Literary aspirations

Chick’s comment made me realize that I’ve been regularly reading books again since May! And I didn’t even really mean to. I guess that’s the secret to sticking with something good…not resolving to do it.

As you may or may not know, I enjoy various Disney products, characters and resorts. (understatement of the year.) I really enjoyed “Disney War.” The book looked at The Walt Disney Company under Michael Eisner’s leadership. I think the book was just a skosh biased against Eisner. For example, the success of the Disney Cruise Line – upon which I read this book – wasn’t even mentioned. But boy howdy does Eisner bring it all on himself.

Part megalomaniac, part ruthless corporate assassin, Eisner turned Disney into a chipper/shredder of talented executives. The list of projects Disney turned down for various reasons (Survivor? Lord of the Rings? Pixar?) is almost as long as the list of crazy ideas acted upon during Eisner’s reign (EuroDisney, Go.com, the “TV is Good” campaign for ABC).

It was a long but juicy read. I’d recommend it if you’re a Disney fan or have the honor and privilege of working for a big corporation.

A book that I finished but didn’t really live up to my expectations was “The Beauty Myth.” I shut the book often thinking, “Okay, enough!” but kept reading anyway. Don’t get me wrong, many of the points are valid, but the book’s voice sounded like that of an angry 19-year-old Womens’ Studies major. Plus, on page 245 (yes, I actually wrote this down) the author refers to Oprah Winfrey as a talk show hostess. Hostess! It struck me odd that a book that rails against the diminutization of women would use the feminine version of any word.

Let’s not forget the abandoned books:
“Kiss the Girls:” Ugh. Totally creeped me out…especially during the times that BvP wasn’t home. Halfway through, I skipped to the end to see who lived and turned the book back in. I have no strength for suspense novels.

“100 People who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37) :” I heard the author speak on one of the radio talk shows I listen to and thought it sounded interesting. Basically, anybody that the author disagrees with in any instance is screwing up America. Since I don’t like the book, I guess I’m #101.

“The Sociopath Next Door:” I’d have learned just as much by knocking on my neighbor’s door. Ha! I kid! There were no real case studies…just made up stories loosely based on sociopaths the authors may have encountered. She also lets some of her personal anti-war and anti-military views poke through the prose, which disturbed the flow. Basically, I was bored.

And while I wrote all of this, I successfully put off writing my NaNoWriMo word quota for tonight. I have to get some more plot elements in place in my head before I can continue past the whopping 1000 or so words I have in place.