Man, this guy can write. Like Barthes, Gaddis, Pynchon, Moody, Mark Jacobson is a writer in love with words. Long known as one of the best and most poignant stylists in the magazine business--Esquire, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, NY Times Magazine--Jacobson is an impassionned and supremely talented novelist. Plus, this book is thought provoking and funny. I am waiting for the movie to this one. Read it and laugh out loud about once per page.

I am not a sci-fi fan, but this is an extremely compelling book -- and the first chapter is a perfect example of where literature could go in the years ahead if enough authors had that kind of talent and uniqueness of voice. Every writer and aspiring writer should read that first chapter. Every word counts and every word is perfectly chosen. The sparse, original speed-of-light tone can't be sustained as the book unfolds -- the supernatural aspects of the plot make avoiding cliches a challenge -- but the central character is so compelling that it is very difficult to put the book down or get it out of your head. I just read it straight through. The author's choices in what unfolds next in the plot are often beautiful and unexpected. These touches more than make up for the inevitably comic bookish excesses of all plots that involve the potential end of the earth. As an author myself, I am a tough critic and slam a lot of books. Not this one: it is well worth reading for style, dialogue, voice and more. It deserves far more attention than it has gotten. Must have made some Hollywood people nervous.... I congratulate the author on a difficult job well done.

Incognito is the second book of photos presented by an artist renowned for his portrayal of catastrophe in Eastern Europe. In this collection he departs from this side to reveal the spectrum of entertainment in Europe today, with black and white photos mostly taken on assignment for four publications. His celebrity portraits have never appeared in book form before, making this accomplishment especially notable.

Some of the lists are very funny, but it's missing something in book form because you're missing Dave's delivery. Also, a one-joke book gets kind of thin quick. I recommend only reading three or four lists at a time so the novelty doesn't wear off. Great bathroom reading.

This collection is from the Late Show era, not the Late Night era. However, believe it or not, these top ten lists are funny enough to read and reread. For those of you like myself, who are Letterman fans, this collection, like all previous collections, borders on the essential. Do yourself a favor, though, and buy the Late Night editions as well.

This is another hilarious collection of Top Tens. Will they come out with any more?

My biggest problem with this is the lack of detail. It's a fluff piece, pure and simple. There are some intriguing ghost stories in here, like the ones about the Comedy Store, but not nearly enough of them and with not nearly enough historical detail or research. It is far from comprehensive, as many Hollywood ghost-stories I've read about on line are not even mentioned here. Granted, if a book were going to cover EVERY single ghost story from the history of Hollywood, it would be a thousand pages long, but many of the most prominent ones are not even mentioned here. I read this for pure entertainment, since I do not actually believe a single one of these ghost stories, but the chapters were far too skimpy to give me much satisfaction. Since the author has supposedly been collecting Hollywood ghost stories for 10 years, this book seems awful light on facts.

With excellent research and great style, this is a perfect book to curl up with while waiting for trick or treaters. This is by no means just fluff. I really felt as though I was getting the straight story on some scary doings...

This book is awesome! It's so much fun to read about silver screen celebrities haunting modern day Hollywood. I have read several of this writers other books and have seen her on many talk shows giving her insight into Hollywood. She is certainly knowledgeable about Hollywood history as you will find in Hollywood Haunted, as well as her other books. I can guarantee you will enjoy this book. Also, you can use this books as a guide when visiting Hollywood and see if you don't come face to face with one of Hollywood's ghosts.

What a great book this could have been!

The idea that Gojiro not only actually exists, but is also a deep and cynical thinker at the center of a quasi-religious cult is very creative. Unfortunately, there are two problems that prevent it from being the book it could have been.

The first problem is the story, or lack of one. Nothing really happens in the book. In it's 300 plus pages there is so little action and character growth that it's easy to find yourself dozing off if you read it at night.

The second and biggest problem is the over-pretentious, forced writing style. Jacobson tries so hard to be hip and trendy that the story (what little there is of one) becomes difficult to follow and the book just becomes painful to read.

"Gojiro" has some great philosophical ideas regarding God and Man, and Nature and Science, but it lacked the cohesion to pull any of those ideas together. Instead we're left with a rambling story with no focus written in a heavy-handed, fake ultra-cool narrative. It's clear that the author had something to say. I just wish he would have said it in English.

I suppose fantasy is the necessary category but the quality of writing is far above what is normally found. This is one of the best books I've read in five years; Jacobsen writes here on the level of Barth, Pynchon, Berger, Burgess. Though I like his writing in New York Mag. and his new book (Everyone and No One) is ok, Gojiro is magnificent. Permit a quote for its sheer auditory beauty: "But once the tabloid reflex locks and Luce's sluice flings loose, who needs proof?" A lovely commentary on contemporary media coverage. Thank you, Mr. Jacobson.

This book has touched me as few others have. It really is an awesome and engrossing novel, unusual and eccentric as it may be.

I'm aware it's not for everyone, as I can see by the other reviews posted here. And, to tell the truth, it's not really a genre sf novel, so people looking for long-winded physiological descriptions of Godzilla, leave now.

Frankly, this is NOT a Godzilla book. It is NOT an action-packed thriller or a pretentious hard sf novel filled with technobabble. This is a deeply philosophical work that uses the image of Godzilla, a mistake of human technology becoming the defender of humanity, as a symbol of evolution; mutation becoming adaptation becoming progress. The author freely edits scientific and historical details for the purposes of the story, which is more like an epic poem or painting than a straight narrative; characters, while on one level being very real people, also serve as symbolic archetypes, and the many seemingly-impossible events, while reinforcing the otherworldly atmosphere of the story, also all have a point behind them, once you look. (For example, the creation and growth of Radioactive Island through seemingly haphazard chance serves as a strong metaphor for evolution throughout the story.) The premise, a Godzilla-like creature developing a sort of religious cult philosophy that becomes inadvertently broadcast in a series of movies, seems silly at first, but the thing is, it works. More than that, it works so well that it strongly colored my perceptions of the real-life Godzilla; I'd been aware that he was a symbol of the Nuclear Age before, but this really brought it home to me.

The contrived slang, the "hip" lingo, the monster's cynicism... While some might be turned off by it, it worked for me. If you can start to accept the novel on its own terms, try to understand the beautiful alternate world and belief system it depicts rather than judging it, then before long the internal logic of Gojiro becomes clear, and concepts and events that initially seem silly become poignant and touching. The novel purposely uses unfamiliar, strange-sounding language to get us to see difficult issues in a new light, and get us to think from the monster's perspective. Somehow it all works, it all comes together, and it does make its own mutant kind of sense. Which is really what the novel is about, at heart, evolution and change, misfits from the old order becoming the seed of the new one, mutants making their own mutant kind of sense, and prospering.

The novel's ultimate message was uplifting and optimistic while at the same time remaining realistic and consistent with the cynical points it made earlier; it seems corny and weird, but, in the end, I believed it. It brought the whole novel together masterfully, and the touching epilogue left tears in my eyes. This novel made a huge impression on me, and I'd recommend it to anyone willing to keep an open mind and experience serious ideas from a different point of view.