Perfect Timing
I suppose I should be thankful that I made it until the third week of January to get sick. Well, I’m moderately sick, just a sore throat and a bit of a headache. Though after the pain and suffering I went through yesterday it feels a hell of a lot worse. But it’s a three-day weekend (yes, yes, I have Monday off – no need to say anything, I can sense your jealousy from here) giving me ample time to recover from this pseudo-sickness.
I think I might buy a DVD player (finally) if for no other reason than it would be great to just lie around the house, eat my chocolate meringue cookies and not worry about stupid reruns and bad daytime television. Plus, it will give me a chance to work on that 101 movie list I thought was such a great move back in December. Do you realize that 101 movies in 1,001 days roughly translates to 1 movie every 10 days? Don’t even get me started about the 101 books in 1,001 days… I’m still working on the first one!
Any movie and/or book suggestions? I’m desperate.
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Hi Allison,
I’ve got Monday off too–thank God🙂 Hope you’re feeling better soon.
Movies are probably easier to fit in…here are a few more offbeat ones:
Classics:
The Maltese Falcon
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Night of the Hunter
Chinatown
Key Largo
Rebecca
Pretty much anything with Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant, especially “The Philadelphia Story”
Drama:
Empire of the Sun
Fearless
Glory
Secrets and Lies
Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion (Ciaran Hinds version)
Lost in Translation
Comedy:
Joe Vs. the Volcano
The Princess Bride
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Back to the Future
Shaun of the Dead (British humor)
Foreign:
Red/Blue/White (trilogy)
Raise the Red Lantern
Dear Frankie
Monsoon Wedding
Amelie
For books I was always partial to the classics, but one recent modern favorite was “Devil in the White City”. I also like the Traveler’s Tales series and other travel anthologies.
Have a good weekend!
Maybe you need to resort to children’s book. Sorry, Only Joking there. But Minerva’s Hat is really cute book. I really liked the Memory Keepers Daughter. I am reading a rather distressing Almost Moon right now.
I’m reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and can’t put it down.
Henry IV is excellent (with Kenneth Branaugh) as is Much Ado About Nothing. Cold Comfort Farm is a quirky, but funny BBC comedy. It is better the 2nd time around.
Get well soon!
-Anne
Here’s an rss feed of my netflix queue – http://rss.netflix.com/QueueRSS?id=P9589581246399648123814163825337663
I’d suggest trying a few of the foreign suggestions.
Ugh, I have the same head cold thing. I would add Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace (Carey Grant), Holiday Inn (with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire), Superbad (I think this movie is hilarious!), 10 Things I Hate About You, and Can’t Hardly Wait. Have you signed up for Netflix or anything like that? I have the Blockbuster one and it’s really convenient, especially with the Writer’s Strike and lack of good tv. :o)
Feel better!
:o) The other Allison
Allison,
I love movies! Mostly comedies…Here are a few suggestions:
Comedy – Vegas Vacation, Young Frankenstein, Sixteen Candles, Miss Congeniality, Necessary Roughness, What a Girl Wants, The Blues Brothers, Big Daddy, The Replacements, Overboard, My Cousin Vinny, The Waterboy, Bruce Almighty.
Drama / Adventure – Indiana Jones & the Last Crusades, Congo, Hope Floats,
Hoosiers, Twister,
Oh, and I highly recommend The Princess Bride, too.
Some of these movies on the list are a little dated, but they’re still classics. Hope you feel better soon.
Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep them coming!
I actually have seen the Princess Bride a number of times, so sadly that won’t help me in my 101 movies list, but I’m glad to see we have lots of Wesley and Buttercup fans in the audience!😀
How about “The Cure” – a movie about a boy who’s ill. He and his friend travel down the Mississippi River looking for a cure.
My other all-time favorite is “Indian Summer.” A movie about adults returning to the summer camp that they went to as children.
Books – If you like camping/canoeing, a great book is Distant Fires by Scott Anderson. Two men that recreate the trip done by Severeid and Port. (from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay)
If you’re looking for a great short read, I say go with kid’s novels. My recent favorites are “The power of the Un” and “Summer of the Monkeys.”
Just my ideas.🙂
Hope that you’re feeling better soon!
hey allison,
ok, so i don’t know if you count children’s books/picture books as cheating, but i feel like some should be allowed, especially if you are reading them because they are awesome, not JUST because they’re short. also a book every 10 days is a lot. so, you’ve probably heard of “the missing piece” by shel silverstein. but you should also check out the awesome lesser-known sequel, “the missing piece meets the big O”, an awesome book with a sorta-hidden (or not) more grown up theme.
other books i love: anything by toni morrison, “a fat girl’s guide to life” by wendy shanker
books i haven’t read but my friends love: anything by david sedaris, god of small things by arundhati roy, man gone down by michael thomas
movies – here’s a weird foreign one since you want ones you haven’t seen already:
-women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (almodovar, 1988, also called mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) – really weird, really hilarious if you’re in the right mood.
Dead Poets Society
When Harry Met Sally
Mr. Holland’s Opus
Waitress
Little Miss Sunshine
The Departed
The Story of Us
Million Dollar Baby
All of the Bourne movies
Braveheart
Empire Records
High Fidelity
Half Nelson
The Prestige
Crash
Saving Private Ryan
Reign Over Me
We are Marshall
The Shawshank Redemption
Good Will Hunting
GI Jane
Meet Joe Black
Legends of the Fall
Say Anything
I could go on, but I think you have plenty to choose from already.
I think AFI put together a list of the top 100 movies. I would say to start there and make sure you have seen all 100 of them.
allison,
watch “The Red Violin”, the twist is amazing! one of my absolute favorites.
landileigh
Hope you feel better soon!
Kathy’s foreign-language movie list is perfect!! If you haven’t seen Amelie, get yourself to the DVD-player store ASAP!
Books!
Anything by John Irving for some old school new england dialogue
Everything is Illuminated-Foer (and then watch the movie. brilliant)
Life of Pi-Martel
White Teeth-Smith (this one takes a while to read)
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series-Smith (total of 7 books. Easiest, most enjoyable read ever)
Nonfiction:
A Gift from the Sea-Lindberg (this one is a quick read)
We recently watched Once and enjoyed it a great deal. It’s set in Dublin Ireland and has a lot of singing, though it’s not a musical.
And if you watch that, then you must see The Commitments, which is much older and also set in Dublin. Some folks have complained that the accents are hard to understand. My response – what accents? :-))
Oh, I’ll second Women On The Verge by Aldomovar. Anything by him is excellent. I want to see Volver, although I can’t stand Penelope Cruz, which is what’s holding me back. The Commitments is also great – the accents didn’t bother me at all, but then I know a lot of people who sound just like that.
I recently saw Stranger Than Fiction and can’t stop raving about it. If you can find the first two seasons of Weeds, that show is great.
Books – The Thirteenth Tale is fantastic, especially if you’re at all into gothic fiction. I second whoever recommended The Fountainhead. Here’s my short list:
The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Professor And The Madman – Simon Winchester
Eats, Shoots And Leaves – Lynne Truss
His Dark Materials trilogy – Phillip Pullman
The Artemis Fowl series – Eoin Colfer
Good In Bed – Jennifer Weiner
Firefly Summer – Maeve Binchy (don’t laugh. I love her.)
The Shellseekers – Rosemund Pilcher
The Alienist – Caleb Carr
The Autobiography Of Henry VIII – Margaret George (seriously. It’s excellent.)
Maia – Richard Adams
The Last Convertible – Anton Myrer
The Crimson Petal And The White – Michel Faber
Laura – Vera Caspery (very cool noir detective novel – they made of movie of it with Greer Garson, I believe)
Obviously I read more books than I watch movies….