Arabian Nights’ Widget Added
Posted on March 2nd, 2008 by Carlos
Magic, Books // Have your say »So pretty soon I hope to write a post about my experience reading the Sir Richard Burton version of A Thousand Nights and a Night. The brief version is that I had a lot of mixed feelings about it, but, when all is said and done, it is a remarkable text. Therefore, I’ve gone ahead […]
The State of Pulp is … Pulp
Posted on February 19th, 2008 by Carlos
Writing, Books // Have your say »This article, courtesy of Simon Owens, proprietor of Bloggasm, is easily one of the best reviews of the current state of short genre fiction, from the perspective of the magnanimous, masochistic magazines that, despite the fact that they go into the endeavor knowing they probably won’t be probable, sedulously fight for survival. Turn a profit? […]
Final Word on the Issue — J.K. Rowling is Good for Books
Posted on December 15th, 2007 by Carlos
Books // Have your say »I was just on the site where Amazon has posted pictures of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which the company purchased for circa $4 million Amurrikan dollars. For those who have been comatose for the last year, Rowling made seven hand-written, personally-illustrated versions of this book. Six have been scattered throughout the Earth, but […]
Eight Ways of Looking at Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
Posted on November 13th, 2007 by Carlos
Books // Have your say »(Spoiler Alert — This review may spoil things for some readers who miss the point of sections one and two, which argue that The Road is not a fiction, but an epic poem, and is therefore much less about plot — and hence much less vulnerable to spoilers that can spoil plots — than traditional […]
Junot Diaz = Ezra Pound
Posted on October 20th, 2007 by Carlos
Books // Have your say »I’m not kidding. Junot Diaz = Ezra Pound.
Okay, maybe not completely. AFAIK, Diaz is not a craphead Fascist who sympathizes with Nazis and spreads hate on the airwaves (and yes, I know, this is a reductive way of looking at Pound. Sue me for trying to make a joke. Wait, no, please don’t sue […]
Dumblegate!
Posted on October 20th, 2007 by Carlos
Culture, Books // Have your say »You’d almost think a surprise book 8 was in the offing: J.K. Rowling announced on Friday, to a packed Carnegie Hall, that Albus Dumbledore is gay.
Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was “terribly […]
The One-Sentence, No-Spoiler Review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Posted on July 23rd, 2007 by Carlos
Books // Have your say »First half — meh; second half — yes!
(I am going to wait a little while longer before I post a longer review; don’t want to risk spoiling the book for anyone. But c’mon slowpokes, get reading. My love and I finished it in less than two days, and we were reading aloud to each other!)
Wink-wink, Nudge-nudge: But do you know what I mean?
Posted on June 21st, 2007 by Carlos
Books // Have your say »The One-Sentence Review: Winkie is a good first novel, but its author, Clifford Chase, will write better ones.
The More-Than-One-Sentence Review (SPOILERS!): The writing is solid: richly imagined, sensuous, modest and endearing. For readers like myself, writing this good is mostly what I need to get me through a book; readers like me will delight in […]
On pelting rams
Posted on June 19th, 2007 by Carlos
Culture, Books // Have your say »I read an editorial not too long ago that said that the profession of the book reviewer — that is, people who actually get paid to read and review books for newspapers and magazines — is dying out. Books just aren’t as relevant to the culture as T.V. and movies and video games and Web […]
