Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

Freaking Out about Stupid Crap

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 03:51:24 GMT

So that book on obscure horror that I contributed to is out now. Which is great, really. My essay is on the film Alucarda and, since the essays are arranged alphabetically by film title, it comes up first. Again, no problem.

Except that the book has a "Look Inside" preview. And the preview includes my essay, because of its early placement. And I'm glancing over it and I'm seeing every stupid awkward turn of phrase. I suddenly feel responsible for anybody who doesn't pick up the book based on the preview.

I am trying to take a breath and relax, but geez louise, pressure, man.

Gah.

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BOOKS! Need recommendations

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:47:34 GMT

I'm traveling on a train to Vividon in August -- 43 hours there and 43 hours back. Exciting! I have some stuff planned to occupy my time. I'm going to put a few choice movies on the iPad and I've downloaded some board games to play with echan. However, I also want to do some reading!

I know my friends' list is fully of savvy book lovers and I want to get some recommendations from you folks. Novels, non-fiction, etc. If it's available for Kindle or in the iBook store, all the better.

Fiction I like: Hitchhiker's Guide (only read the Adams books -- are the later ones any good?), Discworld, Vorkosigan, Dresden Files, Game of Thrones (halfway through book 2 now), 1984, Brave New World, The Running Man, the first Hunger Games book (yes I like dystopia, what of it), Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Rebecca (du Maurier), Ender's Game, Flannery O'Connor.

Tried getting into Honor Harrington and the military strategy/tech stuff just went right over my head. Might give it another shot.

Non-fiction I like: Books on movies, mostly. More toward the academic/analytical end of things, but given my vidding, I want to start looking at technical stuff related to editing as well. Most of my books are horror-related for obvious reasons and I'd like to branch out from that, although I am still obsessed with genre as a concept and its eternal chicken/egg struggle.

Also, John Green's Crash Course series on Youtube is making me more interested in world history, so if there's any really great reads there, let me know. Ooh and anything on the War of the Roses. I want to compare and contrast it with Game of Thrones.

Comics: Marvel tends to have more deals in the Comics app on the iPad, so I've been reading a metric ton of their stuff lately. I'd like to switch to DC and get some digital trades from the Kindle store. Any really good DC comics or independent series/storylines lately (by lately, I mean in the last eight years)?

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Paper Towns

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:25:05 GMT

Reading Paper Towns by John Green right now. Nearing the end and wishing I'd had this book when I was in high school. I think it would have helped me with my own Margo Roth Spiegelman type person.

Also, any young adult novel that uses a Walt Whitman poem as a narrative and thematic backbone is a-okay in my book.

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