Over at A Blog Around the Clock, Bora has reposted an old article written in response to a list of “must-read” SF books, in which he sets out to generate his own list. Never one to shy away from excess, he ends up with a nearly complete list of genre novels since about 1890. Steinn… Continue reading Classic Edition: Seventeen Books
Category: Books
Audiobooks of the Times
Not a lot in the Times this week (other than, you know, depressing news about the Middle East), but I did find their piece on couples arguing over audiobooks amusing: [L]ately an unwitting group has been parachuting into the matrimonial crossfire: authors. As more couples discover how an audio book breaks the monotony of a… Continue reading Audiobooks of the Times
A Squabble of Kerfuffles
Well, it’s as good a guess at a collective noun for “kerfuffle” as any other… There have been three moderately heated bloggy controversies that I’ve been following over the past week, that I haven’t commented on. Mostly because I don’t really have that much to add to any of the arguments, or at least, not… Continue reading A Squabble of Kerfuffles
Genre Follow-Up
Technorati reveals a bunch of responses to my weekend post on genre fiction, and I wanted to at least note a few of them here. Over at Brad DeLong’s, he highlights my comments about story pacing, which sparked some interesting comments. A number of people object that books and movies are too long these days,… Continue reading Genre Follow-Up
J K Rowling and the Complex Trope of Female Delusion
The title is from the Guardian’s piece on the Harry Potter convention in Las Vegas (via Bookslut), in which the traditional naive reporter is sent out to be shocked by discovering people in costumes, slash fanfic, and pseudo-academic papers: Lumos 2006 is not just another conference, it’s ‘a Harry Potter symposium’, and most of the… Continue reading J K Rowling and the Complex Trope of Female Delusion
The Sorry State of Genre Fiction
Yesterday saw the posting (or at least the arrival on my RSS reader) of two different discussions of the current state of genre fiction. I have issues with both discussions, but reading them together makes for an interesting effect. First, there’s Charlie Stross complaining about the state of SF, and once again lamenting the lack… Continue reading The Sorry State of Genre Fiction
Handicapping the Hugos
There’s a comment to the most recent Open Thread at Making Light asking why there isn’t more handicapping of the Hugo Awards. The commenter, Kathryn from Sunnyvale, makes reference to a comment on John Scalzi’s “Please Vote” thread, that suggested there was a clear favorite in the balloting: There is a certain book on the… Continue reading Handicapping the Hugos
Sunday Times Round-Up Addendum
One item I forgot to mention in the previous post: The Times Book Review section today features an article on backlist books and the so-called “Long Tail” exploited by on-line sales. It has some interesting stuff on the business of publishing and the sales of backlist books. As with the medical story referenced in the… Continue reading Sunday Times Round-Up Addendum
Useless Book Review
The New York Times offers a review of several books on science and religion today, including a new screed by Dawkins, Daniel Dennett’s book from a little while back, and several books attempting to find common ground between science and religion, by Francis Collins, Owen Gingerish, Joan Roughgarden, and E. O. Wilson. This is probably… Continue reading Useless Book Review
Fictional Science
The article about physicists in movies cited previously had one other thing worth commenting on: the fictional portrayal of the practice of science: All these films illustrate a fundamental pattern for movie science. Rarely is the central scientific concept utterly incorrect, but filmmakers are obviously more interested in creating entertaining stories that sell tickets than… Continue reading Fictional Science