Among the artifacts were a few scribbled notes and I recognized the handwriting. Chris McLaren was a film major who worked for us in the early ’80’s, a skinny kid who wore black clothes and spiked hair and had an intense interest in Alistair Crowley, Roman Polanski, the Illuminati and role playing games. Even when you were face to face… Read more →
Tag: Books
Friends of my youth, a last adieu!
Reading last night about the death of Philip José Farmer, it occurs to me that the authors whose stories are part of my memories of early days, and who got to make impressions on me when I was much more malleable–and thus had a greater effect on my life–are a limited resource. And one that will only run out faster… Read more →
A Few Quick Words on Soundtracks.
I require another 72 hours between now and Tuesday morning, please. Baring that, let me make a very quick post and get back to the salt mines. On the weekend I had a chance to watch All Hat, the adaptation of Brad Smith‘s “modern day Ontario western“. I generally like Smith, and I liked the book, so I figured it… Read more →
It has come
After more than 18 months of contemplation, I have finally broken down and tracked down a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus for myself. The cover surprised me a bit–I was expecting something in dark colours, more like an old school leatherbound Bible, not something that looks like this: The insides, though, are exactly what I was expecting, except that the… Read more →
The Child Of A Full Eclipse
I was not previously aware that Guy Gavriel Kay had “made his mark” as a poet before becoming a novelist. I can perhaps be excused for this, since my awareness of Kay started when I read his first novel (at age 11 or 12). To me, therefore, he’s a novelist, and one that I tend to automatically buy when he… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: WJW On Geek Fiction
I’ve never mistaken my hobbies for real life. I’ve always craved real life, even when I didn’t have one. I’ve sought out life, even when I didn’t know how. I’ve always tried to live real life, even when I didn’t have a clue. I travel a lot. I talk to strangers. I eat their candy. —Walter Jon Williams Go read… Read more →
More Book-y Bits
Did you get a chance to experience the cognitive dissonance that comes from VanderMeerian words read in a high-toned children’s literature type voice? Speaking of VanderMeerian weirdness, there was a nice little slice of it over at Tor.com. Sometime soon (yes, Real Soon Now) I will write another golden book post, and this one will focus on a Pat Cadigan… Read more →
Closing the book-related tabs
And here we go again… I’ve been reading Jeff’s daily reviews of the books in the Penguin Great Ideas series. While I don’t think I’m interested in trying to read all sixty of them in sixty days (despite Jeff’s examples and the exhortation of the Harvard University Press) I am very impressed with the presentation of the volumes, and have… Read more →
With A Bit Of History
I had a friend ask me a few days back for recommendations of works of historical fiction by more-or-less modern authors. I happen to be quite ready for this question, since I enjoy knowing things, and I find well-written historical fiction one of the easiest ways to absorb the details of history. Fiction, by definition, is made up, but fiction… Read more →
Utterly random points
So, I thought the barbecue sauce guy was weird, but he has possibly been surpassed by the eggbeater bandit. New Walter Jon Williams books are automatic buys in this house (as you know if you’ve been reading for a while), and now he’s not just selling me his books, he’s putting anime on my Ziplist. I may have mentioned that… Read more →
The natural reward of taking time to do anything well
“Demanding a significant investment of time and energy on the part of the consumer, it [the book] has always fit somewhat awkwardly into the world of mass entertainment.” You know, it seems like every one of these “end of publishing” articles has a couple of nuggets in it. Like Englehart’s noticing that the book is a much less easily consumed… Read more →
We are not beginners, we will not be fooled
“Books are not Hollywood, to the general astonishment of agents and corporate suits. They are intimate, unpredictable agents of delicious rebellion.” I’m not sure I buy the thesis in Osborne’s piece, but I really would like the believe I live in the world that this quote from it describes. Read more →
Yeah, that’s actually quite creepy
You know, I don’t think I ever really realized just how creepy the whole button-eyes thing in Coraline is until just now. I whipped that up with the tool at the page for the forthcoming Coraline movie. Sarah’s going to love that pic when she sees it. (I bought Coraline for myself when it came out, but Sarah and I… Read more →
It doesn’t matter if it’s good, it’s still genius.
So, we know that I like Revelations, especially some of the bits at the end, and especially including God’s no-modifications open license. We also know that I like Hal Duncan, and especially when he’s being his most over-the-top flagrantly intellectual. You might not know that I have a sentimental affection for historical surrealists and Burroughs, and thus, by extension for… Read more →
Aside
Speaking of a geek hierarchy…
