There are those of you who will say that
Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists
shouldn't make the list because, as a book of LISTS, it's not a "real" book. To which I say, well then smartie why don't YOU put together a well researched book of lists on everything from comic book heros to worst film meals. See how un-novel-mental that task feels.No, truly this is not going on my list of books because I didn't read the whole thing. Mostly I read what I found kind of interesting, which was less the music stuff (lists of songs that work as short stories, songs about movies and so on) and more the kind of cool trivia stuff like the list of 6 discarded alternate endings, 5 failed movies from prominent documentarians (seems like a bit of a trend there - kind of interesting) and 18-plus truly tough superhero adolescences. I guess what I'm saying is, what I was looking for was lists with information I didn't already know and I was less dazzled by the ability to simply compile together information that I already had access to.
I would NEVER have thought of the short story thing but, yeah, I see that "Copacabana" is kind of a short story as well as a little ditty.
What didn't make this list, I thought kind of oddly, was "Jack and Diane." Doesn't that seem like a short story to you?
Anyway. It's kind of awesome. I wish I owned this book (which actually belongs to my friend Christine Bougie www.christinebougie.com).
I think it would make an amazing resource.
Almost finished Lisa Moore's Alligator. Then it's on to something older, I think. Maybe some Kurt Vonnegut?
mariko