about 1 week ago - No comments
I am not an enormous fan of fantasy* but I have been known to make exceptions for urban fantasy. Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians” popped up on a book list recommend by the lit snobs over at Slate. As I cannot resist lit snobbery, and it comes in convenient e-book form, it appeared on my Kindle.
about 1 month ago - 1 comment
From somewhere, Katie acquired a copy of a Berenstein Bears book. She has lots of books. They come from everywhere. It ought to be pretty non-confrontational stuff — bears go to school, bears meet some bear conflict, bears resolve conflict through bear family unity. But no! When I read the book to Katie yesterday evening,
about 1 month ago - No comments
I saw yesterday some statistics that people are reading slower on their eBook devices then on actual books. I find that I read noticeably slower on the Kindle then the iPad, but not noticeably slower on the iPad than a real book. I’m not a jiffy speed reader anyway; I’m not sure it makes a
about 1 month ago - No comments
As an avowed “book smeller,” I feel deep guilt as I admit that I am addicted to e-Books. Now that I have access to my books on my kindle, on my iPad, and on my droid* synching across all the platforms, I am in this “always a book all the time” mentality. With a shock
about 3 months ago - No comments
(This review talks about human evolution. If you’re into ID, I’m sure my next post will be full of something not about human evolution.) Dr. Wrangham is a British Primatologist over at Harvard and his book, “Catching Fire,” is an interesting science book full of nothing but science. He starts with a basic supposition that
about 3 months ago - 1 comment
Kim lent me a copy of the hardbound first collection of the graphic novel Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and produced by Fantagraphics Books. The story is a sort of feminist Chaucer set in the never never land of fairy tales. It opens with the story of Castle Waiting, a castle set over a land
about 4 months ago - No comments
Dear Book Publishers (all of you): I am not a huge believer in the universal maxim of the long tail but it has some merit because I have given in to it. Convenience of the online world makes it both realistic and generates sales. While I understand that music != book publishing, imagine this scenario:
about 4 months ago - No comments
David Foster Wallace is an acquired taste, a bit like hot sauce or sushi. I started with the essay Consider the Lobster in the now sadly defunct Gourmet magazine. Actually, this isn’t true. I found some other essay online that I read and greatly enjoyed but now I cannot find it again so I will
about 4 months ago - 3 comments
People who have been within a 20′ radius of me know that I have been reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, an extremely strange post-modern 1200 page book. I will write a review and some thoughts on the book when I have more time (and boy do I have thoughts on said book which rivals
about 4 months ago - No comments
I have been fighting to get Katie interested in longer stories (books) for a year and a half now. This effort has been met with limited success: the world is full of too many interesting things to sit still for a story, even at night when winding down for bed. She is just too wiggly.