Bathroom Reads #16: THERE AND BACK AGAIN by Sean Astin + Joe Layden

 

My dad purchased this book when it was first published (in 2004, less than a year after the theatrical release of The Return of the King, to almost universally poor reviews: this one is representative for the curious: https://www.popmatters.com/there-and-back-again-2496241478.html), but I don't believe he ever actually read it, though I myself would sometimes flip through it... a number of years ago he asked me if I wanted it, so I said sure, and it ended up becoming one of those books I would skim through in the bathroom once a year or so (though this year I finally did read it for real). 

I actually don't have all that much to say about this one, other than it's mainly an actor's memoir (despite the fact Astin was only in his early thirties when he wrote it) dealing briefly with his early years in a bit of detail, but which is mainly concerned with his time spent during the production of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It must be said that reading this book, one does not walk away with a very good impression of Astin as a person, as he comes off as very needy, self-centered, selfish, always needs to be the center of attention, and so on and so forth (he also does a lot of backhanded complimenting, where he'll talk about a person and praise them at length, then proceed to whine and complain about them). Basically, in some ways he embodies almost the exact opposite of all of the good traits exhibited by his character Samwise Gamgee in the movies. Which makes him, I suppose, a pretty good actor! I won't lie, for the longest time this book kind of soured me towards him, though he somewhat redeemed himself with an incredible performance in the second season of Stranger Things. . .  perhaps the lean years after the LOTR films humbled him somewhat. 

Top Ten Lists (Updated November 4, 2024)

Top 30 Bands/Musical Acts (in no order)

First Tier (1-10)

Siouxsie & The Banshees + Nine Inch Nails (tied for first)

Lady Gaga

Joy Division

Depeche Mode

Fleetwood Mac (+ Lindsey Buckingham solo)

Sting (solo + The Police)

Madonna

Throbbing Gristle 

Ministry

Garbage

 

Second Tier (11-20)

Bauhaus

Dead Can Dance

The Cure

Coil

Current 93

Whitehouse (+ Cut Hands & Consumer Electronics)

Nico

Suzanne Vega

Sonic Youth 

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

 

Third Tier (21-30)

Wire

Yes

Kate Bush

Skinny Puppy

Kylie Minogue 

Keane

Ladytron

Cher

Manic Street Preachers 

Harry Styles

 

Top 10 Favorite Albums (in no order)

A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (Siouxsie & The Banshees) 1982

The Downward Spiral (Nine Inch Nails) 1994

The Marble Index (Nico) 1968 

The Holy Bible (Manic Street Preachers) 1994

Dead Can Dance (Dead Can Dance) 1984

Tusk (Fleetwood Mac) 1979 

A Bell Is A Cup... (Wire) 1988

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Aphex Twin) 1992 

Horse Rotorvator (Coil) 1986

Closer (Joy Division) 1980

Top 20 Favorite Fiction Writers (in no order)

First Tier (1-10)

H.P. Lovecraft 

J.-K. Huysmans 

Stephen R. Donaldson 

Bret Easton Ellis 

Dennis Cooper

Yukio Mishima 

Meredith Gran

J.G. Ballard 

Thomas Ligotti 

Cormac McCarthy

Second Tier (11-20)

Thomas Pynchon

John Bellairs 

Carson McCullers

William Shakespeare

Clark Ashton Smith 

Grant Morrison 

William S. Burroughs

Arthur Machen 

Yasunari Kawabata

Tom Clancy

 

Top 10 Favorite Novels (in no order)

La-bas (J.-K. Huysmans) 

Guide (Dennis Cooper)

American Psycho (Bret Eason Ellis)

Sea of Fertility (Yukio Mishima) 

The Gap Cycle (Stephen R. Donaldson) 

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll) 

The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

The Night Land (William Hope Hodgson)

The White Plague (Frank Herbert)

 

Top 20 Favorite TV Shows (in no order)

First Tier (1-10)

Friends 

Game of Thrones 

Seinfeld 

Frasier

The Office (American version)

Family Matters

Saved By The Bell (original series)

Castlevania

Monk

Zorro (1990-1993 series)

Second Tier (11-20)

True Detective (season 1 only) 

Twin Peaks

Fawlty Towers 

The Vicar of Dibley 

Blackadder

Mr. Bean

Hannibal

Death Note (anime) 

Batman: The Animated Series

How I Met Your Mother 

 

Top Ten Favorite Movies (in no order)

Reality Bites (1994)

Patriot Games (1992)

Jackie Brown (1997)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

A Serious Man (2009)

Jurassic Park (1993)

House of Gucci (2021)

Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (1983) 

Les Miserables (2012) 

First Reformed (2017)

 

Top 10 Favorite Video/Computer Games (in no order)

Deus Ex (2000)

Thief Gold (1999)

System Shock 2 (1999)

Doom (1993)

Final Fantasy VI (1994)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (2004)

Sid Meier's Civilization VI (2016) 

Perfect Tides (2022)

Shenmue (whole series) 

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (2011)

(* Honorable Mention: Ultima VII- 1992)

 

Misc. Favorites 

Favorite color(s): blue, black, mauve
Favorite number(s): 28, 88 (tie)
Favorite holiday: Christmas (2nd place: Halloween)
Favorite animal: cat
Favorite bird(s): crow, owl, hummingbird
Favorite sea creature: sharks (especially Great White Sharks and the Hammerhead shark)
Favorite stuffed animal growing up: Shark Puppet
Favorite food: Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup + rice, & Chicken-flavored Rice-A-Roni
Favorite body part: the eye
Favorite card game: Hearts
Favorite board game: Clue
Favorite Clue character: Mrs. Peacock
Favorite city: Providence, Rhode Island
Favorite planet: Saturn
Favorite Zodiac sign: Gemini
Favorite subculture: Goth
Favorite artist: Andy Warhol
Favorite movie director: Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson (tie)
Favorite living actor: Sean Bean
Favorite living actress: Winona Ryder
Favorite comic strip(s):, Doonesbury (1st), Calvin & Hobbes (2nd)
Favorite Game of Thrones character: Qyburn
Favorite sport: Basketball
Favorite basketball player: John Stockton
Favorite Beatles song(s): Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer (tie)
Favorite electronic music program: Voyetra Digital Orchestrator
Favorite architectural style: Brutalism
Favorite art movement(s): Surrealism, Symbolist, Pop
Favorite carnivorous plant: Nepenthes lowii
Favorite comic book superhero: Batman
Favorite Batman villain(s): Dr. Simon Hurt, The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter
Favorite comic book writer: Grant Morrison (2nd place: Alan Moore)
Favorite science fiction book series: The Gap Cycle (Stephen R. Donaldson)
Favorite movie monster: Godzilla
Favorite Doom monster: Cacodemon
Favorite DOOM levels: E2M4 (Deimos Lab), E3M4 (House of Pain), E3M7 (Limbo)
Favorite Record Label: Mute
Favorite Broadway musical: Les Miserables
Favorite Shakespeare play: Macbeth
Favorite Star Wars character: Momaw Nadon
Favorite Mario Kart racer: Toad
Favorite Warhol Superstar: Edie Sedgwick
Favorite old school Hollywood star: Audrey Hepburn
Favorite Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Favorite Harry Potter character: Luna Lovegood
Favorite Ninja Turtle: Leonardo
Favorite Disney Villain: Scar (The Lion King)
Favorite horror writer: H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti (a close second)
Favorite Cthulhu Mythos monster: Cthulhu
Favorite book(s) of the Bible: Revelations, Ecclesiastes (tie)
Favorite Egyptian deity: Bast
Favorite Ancient culture: Ancient Egypt
Favorite Historical Time Period: The Middle Ages

2024 Reading List Monthly Update: October

Books read in October of 2024:

"Nightlands Issue 2 - Summer 2024" (Various) 10-2-24

"Charnel Glamour" (Mark Samuels) 10-4-24

"Uncanny: The Origins of Fear" (Junji Ito) 10-6-24

"The Universe As Performance Art" (Colby Smith) 10-10-24

"Come Tomorrow and Other Tales of Bangalore Terror" (Jayaprakash Satyamurthy) 10-13-24

"The Dark Chamber" (Leonard Cline) 10-14-24

"The Worlds of George R.R. Martin" (Tom Huddleston) 10-19-24

"Tales of the Grotesque" (L.A. Lewis) 10-23-24

"The Medieval Warrior" (Martin Dougherty) 10-28-24

"The Jordan Rules" (Sam Smith) 10-29-24

-

2024 Reading List Total:

-

1. "The Explosion of a Chandelier" (Damian Murphy) 1-7-24

2. "Empire of the Sun" (J.G. Ballard) 1-11-24

3. "The Consolation of Philosophy" (Boethius) 1-14-24

4. "CAW: Colossal Abandoned World" (James Champagne) 1-17-24

5. "The Green Fly and Other Stories" (Robert Scheffer) 1-19-24

6. "Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again" (Shigeru Kayama) 1-22-24

7. "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" (Cho Nam-joo) 1-27-24

8. "The Planetary Omnibus" (Warren Ellis) 1-28-24

9. "A Song in the Night" (Daniel Mills) 1-31-24 

10. "The Princess of Darkness" (Rachilde) 2-13-24

11. "i'm still growing" (Josiah Morgan) 2-15-24

12. "Winona" (Robert Rich) 2-16-24

13. "Alexandria: The City That Changed The World" (Islam Issa) 2-21-24

14. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" (Mindy Kaling) 2-27-24

15. "Self-Portraits" (Osamu Dazai) 2-27-24

16. "The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories" (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki) 3-10-24

17. "The Secret History with Related Texts" (Prokopios) 3-13-24

18. "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" (Marie Kondo) 3-14-24

19. "Crampton" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 3-16-24 +

20. "Stitches" (Hirokatsu Kihara + Junji Ito) 3-26-24

21. "Artists and Their Cats" (Alison Nastasi) 3-28-24

22. "Great Cities of the Ancient World" (L. Sprague de Camp) 4-3-24

23. "Terminal Boredom" (Izumi Suzuki) 4-12-24

24. "Dragon Palace" (Hiromi Kawakami) 4-16-24

25. "Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious Death" (Anthony Everitt) 4-21-24

26. "The Antichrist: A New Biography" (Philip C. Almond) 5-24-24

27. "The Old Capital" (Yasunari Kawabata) 5-16-24

28. "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" (Bettany Hughes) 5-20-24

29. "The Cat Inside" (William S. Burroughs) 5-22-24 +

30. "A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes" (Anthony Bale) 5-29-24

31. "Diary of a Void" (Emi Yagi) 5-29-24

32. "The Book of Marvels and Travels" (Sir John Mandeville/Anthony Bale translation) 6-4-24

33. "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are" (Michael Pye) 6-9-24

34. "The Three Cornered World" (Natsume Soseki) 6-15-24

35. "A Kingdom of Frozen Tears" (Tom Champagne) 6-21-24

36. "Michigan Basement" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 6-22-24

37. "The Stronghold" (Dino Buzzati) 6-24-24 

38. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (Gawain-Poet/Keith Harrison translation) 7-1-24

39. "The Death of King Arthur" (Sir Thomas Malory/a retelling by Peter Ackroyd) 7-2-24

40. "Flunker" (Dennis Cooper) 7-4-24

41. "The Rule of St. Benedict" (St. Benedict of Nursia) 7-5-24

42. "Beowulf" (Unknown/John McNamara translation) 7-9-24

43. "Alley" (Junji Ito) 7-15-24

44. "Out of the Silent Planet" (C.S. Lewis) 

45. "Soviet Asia" (Roberto Conte + Stefano Perego) 7-17-24

46. "The Adventure Zone Vol. 6: The Suffering Game" (The McElroys + Carey Pietsch) 7-19-24

47. "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" (Soji Shimada) 7-27-24

48. "The Singularity" (Dino Buzzati) 7-31-24

49. "Goodnight Tokyo" (Atsuhiro Yoshida) 8-3-24

50. "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" (Vincent Bugliosi + Curt Gentry) 8-5-24

51. "Spook" (Klabund) 8-7-24

52. "Dark Entries: Bauhaus and Beyond" (Ian Shirley) 8-9-24

53. "The Sun Also Rises" (Ernest Hemingway) 8-15-24

54. "Depeche Mode: A Biography" (Steve Malins) 8-20-24

55. "The Sirens of Titan" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-25-24

56. "We" (Yevgeny Zamyatin) 8-26-24

57. "Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography" (Mark Paytress) 9-3-24

58. "Vita Nouva" (Dante Alighieri/Mark Musa translation) 9-5-24

59. "Shakespeare and the Medieval World" (Helen Cooper) 9-10-24

60. "The Medieval Castle: Design - Construction - Daily Life" (Charles Phillips) 9-19-24

61. "The Art of War" (Sun Tzu) 9-23-24

62. "Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era" (Saul Austerlitz) 9-26-24

63. "Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave" (Aaron Lange) 9-28-24

64. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 9-29-24

65. "Nightlands Issue 2 - Summer 2024" (Various) 10-2-24

66. "Charnel Glamour" (Mark Samuels) 10-4-24

67. "Uncanny: The Origins of Fear" (Junji Ito) 10-6-24

68. "The Universe As Performance Art" (Colby Smith) 10-10-24

69. "Come Tomorrow and Other Tales of Bangalore Terror" (Jayaprakash Satyamurthy) 10-13-24

70. "The Dark Chamber" (Leonard Cline) 10-14-24

71. "The Worlds of George R.R. Martin" (Tom Huddleston) 10-19-24

72. "Tales of the Grotesque" (L.A. Lewis) 10-23-24

73. "The Medieval Warrior" (Martin Dougherty) 10-28-24

74. "The Jordan Rules" (Sam Smith) 10-29-24

*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"Four Great Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest" (William Shakespeare) 

Bathrooms Reads #15: THE JORDAN RULES by Sam Smith

 

I am not a sports guy. However, living in a house as I do with my parents and most of my younger brothers (all of whom are very into sports), coupled with the fact that every afternoon I read the USA TODAY and PROVIDENCE JOURNAL sports pages at lunch (along with all the other sections, mind), added to how I sometimes listen to one of the local sports radio stations on my drives to work (though less so these days after they cancelled my favorite show a few months ago, in August of this year, specifically 93.7 WEEI's afternoon drive show JONES & MEGO WITH ARCAND, which played from 2-6 in the afternoons Monday through Friday), means that, through such background osmosis, I'm at least generally aware of what is going on in the world of sports and who some of the big names are. However, reading about sports or hearing people talk about it is one thing, but actually watching games is beyond my ken . . . I find most sporting events mind-numbingly boring, with one exception: I can, at the very least, watch televised basketball games without losing interest. 

My interest in basketball began sometime in the early 1990s, when my younger brothers and my dad started collecting basketball trading cards as a hobby (I myself collected such cards, though only for a short time). This interest in basketball cards led to an interest in basketball in general, and my brothers and I each decided to pick an NBA team to be our favorite team; I went with the Utah Jazz, mainly because at that time in my life I was obsessed with things that began with the letter "U," and in some ways it was a good pick because the Jazz were a very good team in the 90s, with some great players like Karl Malone and John Stockton (the latter of whom quickly became, and still is, my favorite male basketball player). My brother Tom was very into the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan in particular, and he eventually got the book THE JORDAN RULES by Sam Smith. I myself eventually became a fan of this book, and years later would get my own copy of it (pictured above). This interest in basketball reached its peak for me when I began writing a small series of basketball thriller novels in the mid-to-late 1990s (mainly BULLET GAMES in 1996 and THE HORNET QUEEN in 1997). 

THE JORDAN RULES (which, like some of the other bathroom books I've covered in this series, I finally read "for real" this year) is a fascinating look at the Bulls 1990-1991 championship run (in other words, covering the start of the first Bulls dynasty), funny and well-written, and I recommend it to fans of basketball in general, as not only does it provide a compelling portrait of both Jordan and his then-coach Phil Jackson, but is also a useful exploration of team dynamics, and how such a disparate group of men can come together, put aside their differences, and triumph (while on the subject, Smith's less well-known sequel to THE JORDAN RULES, THE SECOND COMING, which dealt with Jordan's return to the world of basketball after a failed attempt at becoming a baseball player, is also worth seeking out). Incidentally, some of the material covered in this book was used in the Netflix Michael Jordan THE LAST DANCE documentary back in 2020, which also saw an appearance by Smith himself. 

2024 Reading List Monthly Update: September

Books read in September of 2024:

"Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography" (Mark Paytress) 9-3-24

"Vita Nouva" (Dante Alighieri/Mark Musa translation) 9-5-24

"Shakespeare and the Medieval World" (Helen Cooper) 9-10-24

"The Medieval Castle: Design - Construction - Daily Life" (Charles Phillips) 9-19-24

"The Art of War" (Sun Tzu) 9-23-24

"Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era" (Saul Austerlitz) 9-26-24

"Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave" (Aaron Lange) 9-28-24

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 9-29-24

-

2024 Reading List Total:

-

1. "The Explosion of a Chandelier" (Damian Murphy) 1-7-24

2. "Empire of the Sun" (J.G. Ballard) 1-11-24

3. "The Consolation of Philosophy" (Boethius) 1-14-24

4. "CAW: Colossal Abandoned World" (James Champagne) 1-17-24

5. "The Green Fly and Other Stories" (Robert Scheffer) 1-19-24

6. "Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again" (Shigeru Kayama) 1-22-24

7. "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" (Cho Nam-joo) 1-27-24

8. "The Planetary Omnibus" (Warren Ellis) 1-28-24

9. "A Song in the Night" (Daniel Mills) 1-31-24 

10. "The Princess of Darkness" (Rachilde) 2-13-24

11. "i'm still growing" (Josiah Morgan) 2-15-24

12. "Winona" (Robert Rich) 2-16-24

13. "Alexandria: The City That Changed The World" (Islam Issa) 2-21-24

14. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" (Mindy Kaling) 2-27-24

15. "Self-Portraits" (Osamu Dazai) 2-27-24

16. "The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories" (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki) 3-10-24

17. "The Secret History with Related Texts" (Prokopios) 3-13-24

18. "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" (Marie Kondo) 3-14-24

19. "Crampton" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 3-16-24 +

20. "Stitches" (Hirokatsu Kihara + Junji Ito) 3-26-24

21. "Artists and Their Cats" (Alison Nastasi) 3-28-24

22. "Great Cities of the Ancient World" (L. Sprague de Camp) 4-3-24

23. "Terminal Boredom" (Izumi Suzuki) 4-12-24

24. "Dragon Palace" (Hiromi Kawakami) 4-16-24

25. "Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious Death" (Anthony Everitt) 4-21-24

26. "The Antichrist: A New Biography" (Philip C. Almond) 5-24-24

27. "The Old Capital" (Yasunari Kawabata) 5-16-24

28. "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" (Bettany Hughes) 5-20-24

29. "The Cat Inside" (William S. Burroughs) 5-22-24 +

30. "A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes" (Anthony Bale) 5-29-24

31. "Diary of a Void" (Emi Yagi) 5-29-24

32. "The Book of Marvels and Travels" (Sir John Mandeville/Anthony Bale translation) 6-4-24

33. "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are" (Michael Pye) 6-9-24

34. "The Three Cornered World" (Natsume Soseki) 6-15-24

35. "A Kingdom of Frozen Tears" (Tom Champagne) 6-21-24

36. "Michigan Basement" (Thomas Ligotti & Brandon Trenz) 6-22-24

37. "The Stronghold" (Dino Buzzati) 6-24-24 

38. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (Gawain-Poet/Keith Harrison translation) 7-1-24

39. "The Death of King Arthur" (Sir Thomas Malory/a retelling by Peter Ackroyd) 7-2-24

40. "Flunker" (Dennis Cooper) 7-4-24

41. "The Rule of St. Benedict" (St. Benedict of Nursia) 7-5-24

42. "Beowulf" (Unknown/John McNamara translation) 7-9-24

43. "Alley" (Junji Ito) 7-15-24

44. "Out of the Silent Planet" (C.S. Lewis) 

45. "Soviet Asia" (Roberto Conte + Stefano Perego) 7-17-24

46. "The Adventure Zone Vol. 6: The Suffering Game" (The McElroys + Carey Pietsch) 7-19-24

47. "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" (Soji Shimada) 7-27-24

48. "The Singularity" (Dino Buzzati) 7-31-24

49. "Goodnight Tokyo" (Atsuhiro Yoshida) 8-3-24

50. "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" (Vincent Bugliosi + Curt Gentry) 8-5-24

51. "Spook" (Klabund) 8-7-24

52. "Dark Entries: Bauhaus and Beyond" (Ian Shirley) 8-9-24

53. "The Sun Also Rises" (Ernest Hemingway) 8-15-24

54. "Depeche Mode: A Biography" (Steve Malins) 8-20-24

55. "The Sirens of Titan" (Kurt Vonnegut) 8-25-24

56. "We" (Yevgeny Zamyatin) 8-26-24

57. "Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography" (Mark Paytress) 9-3-24

58. "Vita Nouva" (Dante Alighieri/Mark Musa translation) 9-5-24

59. "Shakespeare and the Medieval World" (Helen Cooper) 9-10-24

60. "The Medieval Castle: Design - Construction - Daily Life" (Charles Phillips) 9-19-24

61. "The Art of War" (Sun Tzu) 9-23-24

62. "Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era" (Saul Austerlitz) 9-26-24

63. "Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave" (Aaron Lange) 9-28-24

64. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (J.R.R. Tolkien) 9-29-24

*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading: 

"Charnel Glamour" (Mark Samuels) 

Bathroom Reads #14: GENERATION FRIENDS by Saul Austerlitz

Seeing as how earlier entries in this series covered books dealing with SEINFELD and FRASIER, it seems only natural to now turn to FRIENDS, which (along with the two previously mentioned TV shows) I place in the Holy Trinity of the great 90s sitcoms, that glorious decade and lost golden era where the sitcom reached its apotheosis and cultural zenith (though there are a few post-FRIENDS sitcoms that I also rank highly, mainly THE OFFICE [American version] and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER). My fandom of this show is a running joke amongst some of my friends, but I do not exaggerate when I tie FRIENDS with GAME OF THRONES as my favorite TV show of all-time. My brothers and I began watching it in 1998, about halfway through season 4, and because by that point in time the show was syndicated we quickly caught up with what was going on via reruns. Actually, the first episode that my brothers and I ever saw was a rerun, 1995's "The One With Two Parts," which was aired as a repeat on February 19, 1998: the night we started watching FRIENDS. As to just why I like the show so much? That's a complicated question. Partly it's because, like the film REALITY BITES, the show serves as a time capsule for a decade I'm still somewhat nostalgic towards (having grown up as a teenager during that time period, I obviously view those as my formative years). Also, and simply put, it's just one of those sitcoms where the acting, the writing, the set design, and other factors too numerous to name seemed to magically fit together into a harmonic whole. Many shows strive to achieve that kind of perfect alchemy, but few succeed. FRIENDS was one of those success stories, obviously. In fact, unlike SEINFELD (which was almost the definition of a sleeper hit), FRIENDS was almost precision-designed to be a hit from Day One, and how that came to be is itself a very interesting story, which leads me to the book under discussion today. 

Although a fair number of books on FRIENDS have come out over the last couple of years, Saul Austerlitz's GENERATION FRIENDS, published in 2019, is one of the better ones. Although he did not interview any of the six core cast members, he did interview the showrunners/creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman, executive producer Kevin Bright, and many of the various writers/directors/crew members/guest actors of the show, including director James Burrows, prop master Marjorie Coster-Praytor, Tate Donovan, Jessica Hecht, costume designer Debra McGuire, and many more (the writers in particular contribute a lot). At over 300 pages, it's fairly comprehensive, and is divided into four parts. Part One is 4 chapters long and covers how the show originated, the casting process (one of the most interesting chapters: Courtney Cox was of course the perfect Monica, but it's interesting to imagine an alternate universe where Janeane Garofalo, the showrunners' original choice for Monica, actually joined the show rather than turning them down, to focus instead on what by all accounts was a disastrous experience on SNL), the filming of the pilot episode, and so on. Part Two is 7 chapters long and covers seasons 1 through 3: some interesting chapters in this section include chapter 8 (which deals with how Monica's apartment and the Central Perk coffee house were designed, Rachel's iconic haircut in the early seasons, and how the characters' outfits/costumes were created), chapter 10 (which focuses on the initial contract negotiations), and chapter 11 (which captures some of what went on in the writers' room, and how certain episodes and jokes came about). Part Three is 6 chapters long and covers seasons 4 through 7, and some of its chapters focus on specific things like how the show was produced, an analysis of "The One With The Embryos" episode,  an entire chapter on the Monica/Chandler relationship (while on the subject, there are no less than 6 chapters devoted to the Ross and Rachel relationship, scattered throughout the book at various points), and the "Lyle vs. Friends" lawsuit. Part Four is 8 chapters long and covers the final three seasons. Here there are chapters dealing with the controversial Joey + Rachel pairing, another chapter on the show's complex contract negotiations (which makes for very intriguing reading), a chapter on the final episode . . . meanwhile the penultimate chapter covers what the show's creators and stars got up to in the years following FRIENDS, while the last chapter explores how the show attracted a new generation of Millennial fans long after it ended (and some of whom weren't even born when it first aired), and also analyzes the show's cultural impact on pop culture (both in America and abroad). 

Unlike some books in recent years that have come out on the TV show (such as Kelsey Miller's lightweight I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU), Austerlitz's book is less concerned about scoring points with the social justice crowd by griping about the show's "...deviations from contemporary liberal orthodoxy" (to quote Austerlitz's text) and more about just giving the reader a lot of behind-the-scenes information on how the show was made, so for that reason I would highly recommend this book, and it even taught me, a FRIENDS obsessive, some things about the show that I had not previously known (for example, in season 5 the writers wanted to introduce a big twist in which the whole gang would temporarily uproot and move to Minnesota). I also agree with the author's notion that, though in some ways predated by SEINFELD, FRIENDS was one of the first major sitcoms that realized that audiences had evolved and were capable of watching shows with story arcs that extended for entire seasons (a concept that some TV critics at the time seemed resistant to), and that the days of sitcoms being stand-alone shows where people tuned in for 30 minutes and quickly forgot about afterwards was in decline.