Books
The Hair of Dorian Gray / 18.08.09
So, there’s a new film adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray due out later this year (although naturally, such a title is far too long for movie audiences to handle, so it’s simply called Dorian Gray). It stars Ben Barnes, of Prince Caspian fame - not necessarily a bad bit of casting, as he is something of a pretty boy, although I’d argue he’s perhaps five or six years too old (still, given that Anthony Andrews circa 1982 no longer exists, it’s arguable that casting the perfect Dorian is pretty much impossible). Sadly, it’s fallen prey to something that almost every film version of the character has stumbled on so far - in that yet again, Dorian has been given dark hair.
Babes With Books / 08.11.08
Why did it take me so long to find a site that combines a love of books with a love of hot girls?
Babes With Books seems to illustrate a fetish I wasn’t even sure existed, though it’s possible the whole thing is tongue in cheek. I didn’t browse much of it but the pictures and movies I did see suggest that this is safe-for-work material.
One video is just a girl pulling books from her shelf and explaining why she loves them. She is pretty, I’ll give you that, but something tells me she’d feel a little uneasy to know that anybody, anywhere was spanking off to her recommendation of Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Another Pynchon novel? / 02.11.08
Well, maybe. The L.A. Times reported that Pynchon just might be at work on a new novel, about 400 pages long, “a kind of noir detective story set in the 1960s, with lots of psychedelia as background.” It’s possibly going to be published in August 2009.
Cross your fingers. Because that just sounds awesome.
The Poetry of Sarah Palin / 16.10.08
You asked for it! Alright, nobody asked for it. But she recited it anyway.
http://www.slate.com/id/2201342/
Sarah Palin proves you can write poetry without ever having read any yourself, or taken a class, or even looked up “poetry” on Wikipedia. But more importantly, she proves you shouldn’t.
(CAUTION: These may give you stomach cancer.)
The Graverobber's Guide To The Galaxy / 17.09.08
This is a stupid idea. A really stupid idea. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly stupid it is. I mean, you may think the movie was a lame attempt to wring further cash out of Douglas’ memory, but that’s just peanuts to this. Listen…
And so on.
Xmas in the Rye / 10.12.07
About the only thing I have that comes even close to a Christmas tradition is reading The Catcher in the Rye at some point during the season. It's not anything I make sure to do...it's just that this time of year always makes me want to revisit it.
The only intelligent thing to say about "Dumbledore" "being" "gay" / 25.10.07
Doctor Who in Surprise Shock Hugo Win / 01.09.07
The 2007 Hugo Awards were announced today. The 2007 Nebula Awards were announced back in May, but I didn't mention them because...well, because I am lazy. Anyway - find the winners herein!
Hugo Awards
Human Nature eBook / 04.06.07
We're a little behind on our Doctor Who series three reviews at the moment - although rest assured, we do intend to catch up in due course - so it'll be a little while before we get round to raving about how utterly fantastic Paul Cornell's "Human Nature" two-parter was (although he might as well clear a space on his shelf right now for the 2008 Hugo).
In the wake of Borat / 27.05.07
There's really only one negative thing about the worldwide success of the Borat film, and that's that Sacha Baron Cohen is probably never going to get away with anything like it again. But that doesn't mean the impact of the film will be limited to that singular release...
XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography / 25.04.07
I've mentioned this book before on here, but I think it deserves a wider audience. Wendy McElroy's XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography is some of the best non-fiction I've ever read - and the entire book is available to read online.
Whatever your views on pornography, it's well worth a look - the layout is slightly hard on the eyes, but stick with it, because it's absolutely fascinating...
Chuck Palahniuk - "Rant" / 20.04.07
A new Chuck Palahniuk novel is always cause for excitement in the Lacey household - while he can be repetitive and glib, his novels are never anything less than incredibly compelling. When they're good, they're astute and poignant critiques of modern life, and usually hilarious to boot. His forthcoming novel "Rant", which I had heard literally nothing about until today, has garnered a very positive review on Aint It Cool News.
Kurt Vonnegut dies. / 12.04.07
Last night, 84 years old. The world has lost one of its last truly great novelists.
This is a very, very sad day.
The UnSuggester / 17.12.06
LibraryThing has a new (well, I've never seen it before) utility called The UnSuggester. The concept is excellent: you type in a book that you own/have read/love, and it examines the amount of people who own copies of both books and then gives you a list of the books that you would likely not enjoy, based on the few number of people who own copies of both.
Let's try a few novels, just to give you an idea. Let's take Vinelandby Thomas Pynchon:
Horselover Fat / 30.11.06
He was a man who wrote about the essence of reality, always questioning the nature of reality and what it means to be alive and to be human in the twentieth century - and his work is just as, if not more, relevant now that we have entered the twenty-first century.
RIP Jack Williamson / 12.11.06
Wow. Okay, folks, this is it...a day I honestly never thought would come. Jack Williamson, aka "The Dean of Science Fiction" passed away on Friday, Nov 10th, at the age of 98. The man published his first story - "The Metal Man" - in Amazing Stories in 1928. When his family moved to New Mexico in 1915, they did so by covered wagon. This is a giant of the SF field. He wrote over fifty novels, the most recent of which was published in 2005.
Very Short Stories / 26.10.06
The Eye of Argon now in print! / 16.09.06
Yes, you read that right. Wildside Press has decided to go ahead and publish Jim Theis's infamous fantasy novella in actual print book form. Literature as a whole should feel very, very proud. A bit of background for those people who've never read it, then: "The Eye of Argon" was first published in 1970 in Osfan (a fanzine). After its publication, it was widely circulated among fan circles as perhaps the finest example of shit writing outside of a Dan Brown convention.
2006 Hugo Award Winners / 27.08.06
Those of you who know what the Hugos are know that they're a pretty big deal with those in the know about the SF community. As such, at the 2006 WorldCon (LACON IV) in Los Angeles, the following fictional works were voted to be honored with a Hugo Award:
Ten Books! / 15.08.06
...and a strange man with large teeth.
Following this post asking you all to recommend me one book, my final list is below. Hang on to your wage packets I MUST REMEMBER THIS IS NOT GANYMEDE & TITAN.
Against the Day: 900 pages of new Pynchon / 25.07.06
A more definite followup to the very enticing news Phillip Alderman posted last week.
A coworker of mine happened across this news item online. That's actually a bit of a cheat, because she found it on Earthlink and I'm linking to CNN, but an item regarding Pynchon novels sort of deserves to be convoluted at least a little.
One Book / 18.07.06
Here's a question. If you could recommend one book for someone to read - what would it be?
(Yes, I'm attempting to make myself more widely-read.)
A Screaming Comes Across The Sky / 16.07.06
America's greatest author returns! Or so it seems...
This caught my eye on ILE this morning - what would appear to be a brand new Thomas Pynchon novel, his first since 1997's Mason & Dixon.
Nineteen Eighty-Four / 01.10.05
I'm just in the middle of re-reading this now. Now, I freely admit I'm a bit of a philistine. I'm never usually stirred by what people describe as "classic literature". I'd rather watch a good sitcom.
