The Island of Dr. Moreau

Amazon writes, "Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life. While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells’s prediction of the ethical issues raised by producing “smarter” human beings or bringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add a richness to Prendick’s adventures on Dr. Moreau’s island of lost souls without distracting from what is still a rip-roaring good read." All in all, I say: READ IT

This is from the book:
"Then I look about me at my fellow-men. And I go in fear. I see faces keen and bright, others dull or dangerous, others un-steady, insincere; none that have the calm authority of a reasonable soul. I feel as though the animal was surging up through them; that presently the degradation of the Islanders will be played over again on a larger scale. I know this is an illusion; that these seeming men and women, men and women forever, perfectly reasonable creatures, full of human desired and tender solicitude, emancipated from instinct and the slaves of no fantastic Law - being altogether different from the Beast Folk. Yet I shrink form them, from their curious glances, their inquiries and assistance, and long to be away form them and alone."

"There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope. I hope, or I could not live. And so, in hope and solitude, my story ends."

This is not a true adaptation, but it's interesting to see Brando (The Freshman) at the end of his life and career. Kilmer (The Snowman) is classic Kilmer. All in all, I say: SEE IT though after you have read the book. Balk (The Craft) and Thewlis (Wonder Woman) also star.

The Matrix trilogy

I had to buy the screenplay after seeing the movie because there are lines I didn't want to forget. I also wanted to look up some of the metaphors and symbols that were in the script. All in all, I say: READ IT

The Matrix is a computer program that humans have been uploaded into so an alien can drain them for energy. There is a prophecy that states someone has the power to behave in the Matrix the way no one should. That person may be Neo played by Reeves (Point Break). All in all, I say: SEE IT

The second and third movie are not very good. They sort of drifted in a way that didn't make sense to me. All in all, I say: SKIP THEM

Candide

I saw a film based on this or that discussed this, so I was curious. Amazon writes, " Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, All in all, I say: SKIP IT

The Surrogates

Written by a co-worker from my days at Borders. It was made into a movie. People are have bodies that they can inhabit in order to make themselves look younger or different in some way. It's kind of like avatars in a sense. There is a mystery to unfold. All in all, I say: READ IT

The movie doesn't really do the book justice. All in all, I say: SKIP IT

Citizen Thoreau

I will admit I haven't read it all. What I have read, I have enjoyed thoroughly. All in all, I say: READ IT

Tennyson: Selected Poems

There are a few of these I like. Lady of Shalot is my favorite poem of his - one of my top five all time favorites in fact. All in all, I say: READ IT

Burning Bright

This is my all time favorite Steinbeck. It is touching and brilliant. Amazon writes, " Four scenes, four people: the husband who yearns for a son, ignorant of his own sterility; the wife who commits adultery to fulfill her husband’s wish; the father of the child; and the outsider whose actions will affect them all. In this turn on a medieval morality play, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck casts an unwavering light on these four intertwined lives, revealing in their finely drawn circumstances the universal contours of vulnerability and passion, desperation and desire." All in all, I say: READ IT