Mike's Christmas Haul: Book Edition

Half of creating great criticism is being a great writer (the other half of course is knowing what you're talking about) and the key to being a great writer is to always be reading books of all different shapes and forms. Since I live in the North and work in Downtown Toronto my commute is around an hour which leaves plenty of time for reading (if I can manage a seat on the bus and/or subway). When I'm reading I tend to switch between fiction and non-fiction every other book. Here's the rundown of the books I got this Christmas:

In a way Chef Ramsay is my hero: the kind of guy who has a vision and will not let anyone get in the way of him becoming the best. I admire people like that. People who set a standard for themselves and will not accept anyone not meeting it.

Hubert Selby Jr. is a very interesting and challenging writer. He is really only known for Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn so it will be interesting to see how his other works stack up against his 2 most popular works.

Cormac McCarthy is the closest there is to a classic American writer writing classic American novels in the vein of Faulkner or Hemmingway.

Elmore Leonard is my favourite popular novelist and even into his 70s America's greatest crime writer is still writing new books faster than I can get them read.

Ever since seeing A River Runs Through It earlier in the year and falling in love with it I knew I had to read the book especially since one of the best things about the movie was Robert Redford's voice over as he read passages from it.

Robert Rodriguez's diary about the making of El Mariachi. Should be interesting.

More Elmore Leonard. This one is short stories.

I believe that there is no excuse for any critic to not be informed of every aspect of the filmmaking process, even if it's just a broad overview. A lot of critics, both professional and non, make a lot of stupid and ill-informed statements because they don't understand how the film business actually works (from directing, producing, marketing, box office, post-production, etc.). I am therefore always on a quest to expand my knowledge, not only of the world's theories and philosophies (because that is an essential part of criticism as well) but also how the film business works. Say what you will about Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Films but his Make Your Own Damn Movie was a funny, annoying and a very informative overview of how to get a low budget movie made. These two books expand on what was in that previous book.

See above. How the movie business works as told by the people who are in it. This book covers just about every aspect.

Henry Miller is one of my favourite authors. Not sure where these works stand within his overall body of work but two books for the price of one is always nice.

If you want to be a better critic you might as well learn from the best.

I haven't read any books by Peter Bart and Peter Guber (as most of them are out of print) but I find them both interesting and enjoy their insider perspective on the film business. I guess this one will be a test to see if the other ones are worth hunting down.