Reading reading reading
Almost done with my Hugo short fiction reading.
Recently read 20th Century Eightball collecting short pieces from Dan Clowes’ Eightball. Some of them fed into the “Ghost World” movie; some are inspired; some are just odd. Also read The Wraith by Michael T. Gilbert, collecting an early series by the creator of Mr. Monster, a favorite of mine. It was fun, if sleight.
Like manna from heaven, one occasionally finds abandoned books lying in boxes on Berkeley sidewalks. Most of the time most of them are crap — things their owners rightly judged would be of no interest to any of the used bookstores around town. But sometimes there are gems. One such I found recently was Lies My Teacher Told Me which I’ve meant to get to since it came out eight years ago. And it’s a great read — compelling, subversive, interesting and fun. I’ll try to comment more when I’m done.
A lot of people had my idea of stalking the public library when it came to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Mine was in the neighborhood of the 50th or 60th hold placed. But given that among the five branches of the Berkeley Public Library, 35 copies were ordered, that wasn’t doing so badly. I happened to check my patron info online on Saturday, found it was waiting for me, and picked it up.
I’m about 250 pages into it. Were it any of the first three books, I’d be almost done. It being this one, I’m not even all that close to a third done. I’m enjoying myself; again, will comment further when done.
I’ve also begun Heroes and Monsters: the Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well as reading Alan Moore’s scripts for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as published in the two-volume slipcased “absolute edition” (I’m so weak), and continuing to read Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman.
Ah, to have time enough for books.
I read Lies when it was fairly new. I liked it but it seemed to go a little over the top in the opposite direction. I hate the "Why do you hate America so much?" meme but this was one book that would have tempted me to ask it of the author. It's great to come to the realization that America is not always right, but we're not always wrong either.
Still, a very interesting and informative book.
Posted by Scott on July 8 2003 16:31