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Frequency
Good Friday snuck up on me. I’m not complaining, though. It’s a three-day weekend, which means I’ve got a day to play catch-up on things since I’ve been slacking these last few days. Time to slog through Google Reader and pick out some flagged points of interest.
I’ll also be doing various little things around the website this weekend as well. New things will be added and I hope to (finally) get the Store section up and running.
I meant to write about this earlier but I simply didn’t know what to say. I was also rather tired this week and went to bed rather early most nights when I would normally blog. Anyway, in case you’ve been living under a rock, acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke passed away this week at the age of 90. I admit I’ve never read any of his work, nor did I particularly enjoy the film for 2001: A Space Odyssey (and before any of you film geeks start flaming me over it, allow me to specify that I do agree it is an amazing film, but the story itself is just too slow for my taste), as I’m not really much of a reader of science fiction. Still, I do recognize his importance to the genre and the scientific community, and he will be missed. Rest in peace.
Following up on my blog about the implications of Borders’ new face out policy comes two new reports on Galleycat about possible reasoning behind it. Not only did Borders receive a 42.5 million dollar “stimulus” (that’s a popular word here in America these days, isn’t it?) to boost its waning performance (which deeply saddens me), there is also murmurings in the corporate industry of a potential buyout or merger with Barnes & Noble. So much for all those Mom & Pop stores. This, too, saddens me. When I read the Galleycat article, I felt a bit like this.
Moving on to a bit more uplifting matters is an interview with Neil Nyren, the Editor in Chief of Putman, over at Murderati about the state of the shrinking book market and the investment in upcoming authors. It’s really worth a read.
I uploaded the first volume of NIN’s Ghosts to the media player on your left. You can listen to all nine tracks and, if you like what you hear, I strongly encourage you to go buy the whole thing. Five bucks gets you all 36 tracks in digital form. Ten bucks gets you the CD. It’s worth every penny.
In ALT-related news, I’m hoping to make the book available on Amazon as a Kindle-ready download. Also on my list is something I’ve been meaning to do for ages now, and that’s upload a couple of pieces of fan art I received (I’ll probably include that awesome piece of fan mail too). And now that I’m thinking about it, I just realized I forgot to post something months ago. I received an email from a former co-worker back in October (I know, I know, I’m terrible), and now that I’ve remembered, I’m going to share it with you:
Your book was great and a thoroughly enjoyed it! I guess you don’t ever really know anything about the people you work with day to day…you think you do but you have no idea! From the first chapter to the end I was pulled into the Monochrome world!Makes you realize that every once in a while that you have to change things up and make your life less of the usual and make it a little unusual. Anyway, congratulations on the book and your engagement! Thank you for getting me to read again. I ride the train everyday and usually would take a nap or stare blankly at the window…now I am inspired to read again (if only for 20 minutes) and be taken far away.
“Thank you for getting me to read again.” This, folks, is one of the reasons I do what I do, and I think that’s a great place to end this entry. Have a wonderful weekend and, for some, a great holiday as well. I’ll write when the updates are made.
Best,
TK
Comments
3 Responses to “Frequency”
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I still need to get around to reading your damn book. I’ve had a copy for ages, but I just have too much other stuff to read!
A few commentators have noted that Clarke is among the better stylists of that generation of hard SF writers. I’ve only completely read 2 of his novels, and I must agree. If you can make an effort to read Childhood’s End, I recommend it.
I’m definitely in the “2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated” crowd. The film I mean. I haven’t read the book (plan to), and from what I hear it’s more analytical than the film. I read a lot of Clarke’s work when I was younger, and I liked him. But I outgrew that style; nowadays I’m more into dystopian sci-fi and cyberpunk.
The 2001 film definitely has some good concepts and symbolism behind it, and it has a few good motifs I enjoy (HAL9000 was great), but taken as a whole it’s rather confused and frankly unimpressive. I’m counting on it working better as a novel than a film.
Man, that “thank you for getting me to read again” comment’s gotta make you feel great like nothin’ else. =D
Also, I’ve never seen the 2001 film but I’ll vouch for the enjoyability of the novel. I also have the 3rd and 4th installments of the series but won’t start them til I read the 2nd, which I can’t find.
How’s the ‘nation stuff coming along? I had to quit reading it a while back (university reading really drains reading of its enjoyability) but I swear I’m gonna pick it up again once finals are over!