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    The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor
    The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor
    The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor

    Written by Robert Schnakenberg

    Narrated by Johnny Heller

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The man. The movies. The life. The legend. He's played a deranged groundskeeper, a bellowing lounge singer, a paranormal exterminator, and a grouchy weatherman. He is William James “Bill” Murray, America's greatest national treasure. From his childhood lugging golf bags at a country club to his first taste of success on Saturday Night Live, from his starring roles in Hollywood blockbusters to his reinvention as a hipster icon for the twenty-first century, The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray chronicles every aspect of his extraordinary life and career.

    He's the sort of actor who can do Hamlet and Charlie's Angels in the same year. He shuns managers and agents, and he once agreed to voice the lead in Garfield because he mistakenly believed it was a Coen Brothers film. He's famous for crashing house parties all over New York City-and if he keeps photobombing random strangers, he might just break the Internet.

    Part biography, part critical appreciation, part love letter, and all fun, this enormous volume chronicles every Murray performance in loving detail, recounting all the milestones, legendary “Murray stories,” and controversies in the life of this enigmatic performer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 31, 2017
    ISBN9781515988090

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    Reviews for The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray

    3.5/5

    39 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I received this book for free through BookLikes' Giveaways.First off, I'm familiar Bill Murray's work but I'm not a super fan of his. That being said this is a great book for someone who is a Bill Murray super fan. This book is an encyclopedia of everything Bill Murray related. Everything you ever wanted to know about him is in this book.
    • 2/5
      This should have been titled "The Bill Murray Encyclopedia" due to the writing style. There is no flow, just a bunch of facts and opinions.
    • 4/5
      A great review of Bill Murray's life and work. The only downside is that this was not authorized by Murray, and as a result all of the anecdotes included are from interviews. It's a very easy book to navigate and the pictures are great.
    • 4/5
      "The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray" by Robert Schnakenberg proves to be a show business biography in the form of a reference book. Schnakenberg tells the life of the popular actor, a star since he appeared on "Saturday Night Live" in the late '70s, not in chronological order but in alphabetical order, from "About Last Night," a play in which he almost appeared, to "Zombieland," a 2009 movie in which he had a cameo. Reading the book from cover to cover gives you Bill Murray's life story, but with the details shuffled like a deck of cards.Bill Murray fans will love this book, although they may not love Murray himself quite as much after reading it, for Schnakenberg presents Murray warts and all. And there is no shortage of warts. Murray can be the most charming, most caring, most generous man in the world. Or he can be the most difficult, most obnoxious, most rude. It just depends on the mood he happens to be in, and with his fame and his talent, he can afford to follow his moods wherever they take him. He will continue to be in demand as an actor, whether for starring roles or for small supporting parts, however he choose to behave. He is said to be almost impossible to reach, yet somehow he still manages to appear in several movies each year.Schnakenberg's entries tend to be brief and nicely illustrated, mostly with movie stills. Every so often he presents "Tales from Murrayland," a series of 28 episodes from Murray's life that describe the man behind the movie screen. In 2010, for example, Murray attended a festival in Austin and took over bartending duties, while refusing to serve anything but shots of tequila.The book is jammed with such Bill Murray trivia, perhaps even more than one could find in a more traditional biography.
    • 4/5
      I received this book for free through BookLikes' Giveaways.First off, I'm familiar Bill Murray's work but I'm not a super fan of his. That being said this is a great book for someone who is a Bill Murray super fan. This book is an encyclopedia of everything Bill Murray related. Everything you ever wanted to know about him is in this book.
    • 4/5
      A very informative read! I would love to know what Bill Murray thinks of this book. I really enjoyed reading it and getting to know almost everything about this wonderful actor. It is basically a Bill Murray encyclopedia so you're reading facts and trivia instead of your average biography. I appreciated how the author took an unbiased view of the actor. He didn't strive to make Bill Murray sound especially amazing or terrible. He was honest and straightforward. I find myself sharing fun tidbits with friends and family that I read in this book and will continue to do so until they make me stop! ;)
    • 5/5
      The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray is just that, it is a wonderfully comprehensive collection of Bill Murray and all things remotely related to Bill Murray. Upon seeing this book, one might think it a long winded ode to Murray and while it kind of is it is done surprisingly well. The Big Bad Book is organized alphabetically not chronologically and is full of pictures, interesting tidbits of info, and even movie ratings. It is the Murray bible for this generation and it will sit perfectly on my shelf with my Bill Murray coloring book (yes that does exist, and yes I really own it- it is epic as well).Since I was blessed with an advanced copy of this book, I am missing out a little bit, my copy lacks full color photos and I believe the final version will have a more complete list of references but I still absolutely loved reading through this collection.Did you know that Bill Murray was bitten multiple times by the groundhog in Groundhog Day while filming? Did you know that that he thinks Con Air was funny? These are just a few of the weird and insightful blurbs Schnakenberg shares about the elusive, crazy fun actor.The alphabetical medley is surprisingly easy to read through or jump from here to there in, it is cross referenced for your reading amusement and it has marvelous Murray quotes embedded throughout as full pages and as details in subjects and they cover just about all things in life (including, but not limited to, the importance of Cinnebon and pickles).How can you not love Bill Murray and this book? (If you have an answer just know ... Murray "really hates critics").This book would be wonderful in the Murray fan collection or just as a random coffee table book to amuse you and your visitors. Bottom line? Go buy it!
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book. Full of interesting tidbits and discussions, comments and criticisms -- a super look at Bill Murray. Lots of pictures throughout, and the fact he just won an Emmy and wasn't there to accept it due to his son's wedding, just made me see this overall picture of the man because I just read this book. -- And honestly, I think because the author gives us a clip of Bill's thoughts on awards in the book -- I don't think he would've shown up anyway.The fact that he has no agent, manager, representative and only an 800 number to reach him is definitely an anomaly in the bizzaro world of Hollywood. The odd assortment of topics in the book that others find so distracting, I loved because they fall in line with the odd nature of Bill himself. Maybe someday I will have my own Bill Murray sighting where I can view him in his natural habitat just being Bill. Now I want the author's book on Christopher Walken.
    • 3/5
      A fun book, but hobbled by its format and lack of objectivity."The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray" plays squarely into Murray's cult of personality, cultivated in recent years through behavior copied straight from internet urban legend. Anyone who loves tales of Murray crashing a wedding, stealing French fries, or playing a game of pickup baseball will love the stories told in this book.In an effort to fill the pages, the author turns to interviews, lifting Murray's preferences and foibles out of their humorous context and giving them all the force of fact. I'm sure that Murray does have a favorite burger joint and a favorite brand of undershirt; no doubt he does love peanut butter. But I get the feeling that offhand comments meant to be taken lightly are instead being given greater seriousness than ever intended, and printed as gospel.The alphabetic ordering leads to a great deal of repetition--further padding the page count--as well as a scattershot approach to the subject matter. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the M's, where every member of Murray's family is listed, in alphabetical order. His filmography would also have been better served in a single section.In all, it's a good light read. It's no work of scholarship, neither well-researched or robust enough to be a true biography. Instead, it is an extended, printed version of clickbait internet articles claiming to feature "Ten New Facts about Bill Murray You Never Knew." In fact, I saw one such article today, citing this book as the source.
    • 4/5
      In The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray, Robert Schnakenberg creates less a biography than an alphabetical Encyclopedia Bill Murriana. Schnakenberg orders all of Murray’s films, the people in his life, places, and his ideas alphabetically in an easy-to-digest volume with cross-references. Though he could not get Murray’s input or feedback, Schnakenberg clearly did his research, interviewing as many people as he could and scouring Murray’s numerous interviews to gain insight into the man. This book is sure to delight film fans, film students, and Bill Murray fans (not to mention fans of any of the directors with whom Murray has worked over his extensive career). The only weakness in Schnakenberg’s impressive volume comes from his reviews of the films, where he sacrifices objectivity to give his personal opinion, though he does warn the audience in the introduction that “all opinions, of course, are the author’s own” (p. 9). This minor issue does not detract from the book itself and it will find a good home on many a bookshelf.
    • 4/5
      I received an advance reading copy of this unauthorized biography through the Early Reviewers program and Quirk Books. I love Quirk Books - they are always unique and their final publications are of high quality.This book is a blast for Bill Murray fans and of interest to film buffs. There are good articles about all of Murray's feature films, complete with the author's star ratings for both the films and for Murray's performances. There are many anecdotes, quotes, and photos from the life and times of Bill Murray and also many of the greats who have worked with him over his remarkable career.If you are a fan of both 'Caddyshack' and of 'Lost in Translation', you can find something to enjoy here. I wasn't interested in the gossipy sections but enjoyed the film information and insights from other actors and directors.True, Murray did not cooperate with this project. But just the photos alone were enough to kickstart my plans for a movie marathon in the near future.