Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

My good friend, guitar-playing buddy and occasional debating partner The Whited Sepulchre posted the NPR Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy Book list with annotations (I guess there is a lot of this going around) and challenged folks to do their version of the list. Despite his occasionally loathsome political opinions, the WS is extremely well-read (and now a published author !) so I found his list fascinating.  I used to read a lot of sci-fi when I was younger; not so much now. A lot of authors I enjoyed when younger I find tiresome now. Anyway, here's my list. 1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien I'm sorry - I've tried to read this probably 2 dozen times and never got any further than the first 30 pages. My first attempt was when I was 13, my last was when I was in my late 40's. Hugo Dyson, one of Tolkien's contemporaries is reported to have exclaimed : " Oh god! Not another fucking elf! "during a reading by Tolkien. I feel his...

I remember reading Margery Williams' classic The Velveteen Rabbit to my kids when they were little. They are now young adults. If you've never read the book, get a copy, and find a kid to read it to. It is a subtle and beautiful work. I still can't read it out loud without getting choked up. But that's just me. "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it hap...

I have seen the future of eBooks. It's the Foxit eSlick Reader . Unlike the Kindle, Sony and other eBook readers which use document formats that lock you down to a single source, this one reads PDFs. While Adobe originally created PDF as a proprietary format, they released it as an open standard on July 1, 2008. While Kindle and its kin are well made devices, the reliance on a single entity is problematic: should the company decide to discontinue the device and end support for the document format, you're screwed. With the eSlick Reader, even if Foxit stops making the unit, you'll be able to continue to get new books, as well as read the books on any other device (including your computer) that reads PDFs. Quoting from the overview page, The eSlick Reader has an internal memory of 512MB and comes with a 2 GB SD card (supports up to 4 GB). Resolution is 600 x 800 pixel. As with almost every other device out there, it also plays MP3s (great for audio books). It also ...

I have several tools in my bullshit-detector toolbox, but one of the oldest is a little tome I first encountered when I was about 13 years old. I refer to the classic, " How to Lie with Statistics ," by Darrell Huff , first published in 1954. It was a real eye-opener. We assume if something has numbers on it, it must be true, especially if there are pictures with the numbers. Numbers don't lie, right? Mr. Huff shows us otherwise. "Breezy," is the word often used to describe the style of this slim volume, but don't let that fool you. Mr Huff, not a statistician, cuts to the chase and makes his points simply and with devastating effectiveness. A few sample quotes (courtesy of WikiQuotes): The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions...

Noted in passing: Jack Cover, the inventor of the Taser , died of pneumonia on February 7, 2009. He was 88. Most of his career was spent working in the aerospace and defense industries. He began developing the Taser in 1969 as a non-lethal alternative to conventional firearms and in 1970, formed Taser Systems, Inc. The word "Taser" was an acronym for T homas A . S wift's E lectric R ifle . Boy genius Tom Swift was the hero of a series of juvenile adventure novels first published in the early 20th century. The middle initial "A" used in Taser was added by Cover so the acronym would be pronounceable.

Despite the fact that much evil stupidity pervades the web, there is a lot of good stuff out there as well. Here's a random assortment of free books (in PDF form) you may or may not find interesting. Copyright and Intellectual Property Lessig and Boyle may well prove to be some of the most important writers about the Internet Age around. Free Culture (Lawrence Lessig) The Future of Ideas (Lawrence Lessig) Code Version 2.0 (Lawrence Lessig) The Public Domain (James Boyle) Bound by Law? (James Boyle) Tech/Web books Web and computer books seem to have a shorter shelf-life than fish. Electronic books make lots of sense. Mastering Java Beans, 3rd Edition Ubuntu Pocket Guide Sitepoint books - numerous excellent sample chapters available on web technology, including CSS; occasional free offers. The Definitive Guide to Linux Network Programming Literature We all have to relax a little, right? Chess books PlanetPDF classic literature Penn State electronic classics Planet eBook Humor Pillar...

The right-wing's favorite aging sex kitten, Ann Coulter, has hacked up another hairball. Her latest collection of deranged scribbling (written in crayon and scheduled to be released next week) includes a slam at incoming First Lady Michelle Obama . Screeches she: " Her obvious imitation of Jackie O's style - the flipped-under hair, the sleeveless A-line dresses, the short strands of fake pearls - would have been laughable if done by anyone other than a media-designated saint. " Huh? This is interesting considering Coulter's look seems to be Baby Jane Hudson channeling Peggy Lipton . Ann Coulter: once again proving the only thing separating iconoclastic right-wing princess from bag lady is inherited wealth.

My esteemed colleague, the The Whited Sepulchre , had a post the other day that continued a chain of discussion around the concept of the Anti-Library: the books you own that you haven't read. The beginning of this was a quote from the The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable , by Nassim Nicholas Taleb : Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as (you can possibly afford to) put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. I'll let you read his post to get the background (why bother with my mangled summary when you can go there and see it yourself). After listing his own favorite unread books, he invited several folks (including me) to reveal their anti-library. My unread books fall into the following broad categories: Tech/Computer books I use as reference material but don't rea...

I spent the evening with Robert B. Parker the other day. Of course I had to vie for his attention with several thousand of his other admirers in Bass Hall. I was in the Mezzanine (Italian for nose-bleed) with my dad, who had scored the tickets to hear him. Dr. Parker (he has a PhD in English Lit from Boston University) is, of course the best-selling author of the Spenser detective novels, and is often mentioned in the same breath as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. I've read a few of his books in my time. My dad has 28 of the thirty odd Spenser books. As might be expected, Parker was funny, charming, and not full of false modesty. After a conversation/interview with host Jeff Guinn, Parker took questions from the audience. At the conclusion of the event, Border's hosted a book sale/signing of his latest novel, due to be released nationally tomorrow. Depressing (at least to me) was the news that he wrote essentially one draft--no rewriting. Given that I...

One of the side effects of having children in high school is they end up buying a lot of paperback editions of books for their required reading lists. Since these are often books I read in high school, I've occasionally rescued them after they are no longer needed and re-read them. Today I finished Ray Bradbury's novel , Something Wicked This Way Comes , which I'd first read when I was a teenager. I confess, it took me a long while to get through it, which is surprising, since it is a relatively short novel (the Bantam paperback edition was a mere 215 pages). The poetic narrative voice, often singled out for praise, dragged the story down much of the time. The writing became opaque: I found it hard to loose myself in the story because the prose-poem style got in the way. This stylistic approach also had the effect (for me, anyway) of flattening out some character development, since emotional depth was sometimes sacrificed (or at least compressed) on the altar of the well-tu...

...Or more accurately I should say I'm finished with Harry Potter -- Book 7, that is. Shortly before dinner this evening, I lay across the living room couch and read the closing pages in the fading light of the day. Overall, a good, enjoyable read. Most fans will probably say it ends in a satisfying way. As with all the books, they could have done with some tightening up. Some of the writing is a little on the clumsy side as well. But overall, they deliver the goods. If you've not read the books, start with the first and persevere through the first 4 or 5 chapters, which are slow going. Once Harry leaves for school though, the chase is on. Now if only I could get myself to start reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle novels again. I'm stuck at about 150 pages on the first book.

It's about 12:45 and I just got back from my local Barnes & Noble, where I (and countless other Harry Potter addicts) waited for the clock to tick down to midnight so we could purchase the final(!) book in the saga -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . The atmosphere at the University Park B&N was carnival-like, to say the least: more like "Harry Potter and the Agoraphobe's Nightmare." But resourceful D had gotten a reservation ticket this morning and we were in group Gold B. We managed to get out at 12:30 A.M. Woe unto those that had not planned ahead. Costumes abounded (lots of zigzaggy marks on foreheads and wands), and there was even a roving band of middle-schoolers toting a boombox with the John Williams' score. Obnoxious but fully keeping with the spirit of the evening. We got our two copies (eliminating arguments over who gets to read it first) and headed home. I will now get my flashlight, bury my head under the covers and start reading. There...

Rather than hearing my whining, I thought I'd offer you a chance to read an excerpt from Lee Iacocca's book Where Have All the Leaders Gone as featured on Border's/Amazon. His rage is like a bracing splash of cold water to the dull haze of complacency the nation has been drifting through for the past six years. Says Lee, " You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged . This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have." This rant makes mine seem the work of a complete wuss. Enjoy!

Time to take a break from ranting (even I get tired of hearing myself bitch) and instead talk about my friend and fellow writer Bonnie Pemberton's new book, The Cat Master . I'll let you read the reviews at Amazon but it's the story of two brothers (who happen to be cats) battling over who will fill the paws of their late father to be the Cat Master. Along the way, we hear from a host of other animals, including dogs, possums, and a one-of-a-kind lizard. Talking animals? Yes, but wait, they talk a lot like you and me -- wise-ass, funny and hard-boiled. Although marketed to a middle-school audience, Bonnie says this was not originally intended to be a children's book. My dear wife (the children's librarian) has read the advance copy, as have several of the students at her school, and they all love it. Now that I have a (signed by the author!) hard-back copy I'll be taking turns reading it with the other members of the household. Today, she had a book-signing and...

I grew up in the Cold War. As a child I always lived in large population centers (with strategic importance). One of the ongoing memories of my elementary school experience was the drill where we'd all file out of our classrooms, line up along the lockers in the hall, duck down and cover our heads with our little hands. Duck and cover. It was generally understood we practiced this exercise in case those perfidious Russkies dropped the Hydrogen Bomb on us. As I grew older, I came to understand this would accomplish little, save perhaps making it easier to sweep up our incinerated remains (assuming there was anyone left to do the sweeping). One of the few voices raised against the development and stockpiling of nuclear weapons -- which led to the insanity that came to be known serendipitously as MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) -- was that of J. Robert Oppenheimer, subject of American Prometheus: the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer , an excellent biography by Kai Bird ...

My clever wife had reserved a copy of the new Harry Potter months ago. So when we heard the Barnes and Noble where we reserved it would be open at midnight to sell it, we think: "Oh what fun! Let's go pick up our copy!" So at 11:30 we gather ourselves up and drive over. While we were doing this, John, my oldest calls and says he and his buddy are going to go over and try and buy a copy. I say, "Great. Look for us; we'll be there." The first clue that our plan was, shall we say, ill-conceived, comes as I make my way down University Drive towards the B & N entrance. University is normally not that busy at midnight, and there was fair amount of traffic--most of it turning into the University Park Shopping Center. I turn in and see the parking lot is really full. We are talking 3 days before Christmas full. Outside the store are stray people milling around. I can through the store windows to see the lines at the cash registers stretch back as far as the ey...

Dot picked up a book for me at the library I've been thinking of reading: The Plot Against America , by Philip Roth. She's read it through her reading group and it passes her test. Story Synopsis: Lindbergh beats Roosevelt in 1940 election and his lack of concern against Hitler becomes US policy, with the expected awful results. Sounds right up my alley. Updates as I read.

Okay, finally finished Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson (great book, by the way) and am now, how shall I put this, between reads. I've got a couple of things sitting on the bedside, but haven't launched into anything yet. Actually that's not completely accurate: I've got several new Mangas that I'm reading. I also read one of the Hellboy comics I'd picked up at the library. Somehow those don't seem to count. I've got several books of short stories I'm going to start, just for grins, including an anthology edited by Nick Hornby and a couple of John Updike collections. Second draft continues to be slogged through...egad, what agony. Next week I'm in Boston (in my guise as corporate simulacra ) and hoping I'll have a chance to get another dozen pages of the second draft beat into shape.

Right now I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash , an absolutely fascinating book. What can I say? I love this guy's stuff. Before starting it, I read about 5 pages of Michael Crichton's Disclosure . The two were written about a year apart (Snow Crash: 1992, Disclosure: 1993). But there is no comparison. Don't get me wrong - I've read a number of Crichton books and found them thoroughly enjoyable (read Jurassic Park the summer I was layed up in bed with a herniated disk). Both ostensibly had computers as part of their plot stuff. The Crichton book sounded like your average business intrigue techno-thriller. Stephenson's starts out with virtual reality universes, then moves on to funky Scientology-esque religion (founded by, get this: L. Bob Rife) and ancient Sumerian cult religions using lingustic viruses that leave the afflicted speaking in tongues. How cool is that? Snow Crash is full of what the writer's group I (now) belo...

Well, here it is, the 3rd of January and I am back in my office, once again a prisoner of my desire to eat regularly. Tomorrow I fly to Wichita to freeze my ass off for a few days for the benefit of my employer. Sigh. Here's how well I succeeded in accomplishing the several things I wanted to accomplish: Finish reading Cryptonomicon: Made minor headway; managed to read another 150 (out of 1200) pages. I'll read more on the plane tomorrow Finish writing The Novel: Managed to bump the word count up to 60,000 words and think I know how I'll wrap it up. Mostly I didn't do squat on it. I'll write at the Residence Inn at night while in Wichita. Finish watching the first three seasons of Alias: Er, no. Managed to get to Episode 7 of the Second season. There are 22 episodes a season. Season 4's opener is Wednesday night. Update/redesign my website: Yeah, right. Also, didn't manage to get any Christmas cards mailed. Maybe I'll just call them Martin Lut...