3 August 2015 Journal Page
I stayed up late last night to finish Heidi Julavits' The Folded Clock. It was a good read. I laughed several times and often read passages out loud to David. I'm going to look for more of her books in my travels.
I'm trying to see if I can read a book a week in the new year. When I was younger, I would devour six to twelve books in a week. I would leave the library with an armload of books. I miss those days. Growing up, I'd read anything I could get my hands on. I'd have the newspaper or a magazine propped up in front of me any time I ate or even as I did the dishes. Now we're all glued to our phones and I hate that.
I'd like to read more artist biographies this year. I've been flipping through several Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and various surrealist books the past few months. Any recommendations?
Comments
As far as artist biographies, I think I've read one Frida Kahlo biography (I don't remember which title) and a really interesting Georgia O'Keefe biography. I bought the first volume of the Georgia O'Keefe / Alfred Stieglitz letters, but man, they wrote a LOT of letters!!
Do you ever read entertainer biographies, since you like movies?? I read Esther Williams' biography (or autobiography; I don't remember which) and it was really interesting! I'd also like to read one about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
I collect books on diaries and letters so I have many volumes of various letters. I love reading artist bios and have been reading various Kahlo and Van Gogh ones over the years. That O'Keeffe letters book is HUGE, agreed.
Someone else recommended the Esther Williams' book. I haven't read it. I remember growing up I read bios on Jackie Gleason (loved him), Walt Disney, the Monkees (Davy's bio and books about them), the Beatles (I read everything Lennon wrote), (Tim) Burton on Burton, the Coen Brothers book, Cronenberg on Cronenberg, a ton of books on Buster Keaton, a ton of Michael Blake books on Lon Chaney, etc... David J Skal's various books... books on Orson Welles... I'm trying to remember...
Two fabulous director bios that I read and absolutely loved (I'd put them on my favorite book list) were Akira Kurosawa's Something Like An Autobiography and My Last Sigh: The Autobiography of Luis Bunuel. I'm slowly reading Chaplin's biography. I want to read more from Truffaut, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog as they're all waiting by the side of my bed for me. I have a huge two volume set of Jack Benny to read as well as the two Patti Smith books.
How's that for starters? ;)
kelly