Whatcha reading?

[Dr. Medulla]

64) Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld. Audiobook. 2020. Seinfeld bloodlessly declaims six hours of his routines from the seventies til Covid times in an audio booth. While the best has some Carlin-esque wordplay and fun with concepts, what really sticks out is the complete lack of growth as a craftsman between the start and the end. The answer to the question posed by this book's title is: No.

Back when Seinfeld was going strong, he put out a book of his stuff (can't recall what it was called) and it was striking how flat it all seemed. He's not untalented by any means, but for someone who starred in and co-created a groundbreaking sitcom, it gives you pause to wonder how the hell *that* guy made it.

I'll credit Larry David, to be honest.

Yes, but we don't want to completely cut out what JS brought to it all. It's easy to see LD sensibilities, especially having Curb to make the comparison. They're both drawn to, essentially, the comedy of manners, but maybe JS was vital to softing LD's harsher take for a mass audience.

[Silent Majority]

64) Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld. Audiobook. 2020. Seinfeld bloodlessly declaims six hours of his routines from the seventies til Covid times in an audio booth. While the best has some Carlin-esque wordplay and fun with concepts, what really sticks out is the complete lack of growth as a craftsman between the start and the end. The answer to the question posed by this book's title is: No.

Back when Seinfeld was going strong, he put out a book of his stuff (can't recall what it was called) and it was striking how flat it all seemed. He's not untalented by any means, but for someone who starred in and co-created a groundbreaking sitcom, it gives you pause to wonder how the hell *that* guy made it.

I'll credit Larry David, to be honest.

Yes, but we don't want to completely cut out what JS brought to it all. It's easy to see LD sensibilities, especially having Curb to make the comparison. They're both drawn to, essentially, the comedy of manners, but maybe JS was vital to softing LD's harsher take for a mass audience.

Yes, true. Seinfeld brought a bland, unactorly photogenicness to the show and anchored it down and I think it's fair to say most likely did the equivalent in the writing. As the show progressed the characters grew more grotesque and the situations more wild and while I think that's the sitcom at its best (prior to David's departure, which hastened an inevitable dive off of a cliff, qualatively) those early seasons have a foot in the idiosyncratic mainstream of a 1970s sitcom like Taxi. David did a film that was all old people yelling at each other, which was the absolute worst and least funny part of Seinfeld, so being too quick to credit him as a perfect creative mind is definitely a shallow interpretation.

[Dr. Medulla]

64) Is This Anything - Jerry Seinfeld. Audiobook. 2020. Seinfeld bloodlessly declaims six hours of his routines from the seventies til Covid times in an audio booth. While the best has some Carlin-esque wordplay and fun with concepts, what really sticks out is the complete lack of growth as a craftsman between the start and the end. The answer to the question posed by this book's title is: No.

Back when Seinfeld was going strong, he put out a book of his stuff (can't recall what it was called) and it was striking how flat it all seemed. He's not untalented by any means, but for someone who starred in and co-created a groundbreaking sitcom, it gives you pause to wonder how the hell *that* guy made it.

I'll credit Larry David, to be honest.

Yes, but we don't want to completely cut out what JS brought to it all. It's easy to see LD sensibilities, especially having Curb to make the comparison. They're both drawn to, essentially, the comedy of manners, but maybe JS was vital to softing LD's harsher take for a mass audience.

Yes, true. Seinfeld brought a bland, unactorly photogenicness to the show and anchored it down and I think it's fair to say most likely did the equivalent in the writing. As the show progressed the characters grew more grotesque and the situations more wild and while I think that's the sitcom at its best (prior to David's departure, which hastened an inevitable dive off of a cliff, qualatively) those early seasons have a foot in the idiosyncratic mainstream of a 1970s sitcom like Taxi. David did a film that was all old people yelling at each other, which was the absolute worst and least funny part of Seinfeld, so being too quick to credit him as a perfect creative mind is definitely a shallow interpretation.

Notably, too, and like Roseanne, the supporting cast was much more talented than the star.

[Silent Majority]

Back when Seinfeld was going strong, he put out a book of his stuff (can't recall what it was called) and it was striking how flat it all seemed. He's not untalented by any means, but for someone who starred in and co-created a groundbreaking sitcom, it gives you pause to wonder how the hell *that* guy made it.

I'll credit Larry David, to be honest.

Yes, but we don't want to completely cut out what JS brought to it all. It's easy to see LD sensibilities, especially having Curb to make the comparison. They're both drawn to, essentially, the comedy of manners, but maybe JS was vital to softing LD's harsher take for a mass audience.

Yes, true. Seinfeld brought a bland, unactorly photogenicness to the show and anchored it down and I think it's fair to say most likely did the equivalent in the writing. As the show progressed the characters grew more grotesque and the situations more wild and while I think that's the sitcom at its best (prior to David's departure, which hastened an inevitable dive off of a cliff, qualatively) those early seasons have a foot in the idiosyncratic mainstream of a 1970s sitcom like Taxi. David did a film that was all old people yelling at each other, which was the absolute worst and least funny part of Seinfeld, so being too quick to credit him as a perfect creative mind is definitely a shallow interpretation.

Notably, too, and like Roseanne, the supporting cast was much more talented than the star.

Intelligent move to surround a non-actor at a show's center with dazzling talents.

[tepista]

63) The Island of Dr Moreau - HG Wells. 1896. Paperback. A better horror novel than I expected, with some genuinely unsettling scenes and concepts. The first person narrative means I know that the protagonist will survive the horrible man-beast ordeal, which takes away some of the tension and I think also two potentially very satisfying endings. Still, a good book from a writer I've sometimes underestimated.

I would read that. Seen all the film adaptations, obv!

[Dr. Medulla]

63) The Island of Dr Moreau - HG Wells. 1896. Paperback. A better horror novel than I expected, with some genuinely unsettling scenes and concepts. The first person narrative means I know that the protagonist will survive the horrible man-beast ordeal, which takes away some of the tension and I think also two potentially very satisfying endings. Still, a good book from a writer I've sometimes underestimated.

I would read that. Seen all the film adaptations, obv!

The first movie I ever rented was the 1977 version (and Escape From New York). This was before most people owned VCRs, so the first movie place that opened also rented the player. Just a massive fucker, top-loader, must have been 40 lbs including the case. A bunch of friends and I pooled our money and rented those—my recollection is that pretty much everything in the store was already rented—and did a sleepover at someone else's house. I don't think I've seen that one since, either.

[Silent Majority]

63) The Island of Dr Moreau - HG Wells. 1896. Paperback. A better horror novel than I expected, with some genuinely unsettling scenes and concepts. The first person narrative means I know that the protagonist will survive the horrible man-beast ordeal, which takes away some of the tension and I think also two potentially very satisfying endings. Still, a good book from a writer I've sometimes underestimated.

I would read that. Seen all the film adaptations, obv!

Short and better than Stoker's Dracula

[Silent Majority]

65) Introducing The Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind - Edith Hall. Audiobook. 2014. With restrained enthusiasm and a focus of the history as received via the surviving literature, Hall runs through a few thousand years of history in an accessible style and leaves the reader curious for further enquiry.

66) Henry IV, Part 2 - William Shakespeare. Play read on Kindle, audiobook and seen on the 1970s BBC adaptation, which looks like Robert Holmes Doctor Who. 1597. I didn't like this as much as the first part. Longed to skip past the comic relief and found that even the good parts hit all the same beats as its predecessor.

67) Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson. 2019. Audiobook. We've got a story here with a protagonist (who I think most likely navigated life with a mild learning difficulty), who seems to has no will of his own, no driving motivation, and, in contrast with his dad, Henry V, achieved more or less nothing expected of a medieval King. It makes much of this hard to remain interested in, until some people with get up and go turn up to usurp his position and fight some wars. Henry VI's side was called the Lancasters and those who opposed his rule supported the House of York. The Wars of the Roses, as a Victorian guy christened them, would then go on for a while.

68) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - Anthony Bourdain. Paperback. 2000. A fun guy, performative and self consciously cool. He's one of us. His memories of drug addiction and Mafia dudes are less interesting than someone who fully understands his craft and is able to communicate that passion and knowledge with skill. The best parts are when he talks about how a kitchen is run, which, some may not understand, is some of the highest pressure working locations outside of active war zones

[Kory]

68) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - Anthony Bourdain. Paperback. 2000. A fun guy, performative and self consciously cool. He's one of us. His memories of drug addiction and Mafia dudes are less interesting than someone who fully understands his craft and is able to communicate that passion and knowledge with skill. The best parts are when he talks about how a kitchen is run, which, some may not understand, is some of the highest pressure working locations outside of active war zones

I liked this too. I also have a copy of Medium Raw that I'm looking forward to starting soonish.

[Silent Majority]

69) Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula - Kurt W. Treptow, convicted paedophile. Audiobook. 2000. Shit and dry, with no life in the prose. Worst book I've finished in years. Not at all nice.

[Dr. Medulla]

69) Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula - Kurt W. Treptow, convicted paedophile. Audiobook. 2000. Shit and dry, with no life in the prose. Worst book I've finished in years. Not at all nice.

Well, you started with the third volume. Maybe if you went in order it'd be better.

[Flex]

69) Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula - Kurt W. Treptow, convicted paedophile. Audiobook. 2000. Shit and dry, with no life in the prose. Worst book I've finished in years. Not at all nice.

Apparently the parole board let this guy out early because he wrote this book in prison. So, hey, the book may have sucked but at least it got a pedophile out on the streets!

[Silent Majority]

69) Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula - Kurt W. Treptow, convicted paedophile. Audiobook. 2000. Shit and dry, with no life in the prose. Worst book I've finished in years. Not at all nice.

Apparently the parole board let this guy out early because he wrote this book in prison. So, hey, the book may have sucked but at least it got a pedophile out on the streets!

That is so insane.

[Dr. Medulla]

Speaking of writers and jail: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ton-brophy

[Silent Majority]

Speaking of writers and jail: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ton-brophy

Yes, I Did It