Sometimes knowing the secret behind-the-scenes story makes things much cooler. Sometimes the story just destroys something. Take, for instance the works of Leonard Cohen. I remember how finding out that Chelsea Hotel was about Janis Joplin made it even better–and it was already a song I quite liked. On the other hand, take what used to be my favourite Leonard… Read more →
Category: Books
Thursday Night Bookish Links
Some bookish links: Have you read Vernor Vinge‘s True Names? If you haven’t then “for shame”. According to the Wikipedia entry “It was one of the earliest stories to present a fully fleshed-out concept of cyberspace, which would later be central to stories in the cyberpunk genre. Because of this, it is often referenced as a seminal work of the… Read more →
A Weekend Miscellany
(You may not think it’s the weekend, but since I have Friday and Monday off, and my late night meeting with Australians is done, I am now into my weekend.) OK, let’s talk unexpected interpretations in cover tunes. Sarah Nixey covers Human League‘s Black Hit Of Space [via jwz]. Petra Haden covers Journey‘s Don’t Stop Believin’ [via Scalzi]. Ophelia Blitz… Read more →
Gospel Of The Knife
Another thing that happened while I was underwater at work was the release of Will Shetterly‘s new book The Gospel Of The Knife. It looks like this: (I hope that the cover catches some of the many Dan Brown readers, exposing them to some good writing and also making Will a ton of money.) The book is a sequel to… Read more →
You go, Rakusin!
I love books. As I write this I am literally surrounded by them. Every wall, floor to ceiling. I have friends who write books. I have other friends who are just as nutty about books as I am. I read a lot of blogs and other sources of information about authors, publishers, etc. Consequently, I have spent a decent amount… Read more →
I like Sherlock Holmes.
I don’t think it ever occurred to me that Arthur Conan Doyle‘s lifespan had convergence with the period in which film, particularly film with audio, was a common technology. I certainly don’t think of him being alive until 1930–in my mind he’s all about gaslight, and certainly set in the period well before WWI. However, reality is, as is often… Read more →
I want matches in case I have to suddenly burn
Do you remember way back when I was lamenting my lack of knowledge of what Nicole Blackman was up to? And then she replied to the post, resulting my great blog-joy? Well, at the time she replied she pointed us to her story, “Dumped”, in Brooklyn Noir, and mentioned the current performances of the Courtesan Tales. While I didn’t manage… Read more →
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Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Orqwith, and the Codex Seraphinianus
(This post was, in large part, made elsewhere first, but I figure that since I went to the effort to dig up the links, etc, that I might as well put it up here also. If you’ve already seen this, feel free to move along.) That’s the cover to the 1983 English edition of Jorge Luis Borges‘ short story Tlön,… Read more →
A Wednesday Miscellany
For some reason I’ve been on a things-in-space-with-cool-pictures kick this week, so why stop now? Here’s a picture of the aurora australis, as seen from Antarctica: That’s one of two images from a post at Canadian hard-SF author Peter Watts‘ blog. Read the post for a higher resolution version, another picture, and a very disturbing mental image. Of course there… Read more →
The great paperback giveaway, part 2
More boxes of books repacked, with similar results: Same rules as last time (and some of those are still available for another week as well). Whatever is not claimed by mid-July will go some other way. I’m leaning toward donating them to the hospital library at this point. Post your requests, don’t email me–that way I won’t forget what you… Read more →
The great paperback giveaway, part 1
So, I have 12 boxes of paperback books in my back room, that I haven’t unpacked in the six years since the move. The primary reason here is that I’ve never built enough shelving to catch up to my hardcover books, and thus have never had shelving for the paperbacks. Well, OK, the primary reason is that I am World… Read more →
A little miscellany
This headline made me laugh. I often wonder if headline writers do this on purpose, as McDonald suggests, or not. I find this face averaging tool fascinating. It’s one thing to pick a few attractive faces, average them, and see that the resulting face is more attractive than the majority of source faces, but it’s a whole other thing to… Read more →
A few comic book things…
If you have any doubt why people speak Berni Wrightson‘s name in tones of awe, check out these images from the Frankenstein portfolio he did back in the 70s: That’s just a detail from one image. You can see the rest over at Golden Age Comic Book Stories in these posts: one, two, three, and this discussion of background and… Read more →
I guess it had to happen…
Yes, the word is: …along with his brother and former co-director Paul, Chris Weitz is going to take on the biggest fantasty-literature property as yet untouched by movieland: Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga. While I’d love to see Hollywood’s version of the Dreaming City, Arioch, and even of the Runeswords, I think making this as a special effects extravaganza will miss… Read more →
