No books (or elephants) were injured in the writing of this blog

I've been hunted by Jumanji-esque dreams. Often we have to hide in my old backyard, which has now turned into some sort of wildlife preserve, to escape zombies or some kind of evildoer who wants to end our lives (I'm never alone in this, which is something of a relief), only to have them go away and have to escape lions, elephants (always stampeding), tigers, snakes, and other sorts of creatures. Last night was not the first time I've had this kind of dream, but even though there's a pretty set pattern as to how these things happen, my brain doesn't always play by the rules -- for example I'm pretty sure at some point last night, I and my fellow hunted were, in fact, elephants ourselves, and we had to sidle up to a hedgerow in order to not be killed by a stampede of, that's right, other elephants. And I think we were a bookstore at that point, too...

Reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman because it's being turned into a movie I wanted to see. Trouble is, I can't go see a movie based on a book without having read the book (it's a writer thing), but now the movie isn't going to hold any surprises. Caught myself in a Catch-22. Artistic Differences was good -- but incredibly dated. I don't think it was meant to be a timeless book, so who cares? If you want to work in the television industry, it's a litmus test, I think, for how much bulls--t you're willing to take. So go check it out from the library if that's your thing. Otherwise, I'd let it alone.

Still haven't finished Baudolino or my lost Moby Dick. Will get back to Baudolino shortly. Can't make promises on the other one, though...

****
Just finished Stardust. Charming book, really (and slim). Assuming they didn't cut anything out, and they certainly wouldn't need to, I think it should be a fine film.