Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Four Books (Cabot, Rebello, Krakauer, Griffin)

Most of the reading I've been doing lately has been in the form of audiobooks, which three out of four of these books are:

How to Be Popular, by Meg Cabot*
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, by Stephen Rebello
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer*
Official Book Club Selection (Abridged) by Kathy Griffin*

I drove to and from Los Angeles last week, and listened to Into Thin Air for most of that trip. Now, I've read the book probably five times, but I've never listened to the audiobook, so I'm counting it as a "new" book. Krakauer reads it himself, and does a great job. It was the perfect read for that particular trip, (which was to go to a friend's funeral) since it is always engrossing, but I could allow my mind to wander and that was okay too.

After that I started Kathy Griffin's book, which I was hesitant about because I wasn't a huge Griffin fan, but I loved it, and now I want to rent her show on DVD. She is super open about everything from the disintegration of her marriage to her probably-pedophile brother, and she tells a lot of funny and charming stories about celebrities she's dated, fought with, worked with, and whatnot. I'm sad it is abridged, which I didn't notice until after I'd downloaded it. I want more, Kathy Griffin!

And (I'm so going out of order here) I also enjoyed Meg Cabot's "How to Be Popular," which is charmingly Cabot-esque YA, read by Kate Reinders. I was like "how do I know that name?" and then looked her up and realized I saw her play Glinda in Wicked in Chicago. (The last Cabot audiobook I listened to was read by a very young Elisabeth Moss. They do a great job picking narrators.)

Finally, I was going through a box of old books from my storage unit and found the Psycho book, which I don't think I'd ever actually read all the way through before. If you're a fan of the movie, it's a really fun book. The thing that sticks in my mind is the discussion of that shot where Marion rips up her piece of paper and flushes it down the toilet before she takes her shower. Seeing a toilet flush was supposed to be disconcerting for the viewer, according to Hitchcock. And it still is!

I've also been re-reading other stuff from that box: a volume of Sherlock Holmes stories, Hail, Hail Camp Timberwood and Remember Me to Harold Square and some old Babysitters-Club books. But I never count re-reads, so I'm leaving them off the list. They are, however, among the many reasons I haven't started Freedom or The Master yet.