Saturday, February 19, 2011

Two books I've been reading recently, thus delaying, postponing -- or otherwise having to invent yet another excuse, for not, er, um, actually -- writing anything:

Barney's Version, by Mordecai Richler.  Meant to read this one a few years ago but never got around to it.  Great read.  It's basically about the Montreal Canadiens, booze, Alzheimer's, cigars and marriage... with a (murder?) mystery tossed in.  (Don't exactly see it working as a film, though.  No movie of this book could possibly do it justice.)  From the Afterword: "Before his brain began to shrink, Barney Panofsky clung to two cherished beliefs: Life was absurd, and nobody ever truly understood anybody else."  You got that right, Barney.

Searching for Bobby Fischer, by Josh Waitzkins' dad. Josh is a chess master who spends a lot of time in this book being, like, eight years old.  They made a movie out of this one, too, so I'm told.  If you love chess, you'll love this book.  Hell, if you don't know the first thing about the game, you'll still enjoy it.  Spoiler alert: they don't find Fischer.

Maybe this counts as writing something after all.

3 comments:

Omar said...

I read Barney's Version twice and cried at the end both times. Love that book and picked up a signed first edition a few years ago. I was hoping to see the movie, but because it didn't have vampires, explosions or cartoon old men riding around in balloons, it didn't make it to our piss ant of a town's Empire cineplex.

Doctorboogaloo said...

Omar: We're gonna wait til the movie goes to DVD. Couldn't bear to pay through the nose @ theatre in case the thing's a huge disappointment.

Great fucking novel.

Now, I have to go and make spaghetti... if I can find that thing with with the holes -- whatever the hell it's called -- to strain the noodles....

khan said...

http://www.counterpunch.org/buhle02182011.html