Dearest Readers - just to remind2 you of the format of this feature, in each issue, I'll propose a theme for your suggestions on good reads for academic law librarians (along with my thoughts on the topic), and include a reader response in the next issue.
Kevin Gray, of the LSU Law Center Library, submitted this suggestion for the last topic (If you had to recommend just one book for a prospective law student, what would it be, and why?): “When I come across a 1L who's feeling down, I refer them not to a book, but to a law review article: James D. Gordon III, How Not to Succeed in Law School, 100 Yale L.J. 1679 (1991).” I only wish I had seen that before I started law school, Kevin! Now, if only these stressed-out students would relax and listen to their librarians.
So here’s a new3 topic: Books to movies. Last year saw a number of adaptations - from The Kite Runner and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to Atonement and The Golden Compass - that have enjoyed varying degrees of commercial and critical success. Have you read something recently that you think should/could [or inevitably will] be made into a movie? And who would star in and/or direct it?
I just finished Boomsday, another frothy romp of a satire by Christopher Buckley (author of Thank You for Smoking). It’s not exactly a trenchant work of heart-rending magnitude . . . and thus perfect for a movie treatment, right? Kate Hudson would be my choice for the main character, Cassandra Devine - a spunky, angry, and yet oddly idealistic 29-year old “strategic communications” consultant and late-night blogger with a modest proposal for solving the Social Security mess. The harder question is, would it be weird to have Aaron Eckhart play Terry Taylor, the Boomsday character who apprenticed under Nick Naylor (Eckhart's character in Thank You . . . ) - or would it be just weird enough?
What book would you like to see on the big screen? Send your responses to iwang@law.berkeley.edu (or just email to tell me to euthanize this column).
1 I’m not giving up yet! Despite a somewhat - shall we say slow? - response to last issue’s question, this column will bravely soldier on with the current title, delaying any switchover to its tawdry and attention-grabbing alternative, “One-Night Stand.”
2 You know, in case you haven’t yet memorized my brilliantly witty inaugural column.
3 Okay, I’m not saying this is an entirely new topic, as if I conceived of it and no one else has ever had a similar concept, I'm just saying it’s new to this column. Which is not too hard to do since this is only the second appearance of this feature.