Thoughts For Today 7/29/2009

Henry James by John Singer Sargent, 1913

Daily Thoughts 7/29/2009

Today has been another quiet day. I weeded some in the large print and the 700s. I also looked at the new books to genrify some sections. I am thinking of four genre categories; mysteries, African American, romance, and science fiction.

I did a little ordering for the new books focusing on recent books in the media.

Right now I'm reading Xenopath by Eric Brown. It is a science fiction novel featuring a telepathic detective. It is the second novel featuring Jeff Vaughn as the main character. The first novel was Necropath. The setting Bengal station is rather interesting. It is an East Asian space station with lots of Thai and Indian cultural elements.

I also finished reading How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins last night. I really haven't had a chance to review it yet.

I feel a little bit scattered today. We also have a section for oversize books, 26 centimeter or taller is the measure we use for quarto books. One of the new ones sitting on my desk is The Art of Harvey Kurtzman The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle. Denis Kitchen is the founder of Kitchen Sink Press one of the early underground comics publishers. This particular edition is published by Abrams Comicsarts. Harvey Kurtzman is best known for creating Mad Magazine. They have one of my favorite of Harvey Kurtzman's comics, Super Duperman in this book. They also have a picture of Robert Crumb at a very young age which is kind of interesting to look at.

I'm starting to accumulate books again. There are a couple more which came in for me, How You Make The Sale by Frank McNair, Montmorency and the Assassins and Montmorency On The Rocks by Eleanor Updale. I think that libraries are very much like bookstores, they have a product to sell; that product is books and other media. One of the main activities in bookstores is called "handselling" where you sell a specific book to a customer based on what they want. In some ways it is not that different from "readers advisory" in libraries. There is quite a bit of crossover between the two skills.

Necropath A Bengal Station Novel by Eric Brown

Necropath A Bengal Station Novel by Eric Brown

This is a science fiction novel. The main character, Jeff Vaughan is a telepath who scans incoming ships for contraband from alien worlds. His job is to watch for the thoughts and feelings that are out of place on the incoming ships.

Jeff Vaughan discovers a strange problem, the station director is hiding something, but the director kills himself before Vaughan can scan him.

Thus begins a story of intrigue involving a strange alien drug which leads to a feeling of unity, and a cult that is connected to alien beings.

The setting is very interesting. Bengal Station is a bustling space port situated on the ocean. It is a mix of Thai and Hindi culture which enlivens the setting. The setting is mainly the bustling streets, except for a visit to an offworld colony.

This is the first time I have ever read this author. I was pleasantly surprised. Even though I read science fiction novels regularly, I had not seen this author before despite him having won two British Science Fiction Awards.

His writing is very gritty and dark, but at the same time fulfilling. There is quite a bit of the darker side of life in this novel, prostitution, begging, police corruption, and dark secrets. Despite, this there is still a sense of hope in this novel.

It looks like the publisher of this novel, Solar Books is also relatively new. I see titles going back to 2007, but nothing before that. This means, I may get a chance to find a whole new set of authors. This book was published in October of 2008. http://www.solarisbooks.com/science-fiction.asp