Boys, manga, and guns: an afternoon at the library
I mentioned in my previous post, I spent part of the week before last doing appearances at two Toronto public libraries. My first afternoon out, I spoke with a couple of classes of fifth graders about being a writer, and more importantly, being a reader. I talked about all the books that had ever gotten [...]
All Hallow’s Read recs
Last year, Neil Gaiman & Co decided that for the Halloween season, people should give out spooky books in addition to (or in lieu of) candy. They called it All Hallow’s Read. However, I was far too absorbed in my own problems last October to notice this development, much less contribute recommendations. I’d likely have [...]
"While you were reading Tolkien, I was watching Evangelion."
A while ago, I Tweeted this message in reply to Adam Rakunas: “While you were reading Tolkien, I was watching Evangelion.” The initial conversation was about contemporary science fiction fandom, readership, and our influences as writers. During my teenage years, when I was “supposed” to be reading Tolkien, I was watching Evangelion. Adam pronounced this [...]
Summer reading list
This afternoon after picking up my students’ exams (and spending far too much time wandering gourmet food shops in search of the perfect bar of Earl Grey-infused dark chocolate, and then even more time trying on dresses in shops whose soundscapes were punctuated alternately by concrete drilling, poetry slams, and un-medicated raving), I decided to send [...]
the rules of fitness
I’ve been thinking about natural selection a lot, lately (and not just because I picked up Natalie Angier’s The Canon the other day). Turns out Bruce Cohen explains Darwin’s concept of “fitness” pretty well: Survival or mortality selection – Organisms that survive at least to the end of their reproductive phase are fitter than those [...]
Thank you, Mr. Conrad.
You’ve given me everything I needed.
The news ain't all bad:
VIZ announces Haikasoru SF imprint. For those of you who don’t know, VIZ is best known for their anime and manga licenses. They hold some of the big-name titles, like Bleach and Death Note. Now they’re investing in bringing over Japanese SF novels to English-language audiences. And the first few books are targeted at younger [...]
Books, given and received:
During the holidays, I promised myself that I would write about the books I gave at the end of 2008. They ranged from manga to cookbooks to hard sf to satire. I had no idea I’d get to brag so much about the books I got, too. (Spook Country needs its own post, because it’s [...]
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Photo: Kayleigh McCollum Books
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