Me Waxing Lyrical, Brutal, and Interstellar About Books

Part IV in a series

Credit: Quirk Books

The Academy Awards are coming up in less than a month (hosted by my friend Conan O’Brien!), so I thought it would be an opportune time to point out a commonality I noticed between two current and past multiple Oscar-nominated movies. That I also share!

So Interstellar (2014), The Brutalist (2024), and my house all have the same core, or in interstellar parlance, “singularity” — they all prominently showcase home libraries. In Interstellar, it’s in the bedroom of pilot Matthew McConaughey’s daughter, and The Brutalist’s is in the reading room of industrialist Guy Pearce’s mansion. In both films, the characters’ bookshelves are the big bangs that start the whole story IMO.

Mine are nowhere near as intellectual or architectural as theirs, but I’m still very proud to display the various kids’ and adult books I’ve amassed over the years. So, let’s make like Anne Hathaway in Interstellar and blast off!

I’ve mentioned my love for the Karate Kid universe multiple times, and I’m doing so again here as is my wont. We got that first book as a farewell present from Sensei Francois who taught my daughter "paint the fence." The second book I got for my son so he could learn the crane kick and how to crush flies with chopsticks.