Tag Archives: Television

What Are You Reading in January?

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What is on your reading list this month?

How are you approaching the new reading year? Eagerly? Obsessively? Or slowly but surely?

I recently started doing research for a book I’ll be writing later this year. A lot of my reading is geared towards that goal.

Since 1st January, I’ve finished:

  • Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee
  • The Tale of Beatrix Potter: A Biography by Margaret Lane
  • Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  • The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms by David C. Tucker
  • The Art of Asking: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
  • The 1950s Kitchen by Kathryn Ferry
  • The 1950s American Home by Diane Boucher

I’m in the midst of reading:

  • Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr (not my normal cup of tea)
  • Breakfast with Lucian: The Astounding Life and Outrageous Times of Britain’s Great Modern Painter by Geordie Greig
  • Coreography: A Memoir by Corey Feldman (reading it on a dare to myself…but it is actually not bad)

To be read by 31st January:

  • The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the Brink by Pamela Katz
  • 1950s American Fashion by Jonathan Walford
  • The 1950s and 1960s (Costume and Fashion Source Books) by Anne Rooney
  • Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips by Michael G. Ankerich
  • Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s by Gerald Nachman

What is your favourite book this month?

Which book on your list are you most looking forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments!

Happy reading.

A Year in Books/Day 213: Drinking with George

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  • Title: Drinking with George A Barstool Professional’s Guide to Beer
  • Author: George Wendt with Jonathan Grotenstein
  • Year Published: 2009 (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)
  • Year Purchased: September, 2011 (at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati)
  • Source: George Wendt
  • About: George Wendt’s love affair with beer is a thing of epic beauty. Drinking with George is part personal biography and part encyclopedia of beer. It’s a strange combination that pairs as wonderfully as barley and hops. You could really say that he poured his heart and soul into this project. Tee-hee. It’s incredibly funny, informative, and can be read in the time it takes the average person to drink a couple pints of Guinness. It even comes with a bit of real, human romance: his love for his wife Bernadette Birkett (who voiced Vera Peterson on Cheers) is sweet and moving, if nearly as hilarious as his beer-induced exploits.
  • Motivation: The author hawked his book at last year’s Oktoberfest Zinzinnati. Only a humourless, beer-hating twit could resist buying a copy from the man himself.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 35: “Looking to lighten my load, I packed a leather travel bag I’d overpaid for in Marrakesh with my untouched and completely unnecessary suit and dress shoes. I sent them back to the States via tramp steamer, addressing the bag to my friend Joe Farmar so as not to offend my dad. A few months later, I would try to recover the clothes, only to discover that Joe had torn the suit, the shoes, and even the bag itself to shreds. This was entirely my fault: I hadn’t bothered to include a note, which confused Joe until he put “bag” together with “Marrakesh” and decided that I’d hidden hashish somewhere inside.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

    George Wendt , with yours truly cropped out.

    George Wendt , with yours truly cropped out.

Voices from the Grave #34: Mae West on Mr. Ed

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Yes, I’m serious with this one. Mae West wasn’t just a performer; she was also a playwright and screenwriter. Whether you love or hate her, she still fits the bill for inclusion here.

Mae West on Mr. Ed in March 1964, when she was 70. This is the full episode, so feel free to skip ahead to the tasty/ridiculous bits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeUUoUY_YwA

 

Voices from the Grave #27: Cornelia Otis Skinner on What’s My Line?

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This one’s a bit different. It features Cornelia Otis Skinner, co-writer (along with Emily Kimbrough) of Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, as the mystery celebrity on What’s My Line? in 1959.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlVbsG3DITk

If you have never read the book Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (or watched the charming film adaptation), you should go rectify that now.