Two Old Favorites Re-Discovered in the Same Day
The other day, I was sorting through my bookshelves trying to find something for my son to read. He just blew through the four books of the Hyperion series and was looking for fresh meat. As I was browsing, I picked up Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash, which I have not read in several years. Despite reading the book twice before, I was immediately engulfed by the first chapter. I know I am a geek, but I honestly think that the first chapter of Snow Crash may be the best opening of any book I have ever read.
I seldom watch TV, but later that day I had just finished watching the A&E remake of Andromeda Strain, which was a favorite of mine when I was a boy. I happened across the Redford-Dunaway movie "Three Days of the Condor." This is one of my favorite spy movies, and not just because I am a sucker for Faye Dunaway (I always thought the young Faye Dunaway would have been a great Dagny Taggert in Atlas Shrugged.) One of the reasons I like the movie is its pacing. I enjoy a full-speed ahead never-take-a-breath action movie as much as the next person, but do they all have to be that way. This was a thriller with an almost languid pace.
