500 Days of Summer...

It's been a while since I enjoyed a film this much. I spent a really lovely 95 minutes watching it, grinning and chortling out loud. It's the kid from Third Rock from the Sun, I used to love that programme! How bizarre, he's all grown up in this... (According to IMDB, he's actually older than me. As if? He's nearly 30... Is it that long since Third Rock was on TV?)

Anyway. I digress.

This is sort of what I expected from Juno, and failed to get. Perfect film (^_^) - definitely need the soundtrack!

Oh, dear...

Three weeks have passed, and I have still not read Men at Arms. That's not to say that I've been breaking the rules - I'm reading all new books! I must confess, though, to getting rather sidetracked... Firstly, by Bill Bryson's "Shakespeare" (educational and entertaining!) and secondly by Nick Hornby's "Juliet, Naked", a delight of a book that I'm thoroughly enjoying. My good friends Ben and Kate recommended it to me; they thought I might enjoy it, and they're absolutely right. It rather suits my mood.

In my current frame of mind, I'm longing to re-read Twilight. So, I am distracting myself with a film called "500 Days of Summer" and truffles. Not quite the same, but the synopsis is promising and the chocolates magnificent.

P'raps by the end of the week, I'll have finished Bryson and Hornby and be ready to crack on with Waugh?

Men at Arms

For 7 years, I have had a copy of Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh sat on my shelf. In all those years, when I've wanted something to read, not once have I picked it up; no, instead I have reached for good old Pink Rabbit, or the The Virgin Suicides, or The Catcher in the Rye... So, I'm about to start it. Setting off to London for a few days (much needed break and change of scenery...) and I plan to read it on the train. About time! Seven years... (>_<) It's a good thing books don't have a use by date, I s'pose.

First new film: something old (1949), something new (to me), something borrowed (from LoveFilm), something... Well, black and white, actually.

Yesterday, I started the new regime with an old Japanese film called Chikamatsu Monogatari, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It's a film about adultery and power, set in a time when adultery was actually a crime punishable by death (crucifixion) - so, wildly uplifting stuff! (^_-) An interesting contrast with a film by the same director that I watched last week, The Lady of Musashino, which deals with similar themes in the early 1940s - but I didn't enjoy it as much as TLOM.

Today, I went for a walk in the park. The weather was glorious - hot! Sunny! - and I thought, ahh, if only I had a book with me... Then I realised I DID in fact have a book with me; but it was one I was carrying to lend to a friend, that I have read several times. So, did I sit and read it? No! I sat in the sunshine and contemplated my project instead. Which was nowhere near as entertaining as the book would have been. But never mind.

Next film to watch: 500 Days of Summer...

Nothing but New: Day 1

Last week, I was forced to question my reading habits after a conversation over dinner.

I'm a voracious reader, and always have been; I positively devour books. From trashy thrillers to Tolstoy, Harry Potter to Haruki Murakami, I love to read. But here's the thing; I'm crazy about re-reading books. Harry Potter? Well, I must have read the series at least five times. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit? Every year since I was eight years old. I got to the end of Twilight - and started it again. I think I've read Cold Comfort Farm six times. And it's not just books; I love to re-watch favourite films again and again, too. I've seen Clueless so many times that I know the entire script off by heart. Lost in Translation? I bet I've seen it ten times; I watched it four times at the cinema!

I think that's pretty normal though, right? Perhaps a little excessive... but not unusual... In fact, I would actually suggest that people who DON'T re-read books and re-watch films are more unusual... I do wonder, though, how many more books and films I could get through every year if I didn't spend quite so much time on the old ones. So, here goes: for the remainder of the year, I will not re-read a single book, or re-watch a single film.

(This is how serious I am: this Christmas, I will not re-watch The Muppet Christmas Carol (a family tradition for about 15 years now) or It's a Wonderful Life. It's going to be tough.)