I’ve changed my mind, based on late-breaking news. This is now the QOTD for January 11th: Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and… Read more →
Category: Books
A couple of quick links.
Still drowning in work, but here’s a few divertimenti for you: Seeing one artist’s rendition of the Simpson’s cast in a more realistic, and heavily manga-influenced, style didn’t do much for me. I mean, I dig Marge’s hair, and the twins look great, but it’s not like the image is a revelation or anything. On the other hand, the same… Read more →
Some bookery
Yes, I am being a lazy poster during the intra-holiday week. You can’t complain about the cost, though, can you? M. John Harrison, one of the authors I hold in particularly high esteem, has a lovely piece up at his site about his writing process. Here’s a little taste: I don’t have any writing pattern. I hate being professional. I… Read more →
I would like some obscure information
I know that somewhere out there, someone has this information, but I can’t seem to find it. Imagine you have ten empty shelves. You’re going to fill these shelves with books, and assume that you want to shelve the books alphabetically by author. Further assume that the books you want to shelve are more-or-less randomly distributed by author’s names. Now,… Read more →
Forthcoming books…
Pal Gwenda points out the online version of Locus’ Forthcoming Books list through next September and asks what we’re lusting after. I’ve gone through the list and tried to pick out the top three each month, where “top three” is defined as “three I am most excited about reading”, which is not necessarily the same thing as “three I am… Read more →
Been wanting something from Amazon.co.uk…
…but you didn’t want to pay the shipping? Well, have I got a tip for you. 1) Order this book. (Don’t worry if you don’t want it, it’s going to be free.) 2) Order whatever other things you want from Amazon.co.uk 3) At checkout enter the promotional code “HELLMANAMZN2” and suddenly the initial book is free, and you get free… Read more →
Muth For Kids
Children’s books that are fun for both the parent and the child to read are a definite boon. While there is a cornucopia of great stuff out there for older kids that I would love to read to someone–hell, I often read them for myself–it’s a little slimmer pickings for picture books. And the problem of finding that type of… Read more →
A Gentle Madness
Books are coming into my house much faster than I am reading them. Books very rarely go out of my house–I really, really try not to take in stuff that I won’t like well enough to keep, so it’s rare that something is inside that I am willing to part with. Obviously if things are coming in at a greater… Read more →
Some genre bits
I’ve been of the mind for a while now that there was a hole in my book collection that needed to be filled with a copy of William Hjortsberg‘s Falling Angel. Well, I see where Millipede Press is doing a lovely new edition, and with an introduction by James Crumley, no less! I think, though, that I’ll just get the… Read more →
Man, Nightshade makes some pretty books
Nightshade has always published quality fiction, but I’ve got to say lately they have also been incredibly pretty physical objects. Let’s look at a couple of examples that have showed up here over the last few days. Take, for example, Liz Williams‘ new one, Demon And The City, which arrived today. It’s so pretty that it lifted me out of… Read more →
Bookish links of the day
Rick Kleffel has really been burning it up over at The Agony Column. There’s been some really top quality stuff there over the last couple of days, including: A lengthy interview with Naomi NovikI think I wanted her to sound like Patrick O’Brian or something. (mp3), A lengthy interview with Charles Stross…who does not sound “Scottish enough” to me. I… Read more →
Sunday Night
On Sunday night I was invited to join the aforementioned comic creators, the people from Strange Adventures who had worked the booth, and Toronto comic scene Svengali Christopher Butcher, for dinner at the Economy Shoe Shop. Much fun was had by all, and after we had all eaten (and drank) on Cal‘s tab, several of us ended up visiting a… Read more →
Sunday Afternoon
That’s the stack of books I took to the Word On The Street on Sunday to have signed, sketched, remarqued, or whatever the creators felt like doing. (Yes, I am that guy.) All the creators seemed friendly, and interested, and were in good moods. I was particularly impressed with how well several of them interacted with the younger children. I… Read more →
The good thing that’s happening this weekend…
After the old men are done their rocking, Sunday will bring us Word On The Street. And this year Halifax’s Word On The Street has a large comics component in addition to the usual celebration of bookery. All the locals and a whole pile of Toronto types are going to be here for the showWeirdly absent is Mike Holmes, who… Read more →
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What you are looking at there is the cover of Lacunal: Volume 1, the just-announced-today first book of photography by my evil genius pal Alex Wilson. If you click through, you will get a chance to find out more about the project, to sample some images from the book, and if you are interested, to buy a copy. The book… Read more →
