My Year of Reading Voraciously

Flashback to November 15, 2008, Billings, MT. I’d just passed my Title Insurance exam and I called to share my relief with my beloved friend Sherri. I told her I was going to shop a bit in the big city before returning home. She asked if I would pick up a book she had heard was good. It was a Young Adult book about vampires called Twilight. I bought her the paperback and that began my year of reading voraciously.

Don’t get me wrong I have always been a reader. When we moved from Tennessee to Montana in the mid-1970s my parents made the odd choice not to include a tv in the move. Sherri’s request was merely a resurgence of my already well-honed love of reading.

From November 15, 2008 until today, November 15, 2009 I read more than I have in years:

I read the entire Twilight saga, even reading Breaking Dawn twice in a row. Then continuing on the vampire theme I heard about a series called the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Oh my! Not YA reading for sure. I read the entire series and even go back and reread passages of those books including my favorite Lover Awakened (Zsadist’s story).

The BDB books were so intoxicating that I had to revert to comfort reads to recover, so I reread the first three books in the Cat Who… series. I have read the series, especially the earlier books several times, but always enjoy the tales of the newsman and his two amazing cats.

I didn’t just read series books, although those have always been my favorites because it is like reading a never-ending story. If the characters are great who doesn’t want the book to go on forever?

I read my first Carl Hiassen novel with the bizarrely entertaining Sick Puppy. I read that one while at one of my many catsitting gigs over the year. Yes, it is true I have a cat friend, Maguire, and I read aloud to her. We just finished Sneaky Pie and Rita Mae Brown’s Catch as Cat Can. Don’t worry, she’s diverse -- we’ve also read a couple naughty books and part of a biography of Abraham Lincoln.

I read a John Grisham, which I haven’t done in years. Playing for Pizza wasn’t his usual genre, but it was entertaining. I almost reread A Time to Kill on it’s 2oth anniversary year, but couldn’t get through the first part again. I still highly recommend his first and many say best book.

I was very happy to accidentally discover another superb series at my mom’s. This one by Laurie R. King is an imagination of what would happen if an older Sherlock Holmes took on a young feminist apprentice. I was hooked from the first, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and bought my first ebook when I needed the instant gratification of the third A Letter of Mary. I would buy an ereader if they came down to $100. I can live without a cell phone, but I am starting feel like I need an ereader! :)

In the spring when the ’08-’09 tv season ended I turned off my cable, thus rendering my tvs useless for anything but dvds. Now when I’m around tv, I just want to turn it off and read. I am able to watch the shows I really care about – Gossip Girl, Glee & General Hospital online. I do enjoy listening to music while reading and discovered an awesome website http://www.legalsounds.com that keeps me quite happy with quirky music, new and old.

Also in Mom’s library, I stumbled on the somber but gripping The Lovely Bones which is due to come out as a movie at the end of this year. That book has stuck with me several books later.

I heard online about Dewey’s Read-a-Thon, where readers like me spend 24 hours reading, snacking and blogging about what they are reading and snacking on. I could soooooo do that and am now in training to take part in the next one in the spring.

Right before the voracious year ended I came full circle by rereading New Moon in preparation for the second Twilight movie 11-20-09. I have to say my reading hours of the day are my best hours by far. I have laughed with friends, lost track of whom I lent what book too and delighted when someone has discovered one of the same delicious literary nuggets I have. You can keep track of what I’m reading on Facebook or add buckycatt as a friend on Shelfari.

So, now I’m going back to reading Rudyard Kipling’s Kim so that I can more thoroughly understand and enjoy Mary Russell (& Sherlock Holmes) Book 7 The Game. In case I run out of interesting books to read…

…What are you reading?

O...M...G....!!!! 11-20-2009

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Middle Aged?

I might be having a midlife crisis. I’m only having the crisis because I have recently realized I am middle aged!

Recently my folks and I went to see State of Play. In the movie, which was pretty darn entertaining, Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck played college roommates, and Robin Wright Penn played Ben’s wife, also from college. The older I get, the harder time I have judging people’s ages. However, I was pretty sure that Russell and Ben weren’t really the same age. In fact they are at least 10 years apart in age, so they would not have been college roommates, at least as traditional students. Robin could have been in college at the same time as Russell, but would be a “cougar” compared to Ben.

After viewing the movie, and I started wondering what celebrities my age actually look like. I checked with http://www.imdb.com to see which celebrities, from all walks of fame, are in my age range.

Below is a list of 100 people that were born within the year before and the year after me, so they are no more than 1 year older or younger than me. They are listed in order of oldest to youngest

Brad Pitt, Jennifer Beals, Lars Ulrich, Nicolas Cage, Jeff Bezos, Mariska Hargitay, Bridget Fonda, Laura Linney, Matt Dillon, Wanda Sykes, Juliette Binoche, Peter Berg, Rob Lowe, Tracy Chapman, Ian Ziering, Russell Crowe, Caroline Rhea, Crispin Glover, Djimon Hounsou, Hank Azaria, Melissa Gilbert, Stephen Colbert, David Eigenberg, Lenny Kravitz, Wynonna Judd, Courteney Cox, Doug Savant, Amy Brenneman, Joss Whedon, Courtney Love, Chris Cornell, John Leguizamo, David Spade, Sandra Bullock, Lori Loughlin, Vivica A. Fox, Mary-Louise Parker, Debbie Mazar, Blair Underwood, Keanu Reeves, Molly Shannon, Holly Robinson Peete, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Boatman, Calista Flockhart, Diana Krall, Robin Givens, Don Cheadle, Marisa Tomei, Teri Hatcher, Bobby Flay, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Eddie Vedder, Julia Ormond, Joely Richardson, Rob Zombie, Diane Lane, Alan Cumming, Sherilyn Fenn, Maura Tierney, Dr. Dre, Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey, Jr., Jon Cryer, Martin Lawrence, Kevin James, Adrian Pasdar, Linda Evangelista, Trent Reznor, Brooke Shields, Elizabeth Hurley, Kathryn Erbe, Slash, Jeremy Piven, JK Rowling, Sam Mendes, James Tupper, Embeth Davidtz, Peter Krause, Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Dillon, Marlee Matlin, Shania Twain, Lennox Lewis, Charlie Sheen, Moby, Bryan Singer, Kyle Chandler, Cheryl Hines, Luke Perry, Steve Coogan, Kelly Rowan, Jamie Gertz, Gavin Rossdale, Bjork, Ben Stiller, Katarina Witt, Jeffrey Wright and Shawn Christian.

If you don't know who someone is, make a comment or email me and I'll tell you what pop culture reference I used when including them. Not a bad group of peers. Sports figures still active in their sport were the hardest to find, but that didn’t surprise me. The group includes Oscar and Emmy winners, most of the cast of Sex & the City and many people in the hottest movies and tv shows on right now.

I bet most of the people on the list are having more trouble remembering names, getting their first pair of bifocals, took an actual typing class and really like Facebook. Or, maybe, that’s just me. If I don’t see you on Facebook, I’ll be out searching for my crisis dream car – a little red Chevette.

Btw, the picture at the top of the article was taken this week at the Cannes Film Festival. Not bad for a 45 year old guy in my opinion. Of course Mom says he's not the sweet young thing from A River Runs Through It anymore. I bet he's having a lot more fun now than he did then.

Oscar Hangover

My many fans demanded that I post this year's Oscar arrival picture! My date, as is au courant, was my father in a classic Fruit of the Loom t-shirt (we matched) and navy sweats. I did change my ensemble a wee bit by choosing to wear the Hello Kitty slippers that were part of the JClo Holiday collection.

As for the evening itself, we dined on salmon pate (spread), smoked salmon, sharp cheddar cheese molded into the shape of Montana (Chalet Market), potstickers with scrumptious ling ling sauce (Costco) and Wilcoxson's chocolate ice cream (local). Our adult beverages ranged from Berlinger's White Zinfindel (the wine for people who don't like wine per Sherri) and Our Daily Red.

The telecast was not exciting as many of the winners were expected. I was a bit surprised that Sean Penn won over Mickey Rourke, but I think he truly tried to be less jerky than normal and I agreed with his political statements. I missed seeing the acting clips, but appreciated the honorees receiving accolades from past winners. Kate Winslet was great! The supporting catagories were disappointing. I still wish Robert Downey, Jr. had won and I still don't see the big deal about Penelope Cruz or Vicky Christina Barcelona. It was fun to see the Slumdog Millionaire cast again, and they seemed to be truly enjoying the fairytale.

Hope you had fun and as the end of the show reminded us...keep watching movies as holy day is only 363 days away!

If buckycatt ran the Oscars

Tonight is the holy night of the year for buckycatt. It is Oscar night and purr usual I have seen as many of the films as I possibly could, what with living in the film wilderness of Montana. Throughout watching many excellent films worthy of nomination, I kept thinking of all the catagories that do not get awarded each year. Fortunately for ya'll I plan to share these missing catagories, and my picks for this year's winners with you. Please, hold your applause until the end.

Best Gratuitous Butt Scene -- James Franco in Milk (I would have nominated him over Josh Brolin for Supporting Actor)

Best "Feel Good" Movie -- Slumdog Millionaire (There was no other movie like it out there this year!)

Most Likely to be Robbed by a Dead Guy -- Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder (Heath Ledger was better in 10 Things..., Monster's Ball or Brokeback Mountain)

Person I'd Most Like to See Give a Speech -- Brad Pitt (His understated CGI laden performance doesn't deserve to win, but I'd love to see him give the acceptance speech)

Best Movie Couple -- Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road hasn't made it here yet, but basically I would watch these two read the phone book to each other)

Robbed of a Nomination (multiple winners) -- Clint Eastwood (Best Actor for Gran Torino); Bruce Springsteen (Best Song for The Wrestler); and Michael Sheen (Best Support Actor for Frost/Nixon)

Why Were They Nominated? -- Penelope Cruz in the worthless Vicky Christina Barcelona; Peter Gabriel for Down to Earth from Wall-E (boring song); and the previously mentioned Josh Brolin in Milk (he deserved a nomination for No Country for Old Men much more!)

Tonight's Ensemble -- I will be wearing a Just My Size aqua and white tracksuit with a white fruit of the loom t-shirt. My shoes will be blue flats from Ross Dress for Less. My bag will be turquoise and fuschia from The Bag Lady (aka Aunt Judy). My lipstick and gloss will be by MAC for Hello Kitty. My earrings will be from Lia Sophia. My rings will be from eBay (aquamarine for and citrine for the nephews). And my necklace will be Sagittarius and Turquoise by Far Fetched.

Miscellaneous - Grandma's favorite movie of the year P.S. I Love You. Best surprise of the year Tropic Thunder. Movie I'm most sorry not to have seen by today The Reader.

Enjoy the show everyone!