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.

Came across this book trailer on the Tin House blog. It’s pretty awesome in my opinion and makes me want to go play my old NES. I wonder if that is what they intended for me to desire.

Teddy over at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time is having a giveaway where you can win one of five copies of Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley. I read Buckley’s Boomsday and seen the film Thank You For Smoking which is based of a book he wrote. Both of which were pretty good.

Lance Reynald, author of Pop Salvation which comes out June 23rd, is giving away from signed copies of his debut novel. I’m just going to copy and paste from his Twitterstream:

@LanceRey

1. Want an early copy of POP Salvation? I’m thinking a twitter contest is the way to go. Details coming…
2. This is for all you camera phone photographers. Email me the best graffitti you see today to caleb.pop at gmail. My fave gets a book.
3. Deadline of 7PM EST!
4. And retweet the hell out of that one! I wanna see some street art Superstars!
5. No graffitti out there? Really? What a sad sanitized world it’s become…
6. Silly me, did I forget to mention? Signed and a week before release. Send em!

So apparently you should go out in to the world and find yourself some graffiti before 7pm est (4pm pst). If you manage to miss the deadline, you can always preview the book at HarperCollins’ site.

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.

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.

Amazon today announce the Kindle 2. Set for release on Feb 24th for the economically friendly price of $359. The sequel contains many features that were available in the original Kindle such as being able to read books.

It is at this point that I would like to announce that my birthday is Feb 27th and a Kindle 2 would make that perfect gift for any book pirate.

I would also like to point out this bit of news regarding the Kindle 2 and Stephen King. (Copy and pasted from Publishers Weekly):

“The presentation included an appearance by Stephen King, a self-described fan of the Kindle and who was persuaded by Amazon to writer a short story to be offered exclusively on the device. In the novella Ur, King includes a scene which is a long product placement for Amazon and the Kindle, and noted that in the piece the main character’s Kindle gives him super powers. “

Really Stephen King? A Kindle that gives the character super powers? *cough*sellout*cough* :-)

Yes. I do think that every issue of The New Yorker (1925-2008) is worth $19.99. It’s on sale at thenewyorkerstore.com. I had to pick up a copy for myself.