things that have arrived recently...

Books and stories aren't particularly important in the grand scheme, where the bills must be paid and the comfort must come before old age lest we suffer and suffer, but a good story can hypnotize away a little suffering here and there, and it's nice to sit outside in the first nice weather of the year to read a little. Books are good for that tiny bit, at least.

Here are a few that have recently crossed our threshold and I have been poking at them with my eyes in an honest attempt to read them when I don't have a headache and the editing is in need of a break.

What I really want is the sort of book that grabs my face like a lonely octopus, longing to whisper the inhuman music of the deep sea like a siren for another species of prey animals. I haven't found that in a while, but I assume the wintry headache of editing the third Dogsland novel is contributing. I should be done with that soon, though, I hope. (At least done enough that I can pass it along to the editor for his notes and back at it upon its return.)

Anyway, here are some things that have arrived that I've poked at with my eyes, or read, or whatever.

Has been interesting enough so far, and I'll probably finish it soon, but I'm only a little bit into the PDF, and it's not the author's fault that I've had a headache on and off from staring at the computer too much whilst editing. I do want to mention that the price for the dead tree edition seems a bit high, to my eyes, and the price for the eBook seems a bit low, so probably pick up the eBook. The PDF I've been poking at seems well-formatted. 

One thing I'll miss about the future of books with POD and eBooks and all sorts of in-between books is the relatively standardized prices, so my buying decisions can be based on art desired and not dollars.

I read this quite nearly to the end. There came a moment in the book when I felt like it was dissembling into the drafts of things that weren't really supposed to be there, or belonged to another book entirely that were mixed up with the notes, and I was staring at the intellectual equivalent of a dead man in his underpants. It was some of the best line-by-line work I'd ever encountered about accountants and boredom, which are two things generally not known to be so interesting, yet it was very interesting. To me, the whole thing suffered because of the whole highly-publicized suicide thing. Too bad about DFW, but so it goes. So it goes. I do hope that if I ever make such a terrible, bad, selfish decision as he did that it doesn't become part and parcel of a media blitz promoting books I didn't finish writing.

I blurbed that book. It's coming out soon. Early copies might be showing up here and there. The blurb I provided will be on the back cover beside glowing blurbs by Elizabeth Hand, David Anthony Durham, Martha Wells, and James Patrick Kelly. So, you know, this might be the sort of thing that book-ish sorts should be pursuing quite seriously. It's an excellent book, and it's coming out soon.

 

If I could blurb Cat Rambo's novella, I would, but it's part of a shared world of which I am an active member, so that would be unseemly, but it's a great piece, and I hope that more people hear about it. Have you heard about it? Fall into the abyss, already! You won't regret it!

That came in yesterday, along with a mix tape. I'll snap a picture one of these moments, because it really did arrive with a mix-tape. Interesting fact: My wife and I don't own a tape deck, so the mix tape will have to wait for some trip to a flea market or something. The book, though, might not have to wait too long before I crack the pages. I was surprised at how short it was, but that's all right. In this case, unlike the first thing I mentioned, I think the print edition is the better deal. Get the print, if you do.

Anyway back to work...