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okay...
kid's joke
a duck walks into a bar.
jumps up on a barstool and asks, "got any grapes?"
bartender says, "no, i don't got any grapes. get outta here."
next day, the duck comes in, jumps up on the barstool and asks, "got any grapes?"
bartender says, "no, i don't got any grapes. get outta here."
the next day, the duck comes in, jumps up on the barstool and asks, "got any grapes?"
the bartender says, "i told you, we don't got any grapes. now if you come in here askin' if we got any grapes again, i'm gonna nail your feet to the bar! now get outta here!"
the next day, the duck comes in, jumps up on the barstool and asks, "got any nails?"
the bartender says, "look! I– what? no, i don't got any nails!."
duck says, "got any hammers?"
bartender says, "no, i don't got any hammers!!"
duck says..."got any grapes?"
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the other day i mentioned some of the books i have lined up for my summer reading, well...the graphic books, anyway and it made me think of that phrase, "summer reading." when i was a kid it meant all the books i wanted to read that hadn't been assigned to me during the school year. it was literary freedom, what I wanted...now, it's more of a vibe, a relaxed, laid back, summery kinda vibe, it conjures images of laying on the beach or sitting in the shade in a lawn chair. all good.
but the book--or books--have to be good.
last summer it was the final chapter of the harry potter saga, super cool and compelling and, sadly, i ate it up in about three days. this summer i need something like that; fast-paced and fantastic! fun and exciting! in other words, the literary equivalent of the summer blockbuster!
any suggestions...?
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i'm putting together a list of my "songs of summer", my summertime groove, the tunes that get me to that summer place in my mind. i'll have mine on friday.
start thinking about yours...
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movie-wise, i don't have a list of gotta-sees to get me in the summertime mood, but--and this might seem a bit off--but about this time of year i get the jonesin' to watch "jaws". and especially that very 70's looking beach scene, y'know, just before the shark shows up.
you?
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i was going to include some more of kc carlson's gallery of wacky archie covers, but blogger is being temperamental today...
sux.
big.
so see ya friday!
smell ya later!
todd
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Hey Todd, have you read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss yet? I can't think of a better book to drop into - I may read it again myself.
I just finished reading Zorro by Isabelle Allende. It's basically a Year One look at Zorro. Well, really it's more about his childhood and what leads up to him becoming Zorro. But, it's got a lot of action and is really well written. I highly recommend it. Also, that new Zorro comic from Dynamite borrows heavily from it.
And to completely escape Genre fiction, I'd recommend Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore. (yeah, Al's daughter.) It's about a 20 something woman who is an aide to a Senator and all her misadventures. It's light, enjoyable and funny. There's a sequel called Sammy's House, which is basically the same idea, but set in the White House.
I know what you mean about the beach scene in Jaws. It's very familiar and comforting. Reminds me of summers at Virginia Beach with my grandparents. Minus the shark. Roy Scheider. Or a cantankerous old sea captain.
Well, I have to say this summer's movie lineup has been the most exciting for me in some time. IRON MAN was just about perfect. INDY wasn't but it was a lot of fun and the anticipation made me feel like a kid again. SPEED RACER was a pleasant surprise. And now I'm really looking forward to INCREDIBLE HULK and THE DARK KNIGHT. (I know, Todd. I know.)
As for prose books, I can't say there's much that can compare to cracking open the latest HARRY POTTER. I really miss that. I have a lot of books I'm looking forward to reading but most are just fun throwaway books. One of things I enjoy most about reading is discovering new authors. While it's nice to pick up the latest King or Sanford book, I really like taking a chance on a new writer and, once in a while, it pays off. My latest "discovery" is David Wellington (MONSTER ISLAND, 13 BULLETS). I remember how excited I was reading my first books by Michael Slade, John Grisham, Joe Lansdale and James Herbert. They haven't all been candy and rainbows, though. I quickly tired of Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Edward Lee and Brian Keene. I still read them from time to time but the magic is gone.
JAWS is almost the worlds most perfect movie, isn't it? Right up there with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING.
The highest compliment I can pay JAWS is that no matter how many times I see Quint sliding down the deck...it still scares the (%($! out of me.
As for Summer reads...I always tell people that the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child books are like Summer blockbusters in novel form (although you could say that the movie version of THE RELIC proves this wrong).
Hey Todd,
A buddy of mine just turned my onto
Randy Wayne White. He's a Florida resident, formerly a fishing guide.
He has a series of mystery novels based around Sanibel Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida. I just read 3 of the novels and will be starting #4. Very beach oriented detective type stories.
Later.
(d'oh! roger sent this yesterday and i forgot to post it...)
Hi Todd,
Here’s something I’d suggest for summer reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Summer-Greg-Bear/dp/0446606669/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213206702&sr=8-2
Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear. Basic premise: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World is a real place. Wilis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen join an expedition going back to it. As you can see from the reviews, some people hate it. I found it to be a fun romp. Very much a summer movie on paper. And you can get a copy of it for a penny! Plus shipping, o’ course.
Roger
As I haven't gotten to read anything lately, I can't recommend anything off hand. I was trying to get into a couple of different books they kind of fell by the wayside. I have a couple I still want to TRY to get back to reading.
For summer reading though the past couple of years I've been getting back to books from my youth. I found a bunch of the old Choose Your Own Adventures books the other day in my attic I'm going to read, but the past couple of years I've been hunting down the Alfred Hitchcock & Three Investigator books from way back in the day. They are just short enough I can crank them out quickly and not have to think to follow them. So that's what I'm going to try to do, we'll see if it happens.
See I missed the 'graphic' part in the previous blog post. As far as graphic books I think I'm going to invest in something a little easier for Lexie to read for this summer. I'm not sure yet what but what I've been buying (except for tiny titans which is a little easy) have been quite difficult. And I probably won't buy anything that she wouldn't enjoy as well. And more than likely any books I read at all we'll probably be swapping out pages taking turns reading. I did read the Satan Bug (a really old book) recently - I can't remember where that recommendation came from but I practically couldn't put it down for 2 straight days. And it was really nice to read something myself.
rene-
if i could throw a couple of ideas out your way, a couple of fun graphic novels i've sampled that you might wanna give a try are The Dreamland Chronicles and The Lab by Scott Sava, if'n you haven't heard of them already. And not sure what you might think but World of Quest was good as well. Coming out soon also is The Gimoles by Mike Bullock who did Lions, Tigers and Bears.
Right now I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo. In terms of graphic novels, I just bought a bunch: Best of Spider-Man Vol. 1, Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller HC's Vol.'s 1 and 3, Kabuki: Scarab, three Savage Dragon HC's, 30 Days of Night TPB, Bone: Rock Jaw - Master of The Eastern Border and Bone: Out From Boneville, Sin City: That Yellow Bastard, and Batman Archives Vol. 2. Some good reading ahead. :)
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