Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Thoughts For The Day


A Victorian era Penny Dreadful. Precursor to the idea for modern steampunk.


Today has been quite slow. I have been more revising of the reference area. I went into the storage stacks and did some checking of the old reference books for items to discard. I also took someone's reference desk shifts because they called out with some personal thing or other.

I am almost done reading Common Wealth, Economics for a Crowded Planet. It will take me a while to put together a review for the book. There is a lot to comment on.

Steampunk edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer is finished processing so I can take it out. There are a lot of really good science fiction short story authors, Neal Stephenson, Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Moorcock, and Mary Gentle are among the authors contributing short stories. There are even a few bibliographies of recommended works.

I can say my favorite steampunk story is not a book, but a rather interesting graphic novel called The Adventures of Luther Arkwright written by Bryan Talbot. It is an apocalyptic science fiction stories written in a parallel universe in the New Wave style. The story even has its own Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Luther_Arkwright
This is a wild adventure story written in a style reminiscent of Michael Moorcock at his best.

Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero by Jim C. Hines came in and were added to the young adult fantasy collection.

2 comments:

Jena Isle said...

I always admire people who can find time to read. I love reading too, but time is essential to be able to do so and sometimes I don't have ample time for it. Like now, I am blogging and preparing an exam simultaneously...(grins). talk about double tasking... I wish I could also have your fervor for books...Wonderful site..hey we have the same theme, only different colors..Happy blogging.

Book Calendar said...

Reading in a way is my profession. I have to be able to advise people on what to read all the time. This means, I often have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of what is available for people to read. People ask me where certain books are everyday and what they should be reading. If I can't recommend certain things to read during my job, in a way, I have not done right. This even covers things which I don't like to read.