Rooksmoor
My blogs
| Occupation | Writer |
|---|---|
| Location | United Kingdom |
| Introduction | Given how I have already encountered difficulties for expressing my views on political issues I think it is better that I remain to some degree anonymous. |
| Interests | These are shown clearly by my blog postings. |
| Favorite Movies | The Riddle of the Sands, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Room with a View, The Third Man, Went the Day Well?, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Ran, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978), From Russia with Love, Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, Nochnoi Dozor, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Die Hard, Die Hard with a Vengeance, xXx, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Grease, Back to the Future, Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Red Heat, The Bourne Identity, Ocean's Eleven (2001), Casablanca, Ashes and Diamonds, The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Magnificent Seven, Royal Flash, Fatherland, Enigma, Delicatessen, Diva, The Usual Suspects, Jour De Fete, The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Assassin (1993), Les Visiteurs, Just Visiting, The Lavender Hill Mob, Rififi, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Saint (1997), Gorky Park, Kingdom of Heaven, Casino Royale (2006), In terms of movies that I have utterly wasted my time watching, primarily because they left me feeling completely useless about humanity: Spoorloos (1988), This Year's Love (1999), The Bridge to Terabithia (2007), In The Loop (2009), Valhalla Rising (2009) |
| Favorite Music | 'Fallen' by Evanesence (2002), 'The Joshua Tree' by U2 (1987), 'Dummy' by Portishead (1994), 'Time' by ELO (1981), 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' by The Eurythmics (1983), '1984' by The Eurythmics (1984), 'The Blues Brothers Movie Soundtrack' (1980), 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show Movie Soundtrack' (1975), 'An Emotional Fish' by An Emotional Fish (1990), 'Song to the Siren' [single] by This Mortal Coil (1983), 'Florica's Lament' [I do not know the name of the female vocalist who sung this] track on 'Fortunes of War' EP (1987), 'La Mer' (single) by Charles Trenet (1946), 'Hybrid Theory' by Linkin Park (2000) |
| Favorite Books | 'The Riddle of the Sands' by Erskine Childers (1903), 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by John Buchan (1915), 'The Flight of the Heron' by D.K. Broster (1925), 'Musashi' by Eji Yoshikawa (1935-9), 'The Three Hostages' by John Buchan (1924), 'The Final Programme' by Michael Moorcock (1968) [do not bother with the other three books in this series, they do not come close to this one], 'Warlord of the Air' by Michael Moorcock (1971), 'The Glamour' by Christopher Priest (1984), 'The Colour of Magic' by Terry Pratchett (1985), 'Hardwired' by Walter Jon Williams (1986), 'The Goblin Tower' by L. Sprague De Camp (1987), 'The Difference Engine' by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling (1991), 'Velvedorum' by Suzanne Harper (2009). As yet I think only 'The Flight of the Heron' and 'The Goblin Tower' are the only two I have any desire to read again. There are books I certainly regret wasting the time reading, notably 'Hawksmoor' by Peter Ackroyd (1985) which is an utter shambles; 'The Quincunx' by Charles Palliser (1995) which is incredibly depressing and soul-destroying to read. I also loathed 'Auto da Fe' [In the original German: 'Die Blendung'] by Elias Canetti (1935), it is described as nihilistic; it is simply tedious and pointless. Another book to avoid is 'Chimera' by John Barth (1972). It won a US National Book Award, but is incoherent with jokes which seem only to make sense to the author. It references Arabian and Greek mythology in an almost random way and even admits, in a rather snooty manner, that many readers will not finish it. Do not bother starting it. 'Primary Colors' by Anonymous (1996) is a shambles of a book, utterly over-rated and lacking any sympathetic characters. At times it is so full of jargon as to be incomprehensible. It is overly long and is the pace goes from too much to comatose. |