The last of three books I’d ordered from The Book Depository arrived yesterday afternoon: and it was Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook 2009. The book costs a hefty SGD38 including shipping from the store – compared to a hefty SGD58 from Kinokuniya. Even with the member’s 20% discount, it would have still cost SGD46 at Kino.
For those of us who read critical reviews of films, Roger Ebert is one of the industry’s most well-known and popular film critic and reviewer. He’s been reviewing films for 42 years now.
This book is a pretty massive tome. It crams every review that Ebert has written from January 2006 to July 2008. The book is also supplemented by numerous other articles, essays, and interviews. And the heap of written content weighs in at a massive 944 (!) pages. Just goes to show how incredible is Ebert’s output volume.
Funnily though, while Ebert is one of the two film critics I make a point to read, he’s not my favorite of the two. Specifically, I prefer James Berardinelli’s reviews (his review site here) – the latter’s articles are as insightful as Ebert’s, but I enjoy his humor far more. Unfortunately, Berardinelli most recent book collection of articles comes from several years ago and there hasn’t been a new edition since.
Either way, I did quite a bit of browsing at Amazon before settling for this one by Ebert. Leonard Maltin’s yearly guides are pretty popular, crazily thick at 1664 pages for the latest volume – but his reviews are all snippet-lengths and typically just a paragraph long. I’m guessing Maltin’s guides are intended more as a quick references to DVD or video rental. Not especially interested in short articles, as I’d really rather read long critical essays on films.
The nice thing about this book is that I don’t feel the compulsion to read from page 1 to 944. That would be like reading a Dictionary i.e. crazy. Nah – this book is a reference volume that I can pick a film between 2006 to 2008, flip to the page and read an essay on the film. Just my kind of thing. For certain in the upcoming trip to Japan and on the 8 hour long flight, this is gonna be in my carry-on luggage.
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