Thursday, October 27, 2011
I'LL TAKE "ALOTT5MA DILEMMAS" FOR $400, ALEX: Which well-reviewed book released Tuesday are you reading first: the oral history of the early years of MTV, or the Steve Jobs biography? To what extent is your decision guided by the fact that only one of the two books, apparently, contains an entire chapter on the making of the video for Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite"?
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I reject the hypo. I have already pre-ordered 2 other books being released Tuesday: the new Joan Didion and the Mindy Kaling book.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding like a pedant, I'm starting with another well-reviewed book released on Tuesday: Tony Horwitz's "Midnight Rising," about John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. For what it's worth, DC's premiere independent bookstore, Politics+Prose, is naming it one of the five best non-fiction books of 2011.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the making of a Billy Squier video have to do with Steve Jobs? Somebody help me out!<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteI'm with Adlai on the Mindy Kaling (which I happily was handed a copy of in advance yesterday, so I know how a chunk of my weekend is being spent.)
ReplyDeleteMTV oral history - I recommend Klosterman's grantland podcast with the authors. (And now I have to go get Mindy Kaling's book - didn't realize it was out today).
ReplyDeleteMTV's oral history. But I'll likely read the Steve Jobs and the Mindy Kaling pretty soon thereafter.
ReplyDeleteThat's the music they used to launch the Apple NEWTON.
ReplyDeleteThat's because it's not. Need to work on reading comprehension...
ReplyDeletePlus Haruki Murakami's latest.
ReplyDeleteThe MTV Oral history is being shopped for a movie. I mention this only to propose Anne Hathaway as Martha Quinn and NPH as Alan Hunter.
ReplyDeleteI have the Steve Jobs biography and the Momofuku Milkbar cookbook. I've been alternating between the two. Sooner or later I'm going to get confused and bake my iPhone into a compost cookie or something.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of both "regular" books and ebooks. I buy both. But somehow, it just seems to me that I would have to read the Isaacson book on a device. To honor Jobs's legacy, you see.
ReplyDeleteI have that on hold at the library as of now; I adore Horwitz's work (I think his book on Captain Cook is essential reading).
ReplyDeleteTrying to figure out how to work Michael Lewis into this, since he is married to former MTV reporter Tabitha Soren.
ReplyDeleteI'm picking up the Pauline Kael biography and maybe the James Wolcott memoir. Both sound better written and truly better reviewed than those listed above.
ReplyDeleteAlyson Hannigan as Tabitha Soren? (Or if she's too old, Emma Stone.)
ReplyDeleteEr, "sat." Not "say."
ReplyDeleteAm I doing it wrong if I'm reading it on a Kindle rather than an iDevice?
ReplyDeleteNothing sounds better written than Fran Drescher and Gilbert Gottfried.
ReplyDeleteSo, since this is a book thread and it's more top-of-the-page than the big introduction thread, Russ, you (and slowlylu, I think), asked me to report back on River of Smoke. Basics: Ghosh can still really write, but this is pretty clearly the middle book of a trilogy.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, it does have whole new language mash-ups to unravel!
Current Amazon shopping cart:
ReplyDeleteScott Pilgrim DVD/Blu-Ray Combo (on special)
MTV Oral History
Mindy Kaling
Five Chiefs
Miracle Cure (old Harlan Coben reprint)
Michael Lewis' Boomerang
Sophie Flack's Bunheads
I'm due for a visit to Coinstar with my Big Bowl of Change tomorrow, and will probably place the order with the gift card I'll get.