Leaving My Reading Comfort Zone

 

I've been pondering this whole notion of comfort zones when it comes to reading, though I think we could apply this to any sort of media that we choose to consume. At first, I didn't even want to admit that I have them. I felt embarrassed by the idea. 

After I thought about it some more, I started to look at my reading patterns. In reality you could call what I've done over the last few years as being in holding patterns. If I wanted to aim some judgement at myself, I'd even go as far as calling them ruts. What I started to question is whether or not I would equate those patterns/ruts as comfort zones. And I can admit that while both my more recent "ruts", Golden Age mysteries and M/M romance, give me comfort, I don't think they qualify as actual comfort zones, at least not in the way I choosing to interpret the whole concept. 

Oddly, it's actually my romance reading that even has me pondering this whole esoteric concept. In my romance reading, I tend to get sucked into series, more than I do standalone novels. Though I read quite a bit of those too. What I've found myself doing in certain series is the issue at hand. Anytime a book has featured a relationship that is either M/M/F, M/F, or F/F, I've skipped over those books. At first I wanted to just shrug it off to not wanting to read sex scenes that involve women, despite the fact that I skim through most sex scenes anyway. Then I decided I have to see M/F relationships all over the place in every other form of media, that I don't need to read romances about it. That really didn't explain my skipping over the other two types of relationships though. That sort of left me with no other explanation than they make me uncomfortable, so I needed to figure out why. And while some of it is the sex scenes and the fact I have heterosexuality shoved in my face on a regular basis, I had to admit something I'm not all that proud of. It's partly because as a gay man, I don't understand those types of relationships. It's the same reason I've tended to skip over M/M romance that has a transman as part of the couple. Since I don't understand how they work, I chose to not read about them. I chose to not invest my time in something I didn't understand, nor cared to.  

After I realized that, I had to take a hard look at myself. I began to wonder what other books, or even movies, I was ignoring because I didn't care/wonder about the perspective and story being told. What books were I ignoring because I don't understand the culture, religion, ethnic background, sexuality, disability, or world view that was at the heart of the story being told? That isn't something I can easily answer. All I can do is try to be more aware in my choices, and do my damndest to broaden my exposure. It's time to start pushing beyond my comfort zones, and maybe someday eliminate them altogether.

For the record, I'm now reading a F/F romance novel that is the fourth in a series I absolutely love. 

Three Ex-Boyfriends & The Books They Made Me Love

For the most part, a lot of us think of ex-boyfriends (or ex-girlfriends) in a rather negative light. For whatever reason, they are the ones we invited into our lives, only to have them leave on a negative note.  There may have been something horribly wrong in the relationship, or that spark may have just fizzled out.  In a lot of my past relationships, it was the timing of the whole thing that was a huge factor.  I've dated some great guys, just one of us would not be ready for a serious relationship. No matter the reason it didn't work out, most of us don't like think of our past relationships.  They tend to be examples of failure, and failure never feels good.

I would like to think I've taken something positive out of every relationship I've been in, no matter how disastrous they turned out to be.  From Andrew, I learned to love Dos Equis Amber, and it's still the only beer I will drink.  From Alberto, I learned how to recognize my limitations, and not to try and push myself into accepting things I'm not willing to deal with. From Joel, I learned to love Shania Twain, and that I won't put with the silent treatment.  From Martin, I learned that I don't have infinite patience and expecting a different result with the same factors in place, is a dumb idea.  And from some of my ex-boyfriends, while the love may not have lasted between us, assuming it was there to begin with, I did leave the relationship with a new love.  Some of those relationships exposed me to new books, and authors, I've grown to cherish over the years.

My relationship with Vincent was doomed from the start.  I got sucked in the night my first real boyfriend, Jeremy, broke up with me.  It seemed that Jeremy was tired of sneaking around behind my back, and wanted to be able to pursue others, without it being a secret.  Vincent was a mutual acquaintance of ours, and one night at the club, it seems as if they joined forces.  Jeremy told him he was going to break up with me, and that if Vincent was interested in me, to be waiting in the wings to come swoop me up.  It was a tacky thing to do, oh lord was it tacky, but I fell for it.  I let him comfort me that night, soothe away my pain, and my first rebound relationship was born.  It didn't last very long, thank god, but I did walk away from it with my first book boyfriend, Vanyel Ashkevron.

Vincent was a huge Mercedes Lackey fan, and he kept on talking about the three books in her Last Herald Mage trilogy.  He knew I loved to read, and I think he was trying to connect with me on a more than physical level.  It wasn't long before I was in love with not only Vanyel, but with Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series in general.  Here was a world in which men and women were called, from all corners of society, to serve their kingdom.  They sacrificed their lives in some cases to defend their realm, and they were to the one, good and honest people.  The Heralds, and Vanyel in particular, where the personifications of sacrifice and honor, and I loved them for it.  

I now own 40 of her books, have read them all numerous times, and Vanyel is one of my all time favorite characters.  I try to visit with him at least once a year, though blogging has made rereading a little more difficult than it used to be. 

Derek was my first kiss and first, well you don't need to know that part.  I met him in college, and while I can't say we ever dated, it was more than a casual hookup.  It was during the first semester of my Freshman year, and I wasn't really out to a lot of my friends on campus.  A bunch of us had gone to another town to a club that allowed anyone 18 and over to come in.  We met him there, and a bunch of us became friends.  He came down to our campus one night to hangout, and while a few of us were talking, I slipped in my coming out so smoothly, two of them didn't realize I did it for a good ten minutes.  That night I kissed a guy for the first time, and it felt like I was coming home.  Over the next two years he was a great teacher, if somewhat infrequent, and while I think we really did care about each other, the love spark never happened.   We are still friends, connected on Facebook, and I will always be grateful for making my first of everything as enjoyable as it was. 

He ended up moving to Colorado, and for the longest time we kept in touch, and I actually took a trip out there for a visit one year, and that's when I was introduced to The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.  It was one of Derek's favorite books, and I was enraptured almost from the first page.  It's a modern day fable of a young boy who just isn't happy with his life.  He is bored all the time, and just knows there is something out there, something better than what he has now.  He is quickly conned into visiting a magical house where all four seasons, with the accompanying holidays, cycle throughout the day.  Little does he know that every day spent in the house, is a full year in the real world. Once he figures out something is really wrong, he does everything he can to get home.

This is another of those books that I've read multiple times, and has led me to reading Clive Barker's Abarat series as well.  I've fallen in love with the way he writes books for young adults.  They are edgy, darker in tone, and completely surreal.  I haven't read The Thief of Always since I started blogging, but I'm pretty positive it will be getting a visit this Fall. 

What can I say about Brent? He was slight nerdy, adorably nice, and hung up on someone else.  I'm positive this wasn't a love match for either one of us, but we enjoyed each other's company, and for the most part we had fun with it.  It was one of those relationships that just sort of fizzled out, all on it's own, and thankfully we both not only recognized it, but we were okay with it as well.  We stayed friends for a while, but life drifts people apart, and the last I knew he was living in Florida.

Brent introduced me to the books of Guy Gavriel Kay, and I owe him dinner a thousand times over for making that introduction possible.  I've had a hot/cold relationship with fantasy for a long time now, and for whatever reason, I tend to be a little picky in what I read.  I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I can pick up any Kay book, and I will instantly fall in love with the world he created, and the inhabitants that dwell there.  There is a lyrical quality to his books that is pretty impossible to explain, but it makes his books a physical pleasure to read.  Within a few pages, I will be transported into another world, and I will never want to leave.  His writing is beautiful, and his characters are so well written, you can't imagine them not existing in real life.  He has never failed to deliver, and as I'm writing this post, I'm feeling an almost overwhelming pull to grab a few of his book off my shelves, and lose myself for the next few hours. 

If Only They Weren't Dead

My brain hasn't been able to let go of a post that Tasha of Truth, Beauty, Freedom & Books did the the other day. She posted about the authors she would automatically buy from when they release new books, and how her list has changed over they years.  And like any good post will do, it got me thinking of who would be on my list, and it was fairly short.

Other than a few of the m/m romance writers I've become addicted to, there was only one author, Daryl Gregory.  I could name a few other authors I enjoy, but I only buy the books that fit into a certain series, not everything they write.  That list was a little longer and included Mercedes Lackey, Simon R. Green, S.M. Stirling, Guy Gavriel Kay, and a few others, but that doesn't really answer the original question.

My brain took this question one step further though.  I started to think of all the dead authors I enjoy, and how badly I wish they still had new books coming out. So that is the list I'm going to share with you guys.  So please, if you have an in with a really good medium, could you please get the word out and let these authors know that they still have a willing audience for their work.

Agatha Christie - I don't think it's possible to know me, and not know that I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan.  I don't think she has ever steered me wrong, and even when I don't particularly love one of her books, I know they are better than half the stuff that's being written today. I would love for her to be able to give them lessons on how to write a good mystery.

Mary Roberts Rinehart - If there is a mystery writer I love as much as Agatha Christie, it's Mary Roberts Rinehart.  She was called the American Agatha Christie at one point in time, and her writing more than lived up to that honor.  I have yet to read one of her book that I didn't like, and I'm running out of them to read.  I just wish she was still around to feed my addiction.

Erle Stanley Gardner - I got hooked on his books because of his most famous creation, Perry Mason.  For that reason alone, I love him.  But even his none Mason books have been good and well worth the read.  I would pay good money to have him still writing Perry Mason books, I'd even be willing to kill for it. 

Robert Jordan - This is a man who saved the fantasy genre for me.  Other than one or two other authors, I had given up on it, then I discovered his Wheel of Time series.   He wrote epic fantasy in a way that made it come to life in my head, and in my heart.  He is what all these other authors should be trying to be.  I just wish he was around to give me more Rand, Perrin, and Mat. 

Frank Herbert - If there is a saving grace for science fiction, it's the writing of Frank Herbert.  I think most of you guys know by now, that I am not a science fiction fan.  When I first discovered Dune, my entire outlook shifted, and I've never looked back.  I could have read about that world until the day I die.  I know his son tried to continue the books, but they just weren't the same. 

Shirley Jackson - There was nobody better at taking the ordinary, everyday occurrences of life, and making them feel disjointed and unnatural. She could twist a story like nobody else, and make your entire foundation shift and crumble.  The Haunting of Hill House and "The Lottery" are probably her two works that almost everyone knows, but I've never read anything by her that wasn't up to that same standard.  

Flannery O'Connor - I'm not even sure what to say about Flannery O'Connor, except to say she was a gifted novelist, and an even better short story author.  She was able to pack so much into a short story, a talent that not many have.  Like Shirley Jackson, I've never read her work, and not fallen in love with it.  She was Queen of the Southern Gothic, and how I wish she was still around.  

Are Male Protagonists a Dying Breed?

I'm not sure if it's because of the book blogging world, which is dominated by women, a world where most of the books being reviewed are general fiction, romance, and YA; all of which seem to have been taken over by female characters.  Or maybe I'm just buying my books in the wrong stores.  It seems every time I stop and look at the new fiction tables, or the best selling racks, they are almost all about female protagonists.  Even in genres that used to be heavily dominated by men; mystery, fantasy, and science fiction, it seems as if the male hero is a dying breed.  Now I know there are a lot of exceptions to my observations, and that you can all give examples of great fiction featuring male protagonists, but it seems as if they are in the small minority, that the female hero has risen up to smite the men.  So please do not list all the male lead books, or the male heroes of your favorite series.  I promise you that I'm already familiar with them, I just think they are becoming harder to find.

Now I'm not saying I've done a scientific study or anything, but going through all the blogs on my blog roll, over 70% of the currently reviewed books (the books on the first page of their blog) featured female protagonists, and the majority of the male protagonists were regulated to the espionage or action genres, or they were in older books.  A quick glance at the New York Times Best Seller List shows the majority of them feature female heroes, and the same goes for a lot of the other best seller lists I took a look at.  And a quick glance through the books that have been made into movies the last few years, it seems as if the majority of them, especially the YA movies, are again featuring female protagonists.

Before you guys start yelling at me, and screaming words like sexist and misogynistic, I'm not trying to say there is anything wrong with this trend, assuming this isn't all in the my head.  Nor am I really trying to engage in an educated sociological discussion on the merits of this phenomenon.  To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure I have a serious point to make, or a profound observation to share.

By this point in time you are probably wondering, even if this is really what's going on, what is your point of all this?  I'm so glad you asked.  Other than the fact that I've not bought books I've liked the sound of, but didn't care for the sound of the protagonist, I'm afraid that it pigeonholes boys into reading certain types of books, or keeping them from reading all together.  I totally understand the reason for strong female protagonists, as it gives girls and women someone to emulate or relate to.  But don't boys, teens, and adult men need the same thing.  Is there a reason why men should be forced to read two or three genres in order to find male heroes they can relate to?  I could be over thinking it, and working myself into a tizzy for no reason, but I'm not so sure I'm wrong here.  If this trend is stopping me, someone who already loves to read and has always been pretty open in what I do read, from reading entire genres or avoid certain plots lines, how would I not assume it's doing it to those who don't read that much or haven't found a love for reading yet.

So am I out on a limb here?  Is this something that really doesn't exist, and that it's pure coincidence in the books I'm noticing in the stores and on blogs?  And if it is real, what's causing it.  Do women make up the majority of the American reading public?  Are most of the new authors being published now women?  And, assuming this is a real phenomenon, is it the problem I seem to think it is, or is it benign and not worthy of notice?  I'm not sure about any of the questions I just asked, but I'm curious to see what you guys have to say about it.

Why & How I Read

For some odd reason, as I woke up this morning, I was thinking about why I read so much.  Other people have hobbies that they don't seem to obsess over, or take up all their free time doing, so why does it seem that I'm reading so much right now.  Hell, you don't see every stamp collector starting a blog to glorify his hobby, so why was it so important for me to do it?  Reading is the one constant of my day to day life, other than the consumption of food. If I'm not at work, or doing some other activity that precludes the act of reading, I'm reading.

And it's nothing new.  When I was a kid, there were times, even in summer, when I would rather read than play outside.  One summer, I was convinced that I would rather read my great-grandmother's collection of Encyclopedia Britannica than be outside.  They had to force me to go play.  A lot of that had to do with my childhood.  We moved a lot, and when I mean a lot, I had lived in more places by the time I was in 5th grade, than most people live in their entire lifetimes.  And that's not even talking about all the places and schools I went to when we were traveling with a carnival for three years, or the time we spent living with a biker gang in Washington state.

Because of all that, it was hard for me to relate to people my own age.  We never stayed around long enough for me to make real friends, and when I did, it wasn't that long before I would have to say goodbye.  When we were with the carnival, that happened every two weeks for the majority of the year.  Books were constant though.  Whether or not they stayed the same over the years, I always had stories and characters I could escape into, that would be there for me when nobody else could.  In essence, books became a companion and my best friend.

As an adult, while they don't serve the same function anymore, books are still a vital part of my life.  I don't need them to be my friends now, I have enough of those, but I do use them as my greatest resource for stress relief.  When I was in my twenties, I still read a lot, but I used going out, and dancing became my main way to get rid of stress.  Lot's of sex helped in that area too, but that's what gay guys in their twenties do.  For that matter, that's what too many men still do, way into their thirties and forties.  I out grew all of that though, and I found myself gravitating back towards books.  It's the time spent in a new world, surrounded by new and familiar characters, that seems to keep the outside world from getting to big to handle.  The pages of a book are where I go to be myself again, the self I want to be, without all the stress and cares weighing me down.

It's the way I read a book that allows this whole process to happen.  It doesn't matter what genre the book falls into, or whether or not it's fiction or non-fiction, I read them all as if I'm reading a memoir or a history book.  It could be my favorite Agatha Christie mystery, The Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, one of the best historical fiction books I've ever read, or even the best general fiction book I've ever read; I read them all as if I'm reading a fantastic biography of an even more fantastic person.

It's the way I'm able to get into the story, to take it all in, that allows reading to be the perfect stress relief.  I have to believe in what I'm reading, if it doesn't come across as true, I lose interest.  When I'm reading about Randy Dreyfus, he feels as real to me as Neil White.  It's the whole reason why I have so much fun with my Favorite Fictional Character feature, it's because they are real to me when I'm spending time with them.  Dagny Taggart is no different from George Washington or Kamila Sadiqi for me, at least not when I'm reading about them.  It's that willing suspension of disbelief that allows the pages of a book to pull me in, and lets me forget about everything else.  It's the way I need to read in order to truly enjoy it, and allow it to keep me sane.

10 Books + Island, With A Twist

The other day, my good friend Yvette of in so many words.... did a post on the 10 books she would want with her on a desert island, a different planet, or spending eternity at an empty diner.  Well I was able to answer that question pretty quickly, and we actually had two books in common.  We both picked Watership Down by Richard Adams and Dracula by Bram Stoker.  

My additional books were:  Omnibus edition of the Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Gillespie and I by Jane Harris, The Thief of Always by Clive Barker, and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

However, that's not the point of this post.  Picking your 10 favorite books, the only books you would want for the rest of your life, it's pretty easy.  I think most of us, though we would have to do some weeding, could come up with that list fairly quickly. 

The question I think is harder to answer, and the question I'm answering with this post is, of all the books you have never read, which 10 would you want with you the day you became stranded on a desert island?  I think our TBR lists, our wish lists, are way bigger than any of us would consider healthy.  So trying to narrow that list down is a bit harder, at least for me.  What makes it even harder is that, on any given day, a few of the books my change on us.

So with no further ado, these are the books I would pick, as of right now:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis

Dragonwyck by Anya Seton

Curtain by Agatha Chrisite

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

Under the Sea-Wind by Rachel Carson 

Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

20 Questions Every Movie Lover Should Be Able To Answer, Part 2

As promised the second half of the movie meme that I posted yesterday.  This was a lot of fun to do, even if it made me rack my brains a bit.  Stop by Yvette's blog, in so many words..., to read her answers and for links to the originating post.

11.  What gets your vote for the most worthless or pointless remake?

Don't even get me started on this.  This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves in the world.  I'm not sure I could even narrow the list down to 10, let alone 1.  I will try my best to keep this brief.

My vote for worst remake has to go to The Women (2008).  This was a movie I dreamed of being remade for years, but this wasn't what I dreamed of.  This was more of a hellish nightmare.  Of the casting, I'm not sure any of them fit the roles, though I do think Debra Messing was a good substitute for Rosalind Russell.  The plot was horrific, and the updating the movie to modern times just didn't work as well for me.  I would rather see a period remake with actresses who would have fit the roles better.  My other option, which I'm not even sure has been made yet, is the rumored remake of The Thin Man with Johnny Depp.  I'm  trying not to throw up in my mouth just from thinking about it.

As a collective group, any movie based of a TV Show should go straight into the trash.  I don't think there has been a good one made to date, at least not one that improved on the show.  Dark Shadows (2012), Bewitched (2005), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Starsky & Hutch (2004), and 21 Jump Street (2012) are all great examples of this.

12.  Is there any film you think is actually desperate for a remake?

My first reaction is to say no, just because I can't think of any remake that improved upon or added something the first one didn't cover.  After some thought though, I would like to see some different adaptations of movies, rather than straight remakes.

One of my favorite books is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, and so far none of the English language adaptations feature all the Christie characters or the ending she put into the book.  My favorite adaptation so far is And Then There Were None (1945), directed by Rene Clair.  George Pollock directed Ten Little Indians in 1965, setting the move at a mountain top estate.  Peter Collinson directed And Then There Were None in 1974, setting it in a hotel in the Iranian desert.  Then Alan Birkinshaw directed Ten Little Indians in 1989, setting it on a African safari.  There is a Soviet era movie that uses the book ending and a Bollywood version, though I'm not convinced I want to see that.  There have also been a few TV adaptations as well.

I don't think THE movie has been made of this book yet.  I would love to see a movie, using Christie's characters, set on an island, and using the ending she gave us.  I'm not sure it's ever going to happen but I can keep my fingers crossed.

Really quickly, I can say the same thing about Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.  The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007) all fail to live up to the promise of the book. This is another book that is waiting for THE movie adaptation.

14.  Name you three favorite film heroes.

Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

William Powell as Nick Charles in, The Thin Man (1934)  As well as 4 other movies.

Lance Guest as Alex Logan in, The Last Starfighter (1984)

15.  Name you three favorite film villains.

This could be a really long list, but I'll stick to the first three that come to mind.

Bela Lugosi as Dracula in, Dracula (1931)

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in, American Psycho (2000)

Christian Slater as Robert Boyd in, Very Bad Things (1998)

15.  Best Sequel

Since I'm not going with movies I've already talked about, I will skip over After The Thin Man (1936)  and go with another terrific sequel.

The Dark Knight (2008)

16.  Worst sequel

Oh, this list could be the longest of all, but I'll keep it to one.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

17.  Best Trilogy

The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and The Godfather: Part III (1990)

18.  Worst Trilogy 

My pick for this is going to include one of my favorite movies.  I really loved the first movie, but the next two I didn't get the point of.  It was just more of the first and it almost ruined the entire experience for me.

Cube (1997), Cube 2: Hypercube (2003), and Cube Zero (2004)

19.  What is your favorite word to use in a film review?   Atmospheric

20.  Anything else......

I'm just going to post 5 more random favorites, then I'm done.  I have to cut it off somewhere, otherwise I could go on and on.  I feel bad for not mentioning so many great movies over these last two days, but all good things must come to an end.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) is my favorite Christmas movie.

Magnolia (1999) is the best movie Tom Cruise has ever been in.

Lifeboat (1944) is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie.

The Last Supper (1995) is my favorite dark comedy.

I was going to say Europa Europa (1990) was my favorite foreign language movie, but then I started to think of another 5 or 6 that I love about as much, so I'll settle for calling it my favorite German language movie.

20 Questions Every Movie Lover Should Be Able To Answer, Part 1

After reading, curling up on the couch and watching a movie has to be one of my favorite ways to relax.  I've been a movie buff for about as long as I can remember.  I think it's been a few years since I've answered a movie related meme, so when I saw this done by Yvette of in so many words..., I figured it was about time to jump on the bandwagon once again.

I wasn't going to separate this into two posts, but I think Yvette had it right.  After I answered the first ten questions and so how long this was going to be, I decided that two posts made a lot more sense.  So the second segment of this will post tomorrow.


1.  What is your favorite movie?

Where the ____ would I even start with on this one.  That's like asking what my favorite book is.  In either case, I love so many it would be really hard to make a decision like that.  Depending on any given day my answer would range from The Women (1939) to The Towering Inferno (1974).  I could even throw out such movies as The Thin Man (1934), The Haunting (1963), The Uninvited (1944), or even Willow (1988).  Since I can't not answer this question with a definite favorite, I think I'm going to have to go with Auntie Mame (1958).  Rosalind Russell is never better than she is in this movie, and I'm a huge fan of many of her films.  I don't think I could ever say too many good things about her performance or any other aspect of the movie.  It's sheer perfection.  It's that movie that cheers me up, regardless of anything else going on in my life.

2.  What is your least favorite movie?

I was hoping these questions would get easier to answer as the quiz moved along.  This is another category that could be answered with so many movies.  I could say The Watcher (2000) with Keanu Reeves since I'm still trying to figure out what the frickin point of it was.  John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) would be right up there as well.  If a horror movie needs to be set in space, it's probably best to wait until it's on video.  Since remakes and sequels are coming up later, I won't even get into those movies.  I would also normally include any movie that stars Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Jim Carey, or Ben Stiller onto the worst movies of all time list.  I think for this go around though, I'm going to have to make a choice that many of you will denounce me for, but it needs to be said.  I will grant you that Tom Hanks is a great actor and anyone else in this role would have been worse, but Castaway (2000) has to be one of the worst movies ever made.  I can't even begin to tell you how often I wanted to get up and leave the theater, something I have only done with a few movies.  It was incredibly boring and if I had to listen to another one sided conversation with a volleyball, I was going to lose it.

3.  Name one movie you initially loved upon first viewing but then grew to hate?

I can't say that I really hate many movies that I once loved, even if I just don't love them as much the second time around.  Off the top of my head, the first movie that comes to mind is Gremlins (1984).  I loved this movie as a kid, couldn't get enough of it actually.  Now it just doesn't hold my interest as much and I find myself getting bored with it pretty quickly.  I'm still going to watch it this year, hopefully my blahness about it will have dissipated a bit.

4.  Name your biggest guilty pleasure film.

I'm going to have to cheat a bit here, as I have two of them.  I tried and tried to narrow it down to just one of them, but I can't.  They are two movies that are so cheesy, so wonderful to behold that I love them equally, though for different reasons.  Xanadu (1980) speaks for itself.  How can you not love a musical on roller skates?  Throw in Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton John, and I'm in blissful heaven.  The soundtrack, even if ELO denounces their work now, is one of the best I've ever heard.  My second pick is, The Monster Squad  (1987).  Put the major Universal movie monsters (though deny that's who they are) into one comedic horror movie written by the same man who brought us House (1986) and let the good times roll.

5.  Your favorite quote from a favorite actor/actress (line from a movie).

I was going to go with my favorite quote from Auntie Mame (1958) when she says "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"  But since I used that movie to answer the first question, I though I would go with a movie line from another of my favorite actresses.  In The Bat (1959), Agnes Moorehead plays Cornelia Van Gorder, a mystery novelist who has rented a rather spooky estate in the country.  During a conversation in the bank, Miss Van Gorder has something to say to her maid, Lizzie Allen, "When you refer to my books, please don't call me Miss Corny."

6.  Favorite quote from an actor/actress that is not a movie line.

I love what Barbara Stanwyck had to say about the movie roles she normally landed....  "My only problem is finding a way to play my fortieth fallen female in a different way from my thirty-ninth."

7.  Three favorite movie scenes.

I don't know how to even answer this one.  There are so many great scenes that I love.  I'm going to try to not use movie I've already mentioned, which may make it easier, but we'll see.  I know I'm going to leave a lot out, but here goes nothing.

In After the Thin Man (1936) Nick and Nora Charles, played by the brilliant William Powell and Myrna Loy, have just returned to San Francisco, right on time for New Year's Eve.  Wanting to spend their first few days at home, resting.  They are instead greeted by a massive welcome home party, where nobody there recognizes them.  The good natured way the two take things in stride and go with the flow is subtle humor at it's best.

Guillermo del Toro's breathtaking film, Pan's Labyrinth (2006), is filled with the type of scenes that any movie lover should go gaga for.  The entire movie is filled with some of the most magnificent scenes I've ever experienced.  The movie takes place in the Fascist Spain of the 1940s, and tells the tale of a young girl, Ofelia, who's new stepfather is a violent army officer.  She escapes the harshness of her new life by escaping into a world of fantasy, that in part mirrors the horrors of what's going on above.  Her journey into this other world is breathtaking and visually stimulating, but it's the end sequence that takes my breath away every time I see it.  My heart breaks for Ofelia at the point and that feeling doesn't leave me for quite some time.

I simply adore Irving Berlin's White Christmas (1954).  It's one of those Christmas movies that I'll watch in the middle of summer, just because I can.  While the movie is filled with some great scenes, my favorite has always been the Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen number when they dance to "The Best Things (Happen While Your Dancing)".  The scene works so well because of the terrific costume choices by Edith Head, the lines work so well because of those monochromatic clothes that makes Danny Kaye's legs look so long and straight.  The wonderful choreography by Robert Alton, unless it was one of the uncredited numbers by Bob Fosse, tied the music and the action together in such a graceful manner.  But it wouldn't have worked without the performances given by Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, they were brilliant in the number and I never tire of watching it.

8.  Name four films that should have not won the Oscar for best Picture.

I don't even know where to start with this one.  I think I could name way more than four, and that's not even counting 1995, where most of the movies nominated didn't deserve it.  I'm not going to go back to the 1930s where I disagree with most of the winners.  I'm already screaming at myself for not including more, but the rules say four, so here are my choices.

1944 - Going My Way won against two other superior movies.  Gaslight should have won, but if not, Double Indemnity should have been the second choice.  The other two movies nominated that year were Wilson and Since You Went Away.

1994 - Forrest Gump beat out The Shawshank Redemption which is one of the best movies made in the 1990s.  The other movies that year were; Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Quiz Show.

1997 - Titanic, another best picture winner that I couldn't stand.  Like Forrest Gump I thought it was overacted and just a tad bit cloying in it's sentimentality.  L.A. Confidential was a better movie, with a superior cast.  As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, and Good Will Hunting were the other nominees.

2008 - Slumdog Millionaire won that year.  I don't want anyone to think I dont' like the movie, cause I do, but it wasn't the best of the year.  I would have preferred Milk to win, but even Frost/Nixon would have deserved it more.  The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons were the other two nominees.

9.  Top five movies of the year.

I'm going to have to go the way of Yvette on this one.  I don't go to the movies very often anymore.  I tend to wait until they are on either On Demand or Epix.  Sometimes I'll buy a newer DVD before I've seen the movie but that's not very often.  So I'm going to have to go with five movies that I saw for the first time this year, even if that's not when they came out.

The Ides of March (2011)

Drive (2011)

Exam (2009)

Footsteps in the Dark (1941)

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)

10.  Bottom three of the year, so far.

Union Pacific (1939)  I think I'm just not meant for "western" movies, even if Barbara Stanwyck is in them.  I guess I'll stick to The Big Valley if I want to see Barbara in western clothes.

Casablanca (1942)  I just don't get it.  Sorry to all the fans out there, but there was nothing about this movie that I could fall in love with.

Atlas Shrugged, Part II (2012)  It hasn't been released yet, but I'm not going to bother with it.  I loved the first movie last year, but I have no faith when they have changed the entire cast.