John Updike died today of lung cancer.

Streetlight Manifesto’s We Will Fall Together music video featuring an epic battle against a zombie/ghost pirate.

It looks like 23rd Avenue Books in Portland, Ore. has shut its doors after 29 years.

:-(

Eulogy here.

Blurb for the back cover:
“Rarely felt boring”

I like books. I like books so much that when I passed by this particular book inside Powells I got excited about a book being about books. And I’m not kidding. This book is all about books. The City of Dreaming Books is a novel which features a dinosaur named Optimus Yarmspinner. That fact that I did not recognize the species of the protagonist until I was 30 pages in to the book really speaks poorly about my ability to pay attention to the details. After realizing my folly, I paid closer attention. Aside from books, this novel is chronicles Yarmspinner’s journey to Bookholm as he searches for the author of a short story left to him by his authorical grandfather. Once there he find that the city that is thriving with bookshops, cafes with nightly poetry readings, and some much literature that is nearly drives him mad. As with every city, there is a dark side to it. The seeder parts of town play host the nefarious book reviewers who try to thwart the sales of authors they do not like. It isn’t long before Optimus discovers who really controls Bookholm. After showing the short story to a few people who react with alarm, Optimus is tricked and abandoned in the dangerous catacombs that lay beneath the city. At every turn he is attacked by vicious book eating monsters and nearly killed a couple times by book pirates (!!!) who search for the rarest of books they are lost in the maze of the catacombs. Trying to reach the surface, Optimus discovers that the legends of the Shadow King, a creature that scares even the toughest of book pirates, might not be so much a legend as it is fact.

One of the things I liked about this book is that it constantly makes the danger even greater for the protagonist. Once he gets out of one situation, he is immediately thrown in to another which is far worse. The book rarely felt boring and the plot was constantly progressing and if full of what can only be described as mystery and intrigue. Since this is a fantasy book, there are other fantasy creatures that inhabit the world. As is a problem with most fantasy books, it can at some times be hard to mentally picture these creatures. Luckily, there is the occasional illustration to help your imagination along the way.

Since this world is centered around books, there are numerous book references/puns are at first are cute. But then they start to get annoying halfway through the book when it becomes painfully obvious that this fictitious world eats, sleeps, and drinks nothing but books, books, books, books. I grew numb to them near the end and learned to accept that this is a very book themed book. I became more amused than annoyed by them.

In the end, this book isn’t for everyone. But for those of you who enjoy fantasy books or fantasy books about books, you might want to check it out.

20 in 2009 Challenge: 1/20
The Book Pirate Challenge: 1/10

Happy Birthday to me (well, two days ago).

I started this blog one year ago. Well, on the 19th of Janurary was my first post, but I failed to notice it on the 19th.

I’ve been swamped with school the past three weeks which is why there hasn’t been any substantial updates. I made the mistake (mistake?) of taking on three literature classes this term in addition to learning a foreign language. Somehow I have managed to finish three books but have not found the time to post about them just yet. Maybe this weekend.

This term I am taking a Comedy and Satire class which wants me to find time to read 13 books in under ten weeks. Normally not a problem but so far the books have been greek classics like Horace. Those are surprisingly not easy to read. Luckily we have since transition the texts that did not need to be translated. I’m also taking The Bible as Literature which is pretty interesting. Luckily, we are not reading the whole Bible. Lastly, there is the generic sounding English 300 which I am still not quite sure what the topic of the class is other than we are reading Plato.

Anyway, I guess I should get started on my homework. Until next time…

This week’s YouTubesday contains scenes of animated violence.

Happy Tree Friends, the popular cartoon featuring adorably cute animals dying horrible, horrible deaths, presents Books of Fury. Buddhist Monkey is sitting in the library when he suddenly gets attack by Book Ninjas who rip pages out of books, dog ear the corners, and use highlighters. A Book Pirate’s nightmare.

Fellow writers,

do you dream about your characters? I would imagine that this is a pretty common thing. After all, during the writing process they are on the writer’s mind a lot even when there is no writing being done. A few days ago I had a dream where four characters from one of my story ideas were sitting around the table fighting the Reno, Nevada Local Business Bureau. I don’t remember what exactly they were fighting about, but I do know that it was my four characters versus everyone else. What struck me as most odd is that I have not written a single word about these characters. They don’t even have names yet. All they are are an idea that I am not quite sure how it works in to the main story.

Anybody else had dreams related to your own writing?

Everyone should know that September 19th is National Talk Like A Pirate Day. The creators, Ol’ Chumbucket and Cap’n Slappy, read from their book A Li’l Pirate’s ABSeas in hopes that you will order a copy for yourself.

2008 is over. I managed to read 44 books this past year. Which doesn’t seem like that many. I’ve been reading blogs where people have read up to 75 books this year. I’m willing to bet that they are not full-time college students. Not that I am bother or jealous of people with more free time than me.

I did read some books I really enjoyed this year. Douglas Coupland is on his way to becoming one of my favorite authors, but I need to read a few more of his books to be sure. Some other new authors I discovered this past year were Jonathan Sellwood (The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse), Paul A. Toth (Fishnet), Scott Heim (We Disappear), and Joey Comeau (Lockpick Pornography). I would like to read more of all of their works.

In terms of authors that I have read previously, Marc Acito (Attack of the Theater People) and the Dave Barry-Ridley Pearson combo (Peter and the Shadow Thieves) wrote follow ups to their older books. Both books were better than the first ones in my opinion.

In 2009 I am attempting two reading challenges. The first is the 20 Books in 2009 challenge which now that I think about it, it shouldn’t be that hard. The other other challenge is one I made myself where I plan on reading 10 books that contain pirates. I call it, The Book Pirate Challenge. There might be other challenges that pop up later on this year, but I will worry about those when the time comes.

To wrap things up, Happy 2009.