For those who perhaps are not familiar with him, I just wanted to do my bit to make sure that the whole world learns about the venerable English author, Terry Pratchett.  He’s one of the most prolific, talented, and astute observers of human behavior who is writing today. If you have anything approximating a sense of humor, you will find something to enjoy in his extensive catalog.

Initially made famous for his Discworld novels, which are set on a mythical yet suspiciously familiar disc-shaped world, Pratchett’s work has now in several instances been made into film. Some of you may have seen “Hogfather” which aired fairly recently on American cable television. 

 Unfortunately reading books has to a degree fallen out of fashion, and of course many people are so busy working three or four jobs to make ends meet, that collapsing in front of a television set is the best many of us can do after an eighteen hour day.  Like just about every other instance you can think of, Pratchett’s books have a richness of detail that cannot possibly be translated to a movie… but they’ve certainly given it the old college try and not come up wanting.  (The aforementioned Hogfather was incredibly nicely done….how can you miss, when you cast David Jason as Rincewind? But I digress.)

So, whether you read Pratchett’s books, or watch the available films, if you’ve never heard of him, by all means, step on out and treat yourself, and your family. I would think that any of Pratchett’s books would be suitable for children from about the age of twelve on up, but of course, your mileage may vary. Children younger than that will have some of the jokes sailing over their heads, but they still will enjoy the stories. He’s a master storyteller, and laugh-out-loud funny.

Pratchett writes for adults, however. Anyway, just trust me. If you don’t know Pratchett, I HIGHLY recommend his work, especially his books, especially the discworld novels. Pratchett is a galactic treasure. If we’re rating humorous, imaginative writers on a scale of one to ten, I’d say Pratchett is an eleven! Read him, and thank me later!

I wanted to share a list of some of what I think are the coolest, most inspirational books ever, and I don’t think they are commonly read these days. (Correct me if I’m wrong!) I hope folks might find something new here, and if so, let me know! I love to read and to share good books.

1.) Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl is a book by a concentration camp survivor which will really make you think. It will definitely move you, and it may even change your life. It did mine.

2.) The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is also a very inspirational book having to with the author’s experiences during WWII. Well worth reading.

3.) Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person by Hugh Prather. I found this book to be very inspirational and thought provoking, as have all of my friends that have read it. It’s poetic, uplifting, and a relatively quick read.

4.) Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. This tale which on the face of it seems to be about a misfit seagull actually has very important and meaningful overtones which are helpful for the spirituality of humans, too.

5.)Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of The Dalai Lama by H.H. Dalai Lama. Even for those of us who are not buddhist, this book is extremely inspirational and thought provoking. I’d urge everyone to read it, and give thought to what he has to say.

So, I just thought I’d mention these. I’d be interested to know if any of you have read any of them, and if you did, what you thought about them.

Gilda Radner was also an incredibly deep thinker who offered some profundity in “It’s Always Something.”

I also wanted to share one of my favorite quotations from her writings, about love and life. She wrote:

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.

~Gilda Radner

Yep, we never know the fullness of what is going to happen next. The trick is to learn to see the deliciousness in the ambiguity. If Radner could do it staring down advanced ovarian cancer, maybe the rest of us can learn to do it as well.

Enjoy your day, no matter what it brings. There is deliciousness in any manner of things.

100. IT (1990, Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace)
99. The Beyond (1981, Directed by Lucio Fulci)
98. Cloverfield
97. Don’t Look Now (1973, Directed by Nocolas Roeg)
96. Night of the Creeps (1986, Written and Directed by Fred Dekker)
95. Dead Ringers (1988, Directed by David Cronenberg)
94. Return of the Living Dead (1985, Written & Directed by Dan O’Bannon)
93. Scream (1996, Directed by Wes Craven)
92. Final Destination (2000, Directed by James Wong)
91. Re-Animator (1985, Directed by Stuart Gordon)
90. The Descent (2005, Directed by Neil Marshall)
89. The Ring (2002, Directed by Gore Verbinski)
88. Puppet Master (1989, Directed by David Schmoeller)
87. Salem’s Lot (1979, Directed by Tobe Hooper)
86. Seven (1995, Directed by David Fincher)
85. Hostel (2005, Directed by Eli Roth)
84. Jason X
83. May (2002, Written and Directed by Lucky McKee)
82. Sweeney Todd
81. From Beyond (1986, Directed by Stuart Gordon)
80. Jacobs’ Ladder (1990, Directed by Adrian Lyne)
79. Suspiria (1977, Directed by Dario Argento)
78. Ginger Snaps (2000, Directed by John Fawcett)
77. Altered States (1980, Directed by Ken Russell)
76. Videodrome (1983, Written and Directed by David Cronenberg)
75. Pet Semetary (1989, Directed by Mary Lambert)
74. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981, Directed by Steve Miner)
73. The Host (2006, Directed by Joon-ho Bong)
72. Halloween 2 (1981, Directed by Rick Rosenthal)
71. Event Horizon (1997, Directed by Paul Anderson)
70. Alien Vs. Predator
69. Resident Evil
68. 1408
67. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006, Directed by Scott Glosserman)
66. 28 Weeks Later (2007, Directed By Juan Carlos Fresnadillo)
65. Army of Darkness (1992, Directed by Sam Raimi)
64. The Lost Boys (1987, Directed by Joel Schumacher)
63. The Zombie Diaries
62. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, Directed by Ji-woon Kim)
61. Day Watch (2006, Directed By Timur Bekmambetov)
60. The Deaths Of Ian Stone
59. Crazy Eights
58. Resident Evil 3
57. Frontiers
56. The Orphanage (2007, Directed by J.A. Bayona)
55. The Omen (1976, Directed by Richard Donner)
54. Day of the Dead (1985, Written and Directed by George A. Romero)
53. Amityville Horror (1979, Directed by Stuart Rosenberg)
52. The Sixth Sense (1999, Directed by M. Night Shyamalan)
51. Diary Of The Dead
50. Day Of The Dead: The Need To Feed
49. High Tension (2005, Directed by Alexandre Aja)
48. Man Bites Dog (1992, Directed By Remy Belvaux)
47. The Thing (1982, Directed by John Carpenter)
46. Resident Evil 2
45. Poltergeist (1982, Directed by Tobe Hooper)
44. Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Directed by Roman Polanski)
43. The Blair Witch Project (1999, Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez)
42. Trackman
41. Cemetary Man (1994, Directed by Michele Soavil)
40. 30 Days Of Night
39. Night Watch (2004, Directed By Timur Bekmambetov)
38. Ju-On (2000, Written and Directed by Takashi Shimizu)
37. Wolf Creek (2005, Directed By Greg McLean)
36. Dawn of the Dead 2004 (2004, Directed by Zack Snyder)
35. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Directed by Wes Craven)
34. Dawn of the Dead (1978, Written and Directed by George A. Romero)
33. The Howling (1981, Directed by Joe Dante)
32. Frailty (2001, Directed by Bill Paxton)
31. Dead Alive (1992, Directed by Peter Jackson)
30. Black Sheep
29. Phantasm (1979, Directed by Don Coscarelli)
28. Death Note II: The Last Name (2007, Directed By Shusuke Kaneko)
27. Death Note (2006, Directed By Shusuke Kaneko)
26. Hell Raiser (1987, Directed by Clive Barker)
25. Grindhouse (2007, Directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez)
24. Evil Dead (1981, Directed by Sam Raimi)
23. Trailer Park Of Terror (2008, Directed By Steven Goldmann)
22. Darkness Falls (2003, Directed by Jonathan Liebesman)
21. Feast (2005, Directed by John Gulager)
20. Friday the 13th (1980, Directed by Sean S. Cunningham)
19. Audition (1999, Directed by Takashi Miike)
18. Jaws (1975, Directed by Steven Spielberg)
17. The Shining (1980, Directed by Stanley Kubrick)
16. Kingdom Hospital
15. Exorcist III
14. Reincarnation
13. Ringu (1998, Directed by Hideo Nakata)
12. Dog Soldiers (2002, Written and Directed by Neil Marshall)
11. Silence of the Lambs (1991, Directed by Jonathan Demme)
10. The Mist (2007, Directed by Frank Darabont)
9. Let The Right One In (2008, Directed By Tomas Alfredson)
8. Shaun of the Dead (2004, Directed by Edgar Wright)
7. Halloween (1978, Directed by John Carpenter)
6. Cube (1997, Directed By Vincenzo Natali)
5. 28 Days Later (2002, Directed by Danny Boyle)
4. Aliens (Special Edition) (1986, Directed by James Cameron)
3. Carrie (Special Edition) (1976, Directed by Brian De Palma)
2. Alien (1979, Directed by Ridley Scott)
1. The Exorcist (The Version You’ve Never Seen) (2002, Directed by William Friedkin)

“Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

-Erica Jong

Need I say more? Erica Jong is a very interesting writer if you’ve never read any of her stuff. I’d recommend “How to Save Your Own Life,” for those of you who don’t know her. Be forewarned: the book is for grownups and would probably be rated R. If you can’t deal with mature things and mature language, don’t read it. Just read her quotes. She’s a thinker, and offers some interesting perspective. Anyway, here’s a link for those of you who may not know her stuff.  How to Save Your Own Life . Enjoy!

I was just thinking about the few television shows I’ve seen from outside the United States (they are mostly all either Japanese game shows or British television shows.) It made me curious about what shows people watch the most and enjoy, whether they are from the USA or from other countries. What do you watch?

I’ve put a list of some of my favorite shows up and I’d love to hear what other people, particularly non-US people, watch most often. Or do you watch at all? In general I am not a huge TV fan, I get sick of seeing commercials for drugs every 90 seconds and so on. But here are some shows that I do enjoy:

(These are in no particular order.)

1. Stargate/Atlantis Series
2. Robot Chicken
3. Family Guy
4. American Dad
5. The Daily Show
6. Colbert Report
7. Vicar of Dibley (British sitcom shown on PBS here)
8. Moral Orel
9. Saving Grace
10. The Closer
11. CSI

Maybe it says something about me that I’m a grown woman and a few of these are cartoons, etc., but I guess we’ve got to take our pleasures where we can find them, especially when it comes to TV!

So, what might be on your list? Thanks.

I think that he was ahead of his time, especially with this internet stuff and the 24 hour news cycles….where privacy is non existent and where people think nothing at all of exposing the most intimate details of their entire lives to the whole world. So in no particular order I thought I’d share some quotes with y’all from Morrison that ought to make you think.  I’d add a picture of him but I’d bet they’re all copyrighted and I wouldn’t want to get in trouble! Here’s the Morrison quotes:

“We are obsessed with heroes who live for us and whom we punish.”

Now isn’t that the truth these days? Think of any “hero.” I think a lot of us don’t even know what the word means. Paris Hilton a hero? ok, whatever.

“More or less, we’re all afflicted with the psychology of the voyeur.”

If modern society doesn’t say this in large blinking capital letters, then I am made of wood. Remember he was writing and saying this stuff in the late 60’s and 70’s. Imagine what he would think NOW!

“Films are collections of dead pictures which are given artificial insemination.”

Not sure quite what to say to that. Wonder whatever happened to his “wife” Pam and his brother/parents. Anybody know?

Feast II

My husband and I are quite the movie buffs and we enjoy several different genres, including horror flicks. Here’s a quick review of one we saw recently – Feast II: Sloppy Seconds.

I really dig dark humor (you know, the kind that makes you cringe while you laugh) and Feast II was full of it. However, although it’s rated R, it’s NOT a movie that you’d want to watch with impressionable children or if you’re rather prudish. It’s not quite as tightly paced as the first one, but it’s still pretty good, with lots of cringy moments. I had a lot of “laugh out loud” moments with it too.

One probably doesn’t expect much out of any direct-to-DVD movie, but I have to say in my opinion this one was a cut above the usual horror schlock. I’m looking forward to more from these writer/directors, and I was pleased to read that they’re doing “Feast III.”

Dedicated horror fans will quite possibly like this movie. So if you count  yourself as one, and you’re wavering over whether to rent it or Netflix it, I say give it a go, but not when your kiddies or nervous wife/sister or mom’s around. They might think you’re sick.