Books past and current

I finished reading William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories, a sequel to Star Trek Memories his clearly solipsistic but tongue-in-cheek reminiscences playing Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the classic TV Show. This book is about the 6 Star Trek movies and Star Trek: Generations (where Kirk breathes his last). Being a Trek fan, I didn't take too much time reading this lightweight collection of memoirs and it's heartening to see Shatner poke fun at his attempts to sing (Mr. Tambourine Man and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds are cult classics, but clearly indicate his future as a singer). And it's not the ego-fondler that was Where No Man Has Gone Before.

A couple of days ago I finished reading Black House, the sequel to The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. The plot adds elements reminiscent of past King works like The Dark Zone and Insomnia. I haven't read enough Straub to detect past influences. King's contributions bear his signature: the italicized inner thoughts, the gibberish spouted by evil characters, the italicized, uppercase emotional outbursts... There are also references to myths that King visited in other novels (in-jokes, perhaps?) like ka and the crimson king. It was a great read -- a pageturner, if you wish to call it that. My favourites would be the Hegelian Scum (a clique of intellectual bikers) and Henry Leyden, a blind DJ with multiple radio personalities who can see more than mortals with sight.

My current read to work is Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock classic, which is an approachable text on what made Vertigo one of Hitchcock's most talked-about films. There are no humanities buzz words floating around here, so come all ye reluctant readers.