I started reading Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev yesterday (yes, I’m a fan of Russian lit…).
I’m about a third of the way through. It is pretty short — only about 200 pages.
My initial reaction: you know it’s going to be good when two of the four main characters are “nihilists.”
In other (non-related) news, with the 00s coming to a close, I have been watching movies on a number of “best of the decade” lists. Slate magazine has a great feature that collects and combines several “best of” lists. (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which I really, really liked, is the top-rated movie; “There Will Be Blood,” which I really, really didn’t like, is number 2.)
Watched so far:
Amelie
Pan’s Labyrinth
Mulholland Drive
Still to come:
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
Memento
Rushmore (this is actual a 90s film; I just like Wes Anderson)
Just to warn you: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is an excellent film, but I have never seen tension built to such a degree over two hours. It’s painful to watch, but it is stellar filmmaking.
Hmm… good to know.
Joel the movie buff! I was reading your blog post on the top 5 (well, 6) movies of 2009 and I’m sad to say I’ve only seen 2 of them.
Only two!? You should definitely check them out– for once I actually picked a group of very accessible films.