



























Song of the moment: "You've Been Talking Bout me Baby" by Donald Byrd
Mack Knowledgists.




























































































The Hoods by Harry Grey was the basis for the movie "Once Upon A Time in America," a film directed by Sergio Leone starring Robert Deniro and James Woods. I saw the movie first and HAD TO pick up the book as soon as I found out that the film was based on the book.
I purchased it off amazon.com back in June or so. I was busy reading other books at the time and didn't get around to reading this for a while. I finished it in four days flat! Once I picked it up and began reading, I couldn't put it down. I've developed a liking towards fiction novels. When I first began reading books, through the power of my own free will, I was reading factual books. Non-fiction. Books about philosophy. Pyschology books. That was all I was reading for a while. That was back in high school. And I didn't pick up reading again til the past summer of 2007. I started off with reading books that movies were based on. I believe the books are always better.
A friend of mine brought up an interesting point about comparing books and the movies that they were based on: They are two different pieces of literature and should not be compared. They're two different pieces of art. A movie is the screenwriter or the director's interpretation of the book. What he wanted the actors to portray and where he wanted the movie to be set was taken from his imagination. When you read the book, you're using your own imagination to create your own world from what the author has written for you to read. For example, I am now reading "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho and the narrator of the book is living in Paris. I'm interpreting Paris as a city of lights and cafes. Some people might be imagining that Paris as the one depicted in the film "Saving Private Ryan." And if a director or a screenplay writer ever creates a movie about this book, he'll give you his interpretation of the Paris that the narrator is living in.
