Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011, a look back

Here are the books I have read in 2011:

Mentor
Ancestor
The List
Survivor
Post Office
Teacher Man
Dear American Airlines
Last Known Victim
Blaze
Peter & The Starcatchers
Fanboy & Goth Girl
Mile 81
In Cold Blood
The House of Thunder
Your Heart Belongs to Me
Rage
The Good Guy
The Man who loved Books too Much
Lemons Never Lie
In The Night Room
Ham on Rye
That's Not in My American History Book
Afraid
Sh*t My Dad Says
Playing for Pizza
Be the Monkey - a dialog between Barry Eisler and JA Konrath
It's Always Something
2030
Other Kingdoms
Danse Macabre
This Book is Overdue
The Elephant went to Hollywood
Blockade Billy
My Lucky life in and out of Show Buisness
Squirrel seeks Chipmunk
Official Book Club Selection
The Island of Dr. Moruea
Playing for Keeps
The Day After
Sunken Treasure
Heaven is For Real
The Professor and The Mad Man
Unkillable
Musciophilia
The Storyteller
Cell
The Colorado Kid
A Million Little Pieces
Ernest Hemingway: A Writer's Life
Always Looking Up
I Like You
The Last Lecture
Stories I told Myself
The Bride Collector
Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim
The Time of My Life
Wishful Drinking
Naked
Born Standing up
Dreams From My Father
My Reading Life
The Audacity of Hope
Scratch Beginings
Handle With Care
The Doomsday Club
My Boring-Ass Life
The Tenth Justice
The Girl who Played With Fire
Son of Groucho
The Last Bookstore in America
Origin
How to tell a story and other Essays
Darkness Under The Sun
Truck Stop
UR
Brian's Hunt
Brian's Return


What I'll be up to in 2012:

In the year ahead I plan on writing more short stories and novellas. I usually plan a book a year but hopefully will get the ball rolling on some stand alone stuff.

Hope everyone has a very happy new year!



Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?

Friday, December 30, 2011

Black Books

So I'm on my vacation from work. Usually on my vacations I tend to veg out, gorge on a little sleep, do a little writing, catch up on tv shows.

And one show, I'm delighted to say, has caught my attention. It's called Black Books. It stars Dylan Moran, Simon Peg's nemesis in Shaun of the Dead and also his fitness motivator in Run, Fatboy, Run. With him is a long haired sidekick who embodies a weirdo Curly sensibility and a short haired woman on the lookout for Mr. Right or even Mr. Right-now-will-have-to-do. This British comedy series is unlike anything I have seen so far. It takes place in a small bookshop where Bernard Black, the owner, is much like a tyrant to his customers. He hates life, traffic, idiots, skinheads, books, customers and people. People are the worst for him. Not only that but he gives off the air like he's always recovering from a bender. His turns of phrase and one-liners are the best, often producing stomach aches of laughter from both me and my wife.

The show ran from 2000 to 2004 and only has 18 episodes. Which is kind of tragic when you think about it that there are so few episodes but, I guess, when you nail it down, it was better that they quit on a strong note. The show is driven largely by his friends, Manny and Fran, who try to get Bernard to be more sociable as he is kind of a stick in the mud.

The antics are endless. Sometimes he pays the customers to take certain books out of the shop. He invents a wine bottle lollipop. He often finds himself in situations that get him into a bit of trouble. With a screwball comedy like this, I love the duality. While Bernard is surrounded and sometimes confounded by books, his friend, Manny, loves them. Manny often recommends books, handles book orders, does the accounting, opens up shop, and yet he and Bernard are complete opposites from each other. It's funny to think that this whole show came about because of a Little Book of Calm.

That's another thing. The fake book titles are hysterical. With titles such as The History of Screaming, Blue Sands and Tempopocalypse, how could this bookstore not thrive?

Now that I know about this one, I might just check out Spaced, which is considered the sister show to this one and done by the same guys, starring Simon Peg.

Don't believe that a show could be this funny? Well take a gander at the first episode below. I was smitten with the first three minutes.