoir documents her acting but much more as well. Her Russian grandfather, Pyotr Vasielivich Mironov, was sent to London by the Tsar and was left stranded and penniless by the Russian revolution. The book includes evocative pictures of Helen’s Russian ancestry as well as her family life, childhood, teenage and early acting years.

Popularity: 19% [?]

USA Today talks about the forthcoming movies that came from books - Atonement, Kite Runner, No Country for Old Men, and Love In The Time of Cholera. Of course, you Brits already know about Atonement as it’s been out in the UK for a while.

Popularity: 10% [?]

It was bound to happen - another childhood favourite will be adapted for the movies. The Guardian is reporting that Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg are set to direct 2 of the 3 proposed movies. I remain skeptical, especially considering the quote that the

“films will be shot in 3-D, using motion capture technology, a technique by which an actor’s movements are recorded and used to create an animated character”

A traditional animated style I wouldn’t have minded… but 3D CGI? Hm.

Popularity: 15% [?]

The BBC’s man in Kabul reports on the making of The Kite Runner movie and how the cast handled the key scene of Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel - a book that continues to sell well on AbeBooks. (Just look at these prices for signed first editions)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Ian McEwan remains a media darling. For an author, he receives an incredible amount of media coverage. The BBC website profiled him at the weekend as the release of the Atonement movie approaches.

Popularity: 16% [?]