Reading Update: Saturday

I just finished reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. I'll defintely have more to say about it, but at this point I just want to say that it is an incredibly good book and that you should read it.

I'm still working my way through Digital Fortress, and I'm still not sure whether or not I like it. I'm also working on a review of The Devil's Triangle. I liked it a lot, but it's turning out to be difficult for me to write about it without giving too many spoilers.

I hate spoilers. Not for myself, necessarily, and not so much for reading as for films. But I don't like giving too much away in reviews, because I know they bug the crap out of some people. And there are some things that just need not to be spoiled...again, more often movies than books, but sometimes books, as well.

I'm especially adamant about not spoiling either books or movies for others after an experience I had with The Empire Strikes Back when it first came out, way back in the dark ages (which is why I will mention the spolier to follow; the movie has been out for how many years? Thirty? More than that? Anyway, long enough to be way past worrying about spoilers.), I went to see it, first day first showing. Only the first showing sold out when there were three people in line ahead of me to buy tickets, so I had to wait around for the second show. Which was fine. Except that when I was in the theatre and waiting for the movie to begin, someone who had been in the first showing had either bought another ticket to see it again or had sneaked back into the theatre. She sat down beside me and, without any preface, told me, "Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father." I looked at her and said, "Why did you tell me that." It was awful; I hated knowing that before the movie began. Which is why I try not to put spoilers in my reviews.