Apparently it was a small gathering of Iqaluit bloggers at the library yesterday as I saw Kate, Bob and John all there. I spoke with John briefly because we know him and his wife though Cathy's work. Not so much Kate and Bob, which is kind of silly, I guess. But it is odd to go up to people and go "like your blog." (someone said they spotted me earlier the year at the airport and wanted to say the same thing to me. Now I know how they felt...)
There's enough of us kicking around town that we should all get together some evening. Perhaps the next time some other Nunavut blogger is passing through town. It's a thought, anyway.
My haul was not nearly as impressive and Kate and Bob's, but then again, we arrived five minutes after the place opened so who knows what fines we might have missed.
I got:
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Toy Story 2 on DVD
A book on growing houseplants
Get Organized, Get Publish!
1,818 Ways to Write Better & Get Published
A large coffee table book filled with wildlife pictures that promptly went straight to Cathy's class.
Pretty disappointing, really. Last year I found "Thank You For Smoking" and "A Confederacy of Dunces." The selection wasn't really there. Then again, it was $5 for a bag of books an the money went to help the local library. So I shouldn't complain.
Besides, I'm pretty picky when it comes to second hand books. First, and this drives Cathy mental, I like new books. I hate books with the spine cracked or beaten up. Yes, they're "well loved". To me, they not been taken care of properly, which is disrespectful in my brain.
Although I am hopeful about the Vonnegut book. I've been meaning to give him another try for years. And I could use something good to read. The last few books have been bitterly disappointing. The last good one I read was "Crooked Little Vein" by Warren Ellis. That was followed by Greg Rucka's "Patriot Acts" which was a bitter disappointment from the previous books in the series. I then tried "The Book of Fate" by Brad Meltzer, which I gave up on after 100 pages as it was entirely too contrived. I'm now in a disappointing death trudge with William Gibson's "Spook Country". I keep hoping it will get better, but 70 pages in that hasn't happened yet.
I keep wondering if it has something to do with me trying to write my own book that's making me hate others right now. Could be, but I doubt it. And we'll see if the publishing books I bought help.
As for the book, I hit 50,000 words after writing for about 24 days. To put that in perspective, during National Novel Writing Month they want you to write that many words during November. So I'm on quite a roll.
Or well, I was. Since I hit 50,000 three days ago, I've written another 3,000 words. After finally beating into submission a section where the lead character finally hooks up with the woman who had been driving him nuts I'm now not entirely certain where to go next. A lot of the first 50,000 words were building to that point. I know where it has to go, I'm just not 100 per cent sure how to get there.
Ah well, no one said this was going to be easy. At 53,000 words I think I might be around half way done. But we will see...
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Rain on me
Just before I left work at lunch time Tom Waits began to croak via my iPod "Why's it always got to rain on me?", which was appropriate enough given the weather outside. Raining again in Iqaluit. The weather has been almost unrelenting unpleasant for most of July. When there hasn't been ice lingering for weeks longer than anticipated, it's either been foggy, cloudy, raining or cold. And, in some magical cases, all of it at once. I actually saw ice back in the bay today. It's July 26. That's really depressing.
I know people like to lament about the weather. It's a grand Canadian tradition. Hell, it's apparently also the last refuge for bloggers with nothing better to talk about. I've been hearing some complaining back in Newfoundland about the summer they're having so far.
But I think it's worse if you live here. The window for summer in Iqaluit is very, very narrow. Much more narrow than Newfoundland. You have July and August. That's it. Sometimes you don't even get that. So having a sucky month, as we are right now, tends to get people down. When you have a short summer, you really savor it.
But all this rain and cold takes the joy out of things. Iqaluit is not a town at its best when it rains. It gets mucky everywhere and the roads quickly become filled with potholes. Even when it gets sunny now, there's so many standing pools of water that swarms of mosquitoes spring forth in numbers large enough to carry off a decent sized caribou.
So yes, summer 07 is a fairly dismal affair so far.
On a positive note, I finally got my Harry Potter this afternoon. The one Cathy sent me via Expresspost. This blog is being written during a short break from the book, otherwise I'm just going to burn through it and not enjoy it as I should.
The downside is my request to Chapters to cancel my order was apparently rejected another copy is on the way. It was sent five days after the initial release date. I'm more than a little annoyed by that. Annoyed enough that the book is coming home with me and is being returned to Chapters in St. John's, which I can do, apparently.
Anyway, I'm off to read some more Potter and listen to the rain pelt down.
I know people like to lament about the weather. It's a grand Canadian tradition. Hell, it's apparently also the last refuge for bloggers with nothing better to talk about. I've been hearing some complaining back in Newfoundland about the summer they're having so far.
But I think it's worse if you live here. The window for summer in Iqaluit is very, very narrow. Much more narrow than Newfoundland. You have July and August. That's it. Sometimes you don't even get that. So having a sucky month, as we are right now, tends to get people down. When you have a short summer, you really savor it.
But all this rain and cold takes the joy out of things. Iqaluit is not a town at its best when it rains. It gets mucky everywhere and the roads quickly become filled with potholes. Even when it gets sunny now, there's so many standing pools of water that swarms of mosquitoes spring forth in numbers large enough to carry off a decent sized caribou.
So yes, summer 07 is a fairly dismal affair so far.
On a positive note, I finally got my Harry Potter this afternoon. The one Cathy sent me via Expresspost. This blog is being written during a short break from the book, otherwise I'm just going to burn through it and not enjoy it as I should.
The downside is my request to Chapters to cancel my order was apparently rejected another copy is on the way. It was sent five days after the initial release date. I'm more than a little annoyed by that. Annoyed enough that the book is coming home with me and is being returned to Chapters in St. John's, which I can do, apparently.
Anyway, I'm off to read some more Potter and listen to the rain pelt down.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Potter-free
As best I can figure, I think Iqaluit must be the only place with 5,000 or more people in it in the western world that doesn't have a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for sale. A quick wander around town this afternoon showed no copies for sale at either North Mart or Arctic Ventures and if it's not in either of those places, then it's not for sale yet up here.
I confess to being a touch surprised. I figured there would be a few copies for sale somewhere today, but the people I asked at the stores said none had come in and they didn't know if any were coming in. Yes, I know that they can't match the prices of places like Chapters or Amazon, which are selling them at well below cost. But not everyone in town can access those stores. Not everyone has internet access. And not everyone has the necessary credit card.
So in the middle of the Potter frenzy, Iqaluit remains a Potter-free zone. I suspect some of you are booking your tickets as you read this.
As for me, this is presenting an interesting quandary. I've ordered the book from Chapters, but according to the website my book hasn't even shipped yet. So while I was anticipating receiving it by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, instead I find myself faced the possibility that it might not arrive next week at all.
For those of you wondering why they weren't delivered today like most of the rest of Canada, that service wasn't available for the north. Beyond me why. It would have been easier here than most of the rest of Canada. Instead of having letter carriers running around town all day, as they did in St. John's, all the local post office had to do was open for a couple of hours this afternoon and distribute the books to the people who ordered them. Silly why that never happened, really.
This is problematic because the longer I go without a copy of the book, the greater the possibility the book will be spoiled for me. Mainstream media and others were reasonable good last week when the book was leaked about not revealing plot points. If you wanted to have it spoiled, you certainly had no problems finding places willing to do that for you. but if you wanted to preserve the secret, you could do it without too much difficulty.
But now with the book out, most people are going to assume that you will have finished reading it by tomorrow evening at the absolute latest. So the discretion in not revealing plot points is going to go right out the window. I can't go a week or more without checking news sites. Hell, it's part of my job to check news sites.
This is grim stuff. I think if I go out tomorrow and some copies magically appear I'll probably crack and buy one and donate it to the library afterwards.
It's not often I've been frustrated with some of the isolation and challenges that come with living in the north. You tend to get zen about these things after awhile or you go mad. But this is one of those times.
I confess to being a touch surprised. I figured there would be a few copies for sale somewhere today, but the people I asked at the stores said none had come in and they didn't know if any were coming in. Yes, I know that they can't match the prices of places like Chapters or Amazon, which are selling them at well below cost. But not everyone in town can access those stores. Not everyone has internet access. And not everyone has the necessary credit card.
So in the middle of the Potter frenzy, Iqaluit remains a Potter-free zone. I suspect some of you are booking your tickets as you read this.
As for me, this is presenting an interesting quandary. I've ordered the book from Chapters, but according to the website my book hasn't even shipped yet. So while I was anticipating receiving it by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, instead I find myself faced the possibility that it might not arrive next week at all.
For those of you wondering why they weren't delivered today like most of the rest of Canada, that service wasn't available for the north. Beyond me why. It would have been easier here than most of the rest of Canada. Instead of having letter carriers running around town all day, as they did in St. John's, all the local post office had to do was open for a couple of hours this afternoon and distribute the books to the people who ordered them. Silly why that never happened, really.
This is problematic because the longer I go without a copy of the book, the greater the possibility the book will be spoiled for me. Mainstream media and others were reasonable good last week when the book was leaked about not revealing plot points. If you wanted to have it spoiled, you certainly had no problems finding places willing to do that for you. but if you wanted to preserve the secret, you could do it without too much difficulty.
But now with the book out, most people are going to assume that you will have finished reading it by tomorrow evening at the absolute latest. So the discretion in not revealing plot points is going to go right out the window. I can't go a week or more without checking news sites. Hell, it's part of my job to check news sites.
This is grim stuff. I think if I go out tomorrow and some copies magically appear I'll probably crack and buy one and donate it to the library afterwards.
It's not often I've been frustrated with some of the isolation and challenges that come with living in the north. You tend to get zen about these things after awhile or you go mad. But this is one of those times.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
In vein
Obviously the most anticipated novel of the summer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And we’re getting down to hours now until the book’s release. In preparation I’ve finished rereading Order of the Phoenix (actually not as bad as I thought, although my original assessment that 100 pages could have been cut from the book and it would be a better read still stands) and I’m going through the Half-Blood Prince as we speak. So I should be ready for The Deathly Hallows when I get it next week.
This should also serve as a mention that if anyone posts anything in the way of a spoiler to this blog about what happens in the book, I will hunt them down and do terrible things to them. Things that will make their mothers weep. Just so you know.
In fact, I think I'm going to kill the ability to anonymous post on the blog from the period of time between the book's release, until I finish it, just to be on the safe side.
However, the book that I’m looking forward to the most after Potter, and it’s a close second for me, is Warren Ellis’s Crooked Little Vein. You would be hard pressed to find a book more the opposite of Deathly Hallows. This is pretty much the anti-Christ to Potter. If possible this book would sodomize Harry Potter, piss on him, kick him in the balls wall while cracking his wand in half. And it would laugh while doing it.
Lord Volemort? Pussy.
That’s where this book is.
This might be disturbing to some of you, but I so thoroughly love most of Ellis’s comic book writing that I can’t help but look forward to see what he can do with straight prose. Which, despite what some of you might think, is a different kind of writing than what you would do in comic books.
The book comes out next Tuesday, mere days after Potter. Chapters is doing weird things about its availability, having gone from Pre-order now, to temporarily unavailable to order to takes 3-5 weeks to ship. So I'm holding back and see what is going on before ordering (they just cancelled an order I had been waiting a month for, so I'm right to be cautious). If they don’t get it straightened out, I’ll just look for it when I get home.
In the meantime, if you want to see what I’m writing about, Amazon has put the first chapter online here.
Favourite bit so far…
I smiled, shook my head. “It’s just what TV does to us. You say ‘chief of staff’ and I expect John Spencer from The West Wing, you know? I don’t suppose you’re a genial man of Chicago with a drinking problem, right?”
“Hell, no. I take heroin, son.”
This should also serve as a mention that if anyone posts anything in the way of a spoiler to this blog about what happens in the book, I will hunt them down and do terrible things to them. Things that will make their mothers weep. Just so you know.
In fact, I think I'm going to kill the ability to anonymous post on the blog from the period of time between the book's release, until I finish it, just to be on the safe side.
However, the book that I’m looking forward to the most after Potter, and it’s a close second for me, is Warren Ellis’s Crooked Little Vein. You would be hard pressed to find a book more the opposite of Deathly Hallows. This is pretty much the anti-Christ to Potter. If possible this book would sodomize Harry Potter, piss on him, kick him in the balls wall while cracking his wand in half. And it would laugh while doing it.
Lord Volemort? Pussy.
That’s where this book is.
This might be disturbing to some of you, but I so thoroughly love most of Ellis’s comic book writing that I can’t help but look forward to see what he can do with straight prose. Which, despite what some of you might think, is a different kind of writing than what you would do in comic books.
The book comes out next Tuesday, mere days after Potter. Chapters is doing weird things about its availability, having gone from Pre-order now, to temporarily unavailable to order to takes 3-5 weeks to ship. So I'm holding back and see what is going on before ordering (they just cancelled an order I had been waiting a month for, so I'm right to be cautious). If they don’t get it straightened out, I’ll just look for it when I get home.
In the meantime, if you want to see what I’m writing about, Amazon has put the first chapter online here.
Favourite bit so far…
I smiled, shook my head. “It’s just what TV does to us. You say ‘chief of staff’ and I expect John Spencer from The West Wing, you know? I don’t suppose you’re a genial man of Chicago with a drinking problem, right?”
“Hell, no. I take heroin, son.”
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Holding out for Harry
So with less than two weeks left, Harry Potter mania is beginning to build. There’s no shortage of articles coming out (including this one yesterday in the Globe and Mail) discussing what might happen in the last novel (The Deathly Hollows) or the fifth movie (Order of the Phoenix). I quite like Harry Potter, so I’m looking forward to it. I’m quite curious about the movie, as Order of the Phoenix was by far the worst of the books. It was bloated and in dire need of an editor. But there was a good story in there.
Some of the movies have suffered, and I’m thinking of Goblet of Fire here in particular, because they cut so much out of the book, by necessity, to get the story on screen. But Order of the Phoenix might work quite nicely as a movie if it can cut strhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifeamline much of the meandering of the book.
However, I have a problem. I’m in Iqaluit.
Let me explain.
Cathy does not have a problem, as she's in St. John's. So she can go to the book and then go home and spend half the night reading the book. Although sadly not at the Granny Bates launch as they're not doing a big party this time, which is really too bad.
I, on the other hand, cannot. Unless it changes and NorthMart or Arctic Ventures brings in a bunch of books, there is no midnight launch in town. Nor will Canada Post open on Saturday to do special rush deliveries from Chapters or Amazon.
Originally this was going to be a moot point. Myself and Cathy had originally agreed that there was no need to buy two copies of the book. That I would wait until I got home in August and read that copy. However, I've since reconsidered. The notion that I can go two weeks while Pottermania is in full swing and not break or manage to have the ending spoiled is impossible. Plus, I don't want to spend my two weeks home frantically trying to cram in the last book. I'd just as soon go out and do things.
So my order to Chapters will be going in shortly. Hopefully I'll manage to get it a couple of days after its released. I should be able to dodge spoilers that long.
On the upside, the movie is going to open here this coming Friday. Although knowing it’s playing on IMAX in Ottawa is mildly torturous. There are some movies you want to see on the really big screen and that would be one of them.
However, even though it's opening here, I’ve learned my lesson. Never go see a movie opening weekend in Iqaluit. The audiences are just horrific in the amount they talk, carry on or bring small, crying children into the theatre with them. No thanks. I can wait a few extra days.
Oh, and for the record, I think Harry lives. And that Snape is on the side of the angels. And I'm not completely convinced Dumbledore is dead. I'll find out soon enough.
Some of the movies have suffered, and I’m thinking of Goblet of Fire here in particular, because they cut so much out of the book, by necessity, to get the story on screen. But Order of the Phoenix might work quite nicely as a movie if it can cut strhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifeamline much of the meandering of the book.
However, I have a problem. I’m in Iqaluit.
Let me explain.
Cathy does not have a problem, as she's in St. John's. So she can go to the book and then go home and spend half the night reading the book. Although sadly not at the Granny Bates launch as they're not doing a big party this time, which is really too bad.
I, on the other hand, cannot. Unless it changes and NorthMart or Arctic Ventures brings in a bunch of books, there is no midnight launch in town. Nor will Canada Post open on Saturday to do special rush deliveries from Chapters or Amazon.
Originally this was going to be a moot point. Myself and Cathy had originally agreed that there was no need to buy two copies of the book. That I would wait until I got home in August and read that copy. However, I've since reconsidered. The notion that I can go two weeks while Pottermania is in full swing and not break or manage to have the ending spoiled is impossible. Plus, I don't want to spend my two weeks home frantically trying to cram in the last book. I'd just as soon go out and do things.
So my order to Chapters will be going in shortly. Hopefully I'll manage to get it a couple of days after its released. I should be able to dodge spoilers that long.
On the upside, the movie is going to open here this coming Friday. Although knowing it’s playing on IMAX in Ottawa is mildly torturous. There are some movies you want to see on the really big screen and that would be one of them.
However, even though it's opening here, I’ve learned my lesson. Never go see a movie opening weekend in Iqaluit. The audiences are just horrific in the amount they talk, carry on or bring small, crying children into the theatre with them. No thanks. I can wait a few extra days.
Oh, and for the record, I think Harry lives. And that Snape is on the side of the angels. And I'm not completely convinced Dumbledore is dead. I'll find out soon enough.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Book tag
Ian tagged me on this one, and while I don't always respond to tags (OM is notorious for sending me chain mail) this one is fun. Also, just because I can, I'm using favourite book and comic book. I have lots and lots of both and way too many favourites…
1. One Book That Changed My Life
I think it would be "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke. It was the first "adult" novel I read when I was about 10-12 years old. I was just enthralled with the book and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the end meant because it wasn't "Happily ever after". It was the first time I realized that science fiction, at its best, is far more than big action sequences, aliens and space ships trying to blow each other up (ie. Star Wars).
The one comic book that changed by life was "The Anatomy Lesson" from #21 of Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. Which might sound silly, but 25 years later it remains a masterpiece on the level of Edgar Allan Poe in terms of crafting a truly scary and disturbing story. It was the first time I realized that comics could be more than guys in tights beating each other up.
2. One Book I Have Read More Than Once
"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Yes, maybe it should be some great piece of literature. But I've lost one copy of this book from lending it out so much and had another destroyed from over-reading. I'm on my third copy. Fifteen years after it came out it remains one of the funniest books I've ever read.
Comic book wise I'm going with "The Complete Frank Miller Batman" which contains two of the best Batman stories ever written – "Year One" and "The Dark Knight Returns." It laid the ground work for every cinematic version of Batman since 1988. Except for the horrific "Batman and Robin" which was inspired by Joel Shumacher's wallet not having enough cash in it so he decided to sell his soul to toy companies.
3. One Book I Would Want On A Desert Island
So here's the rub, would I pick a book that everyone tells me I should read just so I'm finally forced to go through it out of sheer boredom, or something I genuinely love? Because the only time I was able to get through the terrible "The Shipping News", which everyone told me I had to read, was when I was in South Korea and desperate for anything written in English.
So if it's the former, I'd go with "Lord of the Rings" in the hope I might find out why people love this book and I've been bored into a coma within 10 pages. If it's the later, then I would pick the "Complete Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke." And yes, the "SAS Survival Guide" might be more useful, but I'm going with the assumption someone is going to rescue me before starvations sets in.
The comic book would be "Absolute Watchmen" by Alan Moore. Given enough time I might finally figure out all the narrative tricks he used in completing what Time Magazine called one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20 th century.
4. One Book That Made Me Laugh
I already used "Good Omens", so instead I'll use "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore. Almost anything by Moore is funny (his funniest idea is still "The Stupidest Angel" about the Christmas Angel accidentally unleashing a plague of zombies on Christmas Eve who chant "First we feast, then IKEA.", but it's more of a novella than a full book), but this was his first book, which I picked up on a lark and was floored by how funny it was.
Comic book – "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius" by Judd Winick. A foul mouth 10-year-old, who just happens to be the smartest person on the planet, and his well meaning, not so bright, hormonally over-charged best friend and the weirdness that they get involved in. I've laughed so hard while reading this on public transportation that I was unable to explain why a comic was doing this to me. Find it, seriously.
5. One Book That Made Me Cry
A tough one. Not because I'm so macho that I don't cry, just having a hard time remembering one. I think I got upset several times while reading "Shake Hands With The Devil" by Romeo Dallaire. The poor bastard.
Comic Book - "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. The story of a Holocaust survivor as told to his son. However, both are portrayed as mice while the Nazis are portrayed as cats. It sounds stupid, but it's a masterpiece and is at least as emotionally powerful as "Schindler's List." It also won the Pulitzer Prize, the only graphic novel to do so.
6. Two Books I Wish Had Been Written
"Craig, this is how you write a novel and become rich"
"Final Foundation" by Isaac Asimov.
Comic Book – "Barry Ween: Boy Genius in Space" by Judd Winick.
7. One Book I Wish Had Never Been Written
"Lure of the Labrador Wild", which a high school English teacher once described to me as "like reading Revelations backwards". Not entirely sure what that means, but it was said in a context that indicated it was horrible. And it is. Part of my problem with high school English is far too often terrible books are selected. And really, if you ever want some of these kids to read again, let alone pick up another novel, this book should be banned from the Newfoundland curriculum. Just a dreadfully dry, dull, boring book. I understand it's still being taught. May God have mercy on their souls…
I'm not especially proud of that "Charles Barkley vs. Godzilla" comic I bought back in the day, but there has been much worse. Probably Todd McFarlene's "Spawn" because it was a mediocre comic that had plenty of dramatic, and not always positive, impacts on the comic industry and many of its professional.
8. One Book I Am Currently Reading
"Two Trains Running" by Andrew Vachss. "The Custodian of Paradise" by Wayne Johnson is up next. Oh, I don't know if "Lonely Planet: Costa Rica " counts.
Comic Book – Just finished rereading "300" by Frank Miller. Waiting for Ed Brubaker's run on "Captain America" to arrive from Chapters.
9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read
I have bookshelves full of books I've been meaning to read. Probably "A Crack in the Edge of the World" by Simon Winchester, which is about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Meant to read it before going on the big trip. Ah well…
Comic – "Fell" by Warren Ellis. I'm a big Ellis fan and have most of his collections. However, Fell isn't out in it yet and might not be for some time, which is a pity.
As for who I want to see respond to this – OM, Mireille and Helmut.
1. One Book That Changed My Life
I think it would be "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke. It was the first "adult" novel I read when I was about 10-12 years old. I was just enthralled with the book and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the end meant because it wasn't "Happily ever after". It was the first time I realized that science fiction, at its best, is far more than big action sequences, aliens and space ships trying to blow each other up (ie. Star Wars).
The one comic book that changed by life was "The Anatomy Lesson" from #21 of Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. Which might sound silly, but 25 years later it remains a masterpiece on the level of Edgar Allan Poe in terms of crafting a truly scary and disturbing story. It was the first time I realized that comics could be more than guys in tights beating each other up.
2. One Book I Have Read More Than Once
"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Yes, maybe it should be some great piece of literature. But I've lost one copy of this book from lending it out so much and had another destroyed from over-reading. I'm on my third copy. Fifteen years after it came out it remains one of the funniest books I've ever read.
Comic book wise I'm going with "The Complete Frank Miller Batman" which contains two of the best Batman stories ever written – "Year One" and "The Dark Knight Returns." It laid the ground work for every cinematic version of Batman since 1988. Except for the horrific "Batman and Robin" which was inspired by Joel Shumacher's wallet not having enough cash in it so he decided to sell his soul to toy companies.
3. One Book I Would Want On A Desert Island
So here's the rub, would I pick a book that everyone tells me I should read just so I'm finally forced to go through it out of sheer boredom, or something I genuinely love? Because the only time I was able to get through the terrible "The Shipping News", which everyone told me I had to read, was when I was in South Korea and desperate for anything written in English.
So if it's the former, I'd go with "Lord of the Rings" in the hope I might find out why people love this book and I've been bored into a coma within 10 pages. If it's the later, then I would pick the "Complete Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke." And yes, the "SAS Survival Guide" might be more useful, but I'm going with the assumption someone is going to rescue me before starvations sets in.
The comic book would be "Absolute Watchmen" by Alan Moore. Given enough time I might finally figure out all the narrative tricks he used in completing what Time Magazine called one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20 th century.
4. One Book That Made Me Laugh
I already used "Good Omens", so instead I'll use "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore. Almost anything by Moore is funny (his funniest idea is still "The Stupidest Angel" about the Christmas Angel accidentally unleashing a plague of zombies on Christmas Eve who chant "First we feast, then IKEA.", but it's more of a novella than a full book), but this was his first book, which I picked up on a lark and was floored by how funny it was.
Comic book – "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius" by Judd Winick. A foul mouth 10-year-old, who just happens to be the smartest person on the planet, and his well meaning, not so bright, hormonally over-charged best friend and the weirdness that they get involved in. I've laughed so hard while reading this on public transportation that I was unable to explain why a comic was doing this to me. Find it, seriously.
5. One Book That Made Me Cry
A tough one. Not because I'm so macho that I don't cry, just having a hard time remembering one. I think I got upset several times while reading "Shake Hands With The Devil" by Romeo Dallaire. The poor bastard.
Comic Book - "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. The story of a Holocaust survivor as told to his son. However, both are portrayed as mice while the Nazis are portrayed as cats. It sounds stupid, but it's a masterpiece and is at least as emotionally powerful as "Schindler's List." It also won the Pulitzer Prize, the only graphic novel to do so.
6. Two Books I Wish Had Been Written
"Craig, this is how you write a novel and become rich"
"Final Foundation" by Isaac Asimov.
Comic Book – "Barry Ween: Boy Genius in Space" by Judd Winick.
7. One Book I Wish Had Never Been Written
"Lure of the Labrador Wild", which a high school English teacher once described to me as "like reading Revelations backwards". Not entirely sure what that means, but it was said in a context that indicated it was horrible. And it is. Part of my problem with high school English is far too often terrible books are selected. And really, if you ever want some of these kids to read again, let alone pick up another novel, this book should be banned from the Newfoundland curriculum. Just a dreadfully dry, dull, boring book. I understand it's still being taught. May God have mercy on their souls…
I'm not especially proud of that "Charles Barkley vs. Godzilla" comic I bought back in the day, but there has been much worse. Probably Todd McFarlene's "Spawn" because it was a mediocre comic that had plenty of dramatic, and not always positive, impacts on the comic industry and many of its professional.
8. One Book I Am Currently Reading
"Two Trains Running" by Andrew Vachss. "The Custodian of Paradise" by Wayne Johnson is up next. Oh, I don't know if "Lonely Planet: Costa Rica " counts.
Comic Book – Just finished rereading "300" by Frank Miller. Waiting for Ed Brubaker's run on "Captain America" to arrive from Chapters.
9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read
I have bookshelves full of books I've been meaning to read. Probably "A Crack in the Edge of the World" by Simon Winchester, which is about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Meant to read it before going on the big trip. Ah well…
Comic – "Fell" by Warren Ellis. I'm a big Ellis fan and have most of his collections. However, Fell isn't out in it yet and might not be for some time, which is a pity.
As for who I want to see respond to this – OM, Mireille and Helmut.
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