While in Bellingham this weekend, my friend Jesse showed me a map from a fantasy book she was reading. It looked frighteningly familiar. Click the thumbnail for a full-size picture.
Not normally the kind of book I read but… how can I resist a fantasy novel set in my beloved Tri-Cities? DO VAMPIRES DRINK AT ICE HARBOR?
Today is St. George’s Day, patron saint of England. In celebration I bought Margaret Hodges and Trina Schart Hyman’s masterpiece St. George and the Dragon (Of course I tracked down a hardcover copy.)
I have fond memories of this book. I used to ask my dad to read it to me every night, until we finally progressed to The Restaraunt at the End of the Universe. Although it has been over a decade since I’ve seen it, every picture is still vivid in my mind. It left quite an impression on me. Thanks to this book, I never minded my dad calling me ‘George’.
It will be a fine addition to my collection of children’s books.
Yeah, a bit late for this, but last week was National Library Week, and the Honorary Chairman of the event was one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. As part of his function as Chairman, Gaiman was featured in a Q&A session where he discussed the importance of libraries and books in his life, as well as censorship.
(You can honestly skip until about 5 minutes in. That’s when Gaiman starts talking)
I really enjoyed this interview, it made me remember my childhood. The library was a place my dad and I would go to on the weekends and I would check out books I could take with me while he wrote policies at the auto-dealerships. I have fond memories of the Circle Pit of children’s books at the Richland library. It also brought back memories of dad reading to me, especially “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”
I learned very quickly that books were places you could travel to. And a favorite book was a world you could visit again and again.
He also raises some great points about e-readers and where they have a great place in society. Like replacing encyclopedias and dictionaries, which are out of date as soon as they are printed. Or huge heavy text books for college, which ruin backs and shoulders and are needlessly expensive. Not to mention that for older readers, e-readers are a way to read any book you choose with a font size that’s comfortable. I had never even considered that before.
The second half is mainly a live question section where they ask particular questions about Gaiman’s work. While the first video is worth watching for anyone, I think the second one is mainly insightful for those already familiar with Gaiman.
Finally, Gaiman also appeared on All Things Considered last week. He again discussed the importance of libraries (And the necessity of funding them in tough economic times), but also the value of new media like Twitter.
I am not allowed to describe myself as a feral child who was raised by librarians.
Gaiman is a treasure, it is so wonderful to have such a gifted spokesman for reading, libraries, comics, fantasy and even Twitter.
George Washington owes The New York Society Library over $300,000 in library fines for overdue books
But here’s the best part:
George Washington did not even bother to sign his name in the borrower’s ledger. An aide simply scrawled “president” next to the title to show who had taken them out.
My older sister just posted a wonderful entry about homeschooling her children and their reading habits. She also talked about her own and even paid me a compliment:
… I read a lot when I was little but always stuck to one particular genre. I disdained animal books, didn’t care about adventure books (and any book that Geoff said was good), and pretty much just read all the fluff romantic historical fiction I could get my hands on …
But yeah, pretty much the only thing I enjoyed at first but now regret reading is The Wheel of Time series. But I’ll talk about pallid Tolkien impersonators later.
Thanks for the shout-out Mystie!
I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold. And overbold I may be accounted, for though I have been a lover of fairy-stories since I learned to read, and have at times thought about them, I have not studied them professionally. I have been hardly more than a wandering explorer (or trespasser) in the land, full of wonder but not of information.
J.R.R. Tolkien – On Fairy-Stories
I’ve discovered that the last two books I’ve read, Stardust and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are connected in an unexpected way which is causing me to re-evaluate the way I look at both. I am trying to write something to do them justice, while trying to finish Dual Citizens before Sunday. Wish me luck!
Loiosh informed me of his approach just before he said “You may borrow them, if you wish,” so I could avoid letting him startle me.
“I’d like that very much.”
“I should warn you, however, that I have several volumes devoted to curses for people who don’t return books.”
“I’d like to borrow those, too.”
-Steven Brust ‘Dragon‘
Neil Gaiman has just posted a wondrous video from his forthcoming book ‘Instructions’ which features the pencil sketches of the art being turned into the finished, painted illustrations while Gaiman reads the poem over it.
I cannot wait to pick up this book. It will make a fine companion to Odd, Frog and Toad.
Steven Brust just posted a review of an unreleased book, and he seems quite charmed by it.
The quote that stood out for me was:
Ever read one of those YA books that drops in the occasional mention of what is obviously a favorite book of the author’s in such a way as to give you the uncomfortable feeling that you’re supposed to like the character because the character likes that book, or maybe likes books, and you end up feeling manipulated? This ain’t that. This ain’t that all. In this book, we follow Mor, aged 15, as she voraciously read sf just as we did, and it gives her bursts of insight just as it did us. The sf she is reading is part of who she is, and who she is becoming, and it is so real it hurts.
I had never even really thought about it that way, but it’s just so true. As a teenager I felt a strong connection, or even a relationship with my favorite characters. Vlad, Peter, Eustace, Aerich. Although for how much I read the Lord of the Rings, I never felt that connection with the characters there. The characters are too good. They are paragons with virtues beyond our reach. Which I suppose is the point, since Tolkien wanted a mythology for England. But Aragorn isn’t relatable, not even the hobbits are. They are extremes of different values and virtues. I would like Aragorn to be my king, but I don’t think I could hang out at Ice Harbor with him.
Those flashes of insight though? That’s what reading sci-fi and fantasy is all about. It shapes who you are. I believe reading has made me a better person than I’d otherwise be.
Now I have to shake my fist at Brust for telling me about this book that I want to read so badly, and can’t until next January. Noooooooo.
The 2010 Hugo Award Nominees have been announced. They nominees for best novel are:
Boneshaker – Cherie Priest
The City & The City – China Miéville
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America – Robert Charles Wilson
Palimpsest – Catherynne M. Valente
Wake – Robert J. Sawyer
The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
I haven’t heard of any of these books, or even any of the authors. So I’m pretty excited. I’m going to read all of these books this year, hopefully before the winner is announced on July 31st.
