Monday, February 23, 2004

Books and Movies

I've only just finished Robert Sapolsky's 'A Primate's Memoir', and I just have to rave about it again as I did when I was only half-way through it. It's got laughs, tragedy, power games, corruption, culture clashes, and horrible diseases. This guy just writes so well, taking us from the beginning of his time in Kenya - young, gung-ho and idealistic - to a time years later when he's lost his innocence and half of his baboon troop to bovine tuberculosis.

Since Janet Frame's autobiography is still out of the library, I've started reading 'Sabriel' by Garth Nix. It's my first foray into fantasy fiction for many years, because I've always been highly put-off by unpronouncable, hyphenated names and the need to consult a glossary every few sentences. But I've decided that I shouldn't ignore an entire genre so I'm starting with an author who is quite popular with the teens and whose books my boy just happens to have copies of. So far I haven't come across any unpronouncable names or strange words, but then again I'm only about three chapters in.

We watched 'American Pie : the wedding' last night on DVD. There were maybe four quite funny bits (if you like toilet humour, which I confess I do), and the rest was just so-so. Let me list the highlights:
1. pubic hair on the wedding cake
2. sex with granny
3. eating dogshit
4. Stiffler and a large gay man having a dance-off in a gay bar.
Disappointingly, Alyson Hannigan didn't get much chance to be funny.

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