Last night, Brooklynne and I watched another movie--Match Point. Has anyone else seen this movie? It's a recent Woody Allen film. I had heard good things about it and my cousin, Rich, who was over last night, recommended it (I think he's a Woody Allen fan in general).

The movie was not enjoyable for me. I don't like movies where people get tangled in impossibly bad relationships and there was an hour in the middle of the movie that could easily have been boiled down to a 5 minute mantage played to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" without loosing one bit of the plot.

But what I did enjoy about the movie is that Allen comes into direct dialogue with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (one of my favorite books of all time and a must-read in my opinion) and offers a thought provoking reply to the book's central question. If you want more than that, you'll have to read the book and watch the movie. I'm not spoiling anything here.

Has anyone else read/watched both? What did you think?

Also, I brought up must-reads. If you had to make a must-read list of at least 5, and no more than 10, novels, what titles would make your list? Here's mine (in no particular order):

1. Crime and Punishment
2. A Hero of Our Time
3. This Side of Paradise
4. Moby Dick
5. Beloved
6. The Catcher in the Rye

(I struggled over CITR because I hated it when I read it in high school, but I came to love it on a second reading in college. Also, MD is certainly one of my favorites--personal top 3?--but it is hard to call it a must-read for everyone, because many people just don't have time to appreciate it. Honorable mentions: Mama Day, The Hobit, Treasure Island, The Bell Jar, Lord of the Flies.)