Watched State of Play last night (Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe) and it started off as a good movie, and would have continued to be a good movie, had it not gone on...and on...and on. Maybe it was just me not having much stamina these days, but any movie over two hours long just has me yawning and figeting and wondering when the damn thing will finish so I can go to bed. I like movies to be short, sharp, shocks that leave you wanting more.
Books however, now they are different. I am more than happy to pick up a good brick of a book and settle in with it for a week or so. At least with a book you can pick it up and put it down when you want to (though I often find that if it is a good book I end up staying up way past my bed time, promising myself that I'll go to bed after just one more chapter.) There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. I recently read 'Rome', by Colleen McCullough, and I enjoyed it at the start, but then it also just went on. She then ended the book so abruptly, after what must have been 250,000 words, that it left me wondering what she had actually been trying to say in all that time. Not that I wouldn't recommend her as a writer - 'Angel' is particularly good.
But it does go to show, just because someone can write alot about something, doesn't neccessarily mean they should...
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