Bridget Jones fest (sans movies)

Okay so now I have read both “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” by Helen Fielding. And in order to understand more fully the obsessions of Jones, I watched “Pride and Prejudice” starring Colin Firth. I paid especially close attention to the scene where he jumps into the pond and comes out all dripping wet (well, what do you expect to happen when you jump into a pond?)

These books seem in a way to be a modern version of “Pride and Prejudice” with the five desperately single sisters being replaced by four desperate urban singletons. The Mr. Darcy/Mark Darcy parallel is too obvious to mistake, as is the parallel between the wicked Mr. Wickham and the clever Daniel Cleaver. Also reminiscent of P&P is the moment when Bridget first sees Mark Darcy’s palatial home and she begins to find him attractive. Elizabeth admits that she began to fall in love with Mr. Darcy when she saw his huge estate. Remember guys, a grand house can make up for a lack of personality, manners, or a sense of humor.

I obviously wasn’t as smitten with P&P as many people have been. I suppose as a love story it is typical. There are people in love with each other, but are not willing to 1) admit it, 2) do anything about it, or 3) just talk to each other. Bridget Jones takes it one step further as she analyzes everything Mark Darcy does or does not do, and comes up with totally erroneous conclusions. This is similar to Elizabeth being angry at Mr. Darcy (what was his first name?) for all the wrongs he had done, but in her case she was right because on occasion, Mr. Darcy was a bit of a turd.

So, the lesson to be learned from P&P is that it’s bad when a man marries for money, but perfectly okay if a woman does so. And the lesson from the Bridget Jones books is that too many self-help books are a bad thing.

But this fest is not over yet, I have to watch the movies. As per my Rule #3, I cannot watch the movies until one month after I have read the books. So in a short while I will watch the films and report back on the bizarre tear in the space-time continuum where Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy (well then, who was in P&P?)

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LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.) Oh, its time I changed this ending thing. Gotta come up with something clever…

School time

Classes have started again and there will be no more FUN reading. On my book list for the next 10 weeks is “Systems Analysis & Design Methods” a textbook by Whitten, Bentley, and Dittman, “Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior” by Donald O. Case, “The Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder, and “Bridget Jones’ Diary” by Helen Fielding.

Okay so the last one is not exactly on my book list, but I had to read it as I had taken it out of the library and it was a luverly thing to read in between bouts of analyzing systems and looking for information. I promise to only read it after I have finished my homework.

So far it’s been a very funny book written in nice short snippets. It also has the distinction of spelling words like “Durh” and “Chuh,” words I know exist, but always wanted to see in print. I think books like this should be on the syllabus of Library Science classes because these are the sorts of books we will HAVE to read in order to recommend them to our patrons. Chuh, like that’s going to happen!

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LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)

Mine, all mine!

All the movies I talked about before were rentals; I rarely spend money to keep anything. However, this past month two DVD sets have found a happy place in my home.

The Harold Lloyd collection consists of a total of seven discs in a great boxed set. Nearly every one of this great comedian’s feature films are in this set (one of my favorites, “Professor Beware”, alas is not included.) Also included are a handful of his more famous shorts, and many other extras.

I am watching these movies slowly and with great pleasure. Like a premier box of chocolates I don’t want to eat them all up at once. So far I have watched the first disc which includes the classic film “Safety Last.” Commentary on this film is provided by film scholars Leonard Maltin and Richard Correll.

This first disc covers the range of leading ladies Harold Lloyd had including the GREAT Bebe Daniels in “Ask Father”, Jobyna Ralston in “Girl Shy” and Harold’s future wife, Mildred Davis in “Safety Last.”

My only problem with this set (besides the absence of “Professor Beware”) is that it is in no particular order. I find that I can see an evolution of his work when I watch his stuff in the order that he made it. His very early stuff (including the Lonesome Luke pieces) was a bit slapdash thanks to the hurried work of director Hal Roach, but as control shifted and “The Boy” character became more defined, we begin to really see Harold Lloyd’s genius.

The other addition to my personal collection is the DVD/CD combo of “Rush 30th anniversary concert” from Frankfurt, Germany. I really like Rush. This Canadian power trio put the “Progressive” in “Progressive Rock” and this collection of concerts and extras celebrates this evolution. From long-haired, pajama-wearing, gong bongers to geeky sci-fi spouting, Ayn Rand zombies to techno-electro, lets-see-how-many-instruments-we-can-play-at-once, big 80’s hair to Oh-NO rapping, talking drums, let’s-go-solo, motorcycle diaries, to a gigantic black hole of personal tragedies (missed the 25th anniversary), to mad, crazy back-to-back world tours, remembering our roots with no more techno, no more gong, no more talking drums, and “Lets just play the hell out of one instrument each.” It’s been an interesting 30 years.

So cheers to Neil, Geddy, and the blond one (Just joking Alex!) Congrats on 30 years, and I hope there are many more to come!

<*<*<*<>*>*>* >LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)

Movies too, of course

Besides reading during the holidays I also kept up with my movies. I continue watching the Sharpe’s This and Sharpe’s That movies (boy-o, Sean Bean looks good in those tight army pants.) and also keeping up with Dr. Who episodes with the Talons of Weng-Chiang (two discs on this one… tons of cool extra stuff!)

I also had a mini-Kevin Spacey film festival with “The Life of David Gale” and “The Shipping News.” I’m amazed; he’s still a great actor. All the fame, fortune, and hot rock-n-roll chicks haven’t made him lose his edge yet. I just hope he stays away from movies based on comic books… no, wait! He would be GREAT as Baron Mordo in my epic Doctor Strange movie! No... I’m just kidding.

As attractive as I find Kevin Spacey (really, its just his mind I’m attracted to... now if he just had Sean Bean’s butt…) I really felt compelled during this lonely holiday season to watch a romantic comedy. And nobody knows comedy (and a touch of romance) like Richard Curtis. “Love Actually” is all about love in its many forms. It also stars Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman and I’m all ready for a cuddle in the blanket with this movie. But then, (urgh) Hugh Grant is also in it. Well… I suppose there is some law in England that says that Hugh Grant has to be in every romantic comedy.

Overall it was a very funny movie, but the best part is when I watched it a second time with the commentary on. Hugh Grant spent most of his time complaining about what a bad, unattractive actor Colin Firth is. Hmmmm… very interesting.

Now, if you are ever in a completely un-romantic mood, let’s say you feel like biting the head off of a pigeon, then Neil Gaiman’s short-lived television series “Neverwhere” is just for you. This series is chock full of creepy characters who live in London Underground. Meanwhile people who live in London Aboveground cannot see these charming folks… I wish I was that lucky.

Like any decent comic book artist, Gaiman concentrates on the visual, leaving these freakish and ultimately two-dimensional characters to flounder on their own. There are only six half-hour episodes, but it was almost painful to watch. About halfway through I started having nightmares. They weren’t about creepy killers chasing after me; no, I was worried the series would never get to a point. Well it did, fortunately, not a very sharp point, but a point none the less. The series ended with an open door for a sequel (yippie…) but if Gaiman wants to continue on in this medium I hope he learned a lesson here. All the wacktastic costumes in the world (or under it) cannot be a substitute for actual characters.

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LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)

Binging part 3

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer had a rocky beginning. The main character is Fowl by name and really foul by nature. The 11-year old criminal mastermind concocts a plan to kidnap a LEPrecon and steal their gold. Along with his dangerous henchman, Butler, Fowl does enough very nasty stuff in the first 30 pages to have me seriously reconsider reading much more. I find it difficult to get interested in a book if I don’t really like the characters. But, there are many more characters in these books than just Artemis Fowl. The fairy people are the real reason to keep reading these funny and exciting books.

AF: the Arctic Incident – the second book in the series finds Artemis fighting a goblin rebellion while trying the rescue his father from the Russian mafia.

AF: The Eternity Code – Artemis finally goes to far when fairy technology falls into the wrong hands. Faithful Butler pays a deadly price for Artemis’ greed.

AF: The Opal Deception – Back to his evil ways due to a fairy mindwipe, Artemis wishes he had his memories back as an evil pixie plots revenge against him and Captain Holly Short.

The Artemis Fowl File – Two short stories in this fun book are worth the effort to track it down. One is a background story on Holly Short before she ever met Artemis.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston – I like to throw in a non-fiction book or two and I particularly like reading books about diseases. (Yah know, if I KNEW why I am the way I am, I would certainly do something about it.) My recent favorites were a book about the Black Plague and one about the Influenza epidemic of 1918. But those books are about the past. History condensed and sanitized (if you will…) The Hot Zone is about what might happen and particularly about what ALMOST happened. It’s an interesting story about Ebola killing monkeys in Reston, Virginia, but it’s told in an almost hyperactive way. Preston tried to create an exciting suspense novel out of real facts. There aren’t enough chapter ending cliff-hangers in real life to go around. He tried to use personal details to pad out the book and make the virus hunters realistic, but it all just dragged out an already thin story.

1602 by Neil Gaiman – I have paused unfortunately in my Dr. Strange reading marathon, but I picked this up in graphic novel form and couldn’t resist reading out of sequence.

This was an interesting story which put many Marvel characters in the past due to a time disturbance. Dr. Strange is the Queen’s personal physician (aided by special powers he picked up in Tibet,) Sir Nicholas Fury is the Queen’s spy, the four crew members of the ship “The Fantastik” get strange powers when they sail through a curtain of eerie light, the X-men are there, and a bunch of others. The entire universe is a parallel one to the actual Marvel universe, so it would be interesting to see if they develop it any further.

The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry – Christopher Buckley says on the cover that this book is tootingly and trenchantly funny. I laughed a couple of times, but then I am only smart enough to barely realize that many of the jokes were sailing over my head. Fry should dumb his work down a bit so that more people can enjoy it. Oh, and less sex with animals… that would have made this better.

But, about three-quarters of the way through it started turning into a bit of a mystery. The “everyone in the drawing room for the big reveal” sequence at the end was very good and quite surprising.

So, in the three weeks between semesters I read a total of 17 books and only made myself sick on one occasion when I tried reading with a migraine.

<*<*<*<>*>*>* >LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)