I picked up a book yesterday at Barnes & Noble. It’s a novel, the author’s first. I’ve read his other books–non-fiction memoirs on sports–and I’ve been a fan of the author and his work for a good number of years. I want to like this book. I just can’t like this book. And that disconnectContinue reading “On Disappointment”
Category Archives: Reading
On a Book Close At Hand
Stolen from Keith: Grab the nearest book. Open it to page 161. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. Nearest book? American Aurora, by Richard Rosenfeld. Page 161? A letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, written on June 21st, 1798. The fifth sentence onContinue reading “On a Book Close At Hand”
On a Conversation About Ender's Game
One of my employees at work is reading Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game. “Who,” he asked me a few days ago, “do you think should play Ender in an Ender’s Game movie?” I thought about this a few moments, sighed, and said, “Of all the child actors I know, the only one I canContinue reading “On a Conversation About Ender's Game”
On David Feintuch
David Feintuch, author of the Nick Seafort science-fiction novels, has passed away. He was sixty-one. Midshipman’s Hope, the first novel in the Seafort saga, came out when I was in college, and after a very favorable review in the Washington Post I picked up the book and was very taken with it. The book’s pullContinue reading “On David Feintuch”
On Reading
Some random questions, taken from a mailing list. How often do you read?I read something every day. As oftentimes as not in bed before nodding off to sleep. Some things are best read in small chunks, like a book I’m working on presently–Garrett P. Serviss’s Edison’s Conquest of Mars, which was written as a newspaperContinue reading “On Reading”
On Recent Reading
What have I been reading? I’ve been on a Revolutionary War kick of late. Or at least, of that era. Currently atop the desk–Redcoats and Rebels, by Christopher Hibbert, which offers a British perspective on the conflict. Also recently read, General Howe’s Dog, by Caroline Tiger, about, besides General Howe’s Dog (obviously), the battle ofContinue reading “On Recent Reading”
On Temeraire
I ordered from Amazon’s UK division recently Naomi Novik‘s debut novel, Temeraire, the first book in an alternate history series that posits that alongside Nelson’s Navy and Wellingon’s Army Britain fought the Napoleonic Wars with a dragon Aerial Corps. I was impatient. I could have waited and bought the novel’s American paperback, entitled His Majesty’sContinue reading “On Temeraire”
On Geek Novels
Jack Schofield at the Guardian Unlimited wrote about the Top 20 Geek Novels. I’m not at all clear on the methodology of determining the Top 20 Geek Novels–seems to be a sort-of survey based on the comments on a blog entry elsewhere–so this list is more than a little meaningless. However, it is an interestingContinue reading “On Geek Novels”
On the Hellboy Novel
I’m now about halfway through On Earth as It Is in Hell, Brian Hodge’s new novel based on Mike Mignola’s comic book character Hellboy, the World’s Greatest Paranormal Detective. No giant gorillas with huge freakin’ metal bolts sticking out of their necks. Dagnabbit! Despite that failing, however, it is a mildly diverting read. Seraphim attackContinue reading “On the Hellboy Novel”
On Being Quoted
It’s odd. I saw myself quoted today while reading a thread on a message board. I wasn’t cited, nor would I have expected to be, because the conversation wasn’t one in which I had participated. But there they were, my words, and I knew them to be my words, because I had said them inContinue reading “On Being Quoted”