Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

This week's miscellany comes to you on a Saturday morning, because I was a dirty stop-up last night, and didn't get back from London until about 2am. What *would* my mother say. Whilst in London, I had the very great pleasure of dinner with the lovely Claire (Paperback Reader) and the equally lovely Teresa (one half of Shelf Love - a pun it took me two years to get). Teresa was over visiting from the US of A - a brief discussion ensued which revealed my total lack of geographical knowledge about the US; thank goodness we didn't start on the counties of England - and it was very nice to meet her, and see Claire again - thanks guys! When we left each other, we went to the extremes of the cultural spectrum. They went to see Macbeth at the Globe; I went with my friend Phil (also responsible for my blog feed appearing on Twitter, thanks Phil!) to see The Room: 'The Best Worst Film Ever Made'. It's written, directed, and starred in by Tommy Wiseau, a man without any discernible talent - unless unquashable self-belief is a talent. They hold screenings for people to mock it - and the cinema was sold out. Audience Participation includes:

• Throwing plastic spoons at the screen whenever a framed picture of a spoon appears. Which they do. A lot. There were literally hundreds, probably thousands, of spoons.
• Shouting 'Meanwhile, in San Francisco' whenever another shot of San F appears.
• Shouting 'Hello, Denny!' and 'Bye, Denny!' whenever said character enters or leaves a room.
• Shouting 'Who the heck are you?' when a character is replaced half-way through the film by another actor, who looks nothing like the first guy.
• Mocking the film's misogyny by shouting 'because you're a woman' at the end of many and various lines of dialogue.
• One character says how much he likes 'The candles, the music, and your sexy dress.' None of these things are in the scene - so, naturally, it provokes the united audience reaction "What candles? What music? What sexy dress?"
• Joining in with this particular scene...
• etc. etc. etc.!
  

So, yes, lots of shouting. And not remotely literary. But one of the most fun evenings I've had for a while...

Oh dear, I've just got distracted by looking up The Room on Wikipedia, and then reading interviews and articles about it... when instead I should be telling you about a book, a blog post, and a link...

1.) The blog post - is over at Cornflower Books, where Karen is trying to create a profile for the 'typical' reader of her blog, by asking three questions... go and answer, it's fun!

2.) The book - arrived yesterday, courtesy of Hayley at Desperate Reader, as I won it in a competition. Thanks Hayley! It's Andrina and other stories by George Mackay Brown. I'm always on the look-out for more short stories, and keen to read more Scottish writers too, so I'm intrigued by this one. Despite my love of some short story writers, somehow I hardly ever get around to reading collections - I'll make sure I do better with this one. Read what Hayley had to say about the book here.

3.) The link - I'm afraid I haven't come across anything notable and bookish this week. So, on the off-chance that you're still intrigued by The Room... click here.

And don't forget that Persephone Reading Week kicks off on Monday... I just hope you haven't been foolish and scheduled in Jude the Obscure for the same week...