Wednesday, December 15, 2004

If you're looking for an entire compilation of year end book lists, GalleyCat has really done the homework for you. She's basically got all of the current lists linked for your perusal, and she's even put together a handy dandy guide to which books got the most nominations. It's extremely impressive work, really.

Speaking of lists, the San Francisco Chronicle's Best Books of 2004 list is just exemplary. I'm sure I'll be using it for, well, years to come.

I mentioned loving Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love not too long ago (and yes, the long awaited Book vs. Movie on the topic is almost finished). He has a new book called Saturday coming out in the first quarter of 2005, and there's already an excerpt to whet your appetite at The New Yorker. It's highly clinical, but looks intriguing already.

In my last entry, I noted that I had started reading National Book Award winner The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck. I liked but did not love the novel - it was a bit too precious for my taste. As a work of historical fiction, it is certainly interesting and it reads very quickly, but the characters are all sort of vile. Not that I generally mind that sort of thing.

After finishing the Tuck book, I moved on to Sideways by Rex Pickett. If you're curious, yes, the critically lauded film is in fact based on this book. I really admire the decisions that Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor made with the screenplay. The book comes across as, um, "d-ck lit" in my opinion, and it is certainly softened for the film. I'll be working on *another* book vs. movie to look at the topic more exhaustively.

My current read? Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel. I figured since it's the holiday season, I might as well read a Christmas book.

And a final note: if you haven't been watching Lost this year, tonight is the perfect time to start. ABC will be airing two episodes per week beginning this evening so that you'll be all caught up by the time new shows start again in January. Though I wouldn't call it the best new show of the season (I actually like both Desperate Housewives and Veronica Mars more), it sure is entertaining television.

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