Blog Profile / OF Blog of the Fallen
| URL : | http://ofblog.blogspot.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Genres / Fantasy | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1098 | |
| Posts / Week: | 6.9 | |
| Archived Since: | April 27, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
February 2013 Reads
Read a little bit more in February than in January, 35 books instead of 32, but much of this occurred toward the last week or so of the month when I had adjusted to my new work schedule and thus had a bit more time to read. Unfortunately,...Show More Summary
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in Fiction: Lydia Millet, Magnificence
She condescended to the sexes of men, but it wasn't personal. Clearly they also condescended to hers. They had their own opinions about the sex of a woman, and those opinions were not all positive. That much was obvious – from, say, pornography, which almost every man loved, from the purest young boy to the jaded defiler. Show More Summary
Library of America's American Poets Project
Realized this weekend when I was reshelving my Library of America books that I had forgotten to list the volumes that I own in their American Poets Project. This ancillary series contains selections of poets, including introductory essays...Show More Summary
A bit of personal news that may affect this blog
After 14 months of either being unemployed or working under 20 hours a week as a substitute teacher, within the past 9 days I have accepted two jobs. The first is a part-time ESL teaching position and the other is working with severely autistic teens. Show More Summary
Zoran Živkovi?, Nemogu?i Susreti (Impossible Encounters)
Umro sam u snu.
Nije to bilo neko naro?ito umiranje. Gotovo da ga nisam ni primetio. Sanjao sam kako stupam nekim velikim hodnikom, punim vrata s obe strane na malom me?usobnom rastojanju. Kraj hodnika nije se mogao sagledati u daljini, a u njemu nije bilo nikog drugog osim mene. Show More Summary
Laurent Binet, HHhH
How can you tell the main character of a story? By the number of pages devoted to him? I hope it's a little more complicated han that. Whenever I talk about the book I'm writing, I say, "My book on Heydrich." But Heydrich is not supposed to be the main character. Show More Summary
Brief reaction to a quote from Jim Holt's Why Does the World Exist?
Currently reading the National Book Critics Circle Award-nominated Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story, by Jim Holt. Fascinating reading about 1/3 into it. Here's a quote from Holt's interview with Richard Swinburne: And...Show More Summary
A panoramic look at three bookcases
Started work last night on moving bookcases around in preparation for two large solid wood bookcases (which are currently on order) to be added. Thought I would try out my new iPhone 5's panoramic picture option and this is the slightly-warped look that occurred. Show More Summary
Angélica Gorodischer, Trafalgar
Argentine writer Angélica Gorodischer's fiction has run the gamut from relatively straightforward science fiction (1973's Las jubeas en flor – The Jubeas in Bloom – albeit with some commentary on gender roles and expectations in some...Show More Summary
Time for eine kleine nachtbookporn...or something
Two more Library of America editions, bringing my total to 107 out of around 230 volumes published so far.
The Holt book is fairly good so far, 40 pages in, and the Kiernan I will hopefully be reviewing sometime in March, when it'll be available in stores.
Serbian writer Zoran Živkovi?'s latest two books, The Five Wonders of the Danube and Find Me. Show More Summary
The insidiousness of the "echo chamber"
Yesterday, I was driving in downtown Nashville on my way to a job interview when I heard an interesting piece on the sports talk radio show, the Midday 180 on 104.5 FM. The hosts were discussing a piece that a colleague of theirs onShow More Summary
Karen Russell, Vampires in the Lemon Grove
Over the years, Magreb and I have tried everything – fangs in apples, fangs in rubber balls. We have lived everywhere: Tunis, Laos, Cincinnati, Salamanca. We spent our honeymoon hopping continents, hunting liquid chimeras: mint tea in...Show More Summary
Translation and changes in reading approach
Reading, no matter how hard some people try to argue otherwise with their "popcorn reading" stances, is far from a passive process. The reader has to be at some level actively engaged with the text in order to decipher the encoded symbols and to process what is transpiring in a fiction or non-fiction. Show More Summary
Jamaica Kincaid, See Now Then
See now then, the dear Mrs. Sweet who lived with her husband Mr. Sweet and their two children, the beautiful Persephone and the young Heracles in the Shirley Jackson house, which was in a small village in New England. The house, the Shirley Jackson house, sat on a knoll, and from a window Mrs. Show More Summary
This actual news item is weirder than most fiction I've read
This little AP item was in my local paper this morning: Prosecutors want life for Amish leader Federal prosecutors want a life sentence for the leader of an Amish breakaway group convicted in a series of beard and hair-cutting attacks, saying it's highly unlikely the attacks would have happened without his involvement. Samuel Mullet Sr. Show More Summary
Five new genre-bending books you may want to read this month
I don't usually post columns on books that I anticipate reading because I worry that it might have a negative influence on any reviews that may follow, but having read works by all five authors listed here, who have either had booksShow More Summary
January 2013 Reads
Read 32 books this month, right about where I thought I'd be, since I've spent more time working on learning languages than on reading so far this year. Many of the goals I outlined in my "resolutions" are roughly on par as well. 12/32,...Show More Summary
Steampunk and Retro-Futurism: Three Anthologies and Three Approaches
I want to destroy steampunk. I want to tear it apart and melt it down and recast it. I want to take your bustles and your fob watches and your monocles and grind them to a fine powder, dust some mahogany furniture with it and ask you, is this steampunk? And if you say yes, I want to burn the furniture. Understand, I want to do this out of love. Show More Summary
Calling on all Lusophone and Hispanophone writers (and those who write in English from non-Anglophone countries)
Non-Anglophone authors... It does have a nicer ring to it, I agree... But it doesn't change the fact that it's synonymous with "not-published in English writers." You can sugarcoat it any way you like, it means that you published something hrough a non US/UK press or something similar. Show More Summary
Interesting interview Spanish-language site/publisher Literatura fantástica conducted with Christopher Priest
I saw this on Twitter about an hour ago: an interview that Spanish-language site/publisher Literatura fantástica conducted (and posted today) with British SF writer Christopher Priest. Considering the fuss stirred up last year by his...Show More Summary