For other "if you liked this you should do this" recs:

HEAVILY, UNRESERVEDLY recommend The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson for fantasy. It's hard fantasy from the perspective of a member of a society that's been colonized and ruined by the Empire of Masks (the obvious real-world parallel is Great Britain's imperialism, but Dickinson has said he's more inspired by the American colonization of the Philippines). She's taken into their ranks at a young age and begins a mission to bring them down from within using the tools of finance and politics. Not only does it have all sorts of candy for people who are into said tools of finance and political maneuvering, it's first and foremost a devastating character piece about a woman who, in endeavoring to bring down her enemy, is compromising her own humanity.

For the Snow Crash rec, David Louis Edelman's Infoquake and its two sequels are how I got into cyberpunk at a young age. Extremely twisty/turny/tense SF business thrillers, essentially, about transhumanism and multiple realities and boardroom meetings. Can't speak to whether I'd still find them well written, as it's been at least seven years since I last read them, but they're impossible to put down and loaded with ideas.

Also, what BDA said; the earlier Narnia books are good but it quickly goes insane. For a much better fantasy children's series, try Catherynne M. Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Last edited by Abbie (2019-03-12 00:54:39)

And are you enjoying Snow Crash? There are no wrong answers. Don't fuck up.

It is not.

I haven't gotten to it yet, but Gideon the Ninth jumped to the top of my reading list when I'm done with For Want of a Nail.

I see a fair amount of Teague in the face. Might just be the red hair and most of my visual memories of him including it. The pitch at the bottom seems like it's trying slightly too hard but damn if it isn't my wheelhouse anyway. It comes out in September, but hey, bookseller perk.

Plus it's kinda cool seeing how they put the cover art together. https://www.tor.com/2019/01/07/gideon-t … er-reveal/

I just got "A Tale of Sand," for my birfday. Graphic novel based on a complete screenplay by Jim Henson/Jerry Juhl from their early experimental-film years. It's about a guy running through an allegorical desert while experiencing various post-modern film-trope episodes, while trying to get his last cigarette lit. I might prefer to read the actual screenplay, but I'm american-connotation-"quite" happy that I finally own this book.

Possibly related: is it worth returning to "Infinite Jest"? I got about halfway through while on vacation 2 or 3 years ago, and it has now risen to the "next" position in the literal pile on my nightstand.

Not a book, but: never forget the time Hunter S. Thompson absolutely reamed Anthony Burgess over his trying to back out of a deadline.

Two things I wish: 1.) that Thompson were still around to write about the modern Republican party; 2.) that "cheapjack scum" enters our cultural vocabulary.

Last edited by Abbie (2019-04-11 05:19:00)

Yep, I go back and re-read that one every so often when I need a good dose of someone being torn apart by typewriter. "The morals of a weasel on speed" is my favorite bit.

Doing a re-read of Notre-Dame de Paris and stumbled upon something vital.

Did . . . did Victor Hugo just make an oral sex joke?

I have it on good authority that the head and the womb may both benefit from being connected.
The putative double entendre will be allowed to stand.

What luck! An opportunity to discover whether my year of hardcore-mainlining Contrapoints has been... useful!

EDIT: Aw. I made it 29 pages before becoming too frustrated by her punctualization-and-grammar-and-aspect.

Did My Lunches with Orson today—a collection of conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles over lunches that Jaglom recorded. It's a mixed bag whose subjects don't always come off well, but it's at its best when Welles is being deliberately catty about other filmmakers he doesn't like. The most famous quote from it (deservedly) is his long dressing down of Woody Allen, but I also loved this bit about John Landis:

Anyway, if you're a Welles buff it's worth checking to see if your local library system has it—it's a quick read, too, you can get through it in an afternoon.

Last edited by Abbie (2019-07-27 05:54:19)

Written by Junji Ito... *flashbacks of Amigara Fault flash through my brain, a cold shiver runs down my spine* ...

Soooooooooooo yep, never coming within 50 yards of that book thank you very much.