I watch a lot of movies (over 1200 registered in my IMDB account). Rather than put them into the usual categories, I've just dived them into two, Fun Stuff and Serious Stuff. All of the movies on this list I've seen multiple times, and they all stand the test of time.
| Fun The Adventures of Baron Munchausen Airplane! Amazon Women on the Moon Animal House Army of Darkness O Auto da Compadecida Blazing Saddles Conan the Barbarian Don Juan de Marco Dr. Strangelove... French Kiss The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Grosse Point Blank Groundhog Day Kalifornia Kingpin El Mariachi The Matrix Monty Python and the Holy Grail Moonstruck My Cousin Vinny Naked Gun Office Space The Princess Bride Revenge of the Nerds RoboCop Serenity Tampopo Terminator The Thin Man This is Spinal Tap Time Bandits Willow A Window to Paris (Okno v Parizh) |
Serious At Play in the Fields of the Lord Casablanca The Celebration (Festen) City of God (Cidade de Deus) The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus) A Clockwork Orange Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) Dangerous Beauty Enemy at the Gates Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Fight Club Gattaca Glengarry Glen Ross Henry V Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro) The Killer (Die xue shuang xiong) Kingdom of Heaven Lorenzo's Oil Memento Reservoir Dogs Schindler's List The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) Sleuth Urban Cowboy |
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa
Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan
Books
I've read thousands of books. I have tried to capture some of the best here, but sometimes it is hard to remember them all.
Fiction
Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions
Cat's Cradle
Jorge Luis Borges
A Personal Anthology
John Kennedy Toole
A Confederacy of Dunces
Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo
Shakespeare
King Lear
Henry V
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Gustav Schwab
Gods and Heros
William Golding
The Lord of the Flies
Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men
Shel Silverstein
The Giving Tree
James Clavell
Shogun
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
El Ingenioso Hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha
Nonfiction
Plato
The Trial and Death of Socrates
Dee Brown
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography
Mitchell Ivers
The Random House Guide to Good Writing
Dale Carnegie
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Nick Evangelista
The Art and Science of Fencing
Tom Brown Jr.
Tom Brown' Field Guide to Wilderness Survival
My Favorite Books in Portuguese
L. F. Verissimo
O Clube Dos Anjos
(now available in English as The Club of Angels)
Paulo Coelho
O Alquimista
(available in English as The Alchemist)
Ignacio de Loyola Brandao
Zero
(available in English under the same title)
Não Verás País Nenhum
My favorite genre is fantasy, and I've read a few hundred books in that genre alone. Unfortunately, there are only a few that I would call classics, books that I can read over and over again and never get tired of them. Here are some of those, along with a few science fiction titles thrown in.
| J.R.R. Tolkein The Hobbit The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King Stephen R. Donaldson Lord Foul's Bane The Illearh War The Power Preserves The Wounded Land The One Land White Gold Wielder Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep Orson Scott Card Ender' Game Susanna Clarke Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Kurt Vonnegut The Sirens of Titan Robin Hobb Assassin's Apprentice Royal Assassin Assassin's Quest |
Philip K. Dick The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford: And Other Classic Stories Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Piers Anthony A Spell for Chameleon Lawerence Watt-Evans The Misenchanted Sword With a Single Spell Ursula K. LeGuin A Wizard of Earthsea The Tombs of Atuan The Farthest Shore And a couple I'm waiting to see the end of: David Farland's Runelords series George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series |
Speculative Short Fiction:
Here are some of my favorite speculative short fiction writers. I've had the great pleasure of learning from and even with some of them. Please check them out:
Richard Parks - Intricate fantasy stories from exotic locales.
One to look for: "Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge"
M. K. Hobson - Very creative, loads of fun.
One to look for: "Hell Notes"
Tony Pi - Imaginative stories that benefit from Tony's expertise in linguistics and history.
One to look for: "The Stone Cipher"
Aliette de Bodard - Engrossing historical fiction and alternate history.
One to look for: "Obsidian Shards"
Tim Pratt - Deep, emotional stories.
One to look for: "Impossible Dreams"
John Aegard - Stories with a stroke of genius.
One to look for: "Feng Burger"
Paul E. Martens - Paul is a great comic writer. His stories make me laugh out loud.
One to look for: "Dressing Down"
Suzanne Vincent - Stories filled with emotion.
One to look for: "I Speak the Master's Will"
Dasilo Chaponda - Dasilo writes beautiful, serious fiction.
One to look for: "Rare Bird"
Sarah L. Edwards - A talented world builder.
One to look for: "In Walked a Goblin"
Hilary Moon Murhpy - Intelligent stories written with a lot of feeling.
One to look for: "The Grand Cheat"
Russell Bittner - Poet and writer of sophisticated, mainstream fiction.
Travel
I love to travel and learn about different cultures. Here's a list of places I've been:
| Mexico Matamoros Tijajuana Playa del Carmen Tulum Valladolid/Cobá Chichén-Itzá Mérida Cancun Argentina Buenos Aires Bariloche El Bolson Comodoro Rivadavia Iguazu Passo de los Libres Los Antiguos El Calafate Puerto San Julian Rio Gallegos England London Liverpool Leamington Spa Scotland Edinborough Ireland Dublin France Paris Antibes Lyon Belgium Brugge The Netherlands Amsterdam |
        |
Germany The Rhine Berlin Munich Dachau Czech Republic Prague Austria Vienna Krems-au-der-Donau Italy Florence Rome Vatican City Vatican City Switzerland Geneva China Hong Kong / Kowloon Lantau Island New Territories Russia Moscow Uruguay Chuy Riveira Chile Coyhaique Puerto Aisen Canada Montreal |
          |
US States:
| Lived there: Texas California North Carolina |
Just visited: Georgia Kentucky Virginia Maryland Louisiana |
Florida Colorado Nevada Arizona |
Oregon Washington New York Massachussets |
Brazil
| Rio Grande do Sul: Porto Alegre Gramado/Canela Aparados da Serra Bento Golçalves/Garibaldi Chui Tramandai/Atlantida Riviera Torres Uruguaiana |
Sao Paulo: Sao Paulo/ABC Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro Niteroi Distrito Federal Brasilia Santa Catarina: Garopaba/Praia do Rosa Florianópolis Bombinhas/Porto Belo Laguna |
Parana: Foz do Iguaçu Curitiba Amazonas: Manaus Amazon rain forest (Rio Negro region) Minas Gerais: Belo Horizonte Ouro Preto Bahia: Salvador Praia do Forte |
Most Wanted List:
Last Stop:
Montreal in June
Next Stop:
San Francisco for World Frantasy in October
Last Stop:
Montreal in June
Next Stop:
San Francisco for World Frantasy in October
Moroccan
Greek
Indian
Sushi
Italian
Mexican (Viva!)
Thai
Seafood
Middle Eastern
Cajun
Brazilian Barbeque (Churrasco)
Food from the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia
Chris Kastensmidt
Border Illustration: "Dragon Dance" by Paulo "Arrhenius" Ítalo