Film and Books

I have learned from past experience that more often than not when someone tells me that I must see a certain movie or read a particular book, I can take it as a good sign that I probably won't like the recommended book or movie.

Best not to advise me of any movies that my contain: car chases, explosions, Russians portrayed with British accents (unless the characters studied abroad), Nicolas Cage, predictable and unimaginative dialogue and plot.
Film preferences: new wave and auteur cinema; small movies that you might find at an art house, but that would never appear at your local AMC theatre; foreign films that are authentically foreign ie. they are not attempting to reproduce American films.

Books: I'm not a great fan of excessive detail, I like some things to be left to my imagination (surrealism can be nice); I am more interested in the inner life of the character than of the events in the character's life; I love prose that flow like poetry.

If it's a best seller or a blockbuster hit I probably won't enjoy it. When my husband and I first got married I explained to him that it wasn't that I was intentionally be difficult or snobbish in my choices, I genuinely do not enjoy watching USA network or Titanic for that matter.

After having said all of that, I must confess that if You've Got Mail were on television right now I would relish every minute of it.