Filmbook: Spring-Summer 2012, Read It Before You See It

This seemed like a great idea before I actually started writing it. I feel freshly motivated to... read a lot this summer and not go to the movies.

May 18: "What To Expect When You're Expecting" That's right, they adapted a self-help book (which I hear isn't bad? For those in need I mean) for one of those mega-cast comedies. It's too bad a lot of people I normally want to see onscreen got dragged into this mess (Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Banks, Rodrigo Santoro, Wendi McLendon-Covey from "Bridesmaids")... I was in denial that this was a real movie even up to the point that the posters were going up.

June 1: "Snow White and the Huntsman." If you're thinking: "Didn't we just have a big-screen re-adaptation of the fairy tale of Snow White?" Yes, we did, with Julia Roberts, and it didn't do so well. But this is the Kristen Stewart one. That's necessary. Charlize Theron costars as the evil queen, Chris "Thor" Hemsworth as the Huntsman.

June 8: "Bel-Ami." All my Guy de Maupassant fans in the house, put your hands in the air! And then hurridly put them down in case someone sees you expressing a little enthusiasm for something Robert Pattinson is involved in. I'll give this a shot; period dramas are appropriate for certain hot summer afternoons.

June 15: "The Woman in the Fifth." Before I became temporarily obsessed with THE MOMENT, Douglas Kennedy published a Paris-set murder mystery I heard good things about called THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH. Ethan Hawke is the detective; Kristen Scott Thomas (MVP) is the suspect. Yeah, all right.

June 22: "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter." It delights me to no end that something this oddball (by Seth Grahame-Smith, responsible for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES) is actually making it to theatres, with no stars, and no buzz. I'm there opening night.

July 6: "Savages." I didn't enjoy the Don Winslow book this Oliver Stone thriller is based on about "good" drug dealers (white kids with biology experience) versus "bad" drug dealers (Mexican, violent), although I hear it's one of his weaker novels. But something inside me wants to give this movie a chance... maybe it's Benicio Del Toro as one of the baddies.

July 13: "Trishna." This isn't a straight adaptation of TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES, but by re-setting the book in contemporary India, Michael Winterbottom may bring people in to what will undoubtedly be a very depressing experience. Also, Freida Pinto of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame as Trishna!

August 31: "Lawless" O come all ye Western fans, ye sore of brains from having to endure the 18th Bourne movie and any number of reboots: Here's Matt Bondurant's novel, THE WETTEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, about bootleggers during Prohibition. Add Nick Cave as a screenwriter. Sprinkle in some other supporting younger actors, a little Jessica Chastain here, some Shia LaBeouf. Top with Guy Pearce vs Tom Hardy and bake for 3 hours. It's only too bad that the finished movie goes to Cannes in a few days, but the rest of the adults have to wait.

What it's like to read books on an iPad

The first book I finished in 2012 was Matt Bondurant's THE NIGHT SWIMMER (liked it!) Because I had an e-galley it was also the first book I started and finished on my new-to-me iPad.

I love gadgets but had held off on buying myself an iPad for the usual reasons -- cost, wariness of what the first few generations would be able and unable to do, lack of pressing need for another consumptive media device. I'm also not a huge touchscreen person, as the last person in New York to voluntarily get a Blackberry (and you know what it does really well? It makes phone calls ahem). Playing with it has definitely reignited that sense of fun I had when I got my first mp3 player, and I haven't even gotten addicted to Angry Birds yet -- but, as everyone warned, it is better suited to consuming media than creating, as I struggle through composing an email longer than three sentences.

Kindle books on an iPad can be accessed through the free Amazon app and downloaded manually one-by-one from your existing Kindle library. So far I haven't bought any books through the Kindle app on the iPad or iBooks, just taught myself how to sync the app and the Kindle (a process in itself). Once I did that I was able to ping-pong back and forth between both with the same book, a trick that probably delighted only me, but if both devices are on and connected to wireless internet, one will alert you if you are on a further location with the other and prompt you to jump ahead. It only gets confusing if you remember a paragraph being at a particular location on one page, and then find it in a different place on the other device.

The major advantage I see so far in reading in Kindle for iPad over Kindle itself is the backlit screen, making it unnecessary to turn another light on; the major disadvantage, the attraction that an iPad might have to people on the subway who would not consider a Kindle worth stealing. Being able to flip back and forth while reading to my email or Google Reader is a draw; I don't need the interruption, although it was nice to manage both in one device.

I haven't done a really thorough exploration of the literary or reading-related apps out there, so I'd welcome your suggestions. I will say that the Goodreads app is lovely and so easy to refresh I almost wished that I had more Goodreads friends.