It's a common paradigm that if you have a volunteer book drive, someone will fill the shelves with the old text books they found useless and, if they took a few moments, knew everyone else would find useless. December 13 07

OK, it's time I weighed in on the Kindle, Amazon's new e-reader. The key things about Kindle are that that it is more a service than it is a device and it is locked into Amazon. What does that mean? It means that it reads only the Kindle file format and I would imagine that, at least to start, that these files can only be purchased from Amazon. I am somewhat surprised by the $399 ticket price because I would have assumed that by being locked into Amazon, they would lower the price and make the most of the money from the purchasing of books. It does allow you to "email files" to the device (to the device or to amazon for conversion?) so I guess I could just convert any book I find online and read it. More investigation i warranted.

I would love the device but I don't know how much it would love me. Right now, I read in two ways: books and Treo. I am not adverse to digital books but I LOVE physical books. For me, a digital book is purely about the convenience of the situation. You will never find me sitting at home reading a book on my Treo but I would much rather read it on the subway considering how I am destroying my large format paperback copy of Reaper's Gale.

So, that said, this thing would have to be able to stand up to floating around in my bag. It would have to have a long battery life, as I am always forgetting to recharge my Treo. It would have to have access to ALL new books, not just the select few that they decide will sell. I love the fact it is wireless connected eliminating the need to download and upload via a PC. To be honest, this is what I believe will save movies and music in the purely digital age -- the ability to buy them straight from the device and DL almost instantly. That is what we are moving towards.

That said, this is one of the few times that I wish I had really pushed my early cred as a blogger. While I might not read as much as Marmy, as she devours books as fast as I inhale cookies, we still represent the reading world and the technology world. I would like to try it and truly weigh in on it's merits and flaws. November 22 07

What are you reading right now and in what format? I have a paperback in my bag: Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling. It's a low magic fantasy about a prophesized Queen hidden in the body of a young boy. It has some fascinating opinions on gender issues, friendship bonds and homosexuality and does a grand job of depicting court life. Have Tech, Will Travel, a Star Trek: TNG novel on my Treo. It's a fun read about the Starfleet Corps of Engineers written as short stories. I like the idea of finding out what happens to the enemy's abandoned ship once the Enterprise goes on their merry way. Lastly, I am reading Monster Island, the web novel I mentioned down below. I am having a ball with this one as it's a fresh look at zombies and the nihilistic genre. Somali warlords being the world's last vestige of civilization and a doctor who makes himself anto an intelligent zombie is a lot of fun. The format is a bit wonky but I am open to it. June 08 07

It's the Book Meme: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Edition.

The instructions were: Bold the ones you’ve read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert *
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson *
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card *
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson *
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice *
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein *
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock *
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks *
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Yesterday, due to the presence of a commute once again, I finished the source book for the latest show I am DLing, "Dexter". I link to the IMDB because we in Canada are not allowed to see the website to the American Showtime show. Huh? It IS running here on The MovieNetwork so I find it assinine. Actually I find the idea of not allowing other countries to view promotional material as incredibly stupid but that is another story. As I said, I finished reading the book by Jeff Lindsay

I must say that I was incredibly disappointed. The book is relatively small, obviously one of those first mystery genre books that intends a long running series. But I found the writing incredibly lacking, so far as to be boring. While I am more interested in carrying forth a story these days, rather than endless exposition on character traits and backgrounds, I found the style just blasé.

But the series I am enjoying incredibly !! I love the character development, progression of the season long story (rather than quickly resolved book plot) and the focus shift from horrific crimes to the growing relationship between Dexter and Rita.

For those not knowing, Dexter is a psychopath who works for the Miami police department as a blood spatter expert. No one knows or knew, but for his dead adopted father who taught him how to blend into society, that he likes to kill and Dexter assists by only killing those who deserve it, such as other serial killers or plain mass murderers. Dexter is unemotional or more precisely, lacking in the normal emotional reactions of every day people. His father taught him to face this and fake it. Thus he makes friends with his coworkers and has got himself a girlfriend.

The series works for me on two levels. Yes, I have a macabre sense of humour and often giggle along with Dexter as he notices something about a murder scene that would have others retching. The writers understand that most of us find horror movies more funny than horrific. The horror of the series comes in watching Dexter react negatively to a situation where we are reminded that while he is an unemotional killing machine, he was also once a normal human baby made into this by a nasty nasty past. No one is born a monster, we are made. The other level is a show that wants you to like it's characters and develop some sympathy for them. No matter how much I live Law & Order: CI, I will never actually care for it's characters as they are presented faithfully but not with much sympathy. I like worrying about Dex as his past comes back to him, about Deb for the crash she is about to experience, about Rita and her ex-husband troubles and Angel with his ex-wife troubles.

I like the show and will continue to enjoy my downloaded, no commercial, watch when I want state of it. December 09 06

Vacations confound me. I believe they stress me out more than the stress at work does. I am a creature of habit, mostly bad habits, and once taken out of the environment, all sorts of weird things happen. Most of it has to do with fidgeting. The other has to do with being unable to wind down. If I take a week's vacation it usually is not until 2 days before I am back that I am actually relaxed, sometimes not at all. When we went to Montreal earlier this year, I found myself feeling mellow about two and suddenly I was craving another week. Oh, I can fake it well enough but inside I am a seething ball of confusion, a bit of anger and tension tight enought to strangle a rhino. The previous time off while not working was a week at the TIFF so I don't think I noticed the stress between the late movies and the long lines. That had it's own stress.

This year I am taking about two weeks. Most of that is at home in NS, which I leave for on wednesday, and then some winding down time here. I needed to get away from everything that I am here so going home alone seemed appropo. It's a family reunion so there should be enough chaos to distract me. While I talked, at work, all week about sitting on a deck, beer in hand, and just chill-laxing (again to quote noodle) I actually dread the idea of that. Once given to time alone, with only my head to haunt me, I imagine I could do alot of mental damage. I am bringing two books, my iPod and my digital camera so hopefully I can use those to avoid any demons who take a flight out east with me.

Oh, and one of those books is part of my new attempt to think. Perhaps I am seeking to supplant the demonic voices in my head by giving them something to argue about other than my personal foibles. Thus, one book is not my usual pulp fiction but an out-and-out non-fiction. It's Kim Vicente's The Human Factor, about living with technology. Thanks L. From there I believe I may dig into Kottke's reading list and also some ideas over at Caterina who used to have an extensive reading list. Any suggestions will be appreciated. We will see how my snail's pace reading habits adapt to this challenge. July 24 06

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Poul Andersen, not Poul Anderson, was in The Store today. I am so glad I didn't tell him I like his books. November 25 05

When I was younger, oh about three years ago, I used to ponder life after The End. That has begun to change. I have always been fascinated by Post Apocalyptic fiction and I have mentioned it here before. A bit of the interest came from the "cleaning house" concept that I imagine I share with alot of scary New World Order types. But the main fascination was heroes surviving by their wits and people making a new world out of what was left. A recent read (Dies the Fire, SM Stirling) drew together many points as to why I would never consider it cool to see the world as we know it end. The book illustrates how quickly disreputable but powerful types would take control and how decent people would have to let others die in order to survive. No tragic hero of the people. We'll talk about the prevalence of wicca and SCA types in the book later.

I just watched Land of the Dead and this also covered the fact that the world would take a long long time and a lot of people dying in order to become a cleaner house. And who says we as average crappy people would ever let it get better. The fourth zombie movie doesn't find the gleeful rednecks of the ending to the first. It finds rich powerful people setting up strongholds and using the common folk as a meat shield against The Stenches. We get a little story in this Fiddler's Green about a few heroics and the end.

Zombie movies both fascinate me and scare the (un)living shit out of me. You would think it would be easy to avoid shambling mounds of moaning teeth. But it never is; there are always so many and just when you think you are safe another one comes through a window and bites your neck. Being blindsided by circumstances is something I understand and fear.

This movie is only as successful as a Romero movie can be. The many ways to have your flesh torn off and eaten gets tired pretty quickly as do his menagerie of The Recently Dead. So all we are left with is a roadwarrior style shootem up with big fancy vehicles and tough chicks with guns. As a followup to his scientifically investigating Day of the Dead, I would have preferred to see a movie on a grander scale where we explore the rest of the world. Perhaps a road movie where a group of years seasoned travellers are trying to reach a mythical safe zone. I would want to see how things have changed around the world and hear pseudo histories. Are we all inevitably going to be eaten or is there a possible timeframe as to where the zombie masses can just decay and fall apart? October 18 05

I mentioned not too long that I once saw myself as an untapped writer. It is not so much an ego stroking idea but a feeling that there is a strange, non-typical, possibly post-modern novel lurking behind my eyelids. Something like I imagine Underworld to be.

These feelings come out in me during times like this when some sort of internal displeasure has captured me. Today I am bloated and in pain, gas trapped inside me like a Hindenberg about to ignite. It hurts but it distracts me from the usual demonic badgerings of my not quite schizophrenic voices. Today I am not being bothered to wash dishes, sweep floors, greet customers, expand my mind, learn things, find a fulfilling job, etc. My mind is giving me time to feel better even if the Stress Tanar'ri is lurking in the background.

I still find it strange that the novel I can imagine myself writing is from a space so far outside my everyday mindspace. It would not be all that fantastical and it would be far more political than I will ever be. It would have ramifications and meaning for life and existance. There would be no elves or dragons or cyberpunk samurai but lots of cigarette smoking dilettantes, country-music listening philophy professors, gas station attendants, librarians, hitchhikers, pet store browsers, knitters, chicken farmers, etc. August 03 05

The New York Times tells what us used-books buyers knew all along -- that they help new book sales. To me, the reader of series and authors, it's obvious. I pick up a "one of nine" fantasy series by BFF Jowling and can only find three of the series once the first one hooks me. I go to Indigo or Amazon to find the rest. If I want to try out a new author, I buy a couple of used but if I am hooked, I buy what I cannot find at Indigo. It just seems obvious to me. July 29 05