Holiday Book Buying Guide 2015: For the Bill Murray fan in your life.
04 December 2015
I thought I'd put a twist on the holiday book buying guide experience by suggesting some ridiculously specific books for specific readers. What do you think?*
I really, really enjoyed Robert Schnakenberg's compendium The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray. Arranged in an A to Z format, every single topic you can possibly think of, from Murray's movies to family to personal likes and dislikes, is here. It's also got a lot of great quotes, pictures, and sidebars detailing "Tales from Murrayland," detailing such exploits as how Murray has taken to crashing people's parties and pictures.
And I do mean comprehensive. There's even entries for things Murray doesn't like, like this one for Ball, Lucille:
"Despite a self-professed predilection for 'funny females,' Murray is not a fan of the wailing red-headed comedian who starred in the eponymous 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy. 'Lucy never really made me laugh,' he told film critic Elvis Mitchell in a 2008 interview. 'Lucy was never my girl.'" (p. 19.)
This book was a lot of fun to read, and gave me an appreciation for all the Murray movies I want to re-watch (Stripes) as well as watch for the first time (The Razor's Edge). It also gave me some insight into how you probably don't want to be married to Bill Murray, as well as great stories from his large family, including his sister's feeling sorry for his SNL co-stars:
"Murray's sister Laura once revealed to an interviewer that Todd DiLaMuca's penchant for giving people noogies was based on her brother's own adolescent proclivities. 'We just couldn't believe it,' she said of her family's initial reaction to the sketches. 'He was just in the kitchen giving us those, and now there he is suddenly doing it on national television and getting standing ovations. I actually felt sorry for those other cast members any time I saw him doing that, because they were painful.'" (p. 61.)
So there you go. My first official ridiculously specific book-buying suggestion.
*Although aren't there a lot of Bill Murray fans? He is pretty funny.