Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

• On my last excursion to Boston, while I sadly did not get to do the Readercon thing¹, I did get to pick up a couple of more Centipede Press books that I had directed to my US mail drop (a.k.a. “Matt’s house”): a copy of the much talked about Lovecraft art book, which I scored for 50% of retail because I could live with a bumped slipcase, and a copy of their Algernon Blackwood collection. I may write something more detailed in the future, but as with the Gene Wolfe book, these are very, very lovely editions, and I will definitely be buying more.
• I am excited that Matt Stover’s new book² is coming out. I really quite liked his first two Caine books. And, I’m intrigued by his description of Daniel Keys Moran’s Trent books, which I haven’t read. Have you? Should I? It looks like most of his stuff is out of print, but available free online. I’ll give it a read, and if I dig it, I see I can get some limited edition hardcovers for the collection. (When I looked at Moran’s blog, I saw an entry about Stover’s new book. It both makes me want to read the Stover, and makes me think I should be reading Moran.)
• Alison Bechdel, via Charlie Stross, ensures I will never watch movies quite the same way again³. This is going to be another one of those things, like the Missing Black Woman Formation, that once it’s pointed out to you, you will see absolutely everywhere around you, and never fail to notice again, isn’t it?
• And, there’s the solution to my “I don’t need these books any more, but I want them to go to a good home” problem. Bless you, Internets. That I might actually get some books I want: gravy!
• Lone Star Stories has a new Hal Duncan piece. I’ll be reading that later tonight.
• Crowley on Disch’s probable reaction to a mean-spirited obituary.
• I think it was a terrible mistake for the SFBC to lose Andrew Wheeler, but there are some senses in which I am very happy it happened: primarily because it has freed Wheeler to speak his mind, in a “suffering no fools” way⁴, which often results in posts I can utterly agree with, and be amused by. Like this one.
• Yeah, a movie of Foundation will definitely work. Because there’s nothing Hollywood does better than adapt idea-driven stories with that come with poor characterization and stiff dialogue. I mean, look what they did with I, Robot.

…and off to read that Duncan piece.

1. Round-the-clock meetings suck. Next job I work only in North American time zones–the global economy can go hang.(back)
2. Yes, I know he has written a lot of novels since the last one I read, but I’m not reading Star Wars licensed fiction. I’m just not. Even if Tim Powers and Gene Wolfe collaborated on one. (Well…)(back)
3. And thank goodness I don’t have to read slush.(back)
4. Not that it’s impossible to do this from inside genre publishing–you don’t see PNH suffering any fools!–but I certainly see a shift toward the outspoken since Wheeler moved out of genre work.(back)

Tags: Books

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