What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Obstacle #1 to a good night's sleep would have to be The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. A slim 153 pages, it can easily be slipped in between an episode of The Gilmore Girls and a glass of warm milk (if you're into either of those things). But it won't let you off that easily. Consider the darkest aspects of the characters in McEwan's award-winning novel Atonement and multiply them by 10 for a glimpse at what you can expect from this gloomy tale of four children who live alone together after their parents die. I can't say that I enjoyed reading The Cement Garden, but I did find myself compelled to finish it. After dreaming that I'd been buried alive in cement, I'm reluctant to watch the screen adaptation starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.

I am curious to see how Hirokazu Koreeda's latest film Nobody Knows treats the true story of four children who live alone after they are abandoned by their mother. Hear the review of Nobody Knows from Fresh Air.

And Aurora--she had no library to reveal, but her dreams, like finely crafted antiques, would have more than filled the rooms of a tall mansion. Long past midnight she whispered to him--as she had never whispered to anyone--of knights and sorcerers, boisterous but cunning dragons, obsidian roads like frozen black rivers. Slowly George came to understand that her desire was not just to think or read such things, but that she honestly desired to experience a fairy tale.

from Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff

Naked Chef Jamie Oliver tries to help England's schoolchildren get more for their lunch money. (The Guardian via The Morning News)

While I try to decide whether or not I can spend the $20, you should head over to the Skirball Center at 7:30 pm to see Confessions of Max Tivoli author Andrew Sean Greer in conversation with Daniel Handler (Lemony Snickett). (via LAist)

I was watching Carnivale last night and when Sofie asked Ben to run away with her, he told her that he had no choice but to continue on a path toward Damascus. And you know that he meant he had to keep going whether or not he survived the journey or even completed his ultimate quest. The visions he's had make it clear that this will be no easy task and that death is likely. Who doesn't love an old-fashioned good vs. evil Quest? There is something so purposeful about it. Hello. I'm waiting for a vision.

David Fincher's gritty and gripping thriller Se7en received only one Oscar Nom (for editing) the year it was released, 1995. That year Braveheart won best picture and that movie about the pig received seven nominations and one win.