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Feb 27, 2005 01:26


Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic by Penn Jillette and Teller

This is a collection of stories about travel and pranks loosely linked together by the travel theme. Penn & Teller come across as assholes, but creative, entertaining assholes, and as usual you learn some interesting things by paying attention to them. I found the bible trick particularely interesting.


Paycheck: and other classic stories by Philip K. Dick

We all know how much Hollywood loves dick. I mean, Dick. Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and most recently Paycheck were all based on Dick's stories, to some degree. I've only seen the first two, so I can't say how accurate the representation of Paycheck was. The story itself is interesting, but something less than a blockbuster so I imagine they puffed it up a bit. Especially with Ben Affleck starring (we all know how much he loves dick).

Anyway, most of these stories aren't quite what I've come to think of as classic Dick. Few explore the themes of the nature of reality and memory that seem to obsess his best known stories (which, come to think of it, isn't an issue in any of the films mentioned above). Most of them seem to be closer to old-fashioned SF, though, of course, there's always a twist.

Recommended, as is anything else with dick in it. Ummm, anything else with Dick in it, I mean.

philip k. dick, book reviews, reviews, books, read recently

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