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Post by deenawarner on May 6, 2019 14:08:42 GMT
Do you enjoy non-fiction? I love books about plagues and mysterious illnesses, Like The Great Influenza and The Dancing Plague of 1518. Next up on my TBR shelf is a book about rabies.
What are some of your go-to topics?
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Post by Mark Sieber on May 28, 2019 7:46:06 GMT
I almost missed this one!
Most of the nonfiction I read deals with media. Books about writing or publishing, movies, music.
One of my favorites in recent years is Alec Nevala-Lee's Astonishing: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. It's an indispensable look at the formative years of the SF genre.
I also really, really love I Want My MTV, an oral history of the network that once featured music videos.
I like biographies and autobiographies, and I find they work well as audiobooks. Especially when the author reads his or own work. Recent favorites are Leonard, by William Shatner, Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, Cheech is Not My Real Name But Don't Call Me Chong, by Cheech Marin, Don Coscarelli's True Indie, and Todd Rundgren's The Individualist - Digressions, Dreams & Dissertations.
I enjoy Paul Theroux's essays and travel books.
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Post by deenawarner on May 29, 2019 13:38:39 GMT
I love autobiographies, too! I enjoyed "Every Day is an Atheist Holiday" by Penn Jillette and Neil Patrick Harris's "Choose Your Own Autobiography." And, of course, "The Authorized Al"!  |
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Post by Mark Sieber on Jun 15, 2019 18:59:29 GMT
I'm listening to a fascinating audiobook now. It's How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone, by Brian McCullough. I was obsessed with the internet since the mid-90's and this look back at its highs and lows is absorbing. As Sagan might have said, billions and billions won and lost.
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Post by Mark Sieber on Jun 25, 2019 23:31:06 GMT
Now I am listening to Wild and Crazy Guys, a history of the comedy giants of the 80's, which emphasizes on SNL and SCTV alumni. It's a fascinating book, but also a sad one.
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Post by deenawarner on Jun 26, 2019 13:14:44 GMT
That sounds cool. I remember my parents really being into SNL in the '80s. Is it narrated by any of the featured comedians?
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Post by Mark Sieber on Jun 27, 2019 22:42:07 GMT
No. It would have been incredibly difficult for any of them to do so. While there is an affectionate, respectful tone to the entire book, the author does not gloss over the personal and professional lows these guys went through. Some of it is really dark.
I sort of liked the first few SNL seasons, but I mostly thought the show was very mixed. For every good skit there were a couple of painful ones. The impersonations and Weekend Update news features were usually pretty good. I was always a bigger fan of the movies they did.
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Post by Mark Sieber on Jun 27, 2019 22:56:48 GMT
Next up: Sticky Fingers, the biography of Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner. This is fun.
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