Signpost Libraries blog

Graphic Novel Reading Group - 25/08/07

2007-08-25T14:10:00.000+01:00

'Sup G's, (as Michael would say)

Today's GN reading group subjects are the Marvel superhero teams and the every-so-slightly off-topic (but incredibly cool) Heroes tv show.

I must confess to being more than a little jaded by Marvel and the like of late, since I think that the almost constant character re-imagining that goes on these days (especially in the Marvel Multiverse) is pretty tiresome. I can sympathise with the need to update a character's backstory, especially where a superhero is a teenager in the 60s (like Spidey, for instance) and you want to maintain the teen storyline in the 21st century. I can almost accept the way that a lot of these narrative re-engineerings are done in order to correct perceived flaws in the original storylines; but a lot of the storylines merely utilise the iconography of a particular set of superheroes and mangle the characters beyong all recognition. Vast tracts of the GN universe have become little more glorified fanfiction and it's about time authors and artists came up with something different and fanboys and girls were less conservative in their tastes and accepted innovation a little more.

Rant over (although a blog's not a blog without a little rant now and again)!

Heroes on the other hand, is pure fried gold. I know it's a little Unbreakable meets The X-Men but it's upped the ante in terms of tv sci-fi and is almost (almost, mind) as good as the magisterial Battlestar Galactica. Michael's a Hiro fan: I quite like the idea of indestructible cheerleaders and she-Hulk internet artistes... but in a completely non-sleazy way, I hasten to add.

Arbitrary reboot

2007-08-23T15:23:00.000+01:00

I've just finished writing something for the Talis Library Platform Newsletter about... oh, you'll have to wait and see. Anyhoo, I wrote about this here blog and I thought I should attempt to restart it again. I like it when we were using it to discuss things.

I've given it *another* coat of paint (i.e. a new template), so we're good to go. Who, if anybody, is still reading this feed?

On graphic novels

2007-04-17T09:56:00.000+01:00

It's bad form to quote an entire post, but here it is anyway:

Every library has at least one librarian who is a graphic novel enthusiast. This person will argue vehemently for a new graphic novel collection for your library. Give him a paltry budget to spend each year just to shut him up. It will be money well spent.

From the always-useful A librarian's guide to etiquette. We must have at least half a dozen graphic novel enthusiasts between us. Does that mean we should ask for six times the budget?

New look!

2007-04-13T17:27:00.000+01:00

Since Signpost's days are numbered, and it's Friday afternoon, I thought I'd change the scheme of the blog to something that doesn't use those purple/lilac shades.

It's one of the standard Blogger templates, but I might see if I can tweak it a bit over the weekend. A change is as good as a rest, as they say.

Comments?

Yes, they do let us out now and again...

2007-04-03T11:18:00.001+01:00

Last Wednesday saw a first for Bolton Libraries' Graphic Novel Group: we had a trip out to the cinema to see the film adaptation of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's graphic novel 300. I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed the film, which is visually stunning throughout. The post film discussion was as diverse and insightful as one might expect from a group of ~~comic book nerds~~ dynamic afficianados of popular culture... I for one was glad of the opportunity to reminisce about the unsung classic tv series that was Starfleet .

With the approaching glut of Summer blockbusters based on comics and cartoons (Spider-man 3, Fantastic 4:Rise of the Silver Surfer and Transformers) this may well be something we'll be doing again.

Thanks to Lonewytch and Michael for their sterling efforts (and to all who turned up)!

Where's everyone gone?

2007-04-03T11:18:00.000+01:00

I know I've been pretty slack at keeping in touch with everyone lately. Sorry. I've been absorbed by my day job, which I can't write about for fear of breaching my Non-Disclosure Agreement and being sued.

So, what's everybody up to? I'm this close [shows tiny gap betwixt thumb and forefinger to impassive computer monitor] to having a replacement for Signpost ready to use. Seriously, I'm very excited about this. It's going to be able to do all of the stuff Signpost does (which is, erm, not much really), plus a lot of the reader dev-type stuff we've touched on in this blog.

Add a comment to this post and let me know what's happening round your way!

Aerosmith, Sugababes and Girls Aloud: a Signpost Libraries Blog first!

2007-03-01T15:51:00.000Z

I tagged Second Hand Songs on del.icio.us ages ago, but I've only just got around to having a proper go with it. It's really good.

The premise is pretty straightforward: search for a song by title, and artist as well if you feel like it, and Second Hand Songs tells you who recorded the original. It lists everyone who has covered the song and gives you details of the albums, release dates and images of the CD artwork.

It relies on user submissions so it's not bang up to date: the entry for Walk this way lists the brilliant Hayseed Dixie version, but tragically not the less-than-brilliant Sugababes Vs Girls Aloud cover, which is this year's Comic Relief song. Maybe I'm being pedantic - the song isn't out until March 12th - and the website is, on the whole, very informative and straightforward to use.

It has a permanent home in Signpost's Music section.

Normal service will now resume

2007-02-23T17:18:00.000Z

Signpost is fixed! It was actually fixed ages ago, and I've been busily amending entries and such on a full-time basis. My Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V skills are finely honed as a result.

So, I've finally got around to adding the book reviews I've been posting here as an interim measure. Bolton's very own Bromley Cross Book Group sent me two reviews, which are here and here on the blog, and here and here in Signpost.

The Signpost reviews include links through to catalogue records for each of my three favourite public library services, which is nice. To find what will (hopefully) be a growing selection of reviews, put the word "review" in the "find subject" box under the "Search Signpost" heading on the right, and click on "find".

Hmm. Maybe I've got a little work to do on streamlining that process...

I've also got all of Wigan's community groups listed in Signpost. Search for a word from the group's name, or for a keyword description, in the appropriate boxes on the right. Again, there's streamlining to do!

My next plan is to copy the other reviews from the blog over to Signpost. Actually, it's not strictly my next plan: my next plan is to go home and enjoy the weekend. I suggest you do the same.

Where are all the women??

2007-02-02T08:33:00.000Z

Having observed The Signpost blog for a while Michael has kindly sent me an invite. So hello and a belated Happy New Year to you all.

Yes, I know there are only 4 people posting but in a profession dominated by females you'd think you'd have got some more ladies. Or have they all disppeared since you moved over from the old blog?
So, does anyone know what proportion of blogs are run by men and how many by women? (and I suppose how many are run by children because they are the future after all) Answers on a postcard please.

Broadswords and Book Groups

2007-01-27T10:01:00.000Z

I just thought I'd point out some sterling press coverage for Wigan Libraries in the latest issue of Update, the magazine of the organisation formerly known as the Library Association. There's a piece (page 7) on activities to attract young people into libraries (including DJing) and another article (page 16) with a picture of local hero Stuart Maconie reading to school children in a library-sponsored event. All round excellent publicity for reader development and outreach and a good sign of what libraries are doing locally. There's also an interesting feature (well for me anyway) on what our colleagues at Lancashire County are doing with electronic reference resources.

However supreme plaudits must go to Dunfermline Carnegie Library, whose event for St Andrew's Night involved a large sword. There are no library events that can't be improved by the presence of large swords, I think. I'm taking a Reading Group in two weeks' time and I'm going to try and work one into the evening's discussion. Wish me luck.

British Sci-Fi Awards Nominations

2007-01-17T15:58:00.000Z

The BSFA has posted its shortlist for its annual awards. Alas I can't admit to having read any of the shortlisted authors, let alone the titles listed, but reading the online reviews for the shortlisted books, it sounds as if they have picked a very strong field.

I'm sure swlrir has a better idea of who's likely to win!

That was painless!

2007-01-16T12:33:00.000Z

I am sucessfully a NewBlogger!

Happy New Year to everyone ; there will be a bunch of reviews and new stuff posted fairly soon.

Once again the Bolton GN group fell on a working Saturday, so I missed it again.

I'm currently up to my neck in the Holocaust, The Words Festival, and a mini February Fiction Festival at Standish and Aspull Libraries, and relaxing by playing Morrowind on my new second hand X-Box, and chewing doggedly away at my Xmas-Enlarged to read pile. How are you all doing?

Brave new(ish) world?

2007-01-15T15:04:00.000Z

As ~~threatened~~ promised, I've switched over to the "new" Blogger.

This is just a short post to see what happens. Blog members: please sign up so I'm not the only contributor!

I've moved the colour scheme across, but I opted for a slightly different layout. I'm not wildly enthusiastic about it, so I'd be thrilled to hear your suggestions.

Somnambulist review

2007-01-13T12:14:00.000Z

This was my entry in the Gollancz/SFX reviewing Competition which ran recently. It didn't win, but got an honourable mention...

"The Somnambulist" is published in February.

“The Somnambulist” begins with a murder and continues apace as the book’s wry and bitter anonymous narrator introduces our hero: Edward Moon, stage magician, mystic, detective and fading doyen of society, and his friend and partner, The Somnambulist.

This is a Victorian London that is familiar but twisted. Populated by an extraordinary assemblage of grotesque, freakish, memorable characters, it is reminiscent of “Neverwhere” & “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.

Despite Moon’s deductive ability and The Somnambulist’s apparent invulnerability they find themselves drawn into a dangerous secret conspiracy that threatens the very fabric and soul of London. Thwarted by an arsonist albino government agent and his fake Chinese henchmen, Moon is aided and baffled in equal measure by a man who claims to be living backwards from the future to the past, while his greatest enemy makes gnomic pronouncements from his prison cell.

The investigation becomes personal as Moon’s housekeeper is killed and his sister is entangled in the wiles of a religious cult that venerates the poet Coleridge.

As events come to a head, and a malefic Doctor prepares to unleash an army of murderous fanatics on the City of London, the Sleeper stirs beneath the capital, and the Prefects : a perfect and deadly blend of Mr. Croup & Mr. Vandemar and the “suits you, sir” tailors from the Fast Show, hunt and kill more and more indiscriminately.

The Somnambulist is trapped in the cult’s underground lair; Moon’s sister is brainwashed and deeply implicated; The Sleeper is awakened but highly unstable; and the streets of the City are awash with blood … How can Edward Moon save the day?

Jonathan Barnes has created a fast-paced and lurid penny ‘orrible which is full of references to period literature both obvious and obscure.

More Moon, soon, please?

New graphic novels at Bolton Central Library

2007-01-12T11:46:00.000Z

Those graphic novels lonewytch ordered from Forbidden Planet have arrived.

They'll go out on the shelves for the GN Group tomorrow (Saturday Jan 13th, 3.30pm, Bolton Central Library). I've snagged a couple already, having received a hot tip in the staff room:

Origin / by Bill Jemas, Joe Queseda and Paul Jenkins
Which is about the early history of everyone's favourite fast-healing, adamantium-laced mutant.

100 bullets volume 1 : first shot, last call / created by Brian Azzarello
I'm really, really, really glad we've got a few 100 bullets books in. I've wanted to read these for a long time. I'm starting with the first one because I'm a librarian and that's the sort of thing we do.

There are quite literally lots more. You'll see them at the GN Group tomorrow. There isn't an easy way for me to list them here, so you'll have to wait and see.

New online resources

2007-01-10T16:01:00.000Z

Today has been a bad day for the day job (still not working...), but it's been great for discovering new reference sources.

If you're interested in medical information, you'll know that PubMed Central is an excellent source. Coverage has always been broad, which is commendable when you consider the scope and location of online databases in general. Especially the free ones. PubMed is US-hosted and free to access.

There is now a UK mirror of the service. UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) went live yesterday according to the FT (paid subscription required for full article).

Use it. Enjoy it. Scare yourself with it by looking up the condition the doctor told you you've got this morning. But most importantly, do all of these things safe in the knowledge that it's good quality information.

The UK Statute Law Database (SLD) is a free, searchable database of most of the UK's standing legislation. This is A Good Thing, and it's been a long time coming. Its predecessor, Statutes in force, has been out of date since its last update in 1991.

Making our laws more accessible and available is a step forward. If only more of our standard reference texts could make the same step!

Bibliothecary is going to be thrilled about the second one!!

Bromley Cross Book Group: review

2007-01-09T11:57:00.000Z

Once again, the Bromley Cross Book Group has come through for us, via Mel. This is another of their December reviews:

Philippa Gregory
The other Boleyn girl

Mary Boleyn is seduced by King Henry VIII, but her family want her sister Anne to become Queen and she is forced to help her sister for the advancement of the Boleyn family. She becomes ‘the other Boleyn girl’.

The novel is a wonderful and eye-opening account of the Tudor court. The group felt that it was based on fact and a well written story. It was a strong young woman’s viewpoint with a feminist thread running through it.

The whole group enjoyed the book and would read others in a similar style and based on historical fact.

Once again, thanks BX! And once again, it'll go on Signpost as soon as it's working... Meanwhile, members of the group (and anyone else who likes the book) might want to try some of Philippa Gregory's other Boleyn books.

What do you think?

Update Feb 22 2007: The nice folks at Talis have indeed fixed Signpost. See the review here

Happy new year!

2007-01-02T11:34:00.000Z

It's 2007 now.

Tradition has it that the new year is a time for change. Blogger has been nagging at me to change over to the new version of its own software for a couple of weeks now, so I should probably do it soon. I thought I should issue a notice here first though, and I'll email all of the contributors as well.

Basically, the only difference you'll need to worry about is the fact that you'll be using a different username to log in. The new Blogger uses Google accounts - what with Blogger being owned by Google, it makes a certain amount of sense.

You'll have a Google account if you use Gmail, Google Reader, Google Analytics, a personalised Google homepage or any of the circa six million other Google products. If you don't have one, it's pretty straightforward: you need to provide an email address and you'll use that to log in, rather than a username.

We'll also be able to tag all of our posts with keywords. While this isn't a great leap forward for blogging (most other blogging services have been doing this for yonks), it means we can do away with the clumsy del.icio.us tagging I set up ages ago and usually forget to use... It's also easier for people with admin access to fiddle with the look and feel of the blog and make other template changes and whatnot.

So watch out for the warning email if your name appears in the Contributors box on the right.

Bromley Cross Book Group: reviews

2006-12-20T10:08:00.000Z

Mel sent me this, which came from the Book Group at Bromley Cross Library:

In December Bromley Cross Book Group compared the novels:

Du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca
And Beauman, Sally - Rebecca’s tale

Those having previously read Rebecca chose Rebecca’s tale, which tells the story Du Maurier never told and is set 20 years after Rebecca’s death.

Those reading Rebecca loved the story of her free spirit and thought it a classic love story. Although Rebecca, the main character is absent, present only in the memories of others. Her power and the undercurrent of menace can be felt. They felt her affinity with the sea. They disliked the manipulative, controlling character of Mrs. Danvers. They thought the story a compelling exploration of jealousy and obsession.

The group concluded that Rebecca’s tale could not exist without Rebecca, although it stands alone, knowledge of the original is helpful. It was a good read and evoked the atmosphere of Rebecca. Some members felt more sympathy for Mrs. Danvers as she appears in Rebecca’s journal.

Thanks BX! I'll add this to Signpost as soon as the nice folks at Talis fix it for me...

Meanwhile, does anyone have any thoughts?

Update Feb 22 2007: The nice folks at Talis have indeed fixed Signpost. See the review here.

Review: Alfred Bester : The stars my destination (aka Tiger! Tiger!)

2006-12-12T20:55:00.000Z

This book (In its old incarnation as "Tiger Tiger" ) has been a favourite of mine for a long time.

Stuffed with Big SF Concepts and moving at a cracking pace, it leaves the reader dizzy as the resolution of Gully's Revenge unfolds.

The 24th Century world "an age of extremes", is laid out in technicolor, with centre stage being given to the cultural and economic effects of Jaunting, ranging from the de-emancipation of women to the ludicrous anachronistic jaunt-free transportation of the very rich.

Gully, brutish lower-decks spacehand, abandoned to die in space, driven by hatred and pure survival instincts, manages to jury-rig the Nomad and flies her into the arms of The Scientific People, where he acquires his tiger tattoos, a very temporary wife, and even more reason to hate.

Returned to Earth, Gully single-mindedly begins his quest for revenge, beginning with rape and blackmail.

Gully Foyle is a monster, one of the least likeable protagonists in fiction, a “remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain” : but somehow the reader still stays with him against the corporate and political enemies who stand in his way.

From here, Bester’s debt to “The Count of Monte Cristo” is obvious, as, after escaping from an escape-proof prison, Gully uses the limitless resources he recovered from the Nomad to become the super-rich playboy fop, Fourmyle of Ceres.

Tracking down the surviving crew of his nemesis, Vorga-T, Gully uncovers the deadly secret that caused his abandonment, and in a twist worthy of “The Revenger’s Tragedy” discovers that the fatal order was given by Olivia Presteign, the ice-queen heiress he has come to love.

He also discovers the nature and limitless destructive potential of the Nomad’s most valuable cargo, PyrE.

As Foyle pursued his revenge, he had been haunted, aided, and saved, by the apparition of himself, burning, tiger-masked, out of control.

Trapped in a burning cellar, seemingly unable to escape, Gully takes the next leap in his (and human) evolution : time-jaunting.

The burning man comes back from a future which has survived the cataclysmic war which has been going on in the background of Foyle’s personal vendetta, to guide and rescue his present-self.

The crossed senses of his striving are perhaps the closest print equivalent to the latter half of 2001 : astonishing for the late 50’s.

At the ending, as throughout the book, this headlong adventure still makes big and important philosophical points :

Does evolution only occur in the presence of deadly threat or overwhelming emotion? Is mankind as a whole or as a collection of individuals able to control its tendency to destruction?
Does wealth and power always corrupt? Can the most brutish of men become, by chance, or will, a saviour?

All this from a high concept headlong rattling yarn, which at the same time is one of the best revenge sagas since the ancient Greeks:
Quant Suff!

Functionality tweaks

2006-12-06T11:38:00.000Z

I've been tinkering with Signpost a bit. There's a problem - basically, the part of Signpost that holds all of Wigan's community groups has got too big and I can't edit it properly - so I had to come up with a way around it.

I've moved the list to a new area. I still can't edit it the way I'd like to, but it provides a temporary workaround. Unfortunately, it affected the search box on the sidebar (you know, the one for Wigan's community groups. You use it all the time!!). A few minutes of HTML kung fu sorted it out and it looks no different from the user's perspective.

But I know it's not right, and that upsets me. I like things to be right, especially things I've made. I didn't realise that adding 295 records to a Signpost list would make it so creaky. Maybe I should have asked first, but I don't like maybes. My plan was to streamline the search function and improve findability by having all of the groups in a single list. I'm going to have to chop the list up into sub-lists, using the sort of categories I wanted to avoid in Signpost.

I'm hopeful that the nice folks at Talis will be able to do some kung fu of their own on the database for me when they migrate the data to their server. Fingers crossed!

Fight for your right

2006-12-06T09:40:00.000Z

That's your right to read, not to party, despite what the Beastie Boys might tell you.

I found this link to a poster of readers' rights, illustrated by Quentin Blake, via the Librarian in Black. Could it sit happily alongside swlrir's manifesto? I like the illustrations, but I have fond memories of reading Roald Dahl as a nipper, complete with Mr Blake's wonderfully scratchy artwork.

The moral of this story: Bloglines is a very useful tool.

Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz

2006-11-21T19:46:00.000Z

A Post-Apocalyptic world, full of humanity and wry humour, as well as pity and terror.

Seen from the viewpoint of a remote desert monastic community, where, against the odds, the survivors of the nuclear flame deluge attempt to preserve the last fragments of mankind’s lost knowledge, “A Canticle for Leibowitz” chronicles the long slow rebuilding & eventual fall, again, of civilization through three linked novellas.

As in the mediaeval dark ages, the Catholic church becomes the home of scholarship and the preserver of lost knowledge.

First we meet the naïve and likeable Brother Francis Gerard, who makes an important discovery after meeting a strange and scrawny pilgrim.

Brother Frances, does not discover working weapons or high technology that will enable man to leapfrog over generations of slow rediscovery : that is where the genius of the first section lies.

The scraps of information he finds : a grocery list, a hurried note, and a blueprint, are perhaps relics of the Blessed Leibowitz : ironically a Jewish engineer and survivor of the nuclear apocalypse: who was instrumental in attempting to save books and documents from the book-burning anti-science backlash which followed, and was martyred as a result.

Brother Francis devotes his life to preserving and embellishing scraps of knowledge, along the way showing us the life of the community, and the optimism that helps man to slowly stumble back towards civilization.

In the middle segment, generations have passed and city-states war with each other and the mutant wildmen of the wilderness : this is western movie territory, also echoing the European reformation when secular power attempts and partly succeeds in displacing the power and learning of the church.
The monastery survives, and as ever, the buzzards thrive.

Finally, again generations in the future, man has regained space technology, but is threatened by the ever-greater certainty of another nuclear war.
Plans are laid to convey the consolation of the church, and the hoarded wisdom of the generations, to the stars.

Meanwhile, “voluntary” euthanasia is offered to radiation victims in military camps reminiscent of the Holocaust.
The ethics of both these developments are debated and exemplified by the Brothers of St. Leibowitz,

The book ends on a bittersweet, hopeful yet despairing note as the Earth plunges again into nuclear night, while the last ship escapes.

Will the cycle repeat yet again, or will man this time break free and build a long-term sustainable future in the stars?

Or will the mutants who survive this time do better: as is hinted in the last pages by the development of Rachel, the saintly, intelligent conjoined twin of Mrs Grales, the simple old “Termarter woman”?

I hadn’t read this before, but I will certainly return to the book more than once.
It is rich, sad, funny, philosophical, and full of wry humanity.
It says more about the human condition than many of the other powerfully bleak post-apocalyptic novels that came after it

SF books - what do you think?

2006-11-21T16:43:00.000Z

I first came across this meme at Walt at Random, but I've seen it in a few places since (notably Phil Bradley's new non-work blog, Frivolity and the ubiquitous Librarian in Black).

“Below is a Science Fiction Book Club list most significant SF novels between 1953-2006. The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.”

I don't start reading things and then give up. Or, if I do, it happens infrequently enough for me to think I don't do it. I've added another symbol, +, to mark books on my "to-read" pile (quite literally a pile of books next to my bed).

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 +

You'll notice two things about this list:

1. I've got a heck of a long way to go
2. I tend not to read books unless I think I'm going to like them.

The "to read" pile also includes some more Gibson (including Idoru, for Bibliothecary), some Kim Stanley Robinson Mars books and plenty of other stuff.

So, copy 'n' paste the list into the comments box and share your thoughts. Could it make a good basis for the nascent online genre fiction group?

Horror Readers' Charter

2006-11-19T11:54:00.000Z

I thought that people might be interested in this over at Monster Librarian: it's a Bill of Rights for genre fiction readers. I particularly like "You have the right to carry books in your baggage at all times," which pretty much sums up my whole accessorizing philosophy (hence the shoulder bag on my avatar). The Monster Librarian website is a reader development resource for horror novels; a pretty cool thing in itself but a good springboard for our embryonic online reading group, perhaps.

On the subject of horror novels, did anyone catch Stephen King on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs? Due to the evil intricacies of music licensing the 'listen again' feature isn't available, but it's repeated on Friday morning at 9 am. I thought he was an interesting choice and it was nice to hear Kirsty Young praising his writing abilities.