Take two

Well, I decided that if I were really taking a stab at a 'professional' twitter account, a new username was warranted. I took libreader, which was the closest I could get unless I wanted aliberalreader, which looked weird. So come follow me @libreader and we'll see how this goes.

Tweetdom

Although I have a twitter account, I've mostly reserved it for following my tennis writer friends, tennis players, and musical figures; I've so rarely tweeted that I can't remember my last, Petunia. But I have been wanting to post here and not feeling like I had time, so I think it's time to try a twitxperiment. Try following me at (edited later) libreader and we'll see how this goes; I may want to change to an anonymous name at some point.

Becket 2.0?!

One of my favorite plays/films of all time, the unjustly obscure Becket, is apparently being updated by Oscar-winning writer William Monahan, who will also direct (he's directed one film coming out soon). An article I read said he was going back to the "source material" rather than updating the movie, but unless that means skipping over Jean Anouilh's famous play entirely, it won't change much, because the film is almost too faithful to the play. It's a very talky movie. Becket delivers one monologue entirely to the sky.

Coincidentally enough, I just read in Leslie Caron's memoir that she persuaded Anouilh to allow an English version, because the original French version flopped. Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn took on the stage version, and nobody ever looked back.

Henry II, Thomas Becket, who will rid me of this turbulent priest, yadda yadda. Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton scorched the screen in the original film; let's see who takes this on.

Oh, and while I'm here...

Shark. Glee. Has jumped.

Scandal in high life

I read the new C.S. Harris mystery today. This is after I read the second-to-last one yesterday, because I forgot I had read it at all. Not because it's bad, but because the third-to-last one was so searingly good that the follow-up necessarily paled in comparison. Alas, so did this one. I AM glad that Harris didn't drag out some of her hero's personal life developments too long (SPOILER ALERT). I can't speak for everyone else, but it was patently obvious to me that his father was not, in fact, his biological father. When you keep yammering on about the family's blue eyes and the one black sheep's unusual yellow eyes, Mendel starts rolling in his grave. Anyway, it was a nice return to period mystery. I haven't been indulging in my usual reading vices, having been using the university library more than the public, and also having been exercising out of doors instead of on the elliptical. I think I'll give myself an injection of bad fantasy next.

Hobbit...

MARTIN FREEMAN!!!!!

iBook? iApp? I'll take anything...

For the love of god, is Stephen Fry's new book getting a US release or not? In any damn format? I'm this close to buying the UK hardcover and getting it shipped.