Reading and Writing

Okay, let's transition to a post that isn't as upsetting as the previous one. The more I look at that post about the Benoits, the more depressed I get.

I've jumped into a new book this week: Dennis Lehane's Mystic River. I absolutely loved the movie, so thanks to the fine people at the Washington County Public Library, I figured I'd give the novel a shot. I've finished the first three chapters, putting me about 35 pages deep, and although I haven't really gotten to the meat and potatoes of the story yet, it's been a pretty good read thus far. The next chapter is where things really start to pick up, which has me wondering just how close the movie stayed to the novel. Though I'm going to have to do the opposite of what I did with Cell and read it pretty darn quickly, since it's due back at the library next Friday because they had to get it on loan from the Grayson County library in Leitchfield. (Which was a surprise to me, since I don't believe I'd ever even heard of Leitchfield before.)

But I do know that if the book is even half as good as the movie, it's going to be pretty good. And thinking of it, I really need to get around to watching the movie again sometime. I think it's been somewhere in the neighborhood of three and a half years since I last saw it. I have to say, though, that I remember Sean Penn being really, really awesome in it. How he went from Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High to the accomplished dramatic actor he is today, I have no idea. You know, I think I'm gonna go head over to the ol' Netflix queue and bump it up to the top ten. Depending on how I'm feeling when it arrives at Sutton HQ, I'll probably end up doing a full write-up about it for S@TM. Though it might be a while, considering I've got three other movies in my top ten that I plan on writing about, along with a fourth I'm thinking about. (I'm seriously debating doing a double shot of Hollywoodland and The Black Dahlia, due to the weird coincidence of two movies with similar plots getting released within seven days of one another. I'm certainly doing one on Hollywoodland, but the other remains to be seen.) Throw in the review that I'm currently in the middle of writing and the chance that I might do its sequel as well, and you've got a little waiting to do before you get a Mystic River review.

And, uh... I can't really think of anything else to add to this one. San Dimas High School football rules!