It’s surprising sometimes just what the popularization of certain scientific ideas can do. Certain concepts work their way into popular culture, despite the difficulty of math or science truly behind them. David Ambrose’s The Man Who Turned Into Himself indicates that even theoretical physics can actually prolong the life of and perhaps even resurrect [...]
I’ll admit that sometimes I just don’t get it. Or maybe it’s just that my literary tastes are too prosaic.
I picked up Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in the Americas after seeing repeated references to it, most of them rather glowing. I knew what it was about. I knew that Bolaño, a Chilean [...]
The Telegraph’s book critics are at it again. It’s another one of their books lists, this time the 50 best cult books. Still, I get a kick out of these, particularly some of their comments about the books. So here’s the list with occasional quotations from what the critic selecting the book [...]
Over the years, some trademarks became commonly used to describe a broader class of products or services. Kleenex is frequently used for facial tissue. And back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon to have someone Xerox documents rather than copy them.
That means trademark owners sometimes worry about how their marks get used. [...]
While I still try to avoid politics here, sometimes it invades the realm I’m more intent on carving out. Via three percent, I learn of this story in Publishers Weekly:
President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget eliminates all the funding for Reading Is Fundamental’s book distribution program that has, since 1966, provided more than 325 million [...]
I noted yesterday The Telegraph’s list of the 110 books it considers “the perfect library.” Perhaps further proving I am an illiterati, I evidently have not spent enough time in that library.
I’ve read only 17 of the books on the list — and more than a third were SF novels. I’m not going [...]
As I continue to catch up (and recover) from the Frozen Four journey, a few items of linkage before substantive posting resumes.
The 2008 Reading the World website is open for business. This year, it features 25 works in translation from 15 different presses. I picked up one of the books while in Denver. [...]
Travel to and from the Frozen Four can be awfully exhausting. I’m just now starting to get back in the swing of things. But then it isn’t just watching three great hockey games, there’s the atmosphere and simply being a tourista. Some final, albeit somewhat random, thoughts:
Add to the hockey games trips [...]
Cutting through all the preliminaries: Spending about seven consecutive hours in Pepsi Center to watch live championship college hockey — Priceless.
Granted, the seven hours includes getting there 30 or so minutes early to watch warm ups, a 50 minute break between the semifinal games and a total of five intermissions. But even from [...]
Probably a significant portion of the US population was watching the NCAA men’s basketball championship last night. I didn’t but my NCAA championship is also this week — the Frozen Four.
NCAA hockey flies way under the radar in most of the country. Yet the Frozen Four comes amidst the best time of year [...]
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today and Bob Dylan nabbed one. Not for a particular book for a piece of music. Instead, he was given a special citation “for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” I’m sure Dylan could really care [...]
Due in part to the recent successfully resolved problems with the home desktop, I have been somewhat lackadaisical in noting items elsewhere. Thus, a few of these may be a little old but they remain worthy. I also know there’s some that totally slipped by during a busy couple weeks.
Is SF antithetical to [...]
Seems that book reviewing “rules” and ideas are showing up in a variety of blog posts recently. Last weekend, Author Jeff VanderMeer, who also occasionally reviews books, weighed in with his thoughts on book reviewing as a whole (and lists some of the posts that prompted his thoughts). He lists eight things he tries [...]
Prompting a bit of attention in the book blogosphere this week is a NY Times blog post on the Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing. At first glance, I thought it unlikely I had sinned by using the words (poignant, compelling, intriguing, eschew, craft, muse, lyrical). When I checked, though, I have committed [...]
March 27, 2008 – 10:39 am
I don’t normally blog from work but this morning’s mail contained a decision from the state Supreme Court on what is probably the biggest case I’ve argued there. The Court ruled in our favor, finding the state’s current tax on insurance premiums constitutional. Why is that important? The premium tax brings in [...]
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