Yesterday I gave one of my employees a copy of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. A week before she and I had talked about last summer’s King Arthur film starring Clive Owen and Ioan Gruffudd. She had seen the film recently–as had I–and her boyfriend needed to explain to her who some of theContinue reading “Le Morte d’Arthur”
Category Archives: Reading
Warlords of Utopia
Tuesday I finished Lance Parkin’s Warlords of Utopia, his Faction Paradox novel that recounts the trans-temporal war between the timelines where Rome never fell and the timelines where Germany won the Second World War. Warlords is not a conventional novel. Rather, the book feels like a memoir. The narrator, Marcus Americanus Scriptor, states at theContinue reading “Warlords of Utopia”
Reading Thoughts
I stopped by Barnes & Noble tonight and bought two books. One, The Penultimate Truth, a Philip K. Dick novel. The other, The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby’s new book about, well, buying and reading books. Hornby writes on page 14, “I don’t want anyone writing in to point out that I spend too much moneyContinue reading “Reading Thoughts”
Narnia
Curiously, apropos of nothing, this came up at work today, in what order should C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books be read? I said, “Publication order–The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comes first.” My coworker took a different view–in her boxed set The Magician’s Nephew comes first. Oh, the pain! Some may find it curious that,Continue reading “Narnia”
Talking Books
Two more books came by mail this weekend. The first, from the Science Fiction Book Club—The Bloody Crown of Conan, the second volume in Del Rey’s new collection of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories. The second, from Mad Norwegian Press—Warlords of Utopia, Lance Parkin’s contribution to the Faction Paradox universe. I’ve only glancedContinue reading “Talking Books”
Banned Books
I saw this list of banned books on Bill Leisner‘s LiveJournal. Let’s take a look. Which have I read?
Warped, One More Time
A series of brutal, motiveless murders aboard station Deep Space Nine leads to Odo’s investigation of a new batch of holosuite technology that appears to have the ability to reshape the user’s perception of reality. I won’t really defend Warped, because oftentimes when I do I feel like I spend my time trying to explainContinue reading “Warped, One More Time”
Thinking About Books
An odd day. I realized this morning I left my jacket at one of our stores last night–we were conducting an inventory, and North Carolina has started to feel like autumn. I then drove to another of our stores before work to purchase a DVD–the Hammer Studios The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Peter CushingContinue reading “Thinking About Books”
Saturday
I discovered today through studying recent web usage on the website that I have a LiveJournal syndication feed. Color me surprised… Tomorrow morning, six o’clock, I fly out to Orlando for four days of corporate meetings. In all my travels I’ve not been to Florida, so I’m looking forward to the trip. Now I justContinue reading “Saturday”
New Reading Material
I stopped by Waldenbooks this morning and bought a copy of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I had some Preferred Reader coupons to use and I was curious. It’s received glowing reviews–Neil Gaiman’s pull-quote on the back cover calls it “unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventyContinue reading “New Reading Material”