Lord Byron, Finden, Edward Francis, 1791-1857 -- Engraver, 1838
Daily Thoughts 12/21/2009
I am glad that Publishers Weekly opened their website so it is no longer a subscription website. It makes my job much easier. They have a very nice list of the Top Books of 2009 up right now. They also list religious reviews which should be useful as well as comics bestsellers. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6704595.html
Fast Company Best Business Books of 2009. I like the slideshow format. I am definitely going to read Viral loop : from Facebook to Twitter, how today's smartest businesses grow themselves / Adam L. Penenberg. http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/best-business-books-2009?partner=homepage_newsletter
I feel like reading something a little silly like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters. It looks entertaining. Read Street blog has a book review of Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford where Jane Austen is a vampire. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2009/12/a_jane_austen_spinoff_that_doe.html
I have four books which I plan on reading on my desk, Grandville A Detective Inspector Lebrock of Scotland Yard Scientific Romance Thriller by Bryan Talbot. It is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. I also have Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters as well as Thinking With Type A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton and Think Again Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How To Keep It From Happening to You by Sidney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell.
5 comments:
PRide and Prejudice and Zombies has a lot to answer for (though not as much as Twilight does) and not just Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters - the number of 'classic novels/persons meet classic monsters' tales seems to be on the increase. I've seen Scrooge+zombies, Queen Victoria+demons and Darcy+vampires among others. No werewolves as far as I've noticed - perhaps an untapped market there. Now, do you think they'd fit best in Wuthering Heights or as urban wolves in a Dickens? Choices, choices...
This happened because of the concept of Mashups on the internet. Someone took a map and added it to a phone book. This somehow translated into someone putting things together on the internet.
It does not make a whole lot of sense, but it is the result of someone taking a concept out of bits into the real world. It is the same reason people decided to add full length fantasy novels in the middle of video games. Take two concepts and mash them together.
Maybe they should do War and Peace and Werewolves.
It is a mindset.
On the bright side mashups have the potential to attract kids to classics, well that is what I am hoping.
Really interested in Grandville, saw a review recently and it looks really good, look forward to your review. And your assessment of Sense and Sensibility with Sea Monsters.
I have read a few pages into Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and it is extremely silly. Far sillier than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I have been looking at Grandville. I actually read it through once then looked through it twice. There is a lot in it that is easy to miss on the first pass through.
I think I will give the sea monsters a miss but Grandville sounds like it is well worth it.
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