An absolutely fabulous book. It makes the recent movie attempt seem like a complete insult to the vision of this original masterpiece.
Richard Matheson is well known in science fiction and horror circles, but doesn't seem to pop up that often in discussions of classic science fiction. I have no idea why not.
He has the distinction of having a higher percentage of his novels being turned into movies than any other science fiction writer and you've heard of his work if not him. "I Am Legend" alone has been made into a movie three times, in 1964 as "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price, 1971 as "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston and just recently in 2007 as "I Am Legend" with Will Smith.
Other movies that were based on his novel include:
Duel, Steven Spielberg's first movie.
What Dreams May Come
Stir of Echoes
and the up and coming The Incredible Shrinking Man
"I Am Legend" isn't just some vampire novel. It re-invented vampire novels and spawned a long string of books and movies for decades to come. A heart wrenching novel of loneliness and pathos that truly does take you through a roller coaster of emotions and gets into the head of someone who is slowly going insane.
I loved the book from the first page to the last and despite being copied again and again by author after author, has not, to my knowledge, ever been equaled by any other vampire novel.
Showing posts with label richard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label richard. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Book: "Who Wrote the Bible?" by Richard Elliott Friedman (5/5 stars)
Richard E. Friedman does so many things right in this book. His analysis is convincing, his translations are powerful and accurate, he keeps his postulations small and he gives all the details on the difficulties and possible problems in separating the various authors.
I'm not a religious person, but recognize the historical, social, cultural and religious impact of the bible.
The premise, and it has been known for more than 150 years, is that the first five books of the Bible, previously attributed to Moses, were actually written by several authors. Not only that, but by recognizing the stylistic differences and the different perspectives, it is possible to almost completely unravel the passages by different authors. With more analysis, it's possible to tell which were written first, and where and when these authors lives. In some cases, Richard Friedman actually names the author or editor of the piece. While nothing can be 100%, he gives good reasons for his conclusions.
I loved the book and enjoyed almost everything about it. Some of his passage translations were impacting and have become my new favorites.
My biggest criticism was with the footnote numberings. Really, I had almost nothing bad to say about the entire book.
I can highly recommend this to anyone who has even a passing interest in the history of the Bible. A reveal to be sure.
My favorite biblical quote from Friedman, a re-translation of Deuteronomy 31
"16 When you are lying with your fathers, this people will rise and will whore after alien gods of the land onto which they are coming, and they will leave me and break my covenant which I have made with them.
17 And my anger will burn against them in that day, and I shall leave them, and I shall hide my face from them, and they will be devoured, and many evils and troubles will find them.
And they will say in that day, 'It is not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?'
18 But I shall hide my face on that day because of all the wrong that they have done, for they turned to other gods."
I'm not a religious person, but recognize the historical, social, cultural and religious impact of the bible.
The premise, and it has been known for more than 150 years, is that the first five books of the Bible, previously attributed to Moses, were actually written by several authors. Not only that, but by recognizing the stylistic differences and the different perspectives, it is possible to almost completely unravel the passages by different authors. With more analysis, it's possible to tell which were written first, and where and when these authors lives. In some cases, Richard Friedman actually names the author or editor of the piece. While nothing can be 100%, he gives good reasons for his conclusions.
I loved the book and enjoyed almost everything about it. Some of his passage translations were impacting and have become my new favorites.
My biggest criticism was with the footnote numberings. Really, I had almost nothing bad to say about the entire book.
I can highly recommend this to anyone who has even a passing interest in the history of the Bible. A reveal to be sure.
My favorite biblical quote from Friedman, a re-translation of Deuteronomy 31
"16 When you are lying with your fathers, this people will rise and will whore after alien gods of the land onto which they are coming, and they will leave me and break my covenant which I have made with them.
17 And my anger will burn against them in that day, and I shall leave them, and I shall hide my face from them, and they will be devoured, and many evils and troubles will find them.
And they will say in that day, 'It is not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?'
18 But I shall hide my face on that day because of all the wrong that they have done, for they turned to other gods."
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Book: "Six Easy Pieces" by Richard Feynman (2 of 5 stars)
I made the mistake of viewing a set of lectures from Auckland University when Feynman was there in 1979 at the same time I was reading this book.
The books is good, but the lectures are SO MUCH BETTER.
This book is based on The Feynman Lectures, classic books in the field of educating young physicists. Being much, much shorter, lots is left out, like equations and any mathematics. This is fine for a pop culture science book and I didn't mind, but found Feynman's voice doesn't shine through here. Also, the editor of this book decided to keep several pieces of text that say "I cover this in more detail in the next chapter" or "we continue with this in more detail", when there is obviously nothing more coming. This happened on the 2nd to last page and then the book just ended. It felt somewhat poorly put together.
Still, I consider it a gentle introduction to everything about science and how a few simple ideas can be used to derive all the rest. If you need to cover all of science in a book that is only 150 pages long, this is about as good as you can get, certainly content-wise.
If you read and like this book, I highly recommend listening to Feynman's 1979 lectures in Auckland as well as reading James Gleick excellent biography of him, "Genius".
The books is good, but the lectures are SO MUCH BETTER.
This book is based on The Feynman Lectures, classic books in the field of educating young physicists. Being much, much shorter, lots is left out, like equations and any mathematics. This is fine for a pop culture science book and I didn't mind, but found Feynman's voice doesn't shine through here. Also, the editor of this book decided to keep several pieces of text that say "I cover this in more detail in the next chapter" or "we continue with this in more detail", when there is obviously nothing more coming. This happened on the 2nd to last page and then the book just ended. It felt somewhat poorly put together.
Still, I consider it a gentle introduction to everything about science and how a few simple ideas can be used to derive all the rest. If you need to cover all of science in a book that is only 150 pages long, this is about as good as you can get, certainly content-wise.
If you read and like this book, I highly recommend listening to Feynman's 1979 lectures in Auckland as well as reading James Gleick excellent biography of him, "Genius".
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