So I have had this Facebook account for over a year now...

A few people have been adding me as their friend and some have encouraged me to actually use the damn thing besides syndicating this blog's posts, so if you're curious to see just what I add the spare times I have for this, just use the email in my Profile. Might be a few days for invites to be processed, as I tend to be rather busy on work days, or at least until late at night...

A Matter of Choice

Two books are due to arrive tomorrow, Thomas Ligotti's My Work Is Not Yet Done and China Miéville's The City & the City. For some, the choice of which of these would be read first would be clear-cut, for others, it would also be clear-cut, but in a different way. A few might even vacillate between the two.

Never heard of Ligotti? You really ought to sample any of his work that you can find. Miéville? I have high hopes, but I just don't know if he's yet mastered the art of crafting prose for his stories the way Ligotti has for his. Yet most people would likely choose the new Miéville over the new Ligotti so they could choose the devil they know.

Ever wondered what it would be like to travel the road less taken?


P.S. Tamar Yellin's 2008 collection, Tales of the Lost Tribes, is excellent. She too knows how to make each word count.

Author Awareness Survey

OK, since my sleeping is all messed up right now due to trying to adjust to an insane work schedule (my body just isn't meant to be awakened around 5 AM every morning!) after a week off, here's a little post to tide you over until I can write the Calvino and Monette reviews later this week. Below you will see several authors. Name if you can any books that you are aware of (don't use search engines!) and any of those that you have read. Perhaps this will lead to some new discoveries for all participating.

1. David Albahari

2. Amanda Michalopoulou

3. Banana Yoshimoto

4. Richard Parks

5. J.G. Ballard

6. David Anthony Durham

7. Sarah Hall

8. George MacDonald

9. Jay Lake

10. Peter Beagle

11. Angela Carter

12. Charlotte Lennox

13. Dino Buzzati

14. Enrico Palazzo


There, that ought to be enough. Curious to know how familiar people are with these people and if there are books by them that I too might need to investigate. But now, I'm going to try and sleep again after crashing for 6 hours this afternoon/evening. Joy.

One quick observation about Dan Simmons' Drood

If the historical Wilkie Collins were alive today to read that, he likely would be in contact with lawyers about a possible libel case. That being said, if I feel better on Saturday, I'll write a review of Drood that'll be a bit more charitable than I'd imagine the real-life Collins would have been in regards to his portrayal there!

The wotmania Files: This was so cool/amazing today! (2/16/2007)

One of the pleasures of reposting things from wotmania is the ability to share with blog readers touching moments from my professional career as a social studies teacher. The following event took place two years ago today, back when I taught middle school social studies in a tiny West Tennessee town. After I wrote the following post, someone was kind enough to contact the author, Zoran Živković, and he and I exchanged a few emails about this. Unfortunately, those emails were lost a few weeks later when my old computer crashed, but hopefully those of you reading this will be able to share, two years later, in some of the magic that occurs when stories are told and transmitted from person to person.

It involves my professional life, but touches upon a story by Zoran Živković. Yes, the world is small.

Today is the last day of class before the students are out for three days next week (I am only out for Monday, however ). It was also Spring Picture Day, so I didn't plan much in the way of lessons, but boy was a life lesson given for me to present...and to witness.

I have a sixth-grader that has autism in my third period class. His name is Nicky. He is almost totally non-verbal, but is in my junior high world history class because of the need to expose him to other people on a continual basis. Yesterday, a boy in that class (not during the time I had them, but another class) had the nerve to mock Nicky and imitate his mannerisms. That boy was chewed out by the principal, the special ed teacher, and some of the students from other grades, leading to that boy being suspended for three days and then having to keep Nicky for three more days when he returns. A most fitting punishment.

But yet that episode bothered me greatly. Although the other students are usually very protective of Nicky, I have seen them make fun of each other and of situations that they didn't understand. And since it was indeed picture day and they might be called out at any moment, I decided to read them something.

The day before, I had brought my copy of Seven Touches of Music to school so Nicky's aide could read the story. I still had the book there and I thought it would be most fitting to read to them the story about how one day a teacher for the autistic played some Chopin and a child had an epiphany. They were entranced the whole time. Even Nicky was (although to be fair, every time I read/tell a story to the class, he stops what he is doing and listens with this look of absolute attention on his face). I finished about 5 minutes before the period was over. That was around the time that Nicky and his aide leave to go to the next class. Well, for the first time ever, Nicky of his own accord wanted to say something to me. He raised his right hand, and bent it up and down in the bye-bye gesture and then said "bye" to me - the first understandable words he had ever uttered to me!

It was indeed an amazing moment. Funny how stories can forge connections with others, even those we think might be lost in such a cloud as that of autism. Thought some of you would enjoy reading this. Oh, and do go out and read Seven Touches of Music if you can.

I wonder if this has occurred to others as well

I'm currently about halfway into Felix Gilman's second novel, Gears of the City, and I see he has named a character Potocki. I immediately thought of the 18th century Polish author Jan Potocki who wrote The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (by the way, do go out and grab a copy of it, as it is quite good). I wonder what other famous authors/names others have discovered while reading a novel.

I guess authors do have it easier than me

Interesting ranking of professions here. Authors come in at #93, teachers at #127 (a bit higher than I thought out of 200 total professions). For those of you reading this that work full-time, where does your profession rank compared to authors and/or teachers?

Sadly, crack whore assistant didn't make the list of worst jobs this year...

Ouch!

Here I was, thinking that the recent FBS tournament matchups were tough. Then I happened to find out about this Tournament of Books matchup. Roberto Bolaño's most excellent (and posthumous) work, The Savage Detectives, versus Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Might as well asked me if I wanted my testicles or my voicebox removed.

Two outstanding books by two Latino writers, each with its own rhythm and sense of place, each with wildly different narrators and themes, yet with a similarly high prose and storytelling quality to each of them. Two books that I would have had on my Best of 2007 shortlist for certain if it weren't for two little factors (I read Bolaño's work in Spanish back in 2004; I didn't read Díaz's book until after I had crafted my shortlist). Two stories that deserve a wider genre presence than what they are getting. Because after all, it's a fucking shame sometimes that so many people's reading preferences fall so neatly in line with genre marketing categories. What I'd give for those who want to go ahead and proclaim the umpteenth volume of a multivolume work or the "edgy urban" whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it debut or whatnot to just give either/both of these books a chance. I reviewed the Díaz back in January and I believe you can search the blog archives for that. The Bolaño I'd sum up inadequately (it's been a couple of years and I don't know what choices the English translator(s) made with the rather unconventional narrative style that Bolaño used to great effect in the Spanish-language original) as being a literal and metaphorical trip for identity and the seeking out of what was lost to both time and place.

So while my own vote would change based on my current mood, I still want to urge people to at least consider reading/reviewing these excellent books that aren't garden-variety strictly-genre books. If you have read/reviewed either one and are reading this, I'd also love a link to it posted in the Comments section, if you don't mind. After all, I am still all about pimping the best literature.