The Stone Reader

Watched a great documentary - in the middle of the night tonight. One of those nights where I simply couldn't sleep, so I decided to put in this DVD that I got from the local video store. The movie is called "The Stone Reader"

The movie is done by a documentary film maker from Pennsylvania who reads a book in 1972 and can't get through it. Years later, he picks up the book off his shelf (which is by now in tatters), and falls in love with the writing. Intrigued by his read, he seeks out a new copy of the book and can't find one anywhere or even to see if the author wrote anything else. The book is out of print, and the author is mentioned nowhere.

Over the next 2 hours, the filmmaker takes us on his quest to find this author, interviewing writing colleagues, editors, agents, and all the while talking about old books.

The story reveals a few interesting points. One, great classics which were hits in their day are often out of print and hard to find. Two, writers often create hits and then never go onto write anything again. Why is this? The journey of the film tries to answer that question.

Today's blog entry is brought to you by Abe Books :)