100 Books I Have Actually Read

1. The Lord of the Flies
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
3. The Covenant of the Crown
4. The Andromeda Strain
5. The Theory of Poker
6. The Graduate
7. The Federalist Papers
8. Blind Ambition
9. The Ten Cent Plague
10. Seal of Approval
11. Supergods
12. The Selling of the President
13. The Hobbit
14. The Lord of the Rings
15. The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby
16. Starfarers
17. The Stand
18. The Shining 
19. Pet Semetary 
20. Hotel
21. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
22. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
23. Cruel Shoes
24. Pure Drivel
25. FUCK: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties
26. Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics
27. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
28. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
29. Amusing Ourselves To Death
30. Understanding Media
31. The Influencing Machine
32. Einstein's Dreams
33. I'm OK; You're OK
34. Tales of the City
35. Maybe the Moon
36. The God Delusion
37. The Last Temptation of Christ
38. Maus
39. Watchmen
40. Superman: Last Son of Krypton
41. A Christmas Carol
42. Dune 
43. Destination: Void
44. The Outsiders
45. A Complete History of American Comic Books
46. The Face Is Familiar
47. St. George and the Godfather
48. The Foundation Trilogy
49. The Caves of Steel
50. The Naked Sun
51. The End of Eternity
52. Robot Dreams
53. Robot Visions
54. Tales of the Black Widowers
55. Inside the Atom
56. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective
57. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story
58. The Innocence of Father Brown
59. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
60. A Study In Scarlet
61. The Hound of the Baskervilles
62. Ten Little Indians
63. 1984
64. Animal Farm
65. All The President's Men
66. The Final Days
67. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
68. The Boys On The Bus
69. Without Feathers
70. Side Effects
71. The Catcher In The Rye
72. The Hotel New Hampshire
73. The World According To Garp
74. The Cider House Rules
75. A Prayer for Owen Meany
76. In One Person
77. Slaughterhouse Five
78. Cat's Cradle
79. Welcome to the Monkey House
80. Roots
81. Assassination Vacation
82. The Wordy Shipmates
83. On The Road
84. 2001: A Space Odyssey
85. Fahrenheit 451
86. MASH
87. The Once and Future King
88. Atlas Shrugged
89. Grant Morrison and the Super Hero Renaissance
90. Shout: The Beatles In Their Generation
91. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
92. The Wizard of Oz
93. The Yearling
94. The Metaphysics of Star Trek
95. Hell's Angels
96. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
97. Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72
98. The Great Shark Hunt
99. Kingdom of Fear
100. Nixon and Kissinger: Partners In Power
101. 
     

Prez's Half-Brother Arrested in Kenya

It's getting to be a tradition with Democratic presidents: The embarrassing brother--who is usually an addict of some sort. Jimmy Carter had the hard drinking Billy, Bill Clinton had cocaine addled Roger, and now Barack Obama has George. According to a report CNN.com, the president's half-brother currently sits in a Nairobi jail on charges of marijuana possession and resisting arrest.
Between the economic crisis and this, it seems that people named George have been nothing but trouble for our new prez.

The Leaders We Deserve

Apparently, the Senate majority leader is an idiot.
Harry Reid was on Meet The Press this morning making an ass of himself by displaying for the entire nation to hear his utter lack of command of the English language as he contended repeatedly that his objections to the appointment of Roland Burris to the fill Barack Obama's seat is not to Burris himself but results from the controversy surrounding the criminal activities of the "appointee".
You moron! Roland Burris IS the "appointee"; i.e. the person who has been appointed. Obviously, Captain Opposite was referring to the charges surrounding Illinois' governor, Rod Blagojevich, and alleged attempts to "sell" the aforementioned Senate seat. Blagojevich, is the "appointer", the person making the appointment. By using the wrong wrong word, Reid inadvertantly contradicts himself and generally ends up sounding like a complete moron.
Apparently, new MTP moderator David Gregory, who let this gaffe slip by repeatedly without correcting his guest, is equally stupid--or maybe he was making a misguided effort to be "polite" to Reid. Tim Russert would have set Reid straight right away, I'm sure.

A Series of Unconnected Thoughts About The New TV Season

I might just check out the premiere of Reaper tonight on the CW.

The premise doesn't appeal to me at all, but some of the talent involved does. Frankly, I think the casting of Ray Wise (Twin Peaks' Leland Palmer) as Satan is simply inspired. Plus, tonight's debut episode is directed by none other than Kevin Smith.

I might take a look at Bionic Woman tomorrow night as well...though I strongly suspect that it won't last out the season. The reason is that, quite simply, revivals of classic TV shows never succeed--at least not on the broadcast networks. The revamped versions of The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and The Fugitive testify to that. They have been known to work in syndication or on cable and one of the most successful cable revivals has been Battlestar Galactica, with which the new BW shares an exec producer. So perhaps there's a chance that the few episodes that do make it air might actually be worth watching.

The only show you could say that I'm sort of in any way looking forward to seeing is Chiristina Applegate's new sitcom Samantha Who? set to air Mondays on ABC. Applegate plays a woman with amnesia who finds out that before she was a horrible person. (Though I would have to disagree with Applegate's contention in a TV Guide interview that she's never played a bitch before. Generally, Married...With Children's Kelly Bundy was more of a slut than a bitch, but she could be quite bitchy on occasion.) I just hope they follow the lead of NBC's hit Thursday night comedy line-up and do the show without a laugh track. I hate laugh tracks. I also hate How I Met Your Mother, which has nothing to do at all with this post, but I just thought I'd mention it.

New Seasons of Legion and Batman Begin Tomorrow!

I swear that I have not been looking forward this much to a new season of Saturday morning cartoons since I was a kid. Tomorrow brings the season premieres of The Batman and Legion of Super-Heroes on Kids' WB.

Legion cemented its place as one of the best super-hero cartoons ever with its season ending two part adaptation of the Legion's classic battle to stop the Sun-Eater. Every comics fans even passingly familiar with pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion lore knew where this story was going, but watching it get there was a hoot.

My only problem with Legion is that we still haven't seen my favorite Legionnaire, Wildfire, not even in the climactic struggle with the Sun-Eater. I hope this means that the producers have plans for him somewhere down the line.

I also hope that we see more of Matter-Eater Lad.

The Batman is my favorite of all the filmed adaptations of the Dark Knight's adventures so far. Most Batman series or movies have picked up with Batman firmly established as Gotham"s Guardian, complete with Robin and a pretty chummy relationship with Commissioner Gordon and the police. This show, on the other hand, shows us Bats at very early stage of his career, hunted by the police and as distrustful of them, and just about anyone else, as they are of him. We've actually gotten to see the character grow and progress over the course of four seasons. The series overarching story arc has concerned Bruce Wayne learning to trust others enough to let them into his life and work with them. First, he forges a tentative relationship with a police detective, then gains the trust of the commissioner. Next, he takes on a sometime partner in Batgirl before taking in fellow orphan Dick Grayson not only to work with him as Robin but to live in his house. Finally, at the end of last season, we saw him move into the wider community of super-heroes as he joined the Justice League.

From the promos I've seen for the new season, it looks like we're going to be seeing a certain Man of Steel guest starring on The Batman this season. I think it would be cool, don't you, if old Kal-El was reluctant to join the League and it was Bats, of all people, who manages to convince Supes of the advantages of being part of a team.