Category: books

Book thang

elvis16 Comments

Swiped this meme from Hiromi. (You know, i didn’t realize meme was a dawkins-ism. It all makes much more sense to me now, AND it becomes obvious that somehow ‘meme’ has come to mean ‘stupid quiz’ around the blogosphere, rather than it’s original meaning. But that’s neither here nor there.) 1. One book that changed […]

Swiped this meme from Hiromi. (You know, i didn’t realize meme was a dawkins-ism. It all makes much more sense to me now, AND it becomes obvious that somehow ‘meme’ has come to mean ‘stupid quiz’ around the blogosphere, rather than it’s original meaning. But that’s neither here nor there.)

1. One book that changed your life – hardest question first.

God that one’s hard to answer. What does changed my life mean? Books that made me see something a new way? Sure, but what if it’s a small thing? Drawing of the Dark forever changed the way I see beer; Last Call forever changed the way I see Vegas and poker. But these are not my life, they’re just how I see certain things in it.

So what did change my life? I can only go back to the books that made me start reading, because it’s reading itself that changed my life, more than any other thing. There are a number of them that I could pick, books that were read to me, or that I read early. But the book that made me, as a child, say, I need to read (need, not want) was the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, or possibly the second book in the Narnia chronicles, Prince Caspian (and yes, that’s the second – whomever decided to re-number those books on internal chronology should die for fucking that up for so many young readers.)

I don’t choose this book because of what it is; it could have been any book, any good book. I choose this because of when it was and who I became when I decided I needed to pick it up and read. Mom could not keep up with my voracious need for more, and so I gave up on being read to and took up the book myself. And the universe opened to me.

2. One Book That You’ve Read More Than Once.

One? Let’s forget the obvious (the above chronicles, lord of the rings, etc). Let’s even forget Tim Powers, whose books I always read at least twice. Let’s go with Harry Potter, because there’s just not enough Harry Potter.

3. One Book That You’d Want On A Desert Island.

I’m boring, but this might wind up being Lord of the Rings again. That books has never been able to bore me, and with it’s appendices, you’ve got your own language right there.

But i might choose some book on writing. I’ll have time to kill, i might as well hone my own chops.

4. One Book That Made You Laugh.

Any Chris Moore would do; but let’s go with his funniest, Lamb.

5. One Book That Made You Cry.

Mystic Pig by Richard Katrovas. One of the best novels EVER. Though I could also say GG Kay‘s Lord of Emperors.

6. One Book That You Wish You Had Written.

I might say, again, Mystic Pig. It’s the kind of thing I feel I should be able to write. I might also say one of Dan Fante‘s books, Mooch or Chump Change. Fante’s absolutely brilliant, all his father was and more.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written.

Leaving out politics and religion, because they’re too damned easy and targets, yet it would be hard to choose one from such low hanging fruit as the bible and the qur’an; let’s stick with bad pop-culture staples. I have to choose a fantasy epic because I’m a huge fantasy fan and I think the brick of extruded fantasy product is harmful to the entire market (who wants to publish a short novel from an unknown author when you can publish volume 69 of the Saga of Boredinium). Thus, let’s say Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

I’m not happy with that pick, but then I’m not the just choose one kind of guy.

8. One Book That You Are Reading Right Now.

I’m on the last ten or twenty pages of The God Delusion, of which I’ll say more soon. Next on the stack is Bujold‘s The Sharing Knife.

9. One Book That You Have Been Meaning To Read.

Not one:

Moby Dick
Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Last of the Mohicans
Treasure Island
Lolita
Border Trilogy by Cormac Maccarthy

I could go on, that’s just a few of the books in my stuff i should read (vs stuff I will read) stack.

10. Tag five others that you would like to do this meme.

No tags. I don’t do tags. Steal at will.

Three Days to Never

elvis3 Comments

I just finished Tim Powers new book, Three Days to Never: The short version is this – if you’ve never read Powers, this might not be a bad place to start, to get an idea of exactly how insane Powers’ world is. If you’re a completist, you’ll wanna go grab it, like I did. However, […]

I just finished Tim Powers new book, Three Days to Never:

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The short version is this – if you’ve never read Powers, this might not be a bad place to start, to get an idea of exactly how insane Powers’ world is. If you’re a completist, you’ll wanna go grab it, like I did. However, for the casual fan, don’t, you know, race out to get it.

Read more “Three Days to Never”

A Dirty Job

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Christopher Moore, one of my very-most-favorite writers, has a new book out: A Dirty Job I’ve talked about Moore before; I think he’s just awesome. Clever, funny, brilliantly creative. He sits in a weird gray area, part horror, part sci-fi, part humorous fiction. Weird, fucked up things happen in his books. Demons and vampires, talking […]

Christopher Moore, one of my very-most-favorite writers, has a new book out:


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A Dirty Job

I’ve talked about Moore before; I think he’s just awesome. Clever, funny, brilliantly creative. He sits in a weird gray area, part horror, part sci-fi, part humorous fiction. Weird, fucked up things happen in his books. Demons and vampires, talking fruit-bats, invisible trickster gods and Jesus’ boyhood pal Biff. I can’t possibly explain all this you need to go read for yourself.

But anyway, this new one, I have guardedly high hopes for. Moore’s last two were weak; Fluke was just stupid, after a brilliant beginning it crashed into a wall (His first serious misfire). The one after it, Stupidest Angel, was back on better territory but had a phoned-in, re-tread sort of feel to it.

But Dirty Job, even though it borrows the theme almost exactly from Piers Anthony’s On a Pale Horse, has the advantage of being written by Moore.

I’m only a couple chapters into it, but he’s already tossed off a hysterically dead-on portrait of a teenage goth-girl (Mmm, my favorite flavor), laugh-out-loud funny. I’m hoping that by working new territory that’s closer to home but not quite re-tread, he’ll get back on track. I hate watching great writers run off the rails, it always pisses me off.

I also have to admire the cover. The pic doesn’t do it justice, but it’s just brilliant.

GRRM makes my brain hurt

elvis9 Comments

GRRM (George R. R. Martin) make my brain hurt. I swear, the man must sit around all day thinking, how can I make these books more dense and confusing? I’m maybe a hundred pages into A Feast for Crows, GRRM’s latest brick in the Song of Ice and Fire googology. And my eyes are crossed […]

GRRM (George R. R. Martin) make my brain hurt.

I swear, the man must sit around all day thinking, how can I make these books more dense and confusing?

I’m maybe a hundred pages into A Feast for Crows, GRRM’s latest brick in the Song of Ice and Fire googology. And my eyes are crossed with confusion at every chapter.

Who the fuck is Aryn? Wait, who was Dontos again? Why is Myrcella important? Wait, I thought Stannis was dead…

Dammit Martin, you need to put some synopsis pages in these volumes if you’re gonna make us wait five years between. I cannot fucking keep track of all your characters and connections.

Honestly, though, I’m remembering again why I used to say GRRM is the most intense, compelling fantasy writer working today. The man’s amazing. Most of these giant multi-brick series are nothing but rehash Tolkien; the best of them still trapped in a genre that is getting thicker and thicker with cliche, and the worst going on and on and on without ever seeing an end. Clearly editing is a thing of the past for most of these series.

Martin, even while writing a series that is growing and growing, seems to have some laser-tight focus on where his story’s going. For all his hundreds of characters, this series feels like a history, not like an aimless jaunt through someone’s daydreams of heroics and magic.

I don’t know how he keeps track of it all. But I know it’s brilliant.

Yet, I hope he’s close to done. There’s another book due out next year, and after that, knowing Martin, another half-decade wait; that’s ok if he’s getting close to the end, but I’d really like to see how it all ends sometime before my kids go away to college.

Ok. Now it’s time for another dose of cold medicine, and I’ll crawl back into the book.

Goblet of Missing Plot-Lines

elvis1 Comment

Ok, so I loved Goblet of Fire. However, I loved it in a Shining way. Because they butchered the book. They left out most of it; key characters, key plot lines, key developments. They whipped past things like the Quiddich World Cup and the Pensieve so quickly as to make them fairly irrelevant. They cast […]

Ok, so I loved Goblet of Fire.

However, I loved it in a Shining way.

Because they butchered the book. They left out most of it; key characters, key plot lines, key developments. They whipped past things like the Quiddich World Cup and the Pensieve so quickly as to make them fairly irrelevant. They cast Rita Skeeter brilliantly and then did nothing at all with her, leaving out the entire reason she was in the book.

There were casting issues as well. Fleur Delacour should be impossibly, breathtakingly pretty. The actress who played her, despite the adorable name of Clémence Poésy, is just sort of average looking. Cedric Diggory was also an average-looking boy. Ginny Weasley, also needs re-casting; it’s obvious in Half Blood Prince how important she is, and we need more than an average looking girl with mousy-brown hair to play her. How can anyone even notice her next to Emma Watson, she’s growing up into quite a little heartbreaker?

But you know, it all seemed not to matter much when I was watching it. The film looked so fucking good, and the action was so well done and so well paced, that I was almost gasping for breath the entire time. This is certainly the best any of these films has looked, and has the best effects.

Basically, what Newell (the director) seemed to have done is said, forget trying to pack the whole book in, let’s just make a movie that’s cool and fun to watch. And he nailed it, without question.

Yet the problem with this is that Rowling’s books are so dense, so complicated, so rich in characters, names, history, mystery, and magic. You can’t just strip them down and keep what makes them so brilliant. It’s not just about a few kids in a school, it’s about events and people who shape the entire magical world. This is an entire culture, almost a universe that she’s developed.

So while I was loving the movie while I watched it, the more I think on it, the more it bothers me. While certain characters were given plenty of screen time, or made fantastic use of the time they had (Fred and George – god, I love these guys), where the hell was Mrs. Weasley? Where was Charlie, the rock star of the family? Where was Siruis Black (Sure, in the fire, but dammit, he should have more than two minutes screen time!).

I think it was a huge mistake to try to make one movie. They original plan was to split it into a pair; there was enough material for five or six hours of film, certainly, and with editing, you could have had two very good hours of movie. For some reason, though, Newell chose to make one instead. I’ve never heard what his reasoning was, but I have a hard time buying that it was a good idea.

This book, in many ways, is the hinge-point of the series. It’s where things turn serious; it’s where they go from being kids to being young adults. It’s where the romantic relationships are born, and it’s where we see the forces of evil begin to gain ground. So much of the next two books is set up in this one that you really need the side-plots, in many ways.

I walked out of the theater thinking this was the best movie of the four so far. And in terms of just making a movie I think it is. Yet, for all that I think it’s ok to make a great movie by not doing the book right (look at Jaws or The Shining), this is one case where you can’t just make a movie. You’re making an installment of a series, and you’re bringing to life a great mythos. You have to do more than make a movie, you have to maintain that mythos. I am not sure Mike Newell did that.

But what the hell. It’s damned fun to watch. And I’ll see it again. It is a good movie, if we don’t pay too much attention to what’s missing.

Anansi Boys

elvis9 Comments

New Neil Gaiman book is due out shortly: Anansi Boys. High hopes for that. Gaiman is a hell of a creative guy, and a pretty good writer. Sandman is, I would say, one of the major works of fiction of the late 20th century, despite being just a comic book. But Gaiman’s novel output isn’t […]

New Neil Gaiman book is due out shortly: Anansi Boys.

High hopes for that. Gaiman is a hell of a creative guy, and a pretty good writer. Sandman is, I would say, one of the major works of fiction of the late 20th century, despite being just a comic book.

But Gaiman’s novel output isn’t quite up to that standard. Good Omens was, kindly, not that good (or to put it another way, piece o’ crap). Neverwhere is ok, worth reading, certainly. American Gods is far better, and in some ways brilliant, but it’s got enough flaws that I don’t recommend it to everyone.

I keep hoping Gaiman’s got that truly, truly great novel in him, and didn’t spend it all on Sandman.

His other output is different; his comics, almost to a one, are wonderful and creative. And his kids books are – well, god, just as good as kids books get. Coraline, Wolves in the Walls, The Dad I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. All artistically and linguistically beautiful.

“No,” said her mother. “There are no wolves in the walls. You must be hearing mice, I suppose.”

“Wolves,” said Lucy.

“I’m sure it’s not Wolves,” said her mother. “For everyone knows what they say… If the wolves come out of the walls, its’ all over.”

“What’s all over?” asked Lucy.

“It,” said her mother. “Everybody knows that.”

I have high hopes for this new novel. I just pre-ordered it; I’m looking forward to hearing other readers reactions to it. I’ll post a review as soon as I finish it, which is likely to be soon after I get it.

Mystic Pig – What Ray Says!

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(this entry copied from my blogspot blog) Ray has posted a short review of one of the best books I’ve ever read, Mystic Pig. Go give it a read. Seriously folks, you gotta read this book.

(this entry copied from my blogspot blog)

Ray has posted a short review of one of the best books I’ve ever read, Mystic Pig.

Go give it a read.

Seriously folks, you gotta read this book.

Authors who make you crazy

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I’ve been waiting for GRR Martin’s A Feast for Crows for – hell, it seems like a decade. It’s the fourth book in his phenomenal A Song of Ice and Fire.I just read that he’s done, and I went looking to see when my book will ship.

Dammit.

I’ve been waiting for GRR Martin‘s A Feast for Crows for – hell, it seems like a decade. It’s the fourth book in his phenomenal A Song of Ice and Fire.

I just read that he’s done, and I went looking to see when my book will ship. And found this.

In short, the damned guy has written such a fucking brick that his publishers demanded he split it. Which is a great idea, I hate reading a total brick of a book. Only, he decided to do it his own fucking way, and instead of slicing it down the middle, he split it along character lines.

This epic has many POV (Point of View) characters, shifting by chapter from character to character. Martin’s so good that this works, though sometimes you wind up waiting to get back to your favorites.

Here, he split it such that this book has one set of POV characters, and the NEXT has the other. So now we have to wait another, what, five years to get back to the characters he left out of crows.

Grumble. Grumble.

If these books were not so goddamned good, I wouldn’t care. But it’s already been so long I forget what was happening; I’ll have to go read the whole series again, or hope for a complete plot synopsis. I’ll then devour the new one, like with Harry Potter, reading it as fast as I can. And then I’ll be done with it and have the eternal wait start again.

Go read A Song of Ice and Fire. Some of the best fantasy ever. But wait until the last book is out. Martin will make you crazy otherwise…

Fuck you five times

elvis1 Comment

the 5 Right Now Meme:5 things you feel right now:1…. My pimp-blue-flame wallet, with the chain mail wallet chain from Dwarven Metal Works5.

,

From Poppy to Ray. If I were not right in the middle of Liquor (Thanks again, Ray), I would not fall for this.

The 5 Right Now Meme:

Read more “Fuck you five times”

Book Tag!

elvis13 Comments

Not at all a bad fantasy novel, though for some reason it’s taken me montsh to finish it.4) What are the 5 books that have meant a lot to me?I can’t do just five. Mystic Pig – Richard KatrovasLord of the Rings – JRRTLast Call – Tim PowersWizard of Earthsea – LeGuinTarzan of the Apes – ERBGate of Ivrel – CJ CherryhChump Change – Dan FanteBooked to Die – John DunningSarantium — Guy Gavriel Kay (Actually everything by Kay)(and a dozen more)Extra credit question, ‘What book would you wish to buy next’: Shadowmarch — Tad Williams , or the new JRR Martin, if he ever finishes the fucking thing…TAG!

A game. I don’t know where it started. I got it from WhirlBrain.

1) What is the total number of books I’ve owned?

I’ll be fucked if I know. I own hundreds now. I’m out of room. I give some away every month when I run out of room. More than a hundred, less than a million.

2) What is the last book I bought?

‘My Life and Hard Times’, James Thurber. I’ve owned several copies, this one’s for a friend.

For myself — hmmm — Let’s count my pre-order of the new Harry Potter, or the last John Dunning.

3) What is the last book I’ve read?

Jereg, by Steven Brust. Not at all a bad fantasy novel, though for some reason it’s taken me months to finish it.

4) What are the 5 books that have meant a lot to me?

I can’t do just five.

Mystic Pig – Richard Katrovas

Lord of the Rings – JRRT

Last Call – Tim Powers

Wizard of Earthsea – LeGuin

Tarzan of the Apes – ERB

Gate of Ivrel – CJ Cherryh

Chump Change – Dan Fante

Booked to Die – John Dunning

Sarantium — Guy Gavriel Kay (Actually everything by Kay)

(and a dozen more)

Extra credit question, ‘What book would you wish to buy next’: Shadowmarch — Tad Williams , or the new JRR Martin, if he ever finishes the fucking thing…

TAG! You’re it!

Brother Ray
My beloved Doxy
Gregggggg with too many gees.
Buck Daruma, who isn’t named Buck
and how about Trance just to see if she’s paying attention.