Reading List

Author Talk

We sat down with San Francisco’s David Thomson to discuss his new book, Television: A Biography.

MM: What makes Television: A Biography a special project for you?

DT: I have been, for decades, a person who wrote about film, taught film and so on and so forth. But movies today are viewed rather more of the way theater was when movies first came in: a valued art, but not the central, dominant art. For a long time now, television has taken over that dominant role. I felt I needed to sort of catch up and study television, think about it more seriously, read about it, look at a lot of old television that I remembered but hadn’t seen for a long time, and try to do a book that was a history — a survey at least — of what’s happened in television, and try to get to grips with what this has done to us as a culture.

MM: Do you think — with the amount of Hollywood actors lining up to do TV and the ever-increasing audiences — that the medium has stepped up its game?

DT: Once upon a time, movie actors did not like to do television. They thought that it was demeaning. Now, it’s the opposite. People in movies are really anxious to work in television, because that’s where the audience is and that’s where the most interesting and varied material is being done. I would say that in the last six months or so, though I still see a lot of movies, the two most impressive things that I have seen are the HBO series The Night Of and the ESPN documentary (not the dramatization) O.J.: Made in America.

MM: When it comes to film versus television, what do you think is the main difference?

DT: There are enormous differences. Let me just pick on one. The movies are about concentration and attention. You go into the dark. You are monopolized by the circumstances and by a big screen. Television is a medium that is made for doing several different things at the same time. Now, I don’t mean to say that there aren’t things on television that we do concentrate on, but it is in the nature of the medium that concentration is not required, so that concentration and attention become different

things. CALIN VAN PARIS

Local Page Turners

Television: A Biography by David Thomson

(San Francisco), Thames and Hudson, $34.95. With Television, which sets out to be the first comprehensive history of the defining medium of our time, renowned critic and film historian David Thomson turns his unique powers of observation to the medium that has lately swallowed film whole. David Thomson is a film critic and author of

what Sight and Sound’s readers called “the most important film book of the last 50 years” and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Guardian. Appearing at Book Passage Corte Madera on Wednesday, December 14, 7 p.m.

Clean Soups: Simple Nourishing Recipes for Health and Vitality by

Rebecca Katz (San Rafael), Ten Speed Press, $22. In Clean Soups, author Rebecca Katz teaches readers how to incorporate wholesome stocks and soups into their everyday eating. The book includes foundational broths, blended soups and traditional healing soups, as well as a two-day cleanse. Appearing at Book Passage Corte Madera on Sunday, December 4, 1 p.m.

When We Rise: My Life in the

Movement by Cleve Jones (San Francisco), Hachette Books, $27. By turns tender and uproarious, When We Rise is Jones’ account of his remarkable life as an LGBTQ and AIDS activist. He chronicles the heartbreak of losing countless friends to AIDS; co-founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation; his conception of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest community art project in history; and the harrowing, sexy and sometimes hilarious stories of his own relationships. Appearing at Book Passage Ferry Building on Tuesday, December 6, 6 p.m.

The Forest Feast Gatherings: Simple Vegetarian Menus for Hosting Friends

and Family by Erin Gleeson (Woodside), Harry N. Abrams, $35. Gleeson’s recipes have always been ideal for entertaining, but in The Forest Feast Gatherings, she offers detailed guidance on hosting casual yet thoughtful get-togethers from start to finish. The book offers 100 new, innovative vegetarian recipes, along with some fan favorites from her blog, arranged in a series of artfully designed menus that are tailored around specific occasions and seasons. Appearing at Book Passage Ferry Building on Saturday, December 10, 11 a.m.

Reviews by Book Passage Assistant Marketing Coordinator Lianna McSwain.