You may have noticed that I gave myself the task of writing a new film review every day leading up to the Oscars. Why did I do this? I can only imagine that my life was going far too well and I wanted to make things a bit more stressful. Especially as I decided that I still had to keep up with my books reviews as well. It’s meant that, so far, I’ve had to write 6 instead of 4 posts this week and I still have 4 more to go. I’ve got a few more films to watch as well. Plus, I’ve got plans on Friday evening and Saturday. I’m going to need a holiday with all of this going on. Luckily I’m having a half-day at work on the 14th but that feels like a lifetime away. Although, it is giving me the chance to see loads of films that I possibly wouldn’t have seen for a while. Or at all. I’m not sure that I’d ever have got round to this film had it not been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. And, as I now know, that would have been a huge shame.
Tag: Stephen Fry
Book Review – Last Christmas curated & introduced by Greg Wise & Emma Thompson
This was the last book that I read in 2019. It was something that I’d been dipping in and out of for most of the month along with The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories. I knew I’d never get all the way through the Penguin collection so I made the choice to focus on this instead. Anyone who had read my review of Emma Thompson’s film Last Christmas will know that I didn’t like it. Really didn’t like it. However, I was all in favour of the accompanying book. I thought that it was a really fun idea and the fact that it was helping to raise money was an added bonus. I had to buy this book because so many great people were involved. I’m a fickle person after all. Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Richard Ayoade, Olivia Colman, Billy Bailey, Meryl Streep: all people I adore. I was genuinely excited to see what they had written. We all like getting a glimpse at the private lives of people we see in the media and this was like being invited to their house on Christmas day. Who wouldn’t say yet to that?
Book Review – Mythos by Stephen Fry
There was a point when I didn’t think I would finish this book for today’s post. I was well on track until I got horribly distracted by a podcast I listen to. A friend from work and I are obsessed with the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast and love discussing it. I’d been saving series 4 for a bit to give me a break after series 3 but, the other day, she announced she’s finished book 4. So, naturally, I have to catch up with her and I may have listened to that instead of Stephen Fry one night this week. It was enjoyably listening to this book as an audiobook but I’m not convinced it’s the greatest way to do it. For one thing, I fell asleep in the middle of several chapters and had to go back the next day. For another, it took me way less time to read a chapter than it took Stephen to narrate it. I’ve never considered how much longer saying something out loud is compared to reading it in your head but it must have a major impact on the time you spend with a book. But this feels like a topic for another time. It’s late and I have to get this review finished.
