Reading the Movies

As a native of Southern California certain things are in my blood - surfing, making salads, and show business. Consequently, I can't help but enjoy The Endless Summer, the music of Dick Dale, and beachy things in general and at least once a week I'll whip up a salad out of whatever is in the fridge. And, though I've never made a movie myself, I am fascinated by the filmmaking process.

Some people are content to be casual fans and take a film at face value, which is a perfectly valid and entirely healthy, approach. However, as a true movie nerd (and a native of Southern California which imbues me with a preternatural understanding of the movie business), I'm often interested in details such as who had final script approval and at what point during pre-production did the star become attached. So, it's not surprising that I really enjoy reading books which offer "insider's looks" or behind-the-scenes tales" of movie making, especially during the "golden age" of the studio system when so many of my favorite films were produced.

Here are some of the books I've enjoyed recently:

• Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris
• Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood: Rebels, Reds, and Graduates and the Wild Stories Behind the Making of 13 Iconic Films
• Easy Riders and Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood and Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by Peter Biskind
• Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman

On my summer reading list:

• The Studio by John Gregory Dunne
• Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops by James Robert Parrish
• George Lucas' Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success
• Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas by Alison Macor