What I love equally much or even a tad bit more than reading a brilliant book is watching a great movie. (I'm currently reading Dave Egger's Zeitoun, about Hurricane Katrina, which is a good read, but far from brilliant - wonder whether my friend J has read and liked this one).
Some of the most powerful childhood memories I have are of watching movies. I guess my parents were rather lax on age control, but before the age of 9, my favorites included "The Last Emperor", "Ghandi", and "Passage to India".
Thanks to the internet, the three small but important reasons that keep me at home many evenings do not keep me from watching great movies (mainly catching up on ones I have missed in the past decade). My latest find was Lars von Trier's Melancholia. I've watched several of his films, although I'm not sure whether I'm ready for the Antichrist (Any tips? Is it very heavy or too brutal?). Melancholia was strange, but very powerful. The main theme is fear of life vs. fear of death.
The pile of books I plan to read keeps growing (next waiting on my desk: Rushdie's biography Joseph Anton), as does the stock of movies I want to watch (next: Haneke's Das Schloss). What a luxury, to have such choices to make!
I have read and liked Zeitoun a lot! Dave Eggers is one of my favourite writers, so I devour every one of his books. Even though in this one his own voice as a storyteller is not so present, since he tells the real story of living people. Thinking about it now I don't really know whether it's a brilliant book, but it's a great and terrifying story he tells. It stayed with me for a long time. So in that sense it's a great book for me.
ReplyDeleteHis latest novel, A hologram for a king, was a nice read but not as touching.
Knew it :)
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