Posted August 21, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
If you want some intelligent and interesting answers on anything crime related you should turn to blahblahblahtoby; I’ve been friends with him on Goodreads and he always has been interesting person to have in a Goodreads group. But I’ve been slack and haven’t been following his blog, so I thought I would read through some of it today and found some interesting questions he asked on a recent post. Which I thought I would answer for this week’s Question Tuesday post.
1. If the events of Purple Rose of Cairo could really happen, which movie character would you want to walk off of the screen in to your miserable little life?
Jessica Rabbit (she’s real right?)…don’t tell my wife
2. If you were marooned on another planet with a limited space hard drive on your solar powered Macbook Pro (I’m sure Steve Jobs had them working on this before he died) what three movies would you like to have in your videos folder?
This really is touch one, I think I would have Brick staring Joseph Gordon Lovett, Miller’s Crossing by the Cohen Brothers and Hot Fuzz for some light entertainment.
3. Is reading 50 Shades of Grey on public transport a badge of pride, a cry for help, a statement of sexual dissatisfaction or a label that screams “easily led by media fads”?
If it’s a fad, I want it to stop already. I think some of them think that we have no idea what they are reading and think they are getting away with it; you’re not fooling anyone.
4. If you had to live in the world of crime fiction would you prefer to be in an Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler or Steig Larsson book?
I don’t speak Swedish so Larson is out, I don’t think I’m rich enough for Christie and I adore the 1940’s; so give me the dark, gritty world of Chandler.
5. You’re stranded for 227 days in a boat with one animal, do you think a Bengal Tiger would eat you?
Yes, on day 1
6. What superhero franchise would you give a dark and depressing Batman style reboot to on the big screen?
I’m a fan of The Punisher, I think it needs a darker, depressing film made of the franchise, the last one was too much of a blockbuster film.
7. Gotham Central is a series of comic books about the lives of the Gotham City Police Department and Death Comes To Pemberley is a detective novel set in the world of Pride & Prejudice, what fictional world would you like to see turned in to crime fiction and what type would it be?
I’ve not read any good Noir style comic books; I would like to see one set in gritty LA. Are there any out there?
8. Mint, Sage, Rosemary and Cinnamon, what flavour would you choose for your old fashioned tooth powder recipe?
Mint; only because I’m used to it with tooth paste.
9. You’re tasked with programming an independent film festival, what genre do you focus on? Documentary, Horror, Anime, Martial Arts or World Cinema?
It would have to be a film noir festival but I do like the idea of a bad film festival were people can watch terrible movies to make fun of them.
10. Witches, burn them at the stake or dunk them in the lake?
Build a bridge out of them
11. Which city in Europe would you most like to visit during the 2012 London Olympics?
I would like to go back to Spain for some food but I would have to say, I need to visit the Fatherland….for the food. I can’t help it I love German food.
If you have a question you would like to ask me or maybe a list of questions, please let me know via the contact me form.
Posted August 14, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
If you are a regular reader or know me at all you’ll know the answer to this question is Dark, Gritty and Hardboiled. I’m a big fan of the hardboiled and Noir genres that have become famous in the 1940’s and you can see book reviews for these types of books under Pulp (if you are curious to know the difference between Hardboiled and Noir check out this post).
I’ve always been a fan of the dark and realistic, and while I do like that occasional cosy read, I often feel that the downplaying can often be overdone and in the end, I tend to not enjoy them. Those major bestselling crime novels tend to annoy me because they all feel formulaic and predictable. I want the laconic and dispassionate styles of a good pulp novel.
I know pulp novels don’t seem to be very popular anymore, there are some novelists that still write them like James Ellroy, James Sallis and Lawrence Block but I would love to know what others think of this genre and what they look for in a crime novel.
Posted August 7, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
When I was young I really loved the book There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards about an imaginary Hippo on the roof eating cake, it turned out to be ‘special’ cake. I don’t know why I liked that book but I remember that I wanted it read to me over and over again. I probably could remember every single word from that book. Nowadays I have read a couple of picture books that I thought were quite entertaining. Where were these types of books when I was a child? You know the ones, they are written as a children’s book but they have this black humour to them that appeals to adults.
Here are some examples (while some of these might be considered parodies, they are still great);
Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd
In a bright buzzing room, in the glow of the moon-and iPhones and Androids and Blackberries too-it is time to say goodnight…
It’s a Book by Lane Smith
IT’S A BOOK is a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age. This satisfying, perfectly executed picture book has something to say to readers of all stripes and all ages.
Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
Go the F**k to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland.
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
A bear has lost his hat. What if he never sees it again? WAIT! He has seen his hat…
Now it’s your turn, what Children’s books do you like? And based on the books I’ve mentioned about, are there other books that I should read?
Posted July 24, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
When I was in school I wasn’t interested in studying and I didn’t do well in school. I didn’t really have much interest in anything, except computers and music. It wasn’t until 2009 when I discovered my mind crush Craig Schuftan did I really start reading and wanting to learn. I started Knowledge Lost because I found my passion and I wanted to write what I’d learned while learning. I know I don’t write on that blog as much as I should but I still love it and want to keep it there to write anything that I learn. When I started Literary Exploration (the blog) it was because in my love for learning I found a love of literature and I wanted a place to document my literary journey without overcrowding Knowledge Lost with book rants. The idea was to have Knowledge Lost to be educational and Literary Exploration to be about literature.
I decided at the beginning of the year that while I was having fun being an autodidact, I wanted to learn more and enrolled in university. I’ve never been to a higher learning facility to learn something I was passionate about but I wanted to explore my passion and hopefully one day land a job in a field relevant to it. I decided a Bachelor of Arts would be a good place to start. It will give me a good overview of the topics I’m interested in and also I can get a degree in English Literature.
I’ve discovered that my love for learning and the arts has been growing and I (not so) secretly want to get so many degrees it’s not funny. While I will focus on the English Literature degree, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to take some classes in other discipline to get an idea about what they are like. Now I’m only doing this part time while working full time which is a shame because at my rate the first degree will take me about ten to twelve years. But if I had the time I would want to dive into some of these disciplines as well (not for a full degree but to have some more information about them);
- Art History
- Criminology
- Journalism
- New Media Studies
- Philosophy
- Psychology
- Screen Studies
- Sociology
And the list will probably expand. I know my love for literature will increase with my studies but I wanted to also share my passion of learning and the humanities with you as well. I hope to experience a taste in all these subjects and who knows, maybe one day I might get a chance to share about them over at Knowledge Lost.
I would love people to share about their passions and experiences with studying their passion in the comments below.
Posted July 17, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
I’d like to say that there isn’t any book that I won’t read if it was recommended to me but there are books that I’ve put off reading but really need to get around to reading. My wife has been my biggest supporter; even before I became a reader she was encouraging me to read and to improve myself. I love her for that. One of the first books I read when I started out as a reader in 2009 was one of the books she gave me, which was Jeff Lindsay’s first book in the Dexter Morgan series; Darkly Dreaming Dexter. She knew that I loved the TV series and she helped use that as a good way to get me into reading. I did end up loving the series and is one of the few series that I’ve actually read all the books in it. But she has given me other books, which I’m still to read; mainly Confessions by Augustine of Hippo but the reason I’ve been putting it off because I have so many great books to read and I haven’t felt drawn to the book yet. I think if I read the book I might enjoy it, he seems to have had an interesting life and I’m interested in the internal struggle of a man between good and evil. There really isn’t a good excuse for not reading it. I should really read it sometime soon. I would love to hear from others if they want to answer this question also.
Posted July 10, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
I’ve always wanted a little reading room with floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall bookshelves, full of great books. I would especially love a whole lot of old leather bound books to grace my bookshelves. The shelves would be made out of a nice timber and the shelves themselves will be jammed pack with books that it might even be impossible to add any more books to the shelves; this is why there are piles of books on the floor as well. In the middle of the room, I would want some comfortable reading chairs with a nice coffee table to keep my notepad and coffee while I read as well as some reading lamps and I would want this room to be cool and comfortable to read in. This is also my idea of a man cave, maybe add a computer in the corner where I can write blog posts and book reviews and even catch up on twitter and goodreads. It doesn’t have to be a big room as long as the shelves are full of great books to read and enjoy. Even if I’m become more and more of a kindle reader, I would still want to be surrounded by books.
Here’s an example (with a chair not a bed)
Posted July 3, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
There are times when I feel like the book is just getting started when the book ends but then again there are times I feel a sense of closure from a book even if there is more books in the series. I haven’t read the rest of The Hunger Games series because I felt like the book ended at a good place and all I could see is an annoying love triangle if I went any further. But that might be another post; so I will head back to the original question. There are so many books I would love to have seen continued where I felt the story was just getting started or even that there was more of the story to be told. In Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, Nancy is finally happy and I would like to know what happens next. Or Looking for Alaska by John Green where I feel we can continue Miles story and explore more of his life and the effects Alaska had on him thoughout the rest of his life; even though I think John Green did end the book in a good place. Also speaking of John Green, in Will Grayson Will Grayson, Tiny is finally appreciated at the end, I’m sure there is more of a story to tell there as well.
I know authors finish a story and that’s it, the characters cease to exist beyond that, but it is really hard not to wonder what might happen to these characters that we have formed a bond with. I’m not sure but I think this is why people write fanfic. The fall in love with these great characters and they want them to keep on living in one form or another.
Posted June 26, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
“Never judge a book by its movie” – J.W. Eagan
I’m not sure if I’ve seen a movie that I liked more than the book. I know if I read American Psycho before seeing the movie I might have enjoyed it more. I think there are plenty of examples of books I didn’t enjoy because I saw the movie first. Others include Psycho by Robert Bloch and Limitless by Alan Glynn. There are a few movies that I enjoyed more than the books, like The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson and The Hunter by Richard Stark (Payback, 1999) There are books I thought were average and I would rather invest 2 hours watching the movie than 8 or more hours reading the books. Even if the movies turned out bad, it was still less of an investment than reading the book.
Graphic novels seem to be the best at being adapted to movies. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, Sin City by Frank Miller, Kick Ass by Mark Millar and V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Watchman by Alan Moore all seem to be good examples of that. While all these graphic novels are decent, I prefer the movies over the books. I’m sure many people will disagree with this but that’s my opinion. What movies do people prefer over the books?
While we are on the topic of Movie Adaptions; one of the things I hate most about them, is when the cover of the books change to match the movie posters or even the name of the book changing to match. I really hate owning a book with the movie name or cover on it but sometimes there is just no getting away from it.
Posted June 19, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
I don’t really remember learning to read, but I do remember being read to a lot when I was young, there were books that I knew all the words from repetitive reading. When I was a little boy, my favourite book was There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards about an imaginary Hippo on the roof eating cake, it turned out to be ‘special’ cake (whatever that means). This seemed to progress and my father use to always read books to the kids and as we grow up the books got more complicated and more interesting stories. I think this might have started my love of audiobooks; I just love being told a story, it’s very relaxing. My father read us the Spirit Flyer Series by John Bibee and The Cooper Kids Adventures by Frank Peretti. Even during primary school I remember story time and listening to Roald Dahl books.
These were my first memories of books, but I don’t really remember reading much back then. I do remember when my little brother and sister been born and reading children’s books with them, I remember In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak seemed to be a favourite of my little brother. To this day I remember the entire story of There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake and In the Night Kitchen, that I probably could recite the entire books by heart. Given the fact that I loved books and stories back then, I’m really surprised how long it took me to become a reader. I remember starting off as a very slow reader but I think I read at a decent speed now. Sometimes I wish I could read faster and retain more of the information but I’m happy that I found joy in reading. I really wish I knew more about learning how to read, I might have to ask my parents about that.
Posted June 12, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
Yes.
For the sake of a blog post, I better expand on this answer. I think the government should set money aside for the arts and when they get neglected, I get very upset. See my post about the Queensland Government Cutting Literary Award in order to save $244,000 of a $47,000,000,000 budget. I don’t think taxpayers should be subsidising every writer but I do believe there is a need for state and national writer awards that would bestow unpublished authors with a publishing contract and publicity.
I think that Australia does a great job in helping writers get a start in the industry. With programs like state writing centres which helps train writers into refining their arts, and the Australian/Vogel Literary Award which recognises writers under the age of 35 with unpublished manuscripts. Even though the Queensland government has cut funding to the Queensland Literary Awards, this award will continue to run, even if they are unable to give some prize money to the winners.
I’m sure there is more money being put in to developing writers within Australian that I haven’t mentioned. It does surprise me just how much our government does for the arts. Sure, I would like to see more money put into the arts but I’m sure many people within Australian would object to that. I’m not sure what it’s like for writers in other countries but I think I truly live in a great country.
There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either.” — Robert Graves
