The Book Pirate

… I have a blog. I almost forgot. Been so wrapped up in school this term that reading for leisure is a rarity.

There are a few things I felt worth mentioning in this eclectic blog post.

First,

Christopher Moore has posted the first two chapters of his newest book Bite Me (due out April 1st, 2010). Bite Me is a follow up to Moore’s 1995 Bloodsucking Fiends and 2007’s You Suck. While I am getting tired of all the attentions vampires are getting, You Suck may stand as my favorite Christopher Moore book. Moreover, the protagonist of Bite Me is Abby Normal who was first introduced in A Dirty Job. Aren’t book crossovers fun? Anyway, the first two chapters of Bite Me are basically a summary of events from Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck. Really though, you should just go read both of those books.

Read the chapters at Moore’s blog here.

I still haven’t read Fool even though I purchased it the week it came out. I feel I may enjoy it more after I complete the Shakespeare class I am taking this term.

Secondly,

I had to read The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction for the Contemporary American Short Story class. It was already. As with all anthologies, some stories I liked while others were not as enjoyable. Now that we are done with this book, we’ve moved on to…

The Best American Short Stories 2009. I recognize ZERO of the authors featured in this anthology. Most of the stories are taken from the New Yorker it seems. I’ve noticed spelling errors in a couple stories which is distracting. Who do I blame for that? Alice Sebold?

Thirdly,

I don’t really have a thirdly, but I believe things are best done in groups of threes. Oh, Augustin Burroughs will have a reading at the Bagdad Theater next week hosted by Powells to promote his latest book You Better Not Cry. That will be fun. I saw him when he was touring for Possible Side Effects. More details here.

And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer is released today. I think I may have to swing by Powells and pick up a copy. In the meantime, the BBC has (what I am assuming) the first part of the book available for you to listen to. Sadly I don’t have time to listen to all of it right now but from what I’ve had time to listen to, it’s worth giving it a chance.

Books at Bedtime – And Another Thing…

While googling to see how long I have to wait to dive in to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (Sep 15th BTW), I came across the following books. Immediately I started banging my head in to the wall and crying out “Why? Why?”.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre (Aug 11th) by Amanda Grange

Vampire Darcy’s Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation (Dec 1st) by Regina Jeffers

The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies (April 30th) by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim: Mark Twain’s Classic with Crazy Zombie Goodness (July 10th) by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz

Most likely these are quickly produced books to cash in on the fad. Coincidentally, I am asking myself why did I not cash in on it when I had the chance. But, whatever.

The Time Traveler’s Wife film, based off one of my favorite books, earned $18.6 million its opening weekend which was apparently enough for ABC to order a pilot. The TV series will be created by Marta Kauffman who you may know created a little known show called Friends.

I haven’t seen the movie yet. The book didn’t feel like it would translate well in to a movie. Maybe a TV show though?

We’ll just have to wait and see if ABC picks up the series.

(source)

A retraction from yesterday’s post.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is written by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen).
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is written by Ben H. Winters (and Jane Austen).

I mistakenly credited Seth for being the one to bring sea monsters to Jane Austen’s classic novel of life and love.

My bad.

This is was the first thing I read about when I woke up today. Seth Grahame-Smith is at it again. Depending on how you feel about Jane Austen, he is either improve her works or destroy classic literature. His new book, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, will feature 40% of Seth’s work and 60% of Jane’s which is more than he contributed to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

While I am still not a fan of this genre, this follow book trailer does make me want to read the book.

What are your thoughts?

A few weeks ago Tin House sent me a copy of Jim Krusoe’s latest book Erased. I have not read Jim Krusoe’s other book, Girl Factory, but I have heard good things about it. Currently, Erased is sitting in my pile waiting to be read and it will probably be a week or two till I get around to picking it up. In the mean time, PDX Writer Daily interviewed the author. So if you are interested, check it out. If that doesn’t tide you over (until, you know, whatever you’re waiting for), Tin House has an excerpt on their web site.

Aardman Animations, the people behind such films as Chicken Run and every Wallace & Gromit feature, have announced that they are making a stop-motion adaptation of Gideon Defoe’s pirate themed novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The Aardman Animation website says that the film will be based on two books from the series (the first two?) and that the screenplay was written by Defoe himself. It will be directed be Peter Lord who directed Chicken Run. Above is some early concept art for the film.

Earlier this month (or late last month, I don’t remember) Defoe finally released the fourth book in the series, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon, in the US (after having been released in the UK last year). Currently that book is sitting comfortably in my To Read pile.

All I can say is YAY!

Coming in at a staggering 4,032 pages, the complete works of Agatha Christie finally come bundled in one convenient package. Convenient of course if you don’t mind the spine which is over a foot long and probably weighs enough to come with a warning to not let children play on or around.

I imagine sitting in on the bus and pulling the tome out of my Mary Poppins-esq bottomless bag. For more information on purchasing this brick book, check out the official Agatha Christie web site.

After coming under attack from the US Authors Guild, Amazon has decided to give authors and publishers the option to disable the “Read-To-Me” feature on the Kindle 2. With “Read-To-Me” the Kindle will read the books on your Kindle aloud thus freeing your hands for other things such as knitting or, I dunno, reading another book. The guild argued that this feature will impact the billion-dollar audiobook industry. By giving authors and publishers the option to disable it, Amazon feels that they will feel more in control and will quit complaining.

Marc Acito briefly mentioned this feature when I saw him a few weeks ago and how it isn’t doing any favors to the author who gets paid for the audiobook rights.

As a reader, I can not possibly imagine this feature being useful. Sure we can make it talk, but the reading wont be able to do the slightly different voices for each character, provide tone or dramatic pauses. In my mind it would probably sound like a robot reading to you.

I found this Youtube video which demonstrates this technology. Unfortunately, it’s in a book open room with lots of cameras clicking and is hard to really make out the quality of the reading.

Anybody with a Kindle 2, what are your thoughts on the Read-To-Me feature?

Source:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/usitinternetkindleamazoncopyright