I have to admit at the outset that some of this marginalia has been sitting in the draft pile for a while. Combined with more recent items, they’re finally seeing the light of cyberspace here.
- The spat among board members and others from the National Book Critics Circle over one of the finalists for NBCC’s annual awards spills over into the NYT. The Times addresses it in a broader context so the fact I haven’t read the book (and hence didn’t include it on my ballot) doesn’t totally undermine the discussion.
- I was unaware there were books of zombiephile analysis (not to mention an article examining the politics of zombie cinema and books). (Via Arts & Letters Daily.)
- In the event you haven’t heard about it, the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive has been posting an online diary about the problems of running and maintaining it in the midst of utter chaos.
- Author China Mieville seems highly appropriate to give us a list of 50 SF/F works that socialists should read. The list strikes me as quite eclectic and, if memory serves, I’ve read four of the fifty. (Via Reading Copy.)
- A first edition of George Orwell’s 1984 tops the list of the most expensive SF/F books sold through AbeBooks in 2006. It sold for just over $8,250. (Via SF Signal.)
- Somewhat related, AbeBooks has launched pages (called “rooms”) specific to both science fiction and fantasy.
- Perhaps not technically a “best of” list, Locus Online has its list of recommended reads of 2006 for various SF/F-related categories, including SF fantasy and first novels. I managed to get to three of the 21 SF novels.
A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
