BOOKS THREAD

Has anyone ever read any of William Goldman's books, either fiction or non? I've been intrigued by him ever since I realized he wrote the screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; I just haven't read anything by him.

 

I've read the Princess Bride, if that counts. Great book, but probably a better movie. Everything I've ever heard suggests that Goldman's "Adventures In The Screen Trade" is his best work. It's a collection of essays about Hollywood. Bill Simmons is always raving about its excellence (whether that it a point in favor or against it, you'll have to decide). A few people I know have always raved about his novel The Color of Light, and claim it's his best work, but I've never tracked it down.

 

I read Marathon Man years ago....terrific thriller. Much better than the movie (although Olivier as the psycho dentist is one of those scenes you never forget).

 

Clever,

Goldman probably is a better screenwriter than novelist. So his insider's view is interesting. The two listed above are good starts.

 

That's what I figured. On the Butch Cassidy commentary he spends half the time railing against Hollywood and how much he hated the movie-making process, so I thought the non-fiction would be interesting.

 

As noted, "Adventures in the Screen Trade" and its sequel, "Which Lie Did I Tell," are entertaining.

He also did a memorable look at Broadway, analyzing every production that opened in 1968 (might have been a different year), called "The Season."

 

I just finished The Italian Letter by Royce and Eisner. It's about the phony Niger documents and their role in the run-up to the war. (I mentioned it on th Libby thread, too). It's crisp, well-reported, and a decently easy read.
That it's also infuriating goes without saying.
And LJB? For the purposes of a project, I'm going to upstate New York to interview Ralph Ketchum.

 

What I've read over the last couple months:

Friday Night Lights
Kite Runner
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

I'm reading Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates right now, and man, it's depressing. Can anyone recommend something light?

 

Entertaining light reading for espionage fans: Restless, by William Boyd. It's two tales interwoven: one, the exploits of a British woman spying in WW2; the other, the attempts by her and her daughter, in the mid-70s, to deal with the fall-out of those exploits.

Done pretty well, as these things go, but don't go expecting Alan Furst or LeCarre.

 

Along those same lines, I'm reading my first Ken Follett book, "Jackdaws." It's very entertaining and a nice break from the other (very overly long) book I'm reading, "I Am Charlotte Simmons."

 

Books I recently finished:

"Love in the Ruins," Walker Percy
"Night," by Elie Wiesel

Thumbs up for each.

 

Absurdistan. (Gary Shteyngart)
Freaking hilarious.