gaijinmark wrote:

The Art of the Album Cover:http://theartofthealbumcover.com/The_Art_of_the_Album_Cover.html Pretty neat book for those of us old enough to remember albums.

Wonder if they have a cover book for this overlooked meduim?
http://www.8trackheaven.com/boot2.html
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Just finished this, third in the Japanese-American assassin John Rain series. I haven't seen it, don't know if anyone else has, but the first book, Hard Rain, was made into a movie with Gary Oldman and Shiina Kippei.
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Last week finished reading The Samurai: A New History of the Warrior Elite by Jonathan Clements. I had thought Clements was just a writer of Japanese pop culture (he authored The Anime Encylopedia and The Dorama Encylopedia). Turns out he's written many history books, mostly on East Asian subjects, but also on other topics as well, like the Vikings. His book The Samurai is well researched, relying to a great degree on original source material (he is Japanese-literate). He bursts some heretofore accepted notions of the samurai, and, after a shaky start in which he comes across as being overly pedantic, he finds his groove to produce an easy flowing narrative.
Currently reading Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World, by David Maraniss. So far a terrific read about the most important Olympic Games of the 20th century in all aspects: cultural, international, commercial, political, athletic. Maraniss has written previously acclaimed biographies of Roberto Clemente and Vince Lombardi.
And finally, while not normally a reader of manga, I am having fun perusing Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice. This is the third volume of this series I have read, and all of them have been very informative about Japanese cuisine.

^^ I like the Oishinbo series too, read 5 of them but haven't seen any more of them...yet.

Just finished that book, she's quite an interesting writer but she's not an easy read, she writes about mundane British people living in small mundane British towns, very British. And just started this one from her.

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shin2 wrote:

He bursts some heretofore accepted notions of the samurai,

Really? SOunds very intriguing.
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Trade or Distro
It's all good!

Check out my drama trade list: http://www.freewebs.com/evendrama/

Just finished the above, book #6 in the Investigator Renko of the Moscow Police Force series. They've all been quite solid reads, sure most would know the first book even if you haven't read it sure most have heard of the movie, may need to view it tonight.

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Out, loved it so much the first time thru deserved a re-read, it received the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction, Japan's top mystery award back in 1997.

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hitomi #1 wrote:

Out, loved it so much the first time thru deserved a re-read, it received the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction, Japan's top mystery award back in 1997.

I actually read this book some years ago. Highly entertaining, well written prose. The characters felt imminently relatable.

I've had Grotesque on my shelf for years but I haven't actually started reading it yet.

Tu_triky wrote:

I actually read this book some years ago. Highly entertaining, well written prose. The characters felt imminently relatable. I've had Grotesque on my shelf for years but I haven't actually started reading it yet.

I read Grotesque, didn't think it was nearly as good, though most books also aren't as good as Out, need to reread that too, worth a read but remember it was quite confusing.
Out was also made into a drama series back in 2000, starred Naoko Iijima, sadly have not been able to find it anywhere.
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Latest read:

RIngenes Herre. (Lord OF THe Rings)

For the first time in another language.

JRR is cool no matter what.
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hitomi #1 wrote:

I read Grotesque, didn't think it was nearly as good, though most books also aren't as good as Out, need to reread that too, worth a read but remember it was quite confusing. Out was also made into a drama series back in 2000, starred Naoko Iijima, sadly have not been able to find it anywhere.

I see. I see. One day I'll have the impetus to start reading Grotesque! I used to read fiction voraciously when I was younger...after the demanding reading schedule I was dealt with earning two degrees...I lost that lovin' feeling.

Tu_triky wrote:

I see. I see. One day I'll have the impetus to start reading Grotesque! I used to read fiction voraciously when I was younger...after the demanding reading schedule I was dealt with earning two degrees...I lost that lovin' feeling.

I was out of reading for a long time too after school, you're right about having to read things, you lose the interest in books. After years off though, picking up a book to read for only for pleasure is so much more enjoyable, think I've read more in the last 2 years than the previous 10 combined.
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hitomi #1 wrote:

I was out of reading for a long time too after school, you're right about having to read things, you lose the interest in books. After years off though, picking up a book to read for only for pleasure is so much more enjoyable, think I've read more in the last 2 years than the previous 10 combined.

Indeed.

Recently finished reading Hail, Hail, Euphoria! Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, The Greatest War Movie Ever Made.
This is a mess of a book. Thankfully it's only 144 pages long. Yet despite its many flaws, oddly enough I was generally entertained by it. I guess the presence of the Marx brothers can overcome even subpar writing.
An observation about the book's author, Roy Blount Jr. When he worked for Sports Illustrated back in the 60's and 70's, Blount was a terrific read, among the best writers at a magazine which back then boasted some of the greatest talent in the history of sports journalism. Around that time he also wrote his first book, About Three Bricks Shy of a Load, chronicling a season he spent with the Pittsburgh Steelers organization (for you football fans it was the year after the Immaculate Reception and the year before the Steelers won their first Super Bowl); it's one of the two or three best sports books I have ever read. Unfortunately Blount soon after moved on to subjects other than sports on which to write; the few times I've tried to read his stuff were largely disappointing. In Hail, Hail, Euphoria!, there was very little to remind me of how excellent a writer Blount was many years ago.

shin2

"Back in the day" when I used to read SI on a regular basis, if the byline said "Roy Blount, Jr." or "Frank Deford" even if it wasn't anything I was interested in, I would read it because they both had a way of making it interesting.

Haven't read anything by Blount in years but from reading your post, sounds like he should have stuck to football.

gaijinmark wrote:

shin2 "Back in the day" when I used to read SI on a regular basis, if the byline said "Roy Blount, Jr." or "Frank Deford" even if it wasn't anything I was interested in, I would read it because they both had a way of making it interesting. Haven't read anything by Blount in years but from reading your post, sounds like he should have stuck to football.

Blount, Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins, Bud Shrake, John Underwood, Mark Kram, Paul Zimmerman (Dr. Z) . . . . SI had tremendous talent back then. Deford and Jenkins were my favorites. Both have gone on to sell gazillions of books, both non-fiction and fiction. I think Deford might have been the most talented of all those gifted writers. The World's Tallest Midget, published in the late 80's, was a collection of some of his best pieces from SI, back from when he was at his peak. Jenkins also came out with a collection of some of his best pieces a couple of years later--You Call It Sports but I Say It's a Jungle Out There. My favorite Jenkins book was a novel--You Gotta Play Hurt--which was about a year in the life of a sports writer as he goes about covering every major sporting event both domestically and internationally. It may be the funniest book I have ever read.

Btw, if you want to know what it was like at SI, I recommend The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine, written by Michael MacCambridge and published in the late 90's.

Finally finished ESPN: Those Guys Have All The Fun, by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales. Pretty hefty tome (740+ pages) and overall an interesting informative read. The book, organized in chronological order, traces the history of ESPN from its beginning as a germ of an idea bandied about by a father and son to the start of 2011 and its place as a media giant. About 95 percent of the book consists of first person quotes, gleaned from interviews the authors did with hundreds of people. The dominant focus is on the business aspect of ESPN and there are more quotes from the people involved in that part of ESPN than any other. It becomes apparent that ESPN is not just a force in the world of sport, its influence in the world of business is equally large. While many readers are probably interested in what the on-air talent has to say (and they receive their fair share of attention), it's who's behind the camera that are largely responsible for ESPN's prominence. It's a book that is quite revealing, showing both the good and the bad, the successes and failures, and the incredible amount of hard work, focused vision, and more than a little ruthlessness it took and continues to take to keep "the mother ship" in its preeminent position.

shin2 wrote:

Vin Scully is a class act. But wouldn't it be interesting to know what he really thinks of the McCourts and how they have ruined an organization for whom he has worked for over 60 years?

Maybe he should do a book just like the one I finished, Write It When I'm Gone.

It's about former President Gerald Ford and it's written by Thomas DeFrank. DeFrank started covering Ford when he was still VP and they hit it off pretty good. Anyway, over the years DeFrank would meet with Ford and get his take on various things but the proviso was that he couldn't print any of it until after Ford passed away. Pretty interesting read. For one thing, Ford did not like Reagan, thought he was more style than substance and blames Reagan for him (Ford) losing the '76 election because Reagan put up such a fight for the nomination and then did almost no campaigning for Ford afterward. Ford liked Nancy even less. He thought Carter was a disaster as president, but for some reason, they both got along real well. I wasn't a big fan of Ford as president but I liked this book.

just finished 'star trek first strike, invasion'. now i need to find the second instalment.
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Just finished The Japanese Period Film: A Critical Analysis by S.A. Thornton, an associate professor of history at Arizona State. Supposedly a scholarly work, this is a total piece of crap, one of the most poorly written books I have ever read. I have loved the jidaigeki film genre since I was old enough to remember watching movies, so I am royally pissed at how shockingly bad this book is. The writer, publisher, and editor (if there was one at all) should all be ashamed of themselves for producing such dreck.