Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* Bookgasm's Alan Mott finds Jewel Shepherd's memoir of her life as a Z-movie starlet "If I'm So Famous, How Come Nobody's Ever Heard of Me?" surprisingly tough, amusing, and touching. When I read the book a few years ago, I did too.

* A mouthful of watermelon bubble gum sets Raymond Pert off on some romantic, Proustian musings.

* Tosy and Cosh volunteers his list of Top Ten Novels.

* Isn't life supposed to get better when you give up the booze and the drugs? Crafty Latvian shows that reforming your ways sometimes leads to even tougher challenges.

* I'm having a good time catching up with "The Ordinary Adventures of Tomas, The Invisible Friend." This is an ongoing, one-page comic-strip that -- Oh, it's too hard to explain. But Tomas and his non-adventures have an oddball, droll charm.

* Steve and Reid compare thoughts and impressions about some Central Asian Bronze Age petroglyphs.

* Henry Payne's review of how California's anti-affirmative-action Proposition 209 has played out is full of eye-openers. For instance, did you know that black public-college graduation rates in California have gone up significantly since Prop. 209 was passed? How could anyone construe this as a bad thing?

* Anne Thompson's visit with George Miller, director of the upcoming dancing-penguins movie, reveals how complex making computer-animated feature films is. It took Miller, for instance, two years just to get the workshop in which his team would work ready. Making these films sounds like an overwhelming lot of too-damn-much-trouble to me.

Best,

Michael

Hey Michael,

I would just like to thank you for your shout out for the "The Ordinary Adventures of Tomas, The Invisible Friend". I'm glad you like it and it's encouraging to see that Tomas and his non-adventures have fans. It's great to see something that was started out of boredom give some enjoyment and maybe a laugh or two to people.

Thanks again
mike

Posted by: Mike on November 8, 2006 9:09 AM

THOSE are their top ten novels? Of all time? The ones they'd take to that fabled desert island? I hope this isn't indicative of any civilizational transformation that we're undergoing. Maybe I'm a little too self-contained, but I figured there would have to be at least one Charles Dickens novel in that bunch. No Tolstoy? No Hugo? NO IAN FLEMING?

Posted by: Charlton Griffin on November 8, 2006 9:15 AM

Thanks for the link, Michael! And again, enjoyed lunch with you and the missus.

Posted by: Reid Farmer on November 8, 2006 10:47 AM

CrftyLatvian shows none of these things. His challenges and his stripe of extraordinary bad luck didn't come as a result of his decision to quit drink and drugs.
On the contrary, I think being sober he's better equipped now to deal with hard times.

Posted by: Tat on November 8, 2006 10:55 AM

From Crazy Latvian:

Then I got fired for no real reason aside from the fact that the owner of my previous company is paranoid, depressive, vindictive, and possibly amoral.

Sorry, Mr. Latvian, but most of the time - there are exceptions, but rare - when people say things of this sort, there really are valid reasons for the firing.

Posted by: Peter on November 8, 2006 11:06 AM

Charlton - I might need to include a definition with entries in the regular "Random Top Ten" feature going forward. It's intended as no more or less than my favorite ten somethings - in this case, novels. Not the "ten best ever." I make no claim that the ten novels listed are the best ever written. But they are the ten I would take to my island - they are the ten that have moved, entertained, and inspired me the most, and the ones I'd want to have the ability to reread often. And yes, I'd forsake Dickens, Tolstoy, Dosteovsky and the rest for these. (Actually, if I were REALLY going to be bainshed forever with just three novels, I MIGHT go for ones I HAVEN'T read already, but that's a whole other topic).

Posted by: Tosy and Cosh on November 17, 2006 11:51 AM






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