Back in time for a new question.

I am sorry. I am very sorry.

   Not that I've gotten the obligatory Canadian apologies out of the way I can say that I've been gone for a while due to work. Work has changed again, surprise surprise, and I am back.

   Today's 5 minutes will be spent doing what I do best, questioning things that I think I know. Turns out I don't know much but what I do know I like to wonder about.

  I am currently reading It By Stephen King. I read this lovely little book about 10 years ago and I seemed to remember thinking it was too long and too boring. I was only 14 then. Now, I am about 300 pages in or so, I am starting to think that it is something that will be come a favourite. I knew it would be different. I knew I would think differently of it over the years. I just didn't think mow was that time. I started reading it because it was on my shelf, that's it, nothing more nothing less. I'm not sure that is the truth now that I ponder it. Maybe, maybe not, either way the story seems to be seeping into my life and into my brain all over the place.

   I will have to think on this again. I guess for now I am just wondering what is going on? What on earth makes me change my mind about this book and not Catcher in the Rye for instance? I hate Catcher in the Rye, no matter how many time I try to read it, I just hate it. Maybe I have a new respect for horror, or a new respect for the friendships I see developing in It.

  Anyway, for now, that rambling mess up there is my 5 minutes.

Book to Movie Adaptations

       I am currently relaxing at a Tim Hortons before I go to work. It's not a bad environment here, a little busy, easy to eaves drop (something I love to do), but still quiet enough for me to enjoy perusing the interwebs for interesting reading material.

       I found the interesting material via a website called i09.  They have offered me some spoilers on a long awaited sequel to Sin City, the Robert Rodriguez adaptation of book one, two and four of Frank Millers graphic novel series of the same name. I really enjoyed the first movie. That being said I already have reservations about the second one as it is being shot in 3D. But that's not the point of this post (don't worry I will tackle 3D another day). Today's interesting tidbit happens to be about movie adaptations.

       I enjoy a well made movie adaptation, Lord of the Rings for instance was a very well done adaptation in my opinion. In my opinion LOTR was done so well because the books were so slow, the movie changed a three book series about walking through beauty into a rich colourful land with battles AND walking. The first Sin City adaptation was done very very well. Mr. Rodriguez kept all of the best parts of the novels, he was able to tie everything in together without making it seem too muddled. I am currently waiting excitedly to start reading David Wong's John Dies at the End (hopefully it will be the February book club book). The movie trailer looks excellent and I am very interested in reading the book first.

       Take the movie Blade Runner, it was quite different from the book. The book in it's own right was excellent, but the movie surpassed anything I could have imagined. It is in the top 3 of my favourite movies of all time, easily. I read the book AFTER I saw the movie. I'm not sure that I would have though the book was so mediocre if I had read the book first.

       Or would I? Reading the book first will give you an impression of the expanse of the movie as well as the world it is in. Watching the movie first takes out all of the lulls a book may have, it gives you punch for punch the most concentrated version of the story. Or does it? I have a personal favourite adaptation  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The book was by Hunter S Thompson and the film was directed by the amazing Terry Gilliam. Terry Gilliam took a messed up twisted piece of literature and turned it into a messed up twisted piece of film. It was a perfect adaptation, at least to me it was. I can't speak for anyone else.

       So what does this mess of information mean? Well it means I have just ordered the rest of the Sin City Graphic Novels. It means I will devour them just as I did the first four. It means that hopefully it won't suck when it comes to the big screen. I guess that's all it means.

     This is the review for the book Patient Zero by Jonathon Maberry. I have just finished reading it for my book club. I will add my reviews of my book club books every month. 

                Well here we are, I have finished Patient Zero BY Jonathan Maberry . Honestly I didn’t think I would finish it. I have a few qualms, maybe that’s not the right word.  Let’s try issues, no, no I don’t like that either.  Maybe reservations, ya, I like that. So here I have a few, reservations about this lovely piece of modern zombie literature (am I stretching the word literature here?).

         

       We will work with the big three.

First and foremost, this reads like a movie. I actually think he was writing this book, yes as the beginning of a series, but also as a movie. I imagined Mr. Maberry sitting at home in front of his computer watching and re-watching 28 Days Later, or the Night of the Living Dead, I may have even felt a little of the movies series Resident Evil in there. I can picture him watching and re-watching these movies casting the roles in his head as he wrote them. I did. As I read this book I cast each and every role with a film actor. I don’t think I have ever done that with a book before. Sure there have been books I’ve read that have become movies, when that happens I may have a yes or no feeling about the acting choices made. In this case however I picked them out after 50 pages, I knew that if Mr.Maberry had his way I would be sifting this out of the $5 bin at Wal-Mart in 12 months.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d watch it, but I wouldn’t love it. It’s no Die Hard.

“I realized as I thought these things that this was one of the aftershocks of 9/11. For a while after that everything that could draw a crowd was canceled, but then our culture moved on and there were no more attacks. We became complacent. Maybe we even thought that, against all evidence, we really had Al Qaeda on the run and that we had taken the fight so effectively to them that we could settle back into normal life here in the States. Today we were paying the price for compliance. Did the blame belong to me? Church? Or was this a cultural failing? If I lived through the day I’d have to take a closer look at those questions; but social philosophy doesn’t help you in the heat of a firefight, so I pressed on. “

My next problem was the action scenes. Action scenes are something that I think Mr.Maberry does very well. I’m not saying that he should win the Pulitzer equivalent of the action scene writers award, if there is one of those, but I give credit where credit is due. In this case it is due. My problem is these weird additions to the actions scenes. Suddenly our hero Joe Ledger is thinking about the societal impacts this previously unknown prion disease will have on the world. Really? Why can’t he just kick some ass, take some names, and worry about that after he’s killed them all.  For example I have an excerpt here from one of the final chapters in the book (forgive my not having a page number, that is defiantly one of the drawbacks of an e-reader).

Does this actually make sense? Sure, it’s a solider forming his ideas on how he got to this stage in his life. Personally he, like the rest of the nation, was trying to put his world back together after a major shock to the community at large. But I will say this with vigor. Any man who is trained to kill in such a manner as Joe Ledger would NOT be thinking about this during a crucial gun battle. The First Lady was in the room at this point, the beginning of a brutal final plan to end the western world, and Joe Ledger... Joe freaking Ledger is thinking about the lax in societal safety concerns since 9/11. I’m sorry but give me a break.

My final issue, at least the final one I want to talk about now, is very personal. Why exactly are all seriously nefarious villains redheads? Please can someone other than Eric Cartman tell my why my people, who are endangered by the way, always get the brunt of the world of evil. Please allow me to paint a picture in facts for all of you non gingers (that’s right I claim that title as a title of empowerment and not degradation). We will begin with Children of the Corn an excellent horror movie that depicts the most violent and destructive of the children as being and evil redheaded child, then we have hilarious (sarcasm that please) jokes of Larry the Cabal Guy telling the world he was afraid of being beaten like a red-headed step child, and finally we have that lovely Victoria in Twilight.  Now generally I wouldn’t care but I have seen this evil redhead crap for long enough! Now I am suffering from an undercover evil redhead and an evil mastermind that disguises himself as a redhead. Enough is enough people.

 All in all I don’t dislike this book, I think I will even want to continue reading the series. I just hope that its gets a little more A movie than B movie. 

Great books are they still real?

       Well I have 5 minutes so shall I begin?  I've decided today that I don't read enough great books. Or maybe their aren't enough great books in the world, I'm not sure which I believe yet. I have tried to read the classics like Wuthering Heights, Jayne Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and their kin, but none of them strike me with the frenzy that they supposedly should.  I had always wondered if it was my fault. Were these great classic works of fiction too above me? Did I not understand them as I should? No, I will say that clearly, I'm not one to toot my own horn (OK I am but that is neither here nor there right now, or anywhere, for that matter) but I am smart enough to understand what the autor was trying to say. So then I think am I not sophisticated enough to grasp the concepts of classic literature? No, I'm pretty sure just because I love a good fart joke doesn't mean I can't also understand the beauty and sophistication behind an elaborate ballroom scene, full of imagery reminiscent of a mating dance between two spring birds. Ooops, I just farted. After much soul searching I realized, I just don't like these books. I just don't like most classic novels.

       Fine I don't like the classics very much, now lets not all grab our pitchforks or anything I still love me some Dickens! That is one twisted and funny dude. But the leaders of the pack are trailing in the dust of the modern tale.

       So then I decide to read more modern lit because, well, why not. If  I don't like the classics I should probably like more modern stuff. Right? Well...... maybe. I love Chuck Palahinuk, or at least I did until I hit Pygmy. Wow was that ever hard to read. I tried, I did, its not my fault I swear. Then I wadded through all of the bad reviews of Snuff, I read the book and I enjoyed it, its no Choke but really what is? So now I guess I am looking for a new author to light the reading fire. I have read Hunter Thompson, Nicholas Sparks (Why you ask. I have no damn clue), Terry Goodkind, J.R.R Toliken, and may others yet still no fires burning. So unless their is an author out there getting ready to pen the next book that will make me weep and laugh, one that will make my heart swell with pride and cringe in shame, I might just have to settle for the average.

       You say this is crazy. I say you're wrong. I remember the days of discovering an author I thought was the best thing since sliced bread (which is hard to top because ITS SLICED BREAD!). I would read all day and all night just to finish a book and start all over again. I love to read. It's just too bad I haven't found the one that will take me to that place again. I will however, as they say, keep on truckin.

Books

        I was at work minding my own business (not really but hey, who's watching) when I noticed the library of books. I've read my fair share of books, I really have. Plus their are tonnes of books that I want to read because I mean, why not. One of those books is East of Eden by John Steinbeck, I have always been told how great and wonderful it is by everyone who has ever read it in the history of time (not really but it sounds nice, right?). While perusing the bookshelves at work today I saw a copy, amazing just my luck something to read at the end of my long work day! Something I want to read while killing time rather than the same copy of Hello Canada. In a flurry of anticipation I picked up the copy and grazed the spine with my finger. Every time I do this to a book I get a tingle of excitement, a rush of joy that is only quenched by one singular thing. The cover, oh yes, that beautiful,artful cover. East of Eden however, was horrid, the cover had no beauty it had no joy. I will not read this book.

     A cover is supposed to bring joy into the readers life, not pain, not sorrow. A good cover brings you into the world, shows you what the imagination can paint in all of its splendor. This cover showed me a sad sad artist with no joy and no humor. Covers are things of beauty that, as of late, have been going largely ignored. Why? I have no idea, and sadly my 5 minutes are up. I will sleep on it and maybe sometime soon share.