Books books, they're good for your brain; the more you read, the more you gain!
So I'm in Swampscott visiting my cousin and her family. (It seems like I'm in Massachusetts more than Brooklyn these days!) She has a bunch of interesting-looking books on her shelves, and I'm taking the opportunity to peruse them.
The one I read last night: Best of the Britcoms: From Fawlty Towers to The Office by Garry Berman
It was really entertaining! I am a PBS junkie, so I'd seen quite a few of the (famous) Britcoms Berman talks about in the book -- and I wrote down a bunch of titles, because even though sometimes I don't "get" British comedy (or, like many plebian US-ians, find it depressing!), I do love me television shows about wacky British vicars!
I like that the book is divided into decades (beginning with the 1970s), and that before each decade is a little introduction in which the author explains basics of things the American audience (the target for the book) may not know. For example, before the section on the 1970s, there's a brief history of British television. I did not know that British television was ordered to be shut down during WWII! (BBC began airing again, according to Berman, in June 1946.)
I did find myself wishing that the index was slightly more comprehensive. There's no listing for "vicar" -- so I have to read the book and make myself notes if I want to know about any Britcom about vicars besides The Vicar of Dibley. On the other hand, I don't think this is meant to be a comprehensive encyclopedia as much as it is a cute "reference" guide for your coffee table. (That's totally fair.)
As expected, the entries for shows like Fawlty Towers and Blackadder and The Office are much longer -- and contain more actor, writer, and producer quotes -- than the meager half-page shows like Ever-Decreasing Circles got. There's also small tidbits of the author's opinion threaded in, but I didn't find that to get in my way at all.
Now that I've read this book, first thing on my list to buy when I have some pocket change is the dvd set of Extras
, because the pages dedicated to it make it sound incredibly charming.
(Today, while sitting in a sun-drenched courtyard in Salem, I finished Second Line: Two Short Novels of Love and Cooking in New Orleans by Poppy Z. Brite
, which was a gift to me from the
trifles family that I've been carrying around for a month. The first story in the book, about the boys as teenagers, was a lot more enjoyable for me than the second, a very self-indulgent story that was mostly just loosely strung together vignettes about characters I wasn't invested in enough to really care about. Still: that first story was great. Teenage boys in love in New Orleans! Plus cooking!!!)
This entry is cross-posted from alg@dreamwidth.org, where it has
comments.
The one I read last night: Best of the Britcoms: From Fawlty Towers to The Office by Garry Berman
It was really entertaining! I am a PBS junkie, so I'd seen quite a few of the (famous) Britcoms Berman talks about in the book -- and I wrote down a bunch of titles, because even though sometimes I don't "get" British comedy (or, like many plebian US-ians, find it depressing!), I do love me television shows about wacky British vicars!
I like that the book is divided into decades (beginning with the 1970s), and that before each decade is a little introduction in which the author explains basics of things the American audience (the target for the book) may not know. For example, before the section on the 1970s, there's a brief history of British television. I did not know that British television was ordered to be shut down during WWII! (BBC began airing again, according to Berman, in June 1946.)
I did find myself wishing that the index was slightly more comprehensive. There's no listing for "vicar" -- so I have to read the book and make myself notes if I want to know about any Britcom about vicars besides The Vicar of Dibley. On the other hand, I don't think this is meant to be a comprehensive encyclopedia as much as it is a cute "reference" guide for your coffee table. (That's totally fair.)
As expected, the entries for shows like Fawlty Towers and Blackadder and The Office are much longer -- and contain more actor, writer, and producer quotes -- than the meager half-page shows like Ever-Decreasing Circles got. There's also small tidbits of the author's opinion threaded in, but I didn't find that to get in my way at all.
Now that I've read this book, first thing on my list to buy when I have some pocket change is the dvd set of Extras
, because the pages dedicated to it make it sound incredibly charming.
(Today, while sitting in a sun-drenched courtyard in Salem, I finished Second Line: Two Short Novels of Love and Cooking in New Orleans by Poppy Z. Brite
, which was a gift to me from the
trifles family that I've been carrying around for a month. The first story in the book, about the boys as teenagers, was a lot more enjoyable for me than the second, a very self-indulgent story that was mostly just loosely strung together vignettes about characters I wasn't invested in enough to really care about. Still: that first story was great. Teenage boys in love in New Orleans! Plus cooking!!!)
This entry is cross-posted from alg@dreamwidth.org, where it has
comments.