Inventory/The Rules of Attraction/Slaughterhouse-Five

Inventory - A.V. Club (2009)
Book of fun/sometimes funny/always interesting pop culture lists from the A.V. Club. Here's a list of a bunch of my favorites:

- NONE OF THESE EXCUSE MY SUPER SWEET 16: 22 shows that prove MTV actually brought some good into the world
- QUICK, MAN! CLING TENACIOUSLY TO MY BUTTOCKS!: 21 children's TV shows that found adult audiences
- PETER PARKER HAD IT EASY: 18-plus truly tough superhero adolescences
- VISIONARY OR MADMAN?: 16 career-jeopardizing labors of love
- PANIC AT THE ARCADE: 11 videogames that prompted fear and outrage
- NOT AGAIN: 24 great films too painful to watch twice
- LOST IN TRANSLATION: 20 not-so-good movies based on good books
- SECOND VERSE, (ALMOST THE) SAME AS THE FIRST: 14 relatively obscure bands that morphed into some of our favorites
- GUEST LIST BY "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC, FRAK BOIMP!: The 27 all-time coolest Don Martin sound effects
- GUEST LIST BY PATTON OSWALT: 6 quiet film revolutions
- OH, I GET IT NOW: 6 movies that make a lot more sense if you've read the book
- THE AMAZING DR. WHAT?: 26 real titles from old movies, shorts and cartoons that wouldn't fly today


The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis (1987)
The best Bret Easton Ellis novel I've read yet, just as I suspected it would be. It features the usual satirical take on the usual scandalous subjects: sex, drugs, wealth, the 80s, etc... I have always loved the film version of The Rules of Attraction (starring James Vanderbeek, nonetheless), and now that I have finally read the novel, I can safely say the film is a fantastic adaptation. Sure, it cuts A LOT of details and things are out of order all over the place (well, that's actually hard to say, as events in the book don't seem to follow any pattern anyway), but the moods are matched very well and it is entirely its own entity. Also, the way Ellis blurs and confuses reality and fantasy is possibly unrivaled (he does that even better later in American Psycho). Hilarious, incredibly messed up, almost perfect.


Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
I was disappointed by this, and am really bummed that I ended up feeling that way. I feel silly that this was my first shot at a Kurt Vonnegut novel. His writing style is great, but I'm not sure if I just wasn't paying enough attention or if this plot is so scatterbrained that I just simply couldn't follow it. I caught on quickly to the obvious anti-war, anti-religion stances that I heard were so prevalent in Vonnegut's writing, but other than that, there wasn't much to hold my attention. I will definitely be giving this another shot in the future.