^ Nice. I haven't read a Laymon book in quite a while. Serves as a good reminder for me to change that

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Just started:

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. The last time I read it, I was ten years old. Now I realize how little I understood what I was reading. Back then, I thought that the protagonist was always the good guy, but this protagonist is a psychopath.

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Wow, what a ride. This and Boy's Life are some of my favorite novels of all time, and I cant believe it took me this long to discover McCammon. This seems to get compared to the Stand most of the time, and it is a pretty apt comparison. Trying to avoid recentcy bias, but im leaning toward preferring Swan Song, and the Stand is one of my favorite books.

If you are a Stephen King fan, or like post apocolyptic stories, you must read this book.

Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo!!! Very long, and quite entertaining! Took me a few chapters to get into the style, but really enjoyed it once I was there.

Now on to something more contemporary. With fewer pages.

Last night I finished reading that most famous of dishy Hollywood memoirs, Julia Phillips's You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again. It was a page-turner no doubt, but I wonder if Phillips realized that she came off at least as unsympathetic, shallow, and money-hungry as the people and milieu she was skewering.

Finished Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro:

The only other book I read of his was the other time he delved into sci-fi (Never Let Me Go). Maybe I should try to track down more of his work, since I liked both of them. Not a book for sci-fi purists (the world-building is frustratingly vague), but powerful in a quiet heartbreaking way.

Funland was one of his better ones as I remember. A little more ambitious than usual for him. I fondly remember trying to track down Laymon paperbacks in the 80s and 90s (which could be surprisingly difficult at that time). There's something to be said for his "trashy" books though (reading stuff like The Cellar when young certainly made an impression).

McCammon was one of my favorite authors of that period. It was cool discovering him from his early books like Night Boat and They Thirst and seeing him develop into a great writer over the next 10 years. The 2 you mentioned are my favorites as well ... #3 is probably The Wolf's Hour (how can you can wrong with McCammon + werewolves vs Nazis!).

A shame he left the business in the early 90s ... and when he returned after a 10 year absence he mostly writes historical mysteries (which I liked ok, but nothing like his horror).

I doubt she did, but that's a fantastic book! I keep meaning to reread it. I found it fun and inspirational!

It is fun and juicy, but I don't know how inspirational it is. It paints Tinseltown as a place - as one would expect - of endlessly phony schmoozing, wheeling and dealing, backstabbing, jostling for jobs, and fluid friendships and acquaintances. As someone who needs stability and constancy, I could not tolerate it. And the rampant doping is also unappealing. Phillips seems to have spent three-quarters of her life in a cocaine stupor.

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I was pretty disappointed with this. After all the years that I've put off reading it, I was expecting it to at least be scary...but I didn't find it to be nightmare material.

Up next:

Lonesome Dove.
It's good, but holy fuck it's long!

Sort of light-weight sci-fi - very light on the science. Entertaining, moving briskly (but after Count of Monte Cristo, anything would seem to move briskly! )

Finished

Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block. It's my first book by Block. I liked it.

For me the inspirational aspects involved her 'get it done no matter what' production ethos. The lengths she and her husband went to getting The Sting and CE3K in the can were heroic. I wish I had her drive (though without the cocaine use to fuel it).

It must take tremendous drive and resiliency to be in the movie biz, and also a willingness to be merciless and cutthroat. I just didn't like how she came across in the book.
Coincidentally, I just today polished off yet another page-turning Hollywood expose, The Men Who Would be King, about the formation of DreamWorks by Spielberg, Geffen, and Katzenberg. I thought the author treated them with fairness and tact, and Spielberg always comes across as a disarmingly sweet person, but the degree of greed, including on the part of Spielberg, is just off the charts. It's all about money.

Sounds good! I enjoy a bit of megalomania.

Speaking of which, have you read this one?

You’ve convinced me. The Stand is my favorite book so I just ordered Swan Song. I’ll post my thoughts once I’ve read it.

I have not. Is it good? I must be one of the few cineastes who thinks 2001 isn't all that hot. One of the books I'm currently reading is "Devil's Candy", a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the notorious bomb, Bonfire of the Vanities.

I loved the book, but we may be on different wavelengths in regard to the value of egomaniacal obsession in the creation of truly great art. It made me hungry to watch 2001 again. Whatever the case, it's a great account of the lengths everyone went to in order to craft that movie, and is a fascinating account of filmmaking at its most obsessive. I recommend it.

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