My first experience with a Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki film was when Spirited Away was in theatres. I took my 5 year old daughter to see it, and she fell in love. After that, whenever we found a Studio Ghibli DVD, we would buy it. I wanted her to be inspired by charachters other thatn the helpless Disney Princess archtypes, and Miyazaki is the answer. He makes movies that we can watch together and brings up topics I might not have thought to discuss. She may still want to play with Barbies, but at least sometimes they’re wolf princesses. And she tells all her friends that her favorite director is Hayao Miyazaki.

It’s says something about a movie when, over a decade after having watched it, you still count it among the worst cheesy films you’ve ever seen. What happened you ask? This: It was Lollapalloza 1994. In Phoenix. Did my genius music lovin’ friends and I bring plenty of water? No. We were melting, but, lo and behold! An air conditiond tent! Praise Jeebus, we are saved! No, it was not to be, for in that air conditioned tent we saw the beginning of this dubious film. We walked out after X licked his hand.
Oh, but could we stay away? Could we live with wondering what we might have seen if we had only stayed to watch the rest of the movie? Not a chance. Months later, what did we see at the video store, available for rent? Yeah, we watched it. And watched it again. So, so bad, but worth watching for the token apperance by Perry Farrell.
CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I was beside myself with excitement when I found this on DVD. “At last!” I thought to myself, “I can see the series that one of my favorite Gaiman books was based on…in all its original, glorious goodness!” After the opening credits, however, the exclamation points were wiped away and replaced with question marks. Don’t get me wrong, ever since a friend handed me “A Dream of A Thousand Cats” and I asked him how many more Sandman comics he had, and could I please read them all, I’ve been a Gaiman supafan. But Neverwhere the series, well, it suffers from some production issues. And acting issues. And lighting issues. But I still liked it. (I liked it much better after a few beers)

I read this when I was pretty young. It stuck in my mind as one of the best books I had ever read. I found it again in the supermarket a few years ago, and was somewhat shocked when I read it again- the religious references were way too overpowering for my jaded adult sensibilities. I’m really glad I read it when I was young, had an open mind, and could blithely ignore parts of stories that I disagreed with. I hope this continues to find an audience among children and young adults who can read it and love it like I did when I was younger, but I can’t help but feel cheated that the story I remembered wasn’t the story that was written.

One of my favorite King books. I was REALLY into Stephen King, and read every book until Rose Madder- then I turned 16 and realized there was more to horror than what he had to offer. After all these years, this is really one of the only books of his I can read again and appreciate- aside from the whole Dark Tower series.

This was the first book I bought online, many years ago. I bought the soft cover British edition when it first came out- there was no option to get even VHS tapes of the mini-series back then, and this was the closest I could get. I love the story as a whole- strange bits of folklore and mythology are woven in, the dialog is snappy and entertaining, and I like the characters. Having read this many years before I got to finally see the series, I must say I like the book much, much better. I think I read somewhere that the book was edited for the American release, and as my original copy probably will not stand many more years of rereading, I think I’ll buy it to see what’s different.

My sister gave me this book when I was 15. I tried to make everyone I knew read it, and all who did came to appreciate the insanity of Nick Twisp. This is a wild ride through the mind of a teenage boy. Angst, crime, sex (kind of), divorced parents, losing friends, making friends, cross dressing, sex (the real thing), drugs, evil girlfriends and more!

I heart David Sedaris. This was the first book of his that I read- I liked it so much I lent it to friends, who lent it to their friends… three copies later I’ve decided to stop trusting my friends with my funny books. I suppose it takes a certain sense of humor to laugh out loud at this book, and not every story is insanely hilarious, but I still think this is one of David Sedaris’ best books.

Go read this book! Silly drawings, sillier characters and a blue bear! This was one of the most entertaining books I read in 2005.

I wish I could read this in its original language. The story is entertaining, but I can’t help but feel something was lost in translation. It reads well, but something is just a little bit off.