Thursday, November 6, 2008

Critic Critique

I decided yesterday that if I were given the choice, I would much rather be a film critic than a book critic.  Even though I like reading books more than watching movies, I wouldn't want to ruin my love for books by making them my career.  If I were to read books all day long, I would have to do that alone.  Whereas I could watch movies with friends or my wife someday and be working at the same time.  And I've never been able to read a book in two hours, except for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Also, I think book critics are uber-scholars with a thick repertoire of literary references used only in an attempt to impress their colleagues.  So there.

Even so, I would like to make an attempt at impressing anyone who reads this dilapidated blog by talking about several books I've been reading lately.

I finished The Red Pony.  A short and simple book by John Steinbeck.  I won't say much about this book except that I believe it might have changed my life.  Why say something in 400 pages that you can say in 90?  Never before has a book made me feel the way this book did.  Have you ever wanted to cry for all that has been lost and all that is yet to be found?

I'm currently reading A Confederacy of Dunces.  And I need to do my laundry, so I'll talk more about this book when I finish reading it.

2 comments:

Ian Bauder said...

i've always thought that i could never be a music critic. it's too hard for me to think of music like that. frankly, i like what i like and i hate what i hate. i don't know why, and i could never explain to someone why they should listen to a song other than "it's awesome."

film and theater are probably the easiest.
fashion forget about it.

Ian Bauder said...

oh: and critiquing television would be the easiest. every review would go like this:


um...it's television, how good could it be?