Quoth Og Mandino

“Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm.”
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An embarrassment of bookly riches

IndigoSprings_cover_smToday’s mail brought quite a lovely shower of books, as I got a delivery from Amazon.com and one from PS Publishing. The PS Publishing one contained my contributor’s copies for Postscripts 19, “The Enemy of the Good” and man, are they pretty. Amazing quality binding, paper, art, everything. And I think this is the first time I’ve ever had a story appear in a hardcover! Woo!

My Amazon shipment contained “Indigo Springs,” by A.M. Dellamonica, which I’m going to begin to read immediately if not sooner. I also got “Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon” (the 1996 book, The Wealthy 100, ranked the net work of 100 wealthy Americans by the percentage of the Gross National Product their personal fortunes represented. Hetty, the only woman on the list, came in 36th, five places behind Bill Gates and three places ahead of Warren Buffett) and, finally “The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs.” Unfortunately, this last one was missing pages 1-10, so I must return it for exchange. How utterly annoying.

But I’ve got plenty to read until the replacement gets here. Watch this space for my thoughts on Indigo Springs soon!

November 19th, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: Community, Reading
  • Sandi
    The description of Indigo on Amazon didn't turn me on. Maybe the book will be better than the blurb?
    And, sorry, but I really didn't like Soulless, I found it...well... soulless. The characters were cardboard cutouts shouting "joke-joke!" Your work is FAR superior!!
  • I'm reading Indigo Springs right now, and enjoying it so far. What I liked the most about "Soulless" was the integration of the fantastic elements into the real-world ... so many historical fantasies (and just plain old fantasies, come to think of it) make magic secret or forbidden, and I get extremely tired of that.

    But thanks for the compliment anyway. ;-)
  • Next on my to-read list is Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth. Would you believe I've never read anything by him?
  • Same for me. There are only so many stories that one can read in one day. Also, there are writers who are much lauded in the field and, when I read them, I can see why they are, but I can't feel it. Thus, I've had no incentive to read the classics written by those authors. And, again, there are only so many stories and hours within one day.

    In the case of Vance, it's a bit of the latter. About 25 yeasr ago, I read a few pages of Cugel, and decided that it wasn't pushing my buttons so I quickly put it aside. Mind you, it was a translation into French. This time, I'll give Vance another try, in his original language, and with me now much more fluent in the original language. Maybe it will click, this time.
  • You wouldn't believe how many works of seminal fantasy/science fiction I haven't read. I won't even bore you with the list, it's so egregious.
  • Ever read Phil Farmer's exercise in what Tarzan would have been like if written by William Burroughs?
  • Heh heh heh. And what if "Naked Lunch" had been written by Edgar Rice Burroughs?
  • For all I know, Farmer did that one too.
  • No, I haven't read that. I shall add it to the list.
  • Fuckin' YAY on the Burroughs!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD9Kh6jOwVE

    "Some nameless, mummiless asshole ..."

    P.S., yer blog rules. How ELSE can I talk to anyone intelligent who doesn't think I have ulterior motivers about snagging a book deal, hey?

    I wrote Camille a nice fan e-mail the other day. And NATIVE STAR is at the top of my must read list ...

    A few glasses in,

    j.
  • Man, Burroughs just cracks my shit right up. I've never heard the mummy schtick before. Priceless.

    Have you read "The Adding Machine"? It's essays on writing by Burroughs. Absolutely priceless.

    Wishing I could get a couple glasses in, but dammit all, must head off to bed.
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