Infrequent posts about stuff.
Not that the books themselves are social, though I can think of a few fictional libraries where that might be true, but Revish is yet another social website with a focus on books. In some ways it’s closer to what I’ve been looking for than the other ones I’ve seen http://www.cavort.org/2007/02/21/while-im-thinking-about-books/. In any case, I have a profile there too now.
Just finished reading Allen Steele’s new novel “Spindrift“. It was really quite a good read but I could not shake the feeling that it was a book that I had read before. There just didn’t seem to be much that was new or challenging in it, which in some ways I suppose can be a good thing but possibly just wasn’t what I am looking for in a novel these days. The one exception would be the character of Ramirez who turns out to be slightly different than I expected and was fairly well developed as a plot hook. Still, a good read but I have trouble recommending it for purchase in hard cover unless you’re already a fan of Allen Steele’s work, or the Coyote series in particular.
From Terry Pratchett:
Let grammar, spelling and punctuation enter your life. Yes, publishers have people who will do this sort of thing—and they are called authors.
(I haven’t been able to run down a link to the quote, and I only have it from an AuthorTracker message.)
Infodoodads pointed me to another social book site that I think might fit my needs a bit better than the other three that I’ve played with so far: goodreads.
My profile can be found here and I might play with the widget a bit and see what it looks like.
In a company newsletter this morning was a mention of the following book, whose title is causing pain that I must share:
Naming Elephants: How to Surface Undiscussables for Greater Organizational Success
In theory we have a bunch of copy editors on the payroll somewhere. I would have to guess they were all on vacation that week.
Does anyone have any thoughts about GuruLib, Shelfari, and LibraryThing?
So far I think GuruLib has both the best feature (list books borrowed from a library using information pulled directly from the library’s database) and the absolute worst interface. OMG does it suck.
Shelfari OTOH has a really beautiful and, more importantly, functional interface but lacks a good way to mark books that you have read but do not own. Adding the item to your “Reading List” does not count.
LibraryThing’s interface is right about the dead center between the polar opposites of the other two and I cannot find any way to list books that I have only read but do not own.
I could swear there was a fourth site that does similar things to these three, but I can’t seem to remember it. Any pointers to similar sites or comments about these would be greatly appreciated.
I’m not going to say much about “A Dirty Job” by Christopher Moore. People who like Christopher Moore will like “A Dirty Job”. People who don’t like Christopher Moore will not. If you don’t know if you like Christopher Moore be warned that Mr Moore takes his whimsy very seriously and as long as you can keep up with his introduction of impossibility you should do just fine. While not nearly as surreal as Robert Rankin they inhabit nearby universes, neither of which is your own.
I finished “Dark Cities Underground” by Lisa Goldstein yesterday, and I’m still having some trouble figuring out exactly what to say about it, but I think I need to say something.
To begin with, I really adored the idea behind this book. While it isn’t entirely original, it is a very nice twist on several similar ideas seen in books by Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and Robert Rankin and is related in many ways to movies like “Stranger than Fiction”. It is a sort of meta-fiction where the line between fiction, mythology, and the real world is a sometimes elusive thing. If you are like me and enjoy that blurring of reality the basic premise of “Dark Cities Underground” is worth looking for despite the problems of the narrative.
Oh, the problems of this narrative.
For the record: I am not one that needs a lot of depth to my characters. I’ve been reading and enjoying mediocre SF and Fantasy for long enough that as long as the story or idea is good the characters can be borrowed from the front of a high sugar cereal box and I’m just fine with that. I do however have my limits and the lack of depth in Ms Goldstein’s characters is pretty amazing. I think that it might be possible to argue that this lack of depth could be appropriate for the meta-fiction context by placing simplistic characters in a blended world of fiction and reality except that my personal definition of meta-fiction involves putting realistic characters in that blended world where the edges of fiction and reality are vague. Without good characters my suspension of disbelief just can not kick in, and I end up writing a paragraph about how I didn’t like the characters.
Cardboard characters themselves would not by themselves inspire such caution about recommending this book to friends. The plot, or more specifically the author’s use of the Plot Stick of Doom, is where I get reticent to even mention this book. If you have ever watched classic horror or SF movies before George Lucas got into the industry you would be hard pressed not to have noticed the obvious strings, models, and primitive blue screens that were the state of the art until the late 1970s. If you have ever watched an episode of Star Trek and noticed that “rock” is Styrofoam or an episode of Doctor Who and the plethora of bubble-wrap costumes, you will have some idea of how subtle Lisa Goldstein is with plot. If you don’t like books that are telegraphed early and often you will not like this book.
Despite all of that I kind of liked it. Despite the flawed narrative the very interesting core idea is explored very well and in decent context. I still don’t think I can call it a good book, but it might be worth reading.
Some things should be linked to because they are probably talking about you. Right this moment, that link is to Charles Stross talking about where SF books need to go to regain marketshare.
Even if you don’t care about reading SF anymore, there is a central core that is a very interesting analysis of what SF books really are.
From Thinking Too Much and Angry Starfish
From Singularity Sky by Charles Stross:
I am the Eschaton. I am not your god.
I am descended from you, and I exist in your future.
Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else.
The book immediately under that one (Not from a closet 
) is A Peace To End All Peace by David Fromkin:
By the end of the war, the export trade was down to a quarter and the import trade down to a tenth of what they had been.
The Porte ran up huge budget deficits during the wartime years, and helplessly ran paper money off the printing presses to pay for them. During the war prices rose 1,675 percent.
Continue the meme at your own peril and on your on recognizance.
