The NPR Top 100 SF/F List- or how geeky am I?

I started this post a very long time ago, after seeing someone else discussing the list. I'd seen the list posted on numerous SF blogs and newsfeeds, but thought it would be too much work. So instead I just took a long time to annotate it. When I count the books I know that I have read (even though I can't remember them in my senescence), it's a few more than I had originally thought: 100-29=71 read.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien--- What can I say? I think I have read this more than 20 times. In storage, I must have at least 5 separate copies, bought when I couldn't access one for a period of time. (I'm still looking for a copy of the Barbara Remington triptyche cover poster-seen above- in good condition: anyone who knows where I can buy one would make me very happy...).

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams--- Didn't everyone read this at least once- perhaps in college? I played the Infocom game as well.

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card--- Read and enjoyed this when it came out and before I knew Card's personal views (which ruined his writing for me). It was a really cutting edge book at the time.

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert--- I'm counting this, although I certainly haven't read all the books put out under this rubric. The first was a classic, the second good, the third a waste and everything after that worth avoiding.

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin: have the first, have the series waiting to be seen. Haven't read it yet

6. 1984, by George Orwell: I love this book. One of those first dystopian novels I read which formed my humorless character.

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury: I reviewed my re-read here.

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov: I used to quote from this, as a smart-alec child. My cousin thought the Galactic Encyclopedia was a spin-off of the Britannica for a while.

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley: See #6.

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman: nope.

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman: Loved it. Read Thackery (highly recommend The Rose and the Ring) because of this. Read Lang and the Ruritanian novels because of this. Wrote away for the missing Buttercup chapter and have the movie on my DVR right now (and watched it last week and think I'll introduce the kids to it this month.)

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan: Nope. Keep thinking I will, especially now that Sanderson has written the ending. But was this more important than The Belgariad? I guess I will need to read it to find out.

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell: see #6 and #9.

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson: Can I count this if I don't remember it? OK, I will.

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore: Loved it, have it, read more Moore because of it. Saw the movie and rebought the graphic novel, too.

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov: Classic. One of the many I read as I read my way through all the books in my public library that had atoms on their spines. Of course, everything by Asimov came early.

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein: Still re-read it (and everything by Heinlein) regularly, although The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is his best.

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss: not yet, although they have great reviews.

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut: Like the Gibson, I know that I read it, but I can't remember the plot. I think I'll count it because I have owned and read everything by Vonnegut and after 35+ years, my memory has a right to be giving out...

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley: Read, re-read, read about the literary scene at the time as well. Not to mention all the movies, from Karloff to "realistic".

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick: Liked the movie far better than the book. Loved the movie enough to see a WR Grace ad about the debt. Loved the concepts enough to read more by Dick but be unhappy with his writing.

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood: Thought it was well-done but was offended by her BS attempt to pretend she was not writing SF. Who is she to think herself better than HG Wells? (Although I understand that she has now "come out" about her SF writing.)

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King- nope.

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke: So long ago, I can barely remember even a bit of the movie. I did read all of Clarke published before 1982, though.

25. The Stand, by Stephen King:Oh, why did all the metaphysical stuff have to intrude into an absolutely fabulous end-of-the-world/epidemic story. Still read it multiple times and really like the 6 hour mini-series.

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury- Of course. Beautiful writing.

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut- as above.

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess: This book gave me nightmares, interesting as the language was and although it tempted me to read more on the study of words. I actually couldn't watch the movie: it was too— I guess, I felt it too closely.

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein: I still like it,and I am still a Heinlein fangirl. I even liked the movie, ridiculous as it was.

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams: Read it when I was 12, and not since. But I remember loving it, though when I glanced at it recently I found it a bit pedantic and stiff.

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey: read it (and all of McCaffrey's work through about 20 years ago) and loved it.

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein: already mentioned my deep love for this book. I love this book.

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller: read it when I read my way through the Hugos in my teens. Barely remember a word.

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells: Read and re-read. Truly a classic.

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne: Of course. Classic.

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys: Read and even enjoyed, in a "required for school" sort of way.

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells: Read many times, seen in many movies, fell in love with the musical and listen to it quite a bit. Saw it in London for its anniversary tour last year and can quote along with the words when singing/speaking it.

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny: Read it (although there are many other Zelaznys I prefer) and actually have an omnibus on my side table of all 10 Amber novels (I think I only read the first 5 or so when they came out). Like the Dune novels, I stopped reading when I didn't find them as interesting: there are a lot of books out there to read!

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings: Here it is. Loved these books and forgot how much I loved them. I'll be buying both series for pick up next time I am in the US (and yet I know, somewhere in my storage unit, in those 167 boxes of books, these books exist).

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley: Read it when I was still madly loving Darkover, didn't love this.

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson: on my TBR list, with several other books by him.

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven: Classic, read with almost all other Niven novels and short stories (and he wrote some absolutely amazing short stories). He is still writing, but there was a period his work was just incredible.

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien: I won't count it, because I know that I never read it straight through. I was young and excited when it came out and then disappointed. I dipped in and out of it.

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White: Read so many times (and bought multiple times), in both its short and long versions. I make the kids watch the Disney version of the first section as well.

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke: from my classic period I remember the shocker ending, but nothing else.

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan: It's been 30+ years! But not only did I read it, I know that I reread it when I was at Cornell and I saw the Jodie Foster movie too. No memory of it at all.

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman: bought the book and read it after seeing the movie, which was wonderful. So was the book and its charming illustrations.

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks: read reviews and some blog posts, but not the book.

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle: In credible book. Wrenchingly sad in certain ways. Adore it. Also love the movie and make my kids watch it with me (though they thought the "wave" part was scarey). The sequel was terribly sad as well and I prefer not to think of it. When I read it, "Shmendrick" was still an inside joke.

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman: Yes.

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett: see 60 below. Although this is a charming book and better than 60.

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson: Yes, I read them all. But Donaldson's errors in discussing leprosy made me so angry that I actually threw the books at the wall a few times then gave them back to my then-boyfriend and told him all the ways that the book should have been re-written. In our defense, there weren't a lot of high fantasy sagas in existence at that point, so we were desperate for things to read.

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold: All of them, as they continue? Why are some cited as a series and some as books? In any case, I read all of Bujold, all of the time. I love her Miles books, but her Chalion books are even better in some ways (fantasy, not SF, but really quite gritty).

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett: Absolutely not the Pratchett I would have chosen. But I adore all Pratchett and, now that my Nortons and Francis' were destroyed by flood, his are the books I have in HC by unbelievably the most. In fact, I think I have all of Pratchett in HC, his videos and cartoons, almost all re-purchased or found in English and German so that the German can read them and I have Snuff on pre-order. I also go to Pratchett cons for fun.

61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle: Yep. On the gripping hand...

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind: I ordered the whole series in last year after watching the TV series and loving in. Have only read the first this month and like it very much. I'll probably wend my way through the next ten books over the coming year and enjoy them (although not enough to give up all other books in between!).

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke: Hated this book. Thought it was a total waste of a decent concept and only finished it because I have a strange masochistic bent when reading.

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson: Re-read this two years ago. Matheson was a great writer. But I also loved The Omega Man with Charlton Heston: what a great period movie! The Will Smith re-make was incredibly violent- too much so for my taste.

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist: Have a few, started reading one, put it down, now it's in storage and my TBR pile is a year high. Not interesting enough to me at the time.

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks: What can I say? I actually wrote a book report discussing its similarities to Tolkien. Was this the first contemporary high fantasy series after LoTR was published in the US? I certainly thought so (I was in grade school!).

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard: I haven't read all of these, but I read enough Howard that I think it should count. And the comics (which were why I found the books in the first place) and of course, Arnold. It's about to be re-made, I think? But the AS Conan movies were classics and I still love them.

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb: Have read other books by Robin Hobb, under both her names, but not this series.

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger: Have the book and the movie (on DVR). Not yet.

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson: Have the book, haven't read it yet.

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne: Read, re-read, read it on Kindle last year. Seen the movie multiple times and saw the re-make last month.

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi: Great Heinlein-style book. The first I read by Scalzi before I read all the rest of his books and then started to read his blog regularly. I like his characters and I like his plots and I like his worlds: highly recommended SF.

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke: Read and not remembered, with much of Clarke.

77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin: I am starting to worry about my brain as I realize how many books have left not a trace! Read and not remembered, 35 years later! But as I read the Wikipedia entry, I see that I owned and read the first pb copy, and the more philosophical aspects were definitely above my head!

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury: I remember the beauty of the writing, I even remember the cover of the PB. But not the story.

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire: I really thought I would like this, but I just didn't.

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson: I have read a review of this series but it sounds so all-consuming, there is no way I am going to start.

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde- didn't like the one Fforde I read, although friends keep saying I will.

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks- read one book by his non-SF alter-ego, hit a line I found alienating and won't read anything else by him.

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart: read everything ever written by Mary Stewart, adore her with a passion, and miss having her books on my shelves.

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher: one of these days. It's intimidating that there are already so many books written and I have only read one. It's not cheap getting English language older books here in Germany.

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe: Read these (although the only Wolfe I remember is a short story about Sand Kings). Wolfe was the man who taught me not to start reading a series until I could be assured it would come out relatively quickly (I didn't learn as I wait 18 years and counting for the next Chtorr novel).

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldon: Loved her books, still reading them, waiting after her cliff-hanger ending for the next. Went to her reading (and bagpipe accompaniment) here in Berlin. Great stuff, time-travel and ley line fantasy with Scotland and early American history.

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock: Read a few, never got into it.

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury: Read all of Bradbury and this is a story (the title story of the collection which is this book) which I actually remember extremely well.

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley: Really loved this not-to-the-current-vogue vampire story with a sun-loving baker. I'd love a sequel (And I think it deserves one) but McKinley famously bashes anyone asking. Still a great read and a precursor to Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews success in the same tone and field.

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge: Have read all of Vinge. Don't remember it.

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov: Incredibly good classic Asimov. Just amazing stuff that anyone who says they read SF cannot pass by.

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson: They were given to me and I read them. Ok. I'm not certain why I didn't like them more because what I remember should have been great (I like a certain type of hard SF). Perhaps it was a bad month in which I read them.

96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle: Read it when I read all of Niven. Good stuff.

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis: I think that I have read just about every fiction and non-fiction book dealing with infectious diseases. Certainly did not miss this classic, which I read when it was printed.

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville: Just read his City and the City and greatly enjoyed it, so I'll need to dig this up to read it.

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony: Read the first 10+. Would happily re-read them again if theyw ere on a shelf by me, but got increasingly light and pun-dependent as the series went on. Not in Anthony's top works, it's too bad if this is what he is remembered for.

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis: I was quite young when I journeyed from Narnia through Hell (and the Screwtape Letters) and to that Hideous Planet. I was probably a bit above my head, but I enjoyed it and re-read them several times.

Birmingham?

So we are off to Birmingham next weekend and this time I would actually like to see something rather than simply go to the convention.
Last time, I asked the shuttle driver what he would suggest, and he couldn't give me anything that he felt I should, as a tourist, visit. Which I thought was very sad. So we had a great meal at a gastropub recommended by a friend.
This time however, I would really like to see something cultural or architectural: anyone have any ideas?

What the well dressed Dwarf is wearing

What I am reading: May 2010

1. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson: I had this book for ages (got it at a BEA years ago), but still never read it. I saw that he was writing the final Robert Jordan book (never got into him, perhaps I should try the series) and still didn't. But today I was standing in a line with my Kindle and didn't know what to start next and thought— Why not? Wow. Another win for the author giving his book away. I'm downloading Elantris today and trying to decide whether I should download his Mistborne trilogy or whether I should just buy the boxed set and bring it back. I'm not certain how long this book is- from how long it took me to read it I will guess 500+ pages (ok, looked it up, 592 pages) and I was enthralled through all of them. Fascinating magic system. Interesting characters. Exciting story. I only wish there were another book in this world for me to read. I expect to buy his other works (and think about buying Jordans Wheel of Time because I know it will end well-written) and I'll be shooting off an e-mail to him to tell him why.
2. Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobbs: Although I have read Robin Hobbs when she was writing as Megan Lindholm, I somehow never picked her up under this name. Another good read from the Kindle temptations program (they give a book away and hope that you are intrigued enough to follow up and read others by the same author). I thought it was good enough that I will give her another try, but not quite good enough for me to pay full Kindle price for the sequel and getting a used copy in Germany isn't happenning. I hear her Ship series is much more exciting. I did enjoy Dragon Keeper, but the concepts are a bit too well -used for me. The novel is a bit of Amelia Peabody with an overlay of fantasy and I just do't have the patience with a heroine who finds it so difficult to understand what the issue between her husband (not a nice guy) and herself is. I did like the blossoming relationship with the ship's captain, the ship itslef and her development enough to- as I said- try the sequel down sometime in the future.
3. -14: And the entire rest of my reading month, including the flights to and from NY, were consumed with re-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs fabulous pulp Barsoom series. I had heard that there is renewed interest in filming (exciting to see that Michael Chabon has signed on for script revisions). In any case. ERB is one of my childhood foundations, and I vastly enjoyed the re-read, with far less shock at the sexism and racism than I expected to find. ERB is such a quintessential early 20th century writer.
   

1.A Princess of Mars
2.The Gods of Mars
3.The Warlord of Mars
4.Thuvia, Maid of Mars
5.The Chessmen of Mars
6.The Master Mind of Mars
7.A Fighting Man of Mars
8.Swords of Mars
9.Synthetic Men of Mars
10.Llana of Gathol
11.John Carter of Mars (includes Skeleton Men of Jupiter) (ERB died while writing this).

Recent randomness...

1. For the last thirty years or so, I have been an sf fan. Part of that is going to sf cons and the moveable feast is Worldcon. This year it will be in Australia and I'm afraid that we won't be able to make it. However, a few years ago, John Scalzi and some others decided to put together a reading package of all the works (where made available by publishers)that we had nominated for the Hugo. This year, all the graphic art nominations were also available and I have been sucked into Girl Genius. What a rocking strip! I'm pretty sure it's got my vote, I have now read through inception, and I plan on buying the books (because reading comics on line rots compared to having the book). How late I am to this show: it won the Hugo last year, but I've just ignored comics since I went cold turkey in 1990. Now, this is the type of comic I want my daughters to grow up reading.
2. After surviving my own mini-flame war, it seems that a lot of the blogs I have been reading have their own. Some are even related to the topic I was embroiled in: misogyny and sexism. See Racefail (on cultural appropriation), Mansplainin, How difficult life is for the Menz, the craziness on fanfic, which started with a reasonable post on Diana Gabaldon's blog (in a post which has now disappeared- and I don't blame her- the vitriol was amazing and the vitriolic made ad hominem attacks), but exploded through Boingboing and GRRMartin and ever outward. Watching how these things degenerated into insanity and how trolls took over was illuminating and shows the difference between an editorial page and the internets in all their glory.
3. We caught up with Lost. The last episodes are coming this month and we want to watch them semi-real time. And Fringe is getting better and better. As for Castle, what is not to like about a mystery writer as the hero of a series, with a kick toosh woman Police detective in charge. Nathan Fillion (from Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog) is fab.
4. Working on math... the way it's taught here is so non-intuitive that my husband can't understand it. I can, but I understand the issues. It's rote utilization of certain table formats and we just need to get Thing1 understanding that when there are lank boxes, a null is a perfectly correct way of filling them.
5. Same with reading. We are getting there, but the way that the German system (here at least) utilized the whole word method at the beginning, then moves to phonetics, makes it hard. There are far more "letters" here, though, so I understand why they operate the way they do. They didn't finish learning all the different vowels and consonants until after the winter holidays (there's a whole separate section to learn with the umlauted and conjoined vowels). And they don't sing the alphabet song, they learn "A wie Affe, Ei wie Eis... usw.) Fascinating to get a look into the basic culture and how it is indoctrinated.
   

This makes me happy part 2

This.

Exploring space is a dream that I had given up on. Perhaps my dreams will come true for my children, or grand-children.

What I am reading: July 2009

1. Regenesis by CJ Cheryh: Wow. It was great. I put aside everything that I was supposed to be reading and just made my way through this sequel to 1988's Cyteen. Since my copy of that is, of course, back in the US in storage, I ordered a copy (in 1 volume and without the iconic Whelan covers) to reread before digging into the 585 page (and boringly covered) sequel. But I couldn't wait. I remember the original (I think I must have reread it two or three times) well enough that I just plunged into the sequel and I didn't feel the lack (although Cyteen is now waiting on my night table to be reread RSN). It's just classic Cherryh and I love it. The new Invader novel is somewhere much deeper in my TBR pile: this brought me back to the basics of why I used to love SF so much (and makes me sad- I read so much fantasy now because I just can't find enough SF to be passionate about anymore). My gosh. This is just great stuff. Genetics, cloning, birth labs, "reincarnation" through cloning and mind-tapes, societal engineering: this is what made science fiction so exciting and it still is exciting.
2. Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews: Sequel to Magic Bites and Magic Burns by a husband and wife team writing urban fantasy as Ilona Andrews. Their writing is improving and their story is as interesting and exciting as it has been. The concept is that waves "post Shft" of magic and technology sweep across the world, and that the protagonist, Kate Daniels, has abilities only partially known to her friends and allies. The plot keeps developing, the back story keeps filling out and I become more interested and invested in the characters each book.
3. Past the Size of Dreaming by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: This author was suggested to me (was it Amazon, was it someone's list?) as being similar in thought and flavour to Zenna Henderson, whose work I love (and which has been "copied" by others such as Alexander Keys). This novel- not so much (another I picked up more so), but I liked it very much. The background is of a world where magic lives, where it can be awakened, and where it operates in a hidden parallel with mundanity while also being "mundane" in itself, or natural. I like her writing and I like her "voice. I am sorry to see that most of her current work is short stories because they are so much harder to track down than novels. I will try to pick up the rest of her work while I am in the US next month. (I just popped over to Amazon, where I see she has a new novel out in a few months and I have ordered it.)
4. The Silent Strength of Stones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: This is much more in the style of Henderson. YA, as most of Hoffman's work is. The protagonist helps his dad run a general store in a recreational area and gets his kicks watching the summer people and renters, but this time the family he watches is quite extraordinary: they have Magic and they don't enjoy his watching. But Nick is not ordinary either. This book is why I jave ordered the rest of Hoffman's work.
5. M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman: I saw Stardust recently and loved it and some others of Gaiman's works are sitting on my TBR pile, so I thought I would start with this, a collection of short stories primarily in the YA accessible range. In the preface, Gaiman mentions that Ray Bradbury chose his more YA stories to put into collections called R is for Rocket and S is for Space and that he asked permission to call this collection M is for Magic. I don't think the permission was required, but the conceit is lovely and brings back memories.
6. Nation by Terry Pratchett: I love Pratchett. A really good book. The protagonist is on his manhood journey when a tsunami destroys his entire homeland. He is the last. As others float up on his Island, the interactions are wonderful. A parallel world, with a few familiar faces. A good read. (This just won a Globe/Hornbook award and will debut as a play this year.)
   
7. Why we read what we read by John Heath and Lisa Adams: Interesting discussion of what Americans have been reading in the last decades. A bit frightening to see the change, which seems to actually be similar to the degradation of the national psyche as seen through the rise of Fox News and the declination of CNN.
   
8. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi: A look at Scalz's last book through the parallel story of Perry's daughter Chloe. Well-done, was nominated for the Hugo this year. (edit: lost to Neal Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.)
   
9. Cyteen by CJ Cherryh: After reading Regenesis, I went to Cherryh's blog and have added her to my reader. I enjoyed rereading Cyteen and will probably reread Regenesis in a few months (to have read it after rereading Cyteen): I am glad to see that Cherryh thinks she might write another (without the 20 year wait). Cyteen was as good as I remembered it, but I think Cherry's writing now is even better and smoother.
   
10. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett:
11. tales of a fourth grade nothing by Judy Blume: While wandering around the Interwebs some time ago, I wandered through circuitous paths to Judy Blume's website. I really loved her work when I was young and I am looking forward to starting to share it with Things 1 and 2 soon. I picked this up and felt as if I had fallen into my childhood, Freaky Friday, Disney movie, Bewitched. I loved it and will pick up the rest of the (re-issued) series in the matching covers when I am in the US.
12. The Language of Bees by Laurie R King: Since King's last Martinelli book (her other, contemporary detective/police series) used the Baker Street Irregulars as a primary plot ingredient, it was like a warm-up to this, the next in her Mary Russell/ Sherlock Holmes series. I always enjoy them and this was interesting and brought in what will be interesting new series characters. For this first time ever, King has closed this with, really, a cliffhanger and I hope that I don't have long to wait for the sequel and to really get to meet the new characters.
    

Shatner Does Palin (07/27/09)

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Come on. Can it be more perfect?

The final frontier.

Now, maybe I am even geekier than Snooks, because I have known about this for some time. But trailer two is just way more exciting than trailer 1. Nimoy doing the voice over is just cool.

Clearly I am not as geeky as some (though I sometimes try;)), but this is a site for the interested.

I am looking forward to it, because I'm just not crotchety yet and I think it will be great, even if the characters motivations and back stories are changed.

“How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story”

John Scalzi has posted a shareware short story on his blog, Whatever.

It's “How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story” and it's quite funny. Shareware means that one can pay whatever (that word again;-)) one feels it's worth and Scalzi has given Paypal and Amazon links. He's donating half (aftter the cost or funds transfer) to the Lupus Foundation of America, so I felt comfortable overpaying a bit for a short. I thought it was quite amusing and pulpishly charming. Check it out.

Reading online, or on the screen.

I've actually been reading quite a bit recently, although it's not showing up in my "Good Reads" widget. That's because I have been reading e-books, and I'm not quite certain how to put them up. First I read Rollback by Robert Sawyer. Now I have just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi, which is a reread prior to reading his The Last Colony. As you might guess, I am reading my way through the 2008 Hugo nominees preparatory to the vote this summer. All the nominees (except The Yiddish Policemen's Union) have been released in e-form to the members of Denvention III, the voting body for the 2008 Hugos.

What this has shown me is that I don't really enjoy reading books on screen. It's not that my screen isn't great: I have the option of a 17" or a 13", both with good clarity. It's that I like to walk around with my book, cook with my book, carry my book downstairs while waiting for the girls, have my book in my backpack for public transport or queuing. I have Mobireader for my Palm and I used to use it while commuting, when the laptop and work literature made carrying hardcovers painful, but now, I just want to hold the book in my hands.

In the past, if I like the book after the first 50 pages, I would just order it from Amazon and have it tomorrow morning. But here, where it can take weeks for me to get English language books (if they are even a bit abstruse, or not yet published in the UK) I am just reading online. And it's annoying.

And we are back...

Clearly, I am not very good about filling in blanks, so I just need to get going.

We got back Monday early, which was an adventure in itself. Because we needed to drop the girls (and the cat) with my in-laws, we flew to London out of Dortmund, rather than leaving from here, which would have obviously been easier and cheaper. Also because of that, we wound up flying into Luton because that was just so massively cheaper than Dortmund-Heathrow, even though the convention was at a Heathrow hotel (and a very pleasant one, too).

I booked early flights for two reasons. 1. I didn't realize when I booked the flights that Easter weekend is a 4 day weekend in Germany and I wanted to arrive at the airport before rush hour, and 2. cost. The early flights were extremely cheap in comparison to later ones. Little did I realize that there was no public transportation way to get from Heathrow to Luton at the early hour required Monday, so we wound up taking a taxi. On the plus side, the cost of the taxi was only about 20 GP more than taking the coach and other transport required would have been if we had been able to do so. We were a bit late at Luton, but didn't realize it and stopped to grab a chocolate cow and a monkey purse for the girls at M&S. Then we had to jog a bit to get to the gate.

We got to the house by 11 am and the girls were very happy to see us. This was the first time that we had ever both been away from them overnight and they were very good, although I think F and G were a tad tired out by them. My Things have a bit more energy than sister-in-law C's children, imho. After greetings all around and admiring the artwork and the crafts done over the weekend, we packed everything up , grabbed a few more items from the garage (where boxes of our household goods still reside- in this case we took a box of diapers and 6 Costco boxes of cereal, as well as a box of my scrapping materials and a box of spices and kitchen goods), we then had lunch.

After lunch, F and G had hidden the eggs that the girls had made over the weekend (Thing1 was very excited and had shown them to us almost as soon as we got there)and they found them as the snow started to fall.

We then got going by 2 so the girls could nap while we were driving and to avoid the weather, which was snowing quite heavily behind us most of the trip. In Berlin by 6ish, car returned by 7 and laundry running, so that bags unpacked (although apartment not ordered) and kids in bed by 9 pm. I had picked up a re-issue of Bite the Sun (an omnibus of Drinking Sapphire Wine and Don't Bite the Sun) and finished it that evening (very early Tanith Lee and amongst my favorites).

Very excited to have tomorrow be the beginning of my integration course break and to be able to spend the week getting things in order while the girls are in kita. Friday is short as usual, but Tuesday through Thursday should give me some real time to get things done.

So, what does it take for an author to get a new reader?

Without the children, I have been taking the opportunity to actually attend panels. I find the British style of science fiction convention very different from the American. In many ways, it is closer to the roots of fandom, and at least as I see it at Eastercon I like it very much.

Some differences:

• The British form is generally smaller. This was apparently the largest since Seacon (a Worldcon) in 1987 at around 1300 people.


• The organizing committee had a great deal of empathy for attendees, arranging a great con rate at the hotel, including a buffet breakfast in the room rate, arranging a prix-fixe buffet dinner.


• British people absolutely drink beer. This is actually a huge diference, which the Brits will probably have trouble understanding: Americans generally don't drink. So American conventions tend to have a general function room, open 24 hours a day, with free munchies, coffee, tea and soda, where fans gather. Here, there was a general atrium where convention priced bheer and cider (and also OJ and water, which my poor tummy appreciated) was sold and where, like the Champs Elysee, the entire convention passed by.


• The tag line was "a convention run by fans for fans" and it really was. This was, even at this size, the coziest and friendliest convention I've been to in years. What with my stomach ailment I spent a lot of time sleeping but even so, I loved the atrium where everyone, from veriest neo to adored pro hung out, drank, and was accessible. I wil definitely go to more British cons.

The title refers to a post a while back that John Scalzi made (and I'm not sure in which of his zillions of posts) where he talked about how an author gets a fan. There was some discussion of hand selling, or through blogs (and Diana Peterfreund had some things to say somewhere in her blog as well, I think) and through personal referral as being the best way. To that I need to add: listening to a good speaker.

The German is not much of a reader, but after listening to Charlie Stross' Guest of Honour speech, he dragged me downstairs to the Dealer's Room and bought two of his books. Stross was so funny, so dry and amusing, so absolutely in control of what he was saying and so erudite with it that it was no wonder that the German was enthralled. I wanted to buy several books as well. And, interestingly enough, it was after hearing Scalzi (different reference here), another funny and intelligent speaker at a panel at a Worldcon some years ago, that I started reading his books and recommending them.

We again braved the frigid environment of the Commonwealth room (the largest meeting room) to hear Neil Gaiman's Guest of Honour speech. Now, interestingly enough, I had liked Gaiman's work back in the Miracleman days, but didn't like his collaboration with Pratchett and had stopped reading him. Here's a link to his journal of Eastercon.
He was so wonderfully amusing and then, later on, so wonderful at reading a chapter from his new book, that I am certain that I will be buying that new book. I had already picked up a copy of Stardust (mainly because I was sad not to be able to see the movie until it comes out on DVD) and I cleverly left it in Berlin rather than bringing it with me to have it signed. But the convention kindly passed out a poster that we could use at the mass GOH signing and I was able to have that signed instead.

We also went to see Tanith Lee (another GOH) speak at two separate panels. She was one of my earliest favorites, back in my salad days, and it was a pleasure to meet others who are great fans of hers and to hear her speak. I actually discovered that she had put out a 'sequel' to one of my favorite of her books: The Silver Metal Lover which is now followed by Metallic Lover 24 years later.

An amusing incident that took place at the con: while the German and I were standing in the (long) line to have our posters signed by all the Guests of Honour, I was reading one of the (few) newsletters and noticed that there had been a case of chickenpox in the childcare facility (another sign that the convention was run well and even though I did not bring the children, a real sign that British fandom is 1. more family friendly and 2. more likely to have membership expand naturally).

I exclaimed aloud at how grateful I was that the girls had been left with the in-laws and how terrible it was that the other children had been exposed when the couple in front of us turned around and said "She's in quarantine with Grandma now, we didn't know." What are the odds that I castigate someone at a convention with 1300+ people and they are standing next to me at the time? Anyway, we all chatted for a bit and I simply said that since Thing2 is too young to have been vaccinated, and the German has not had it, I was truly glad not to have had the girls exposed. Turns out that in the UK they don't vaccinate against Varicella. I'll need to be making certain that the girls are adequately and promptly vaccinated on the CDC schedule here, I can tell.

The other thing was that even with my stomach ailments, I had the best ordinary food that I have had since we left the States. I mean, we don't eat out so much here in Berlin, and we have not been able to find a 'regular'. But just around the corner from the hotel was The Pheasant. We had a meal a day there and the one day that we had the convention buffet dinner we groaned with disappointment that we weren't eating there. We expressed our gratitude to the owner and told him that Berlin was crying out for another restaurant like his and that if he came, we would eat ther 5 times a week. The salads were so wonderful, the masalas, the quiche, the cider, the ploughman's... why isn't there anything like that here?

It's London calling...

Or rather, I am blogging from London, where the German and I are staying at Heathrow for Orbital2008 , which is a British science fiction convention. One of my favorite authors is a guest of honor, Tanith Lee, and I'll probably put up a few photos when I get home.

I developed Thing2's illness last week, so I've been roiling in my intestinal misery, but it seems that today I am finally starting to improve. Probably the large amount of sleep I got yesterday finally helped me to feel better. Of course, I missed my last week of German class and the party, but I am starting to expect that. At least this time I didn't bring refreshments to the party and not get to go, the way I did last time.The illness started slowly, but yesterday morning I was just wondering how Thing2 had been managing, so I'm glad that the German finally pointed out that Imodium exists for these exigencies. I can't believe I hadn't thought to take medication!

We drove to my in-laws on Thursday after work. I had hoped to get to a Purim party before going, but I just wasn't feeling well enough, and that was just as well because we arrived just around midnight and since our flight was at 7:30 that didn't leave us much time to unload the girls, the cat and the car and get some sleep.

Up at 5 am on Friday, kissed the girls and the cat good-bye and off to London.