It's rather embarrassing to expose one's taste
so blatantly- makes one feel like one of the pretend pseudo literate snobs
posting a personals ad- but friends have been asking for recommendations.
The ratings are as follows:
| Fiction | Blindness, Jose Saramago |
| Travelogue |
North of South : An African Journey, S. Naipaul(the less famous brother of V.S.). |
| Children | Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame House of Pomegranates, Oscar Wilde |
| Poetry |
Neruda, Ode to Socks |
| Movies | La Jetée, Chris Marker |
| The City of Lost Children, Jean Pierre Jeunet Aguirre: Wrath of God, Werner Herzog Brasil, Terry Gilliam |
|
| Other Video Series | Blue Planet Last Place on Earth, The race to the South Pole between Amundsen and Scott. Can be found at Berkeley Reel |
| Korean Video | Morae Sigae- As the lady at the video store told me, you are not Korean if you haven't seen this. |
| Music | Faure's Requiem |
| Fiction | Perfume, Patrick Susskind Lolita, Nabokov Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell, Jorge Amado |
| Travelogue | Heart of the Antartic, Shackleton |
| Short fiction |
Two Words, Isabel Allende (which makes all
her novels such a disappointment) |
| Poetry |
William Carlos Williams |
| Non Fiction | The Ants, Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson Art of Loving, Erich Fromm |
| Working, Studs Terkel | |
| Phantoms in the Brain, V.S. Ramachandran (if you can excuse
his flagrant name dropping that is) The Material World, Menzel |
|
| Sci Fi | Futurological Congress, Stanislaw Lem Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
| Travelogue | Kapuczinski Stuart Stevens Malaria Dreams (My only disappointment is that the author is a Republican, although unrecognizable from this book.) Fearful Void, Geoffrey Moorehouse. The author who hooked me on Saharan Travelogues |
| Children | Frog and Toad Series, Arnold Lobel The Blue Moose, Daniel Pinkwater |
| Comic Books | Palestine- The antidote to Maus Jim Candy Candy |
| Movies | My Dinner with Andre Red Sorghum Ma Vie En Rose, Alain Berliner Umbrellas of Cherbourg Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Bunuel Zentropa, Lars von Trier Red Violin, Francois Girard Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso , The Star Maker Run Lola Run The Scent of Green Papaya At Play in the Fields of the Lord Poison, Todd Haynes. A bizzare tryptich. |
| Masterpiece Theatre | Jewel In the Crown I, Claudius House of Cards Traffik (*not* the Soderburg film) Reilly: Ace of Spies |
| Documentary | Heart of the Dragon Manufacturing Consent Life of Birds (Love that David Attenborough) |
| Music |
Cesaria Evora (Miss Perfumado) |
| Fiction | Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman Mezzanine, Fermata, Nicholson Baker (poor excuse for literate porn? maybe but pretty damn funny.) Ha Jin, Waiting |
| Non Fiction | Kitchen Confidential, A Cook's Tour, Anthony Bourdain Letters to a Young Contrarian, Christopher Hitchens Salt,a World History Kurlansky |
| Travelogue |
|
| Children | |
| Movies | Amadeus, Milos Forman Chloe in the Afternoon, Roehmer Iron Monkey Fight Club, David Fincher Peeping Tom, Michael Powell Brain Candy (Kids in the Hall) |
| Korean Movies about Food |
301/302 ShinJang GaeUp |
| Fiction | Gabriel Garcia Marquez ("Gasp, no!!! Not the grandaddy of
magic realism!" you say. It would more take an articulate essay to
convince you so I won't try here.) Isabel Allende |
| Non Fiction | |
| Travelogue |
Pico Iyer |
| Movies | Jean Cocteau, esp. for non francophiles |