June has started once again and like always it is hot and humid. Last year for the June session of our book club we chose to read Three Junes by Julia Glass. After we moved to Princeton I found three book clubs but none of them was suitable to my schedule. One of them meets at lunch time every week which is too often but they are professional book readers. The other one meets once a month on Wednesdays which is a problem since I have to go to New York on Wednesdays. The last one is nice: they meet once every couple of months and they invite a writer; so it is a kind of literature party.
For about six months now I have become my own book club: a group of One. I still receive e-mails form my pervious book club in New Haven. Sometimes I choose from their list, but most of the time I decide alone. Being alone is not that bad since I never read books that bore me. Still I think in long term it is not that good because unintentionally or maybe intentionally I block certain books, ideas and styles which ends up making me narrow minded at least in literature.
Recently I finished Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. I will read White Teeth by Zadie Smith in June. Here I won’t say anything about audio books since it is another story.
Finally, yesterday I saw the most argumentative movie of this month: The Da Vinci Code (2006) directed by Ron Howard based on a novel by Dan Brown. There are a few examples in the history of cinema that the adaptation from a book for a film is independently a piece of art. One of the rare examples is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest a book by Ken Kesey (1963) and its film Directed by Milos Forman (1975). The Da Vinci Code does not add to those few great examples. That’s why I think one who has not read the book will enjoy it more. I didn’t find the book, itself, that great to read for the second time either. The story is a one shot mystery: it is only interesting when you don't know the answer, to hear it for the seconed time is not exciting any more. So why we should expect it to be different for the film.
Madonna of the Rocks is one of my favorite paintings by Da Vinci. They mention it in the movie and the book very quickly. So here it is: just look behind the rocks; it has Aerial Perspective which was used greatly by da Vinci. It is really calming.
For about six months now I have become my own book club: a group of One. I still receive e-mails form my pervious book club in New Haven. Sometimes I choose from their list, but most of the time I decide alone. Being alone is not that bad since I never read books that bore me. Still I think in long term it is not that good because unintentionally or maybe intentionally I block certain books, ideas and styles which ends up making me narrow minded at least in literature.
Recently I finished Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. I will read White Teeth by Zadie Smith in June. Here I won’t say anything about audio books since it is another story.
Finally, yesterday I saw the most argumentative movie of this month: The Da Vinci Code (2006) directed by Ron Howard based on a novel by Dan Brown. There are a few examples in the history of cinema that the adaptation from a book for a film is independently a piece of art. One of the rare examples is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest a book by Ken Kesey (1963) and its film Directed by Milos Forman (1975). The Da Vinci Code does not add to those few great examples. That’s why I think one who has not read the book will enjoy it more. I didn’t find the book, itself, that great to read for the second time either. The story is a one shot mystery: it is only interesting when you don't know the answer, to hear it for the seconed time is not exciting any more. So why we should expect it to be different for the film.
Madonna of the Rocks is one of my favorite paintings by Da Vinci. They mention it in the movie and the book very quickly. So here it is: just look behind the rocks; it has Aerial Perspective which was used greatly by da Vinci. It is really calming.
Madonna of the Rocks or Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo da Vinci, 1508
1 comment:
salam azizam. khoobi? thanks for your comment. anyway. where are you?
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