Sunday, December 30, 2012

Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda

That voice! I listened to this on audio and couldn't get Hawkeye Pierce out of my mind the whole time, especially the scenes where he's just pouring himself a martini from the still in his tent and about to hold forth on some ridiculous army regulation, or outrage regarding Frank and Hotlips. The intensity of his voice is the hallmark of those scenes; I just didn't realize he speaks so passionately in real life too.

Oh man, I miss M*A*S*H.

Anywhoo, this book is endearing in its own right but a little heavy on the warm-fuzzies. I was hoping it would be more about Alan Alda himself but it was mostly a compilation of graduation speeches he's done over the years for various schools. Not bad, just not exactly what I was expecting.

5 comments:

Connie said...

I've always liked him. I haven't read this. It looks interesting.

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I listened to his previous book (Never Have Your Dog Stuffed) which was fun. Happy New Year.

Trish said...

Daisy - yes, I like him best in MASH but it's fun to see he's kept his hand in the acting (and writing) business all these years too.

Diane - I'll have to look out for that one. Happy New Year to you too!

Laura said...

I read this like, as a book, and I'd wished that I'd listened to the audio because reading speeches is not exactly my idea of a good time. But it wasn't *terrible* or anything!

If you want more personal things then you HAVE to read Never Have Your Dog Stuffed! It's much more memoir-y and awesome :)

Trish said...

I'm beginning to enjoy memoirs -and most non-fiction, for that matter- exclusively in audio. I don't know . . . I think it's because it's more a conversation the author is having with the reader than a literary experience.

Dog Stuffed (that name!) will be going on my To-Be-Listened to for the new year.