Tag / Dustin Diamond

by admin

2013: The Year In Books

2013books

With another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 18 books I read over the past year, 6 overall less than last year but the same total if you exclude the graphic novels.  Of those 18, 5 were non-fiction and, of the 13 novels, 5 were TV show tie-ins.  Only 3 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 7 were e-books, which was a new category for me last year.

 

A majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before.  The 11 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Alan Sepinwall
Joe Hill
Rebecca Forster
Sarah Silverman
Kimberly McCreight
Andrew Gross
Ben Mezrich
Tina Fey
Ron Rapoport
David Mack
Dustin Diamond

The ghost writer for Richard Castle was the only author I read multiple times in 2013.

The five books that I read this year that were released this year were Richard Castle’s Deadly Heat, Kimberly McCreight’s Reconstructing Amelia, Brad Meltzer’s The Fifth Assassin, Warren Ellis’ Gun Machine, and From Black Sox to Threepeats, edited by Ron Rapoport.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Being off again for most of December certainly helped pad the total a tad bit.

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by jim

Book 1 (of 52) – Behind The Bell

Behind The Bell - Dustin Diamond

Behind The Bell – Dustin Diamond

When I was in college, there was a daily 2 hour block of Saved By The Bell, courtesy of superstations WGN and TBS.  When I first heard of this behind-the-scenes tell-all from the former Screech, I was of course interested.  Just not interested enough to shell out retail prices for the hard cover version of his autobiography.  For 99 cents, though, I was willing to wade into the supposed sordid details in my first foray into Ebooks.

Dustin Diamond is sure of one thing: he was a normal kid growing up in an abnormal world.  Nearly everyone else, including cast mates, other child actors, network executives, were colossal douchebags out to harsh his good time.  Mark-Paul Gosselaar was the golden child who horded his status over everyone and could do no wrong.  Mario Lopez was a man whore.  Tiffani Amber Thiessen was a slut who was passed back and forth between Zack and Slater.  Elizabeth Berkley got TAT’s sloppy seconds.  Lark Voorhies got even sloppier thirds.  Dustin Diamond, meanwhile, was the well meaning kid who just wanted to make friends but ended up the outcast for not buying into Mark-Paul’s golden status.  Somehow, it all reads a little false.

What can easily be explained by age difference (Diamond was 3 years younger than the rest of the cast), Dustin ascribes to malice.  He takes little-to-no responsibility for his own actions and is more than willing to blame others for every real or imagined slight.  He tells tales of his extensive womanizing, using extras and Disneyland as his personal whorehouses.  There is strangely no mention of the sex tape he released.

At the end of the day, I’m sure some of Diamond’s tales, both personal and about his SBTB cast mates, are true.  One would have to be incredibly naive to think a crew of teenagers would not be involved in some sexual hijinks.  But Diamond goes beyond just telling the tales, instead painting everyone except himself in the worst possible light.  It’s little surprise that Diamond has had little success after Saved By The Bell.  I suppose that is someone else’s fault as well.

by admin

52 Books in 52 Weeks – 2013 Edition

It’s hard to believe, but it is time to start year four of the goal to read a book a week for the entire year, totaling 52 books in 52 weeks.  In year one, I only made it to 8 books.  Year two doubled that total.  Last year, thanks to the inclusion of graphic novels, I managed to improve again, finishing with 24, which was still short of the ultimate goal.  Judging by my totals thus far, I’m predicting 32 books for this year, since I seem to be going up by 8 every year.

I’m going to give it another shot this year.  I got a few new books for laying around, so I’ve got a pile to start with.  As a reminder, the rules I am using are:

  • You can count a book as read as long as you have completed the book in 2012 and at least 50% of that reading takes place in 2012
  • Any book counts as long as you’re not embarrassed to count it.
  • Poetry collections do indeed count.
  • Re-reading a book is okay as long as it isn’t done this year. (Reading Twilight twice in 2010 only counts as 1 read)
  • Audiobooks also count.

Thanks to my new iPad and the Kindle app, eBooks will be part of the equation this year, and my first book of the year may end up being the Screech autobiography by Dustin Diamond that I picked up electronically for $0.99.  There is also a new Brad Meltzer novel coming out in a few weeks that I’d like to get my hands on.