"Turn Left"

I finished a couple three books recently. In order of amount of time it took me to finish them, from least to most:
Infinite Kung Fu by Kagan Mcleod. A think graphic novel, published in 2011. This is a Canadian writer and illustrator who tells an ancient tale of eight immortal masters, their students, the treachery of those students, steampunk style constructs, zombie outbreaks, and a modern city full of funky 70s era African Americans in the middle of ancient China, waved off as "you've probably never seen us, we keep to ourselves". The book is a hell of a lot of fun, tells a story that rings true as old, yet incorporates a lot of more modern aspects of Kung Fu movies. It is a loving pastiche of all eras of movies. There's the simple soldier elevated to lead the armies of light, the training in a Shaolin temple, the black Kung Fu guy, the travelogue portion, cris-crossing the country to find magical artifacts, the group splitting up to do what they can to stop the bad guys, then coming together in a big final part at the end. That part felt like a G.I. Joe special. In a good way. Anyway, if you like Kung Fu movies you should check it out. If you don't, I'm sorry. You have missed something. It took me a two beer lunch to finish. I should have taken more time with it, but I read comics too damn fast.

Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the great living humorists working in novels, used to write about one book every 18 months. When he heard he had early onset Alzheimer's he decided to write faster. His latest book in the Discworld series is called Snuff. It's a classic Busman's Holiday detective story but set in the sword and sorcery setting of The Disc. City police chief heads to the country and discovers a murder, cover-up, and worse on an old country estate. It's not my favorite Pratchett novel, but it's good. The beginning and middle is a little leisurely and slow, and the ending is a little rushed, but that's not my biggest issue with it. Sam Vimes, the main character and holder of dozens of titles is a normal man in an unusual world. He's a policeman who is always on duty. He's like Batman, a well trained man with no powers. But... in this one he gets powers, so I don't really care for that. Anytime you change the basic premise of a primary character I'm not sure about that, but he's a world renown author and I write a few blogs, so there you go.

The book that took me the longest was The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter. Which is a series of emails between Doctor Who show runner, producer and lead writer Russel T. Davies and Doctor Who Magazine writer Benjamin Cook. I really liked the book, but it took a long while to get through it. There is an extraordinary amount of detail in the book, following the last two years of Davies on the show; all the scripts he wrote, all the trials of getting three different shows produced. It was a really great boost to read when I was feeling down on my own writing to hear all the trouble that Davies has when he's writing. I'm in Florida now, and already read one of the books I brought with me, so I had to get this up, so that when I get back I can write about the books I finish down here.

"Blue in Green"

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So this was supposed to be a posting months and months ago about A Monster's Notes by Laurie
Sheck and The Man who was Thursday by Chesterton. But I put it off for so long that I now remember very little of either, just general senses of both. Also, for the first time, I don't know why I have titled the post the way I did. From the beginning I have attempted to make the title of the post be a song that connects with the post in some way; but even though I saved this title and noted to myself that it was supposed to be about those two books, I am without a thought as to why. So have fun with it. At least it's a classic of the genre.

A Monster's Notes was really challenging. I loved it, but it was hard. It made me work. It reminded me of the hardest parts of The Sound and The Fury. What if The Monster was real and it visited Mary Shelly in her youth? And It didn't really like the way it was portrayed in her book? And it was all written in letters and poems? Really a tough one for me, but I appreciated the challenge.

The Man Who Was Thursday was awesome. I don't remember specifically why I think that, other than I loved the story and the characters. It would make an interesting play or film I think. It is very short, and well worth a borrow from the library if not a purchase from a used book store.

No promises as to what the next post will be, or when, I have a bad track record when I say I'm going to do something. So see you soon. Maybe.

"For Whom The Bell Tolls"

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Have you ever struggled through a book? What about a classic? I can only name two books that I have started and been unable to finish. One I am embarrassed to admit is a Terry Pratchett; the only author I have read as much as Heinlein. Maurice and His Educated Rodents was not the right book for me at the time I guess. I can’t really say why. That was recent, within the last year. More than 15 years ago I picked up a book by L. Ron Hubbard and found it to be so not my idea of science fiction that I only managed to get to chapter five.

Typically, I read so fast that even a bad start is behind me before I put the book down to go to bed. I have read a lot of books in these last few years of effective unemployment, but the one that took me the longest was For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. I finished it last week or so, and so I now feel removed enough to be able to talk about it.

As I read the book I asked a lot of people what they thought of it. Multiple college educated people, including two with English degrees all told me the same thing: “I didn’t read that one, is it any good”? I’m not claiming to know a wide swath of America, but I do not a lot of smart people, and not one of them had read this classic. In fact, most people I talked to had only read one Hemingway; The Old Man in the Sea and told me that they had b/c it was the shortest book that was on the reading list for that particular assignment or another. Now my friend Russel has read Hemingway, and even took a class on Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but even he hadn’t read Bell. I think I have a reason for this lack of reading of this so called classic.

It is the worst book I have every finished.

OK that is a little harsh. The first four fifth’s of this book are the worst book I have ever read, but the last fifth is interesting enough to make a hell of a good short story. I don’t want to give anything away here for the billions of you who haven’t read this book (or to think of it another way, the five of you who might see this) but in the end… It Tolls for Thee… It Tolls for Thee…

"A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)"

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A quick update on words and stories that have entered my brain through the ocular nerve.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth by Mike and Louise Carey with art by Aaron Alexovich was very British. Louise is Mike's daughter, and the book was written for DC's very limited Minx imprint that targeted teenage girls. I learned teenage British slang that was popular in 2007 and therefore completely worthless to anyone at the current time, as it was no doubt hopelessly out of date before it hit the publisher. Not my favorite comic I read last week.

A. Lee Martinez seems to have written Monster specifically for me, or perhaps Lykaon. And I thank him for it. A fast paced easy read of a novel about a man who captures cryptobiologicals for the City. There's some big picture universe plot type stuff in there as well, but that's not the interesting part of the book. I liked the paper gnome Chester the best, and I liked the main character's name the least. It is Monster; and his job is to collect Monsters... I get it, I just don't get why his editor said "yes, that sounds good, people will dig that". All in all, a fun book, and really quick read,perfect for a few evenings at Denny's.

Speaking of short reads, I read two books from my childhood that I only vaguely remembered: From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler and The Girl who Owned a City. The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet actually mentioned FTMUFOMBEF and so I picked that one up the next day and really enjoyed it. It won the Newbery that year, and while I'm not worthy to judge that award, I will say it kept my attention even though I sort of remembered where the whole thing was leading. It's in that fun mini-genre of children's fiction that deals with urban survival by hiding from the grownups. I remember reading one about kids hiding in a shopping mall, and I know I've seen at least two Simpson's episodes that deal with running away and hiding in a large urban building. After that, I decided to re-read a book I loved as a kid: The Girl who Owned a City. I'm just going to say that it was hard to go home again. It took me about 75 minutes to read and I almost fell asleep/zoned out on multiple occasions. Maybe I remembered it too well and so there were no plot points that kept me going, or maybe after all this time I finally realized that the author is writing as an Ayn Rand apologist. OK I didn't really recognize that, but the Internet told me its true so I'm putting it out there.

I also finished off the most recent trade of Buffy Season 8. Well, most recent that the library has purchased. That puts me about a year behind the comic if I was reading it monthly, but that's good enough for me. It's a good comic if you miss Buffy and the art really really really captures the gang in a way a T.V. show or movie reunion now never could (stupid Ravages of Time!)

I have picked up two more books this week. One I grabbed on premise alone ( I love a good retelling of a well known story from a different point of view) but after giving it 50 pages I may have picked up the most challenging thing I've read since college. So to give myself a break every few chapters, I went back to the library and grabbed The Man who was Thursday; a book I have been meaning to read for a good three or more years it seems like. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

"Maps"

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So I finished The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet today. Much like the freight train that T.S. rides out of Montana, the pace at the beginning was languid and by the end it was so fast I thought I must be skipping pages the tale was streaking so fast. By the end, the story had become that of a 12 year old boy in so deep over his head he doesn't really know which way is up. What had been a story about a young man with a gift for illustrating and mapping everything he came into contact with had added a brief flirting with science fiction, and with a century old club of scientists who like to keep their eyes on everything. Also there are big breaks in the middle where we learn about his great grandmother. All this crammed into a book that starts as a boy traveling to D.C. from Montana. I liked the book as fiction, but as a book it is even better.

This is what annotated reading should be like. This is how reading on the Internet should/will be. Like 80% of the pages have small illustrations and notes. There are simple to follow arrows leading out from the body of text when the illustration should be noticed. You can read them right then, wait until the end of the paragraph, the end of the page, or ignore them if the topic doesn't appeal to you. I want more books like this. Reif Larsen is a first time author living in Brooklyn. So look him up and tell him to write me something else when you have the time. Or you could just read his book instead, you know, if you're not into accosting people.


I was not in any of the crowd shots for the The Yeah Yeah Yeah's video above, but...at @ 5:04 in this video
* "...I see you was holdin' me down A homeboy you know all the lyrics I appreciate you, you with the W..." He was talking to Kevin. I was standing next to Kevin hitting him yelling "you, he's talking to you" just in case he wasn't aware that J was talking to him.

"On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe"

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Last week I finished reading a graphic novel last week by Jim Vance and Dan Burr. It's called Kings in Disguise. It is an award winning piece about the Great Depression and specifically about a young man riding the rails. It is also one of the more depressing things I've read of late. The amount of horrible that can and did happen during the Depression, viewed through the eyes of this boy is enough to make you quit, just give up and quit. So I read it, and it was good, but I don't think I'll read it again any time soon.

In a total coincidence, I also picked up from the library The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. It also has a young male protagonist who packs a bag and hops a freight train, but in this case the year is 2007. I'm about half way though this one, and I don't want to say too much so that I don't spoil it for myself, but the book itself, the design of the book itself is so cool, so right, I don't know why it has taken so long for me to find a book like this.

Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll finish it in a hurry.

"Land Down Under"

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I promise this post will have nothing to do with Vegemite.

I finished The Vondish Ambassador by Lawrence Watt-Evans earlier today. I picked it up from the library b/c it was in the new release section. I read about half of it, and was enjoying it, then made the mistake of looking it up online. Lawrence Watt-Evans is a fantasy author who has been turning out novels for thirty years. The Vondish Ambassador is the latest in his Legends of Ethshar series. It is currently ten novels long with almost as many tie in short stories. This man cranks out books like he is drowning in words and trying to save himself. Wikipedia lists him as having authored more than forty books and a hundred short stories. It tuns out I could have been reading this one for free online. He serialized it on his website using a pledge system when his publisher told him no more Ethshar books and his public said more please. It's not up anymore since it was picked up and published, but it must have been thrilling for his fans to read a new chapter every few weeks. He apparently sent copies of the book to people who contributed a significant about while it was being serialized. I wish I had picked up an earlier book int he series to get started, but there you go.

The book is about the Ambasador from Vond, a empire to the south of the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars where the novel takes place. He finds a local guide who is our point of view character. There are assassination attempts, and spies, and other political machinations, and then the end happened rather quickly and left me and our P.O.V. character so out of the loop that I could see the tags still on the deus ex machina. Ethshar seems like a great world, very in depth, lots of kingdoms to explore, but I don't think I'm looking for a new fantasy series right now. There's also like a dozen different types of magic in the universe. Don't get me wrong, I like worlds with multiple magic sources: Discworld has Mages, Witches, Gods and Sorcery; Mistborn has Allmancy, Feruchemy and Hemalurgy. But more than ten types of magic seems a little much to me. Part of why I stopped playing Rifts was how many types of magic there was. It's hard to balance, hard to keep track of, and ultimately seemed to take away from story and focus more on keeping facts straight.

Anyway, it was a great day to sit outside and finish this 200 or so page novel.

"The Pied Piper"

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Bill Willingham writes comics. He also writes short novels set in the continuity he created within his comics. My friend Russell first introduced me to Bill Willingham with Proposition Player, an all to brief look at a all myths/gods are true version of the afterlife and what Las Vegas has to do with it. Then I happened upon his very brief addition to the Sandman continuity with his Thessaly story in The Sandman Presents:. He is now world famous for his creation Fables and the various spin offs. If you don't know Fables, then here's the short version. All stories are real (notice a pattern?) and many of them are now living incognito in NYC. At the start of the series Old King Cole is mayor, Snow White is deputy mayor and the Big Bad Wolf is the sheriff. It's been running since 2002 and you should pick it up.

"But Davey!" you may be saying "...that is a whole lot of comic to pick up in one go, what if I don't like it?" Well then, this little book review is for you.

Peter and Max is a fairly short novel, under 400 pages, that takes place in the world of Fables. It takes place in two different time lines, well I guess three, but that's like two chapters at most so I'm not really counting it. I don't think you need to know the series to enjoy it, in fact it contains some spoilers for the comic (kind of hard to leave 7 plus years of continuity on the cutting room floor). There is even a short comic story after the prose story to give you an idea of what reading the comic is like. In a perfect world of plenty of time and money, I think you should read the whole series from the start and not read the book until after issue 75. But that's asking a lot, so let's start with the novel and hope you love it.

First off, it's a story of brothers. Good and Evil, Cain and Abel on steroids kind of brothers. It's also a Bildungsroman for both brothers. There's a love interest angle that is very cute. And it's full of references to children's stories. How many "Peter" nursery stories do you remember? Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater; Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; Peter and the Wolf, yeah, all the same guy.

Check the book out from the library or pick it up used. It won't take you long to finish, and you'll like it. Got questions about it? I'm here. Oh yeah, if one of your questions is how kid friendly is it, I'll tell you right now not really. There is death and dismemberment, and in the comic it can get a little graphic. There are a few free chapter previews online here.

One more quick note, if you are more of an audio book person then I hope you like Wesley Crusher.

"You and Your Perfect Life"

I've been reading Nick Hornby lately. About five years ago I read three of his books. I enjoyed About a Boy, really liked High Fidelity, and devoured Fever Pitch. So it's no wonder I waited such a short period of time before reading more. This month I finished Slam, am struggling through A Long Way Down, and was really pleased with Juliet, Naked. So that's what book I'm going to talk about today.

A description of the plot would not do it justice, suffice it to say it made me pick up my Dylan albums again, specifically Blood on the Tracks. Not that it is about Dylan, or even a Captain Ersatz of Dylan; the musician in the book is an 80's singer songwriter. But it still feels like it's somehow about Dylan.

The musician interacts with family and strangers after a 20 year reclusive span. There you go, that's the simple plot right there I guess. But to me it's really not about Tucker Crowe and where he's been for so long. I cared more about Annie.

Nick Hornby is getting older. And so are his characters, older and frailer. But the depth he brings to Annie, a curator at a small museum in a small seaside town in North East England is almost painful it feels so true. I'm not saying that Annie having to reassess her life will make you take a look at yours. I'm just saying it made me look at mine.

"The Boilerplate Rag"

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Steampunk met Forrest Gump? If so, you really should check out "Boilerplate * History's Mechanical Marvel*" by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett.

A mechanical man, built in 1893 comes into contact with major historical figures though the first World War. That's kind of an understatement. He was created with the help of Tesla, unveiled at the Chicago World's fair, inspired Baum to create the Tin Man, befriends the last queen of Hawai'i, got involved in the Pullman strike, reached the South Pole 16 years before Amundsen, built railroads in Africa, panned for gold in the Klondike, dug the panama canal, sailed around the world on the White Fleet, boxed with Jack Johnson, rode with the Rough Riders, fought in the Philippine engagement, met Mark Twain and Jack London, fought against the Boxer Rebellion, witnessed an early Russo-Japanese war battle, rode with Pancho Villa (don't worry, he was embedded), rode the deserts with Lawrence of Arabia, and disappeared while fighting for the Americans in the Hundred Days Offensive; he was most likely captured by the Germans, the result of which was their amazing technological advancement during WWII.

The premise, I must admit, grows wearisome by the end. As a self proclaimed coffee table book, then I can see its merits: you take it in small doses. But I sat and read the book from start to finish and grew tired. The best part is the outstanding research done for this book. I'm not kidding, I spent months researching Sri Lankan culture and history for a game and this team makes me look like an amateur (which I am, so that's cool). From the start, the genius inventor, Archibald Campion is given reason to want to create a mechanical soldier. His sisters fiance is killed in a little known Korean conflict in 1871. Guinan and Bennett tell us his name is Lt. Hugh McKee. I looked him up online. He was one of three Americans killed during this early Korean conflict. This level of detail continues through the book. On page 138 a small picture references "The Boilerplate Rag" as a song written in 1903 about the mechanical man. If you look carefully at the picture, you can see the composers name is Mark Nuismer. I looked him up, expecting at best a friend of the authors. Nope, this guy was a minor Ragtime composer at the turn of the century who wrote a song called... Boilerplate.

The book is not for everyone, but if your library has a copy I suggest checking it out for a few weeks. just take your time with it.

"Love Will Tear us Apart"

Watched The Time Traveler's Wife last weekend. Two of us had read the book and one hadn't. The two who had read the book agreed that the book was better, but that the movie was enjoyable and really couldn't do exactly what the book had done due to media shifts. The person who hadn't read the book liked it and wanted to read the book. As to audience complaints that it was confusing, she merely stated "the title of the movie tells you all you need to know not to be confused. If you come in thinking time travel and you still get confused then you are easily confused, and I'm sorry."

They didn't deviate much from the story, though they did cut out a bunch. I think they should have done more to show age changes, but what they did was good, I just think a little more would have been helpful sometimes. Rachel McAadams was great, Eric Bana is Australian but I forgot, and Brooklynn Proulx is a pretty good child actor with a ridiculous name. Ron Livingston deserves more work. He was a good lead in Music Within and of course he's famous for Band of Brothers and Office Space, but I think he should be more of a household name. Then again, maybe he's just a good actor, not a great actor, I don't know. I think he's great. But what do I know.

See the movie if you have the time. Read the book for sure. And watch something with Ron Livingston in it and tell a friend. The man needs some exposure.

"As Long As He Needs Me (Reprise)"

Finished a book today at lunch called Brother Cain. It has been far to long since I was in an English class, because I'm not 100% sure why the book is called Brother Cain. It's by British author Simon Raven and I seemed to have been reading a first printing. It has a pasted in erratum on the title page.

Simon Raven seems to be a rather interesting author. Born in 1927 he went to school at Charterhouse but was expelled for homosexual activities. I presume this does not mean he was expelled for decorating his room with impeccable taste and knowing how to ballroom dance. Later he dropped out of King's College, Cambridge due to a lack of funds brought on by an extravagant lifestyle. He joined the army, served in India, Kenya, and elsewhere, then left due to heavy gambling debts that would dishonor the regiment.

The protagonist of Brother Cain is one Jacinth Crewe. Expelled from his school because he pursued a homosexual affair with a younger student, he later left Cambridge for undisclosed reasons. When the book opens, he is being pushed out the door of his regiment so that his gambling debts do not embarrass the Army.

It is here that the stories of Simon Raven and Jacinth Crewe diverge. Mr. Raven went on to a long successful writing career. Writing at least two dozen novels and many essays and short stories. He got some TV writing credits, and even has a film credit for additional dialogue in On her Majesty's Secret Service. He continued writing into the 90s before dying in 2001. Jacinth Crewe on the other hand gets selected to join a secret quasi government organization and begins his training in Rome.

I would really hesitate to call it a good book. The twists are broadcast a little early, and the writing has some dry moments that made me skip a few pages every once in a while. On the other hand, Jacinth Crewe is a very interesting character. He cares for the idea of personal honor, even when those around him tell him that he should have none and move on, it would be easier on them all. He likes older woman and younger men; gambling, and has expensive tastes. Like James Bond, but more perverted, and ultimately, without the heart necessary to kill.

I don't think that Raven ever went back to Crewe as Fleming did to Bond, but they make for an interesting counterpoint. Considering the popularity of the Bond novels at the time, and the fact that studios were fighting over the movie rights in the late 50s (Brother Cain was published in 1959) it is possible that the book is meant as a playful homage/parody. But I found virtually nothing on the book itself online, just a few sites that want to sell me "antique" versions, and one with a very brief description.

I was wondering if anyone had heard of Simon Raven, read anything of his. Is it worth tracking down anymore of his novels? Also, anybody got any other examples of authors who clearly base their lead characters on themselves?

"Time of the Season"

I finished reading World War Z yesterday. I think to be honest, I finished it twice. It's the kind of book that makes you go back and re-read parts of it again because you know you missed something.

If you have read it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then I'm not sure I can do the book justice. It is fiction. It is a collection of interviews with survivors. Survivors of a global zombie apocalypse. The style is hands down the most interesting take on zombies I have ever read. Max Brooks, the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft (seriously) has written a book that will make you alternatively cry, stand up and cheer, and just sit and stare at the wall until it passes.

The audio book apparently has voice work by the author, Mark Hamill, Henry Rollins, Rob and Carl Reiner, John Turturro, and Allan Alda.

It's being made into a movie. Brad Pitt's production company won a bidding war against Leonardo DiCaprio's company. I hope they do it right.

The style is so gripping, I looked it up. It's sort of considered an offshoot of the Epistolary style which you can read more about here. Basically it is a novel told through the use of letters, or, in this case interviews. The author credits Studs Terkel for giving him the idea. So I just picked up Studs Terkel's Hard Times. It's about the Great Depression. I wouldn't normally read a non fiction book on the Depression, as its not really in my field of interest, but again, the style has really sucked me in.


On a completely unrelated note, I just received a memo from the President of the company I work for on "facilitating payments" to foreign nationals overseas. In other words: bribing the locals.

"Space Oddity"

I would so do this. Stupid not being born in Europe. The isolation could be OK. As long as I could bring a few books along. Reminds me of a short story I loved as a kid. The Bet by Anton Chekov. Here is a link to the text. Very short and worth your time. I've got a book of Chekov plays in my bag right now. I can't really get behind any of them. I've seen Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard and I enjoyed them, but reading them gives no joy. Anyway, read The Bet. Now imagine yourself a troubled angst-y teen. See?! Don't you want some rich idiot to give you millions of dollars to read all the time?

Wow. I had weird hopes and desires when I was a kid. No wonder sloth is my big sin. It's not even the money really that I wanted (it would have been nice). It was the idea of being allowed to read and study with nothing else to bother me. Even now the idea is appealing. Not for 15 years, but for 17 months? Sure, why not?

"With a Little Help from My Friends"

I ride the bus and the Metro to and from work everyday. It’s a long commute, and with a mandatory “don’t eat lunch at your desk” rule, I have about 200 minutes everyday to read. I will be the first to admit that I lean heavily on Fantasy and Sci-Fi as it is mindless and easy. I do try to branch out; in the last two weeks I have read Passarola Rising by Azhar Abidi (OK technically fantasy in some way, but more like really beautiful steampunk) and Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez (intensely gritty “autobiography” told entirely out of order by a rum soaked unreliable narrator). Next on my “real book” list is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. But enough of literature snobbery, lets get to brass tacks.

I have just finished re-reading The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. Don’t bother if you haven’t read them, they are quite possibly the most formulaic fantasy books ever written. If you don’t see every plot “twist” coming then you clearly have not been reading fantasy long. But I bring them up I because I just finished all ten books, not really for pleasure, but for comfort. I re-read books. Old favorite books and CDs are like warm blankets in front of the fire. I read Tolkien every two or three years. I read the Dark is Rising series every three or four. I have read almost everything by Heinlein at least ten times, some more than that.

I do like to experience new things. But I like to surrender myself to the memories of a childhood spent more in fantasy than reality. I still prefer Gaiman’s Sandman to whatever reality show is currently top of the ratings, and I’m more likely to quote Transmetropolitan than I am American Idol.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is: what are your favorites? Does anyone else re-read books? Got any suggestions?