Corey V. asked last week, “Which book would you save?” At first, I was just going to post a comment on his blog. Then, I thought maybe it was worth a quick blog post. I realized, though, that a question like that is far, far too difficult for a comment or quick [...]
The spring installment of the National Book Critics Circle’s Good Reads list is out and, once again, neither of the books I voted for made the top five. For the first time, though, I’ve read books that made the top 10 in both the fiction and nonfiction lists, even reading the top vote-getter in nonfiction.
Nicholson [...]
Several worthy book-related items have passed by recently so here’s a round up:
The 2007 Nebula Awards were announced last weekend. Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won Best Novel. Since it is also nominated for the Hugo Award and the Sidewise Awards, I picked it up from the library yesterday.
Those awards came on [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Catching up from my travels, I see a variety of SF-related book award news.
First, the Hugo Award finalists were announced. I’ve actually read four of the five finalists for best novel: Brasyl by Ian McDonald, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, The Last Colony by John Scalzi and Halting State by Charles Stross. [...]
The travel mentioned in my last post kept me away from the news. Thus, I was extremely saddened and surprised to see this afternoon that Arthur C. Clarke died. It was only three months ago that he celebrated his 90th birthday. As I said then, Clarke was instrumental in helping create my [...]
A while ago I discovered Lists of Bests, a site that is just what the name implies. It is a list of “bests,” whether by award or personal preference. Looking at it this weekend, I wondered if the fact I hadn’t read any of the National Book Critics Circle award winners this year [...]
io9, the SF blog that never seems to run out of posts or topics, this week comes up with The Twenty Science Fiction Novels That Will Change Your Life. It’s a rather broad title, since the post is really talking about how the books might impact your view of things, whether because “they’ve altered [...]
February 5, 2008 – 12:57 pm
The “illiterati” string continues. The National Book Critics Circle today announced its “Good Reads — Winter List” (formerly known as the “Best Recommended List”). As with the inaugural list, I don’t fare well — and I even voted this time.
I’ve read none of the top five in fiction. Moreover, the book for [...]
January 14, 2008 – 12:55 pm
I cast my votes 10 days ago for nominees for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. (The phrase “cast my votes” must be liberally construed. Here’s how the nominees are actually selected.) Anyway, the finalists were announced Saturday and while I did better than last year, I either don’t read the same [...]
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