Sitzbook: "Breakfast At Tiffany's"

This was the first book I'd ever read by Truman Capote, but I think it won't be the last. Or at least I hope it won't be. He has a very nice writing style, and I breezed through this book (to be fair, though, it was pretty short).

Anyhow, I won't get much into the plot since that's not really what I do here. I wanted to mention the movie version of the book.

Now, I know that "the movie's never as good as the book," and in this case that was certainly true. In fact, in the first two or three minutes of the movie I came very close to just giving up and shutting it off. I think that a fair amount of my distaste for the movie was the acting, as I'm not generally a fan of "old movie acting." And this movie, generally speaking, was no exception. Especially Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese man in a pretty racist caricature that would not likely be tolerated by anyone today (although to be fair, Mickey Rooney himself seems to have his share of regrets for playing the role).

Actually, what's up with Rooneys? I always get Mickey Rooney, Andy Rooney, Wayne Rooney, and the band Rooney confused. I think just by making this complaint, I'm sounding more like Andy Rooney than any of the others.

Up Next: In Cold Blood, The Musical!

Back on track. I guess the movie is actually just a testament to how stunningly beautiful Audrey Hepburn was. The main guy is OK, too, I guess, but it's hard not to watch Audrey. Even when they take Capote's story and convert it from a fairly downcast and gloomy story into a romantic comedy romp complete with a Hollywood happy ending. Frankly, that's a huge cop-out, but I also realize that if they had simply made the movie the way Capote wrote the story, no one would have liked it.

The cat's better in the movie, though. Capote didn't really develop his part very well in the book.

And I guess that's about all I have to say about this whole thing. I liked the book, but I didn't care for the movie that much. And Tiffany's doesn't serve breakfast, dammit. 

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

June 2012 Pictures of the Day

Hi! I've been pretty busy, but of course I wasn't so busy that I couldn't fit some picture-taking in! Here are the Pictures of the Day from June. I hope you find something in there you like.

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook

Sitzbook: Halftime Report

It's officially July now, of course, so I thought I'd do a quick update on my Sitzbook project since we're now halfway through 2012. 

As you possibly know, my goal with the project is to read an average of one book a week. On that front, I'm doing just fine. I've finished 26 books since January and am well into my 27th (a funny novel called Lamb by Christopher Moore, a "gospel according to Biff, Jesus's childhood friend"). I also wanted to do at least a short review of each book I read this year, since last year I read quite a few without even mentioning them. On that front I'm doing OK; I've had to do a few "group reviews" because not every book warrants a full-post review, and there are a few missing still (but I have plans to write longer reviews for The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Breakfast at Tiffany's).

Another thing that's different this year is that I seem to have gotten more into nonfiction, although that's mostly a coincidence. Still, just over half of the books (14 out of 26) on this year's list are nonfiction, whereas in all of last year only 10 out of 52 were nonfiction books.

But who cares?

So, what have been the "best" and "worst" books so far this year? I think I can honestly say there's not been a book I didn't enjoy, so that either means that I get good recommendations and gifts, and/or that I personally have great taste in books. I guess if I had to choose my least favorite one, I'd go for the second Harry Potter (although the third was better, so most was forgiven). And as for my favorite books, in nonfiction I might say The Omnivore's Dilemma, since it's still making me think months later. In fiction, I'd have to go with The Yiddish Policemen's Union since it was such an interesting and original work (as I said, I'll be writing a longer review of that one soon).

And what about you? What have you been reading? What do you recommend? I'd love to hear your comments.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook