Spotted: A Clash of Kings

Just when I thought my strange series of encounters with fantasy novels was at an end, I happened upon this:

It wasn’t until I did some searching around that I realized that this is the sequel to “A Game of Thrones” in the “A Song of Fire and Ice” series.   At this point, I also remembered I have run across readers of these books before, including the good Chris Appelgren over at The Bold Italic.

I do not believe that this is all coincidence.  Nay.  I think this means that I should embark on an epic quest myself.  Indeed, I shall no longer tarry, for my destiny awaits!  I shall cross swords with Comcast Cable until he relents the HBO,* so that I may witness with mine own eyes this Game of Thrones!

*As long as it does not deplete my coffers of too copious of an amount of bullion. 

Spotted: Irish Dreams

Living under the rock that is Cole Valley (or the Frederick Knob-whenever that neighborhood came into being under my feet, I guess I’ll never know), I had never heard of Nora Roberts.  Just in terms of statistics, that seems pretty amazing because this woman has written A LOT: some 209 novels that have spent a combined 861 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.  With that many pieces of paper flying around with her name on it, you’d think I would have run into one by now. Several of her novels’ titles begin with the word “Irish:”  Irish Rebel, Irish Thoroughbred, Irish Rose, Irish Hearts, etc.  So, as you can probably imagine, Ms. Roberts is from Maryland.  Though she might be as clean as a whistle!

It’s a little difficult to tell, but from my one google long and diligent research, it appears that Irish Dreams is a compilation of two stories: Irish Rebel and Sullivan’s Woman.

The woman who was reading this seemed to be completely entranced by its pages.  I hear there might be a little romantic sexy sexy time in there.  Maybe she was on one of those passages.

Bookshelf Porn

It’s almost cliché to say that one likes the musty smell of old books.  It also has a scientific basis of sorts.  Proust was definitely on to something with his tisane and madeleines.  But I had never really thought about the sight of books as being a source of sentimental joy.  This website posts pictures of collections of books: from messy reading nooks with piles of books on the floor to giant sterile libraries.  Some are quite innovative and might even get an eyebrow raise from interior design folks.  Check it out!

 

Spotted: Cat’s Cradle

All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

Finally, I saw a book I’ve read!  This was passed to me many years ago by a friend as her “favorite Vonnegut,” and I really can’t find fault with that.  Bokononism, the fictional religion that Vonnegut created in this novel, is probably in and of itself  the best (and convincing) satire of organized religion that I’ve ever come across.

A thought for the coming year

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there. -Henry Miller

Spotted: The Inner Cat

Ok, I didn’t really see this book, but you should really check out the rest of this site, Awful Library Books, because it’s hilarious.

To read is not detrimental, it is detrimental not to read

Cool Russian ad with above tagline.

Via copyranter.

Spotted: Blue Nights

In Blue Nights, author Joan Didion attempts to address the relationship with her adopted daughter (and only child) as well as the latter’s passing in 2005.   It was also in 2005 that Didion’s first book, The Year of Magical Thinking, was published.  In that tome, Didion discussed and dealt with the death of her husband.

It’s some pretty heavy stuff this young lady is reading.  I hesitated posting about this book, given that we are in the midst of the holidays.  But for me, and I imagine for many of you out there who have also lost close family members, the holidays bring a certain sadness.  I enjoy the holidays, and the love and cheer that I share with those I am lucky enough to have around me, but it will always be enjoyed as a layer on top of a Higgs field of nostalgia.

“We all survive more than we think we can,” Didion says of living on after the deaths of her loved ones. “We imagine things — that we wouldn’t be able to survive, but in fact, we do survive. … We have no choice, so we do it.”

I would just add that I think we do more than just survive.  We learn to cherish our memories, but (need to) learn to love the new and the different.  So it is on that note that I am going to go home and spend Christmas with my mother and her new boyfriend WITH AN OPEN MIND AND/OR OPEN BOTTLE OF WINE.

Sorrowful “Blue Nights:” Didion Mourns Her Daughter [NPR]

 

Tee hee

Works of Fiction, Grant Snider

Spotted: The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins.  Good timing too, since someone was just telling me about this book (these books-this is the first of a series) at a party not too long ago.  He told me that the title comes from an event that takes place in the post-apocalyptic story itself: namely, an annual televised event wherein the government chooses a boy and girl from each of the 12 districts of the city for a televised battle in which only one person can survive.

I told him it sounded like the plot from the old Schwarzenegger flick Running Man*

So Muni riders, is this a good read?  According to wikipedia Hunger Games  is a young adult novel.  Damn, what happened to Judy Blume?!

* Running Man the movie is apparently based on a novel by Stephen King with the same name.  Huh.  No kidding.