Comments for needs more demons?

Comment on Audrey Niffenegger: Her Fearful Symmetry by Terri

Terri — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:12:37 +0000

I’ve just started the Lorrie Moore book, but Niffenegger’s books are definitely on my to-read list after hearing/reading your (and Amy’s) thoughts on them.

Comment on Glen Matlock: I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol by Terri

Terri — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:09:21 +0000

Sounds like a good read.

Yes, I am catching up on this site of yours, by the way.

Comment on John Connolly: The Book of Lost Things by Terri

Terri — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:44:04 +0000

I’ve considered reading this book. I often eye it in bookstores, but something always keeps me from picking it up. It sounds like that something that you mention it needing is the something that, somehow, has kept me from reading it.

Comment on John Connolly: The Gates by random

random — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:11:51 +0000

Yah, that’s mentioned in one of the articles I linked.

Comment on John Connolly: The Gates by Me

Me — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:03:39 +0000

Speaking of the LHC, Did you hear about this?

Comment on John Cook, Mac McCaughan, Laura Ballance: Our Noise – the Story of Merge Records by Lew

Lew — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:21:27 +0000

It’ a good book and Merge has put out some great music. I thought the book was put together quite well, a good read. And I loved Ryan Adams’ intro, didn’t think it was incoherent at all.

Comment on John Cook, Mac McCaughan, Laura Ballance: Our Noise – the Story of Merge Records by random

random — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:14:45 +0000

I keep thinking of things I forgot to mention. Like: many of the individual band’s stories are funny (Stephin Merritt’s wit is a dangerous weapon) and/or poignant, and there are a few journalistic coups: Spoon re-started their career with the newsworthy vilification of their former A&R man on the “The Agony of Laffitte” single; Our Noise has a little bit of Ron Lafitte’s take on the debacle.

Also the book makes a compelling case that despite some records with big sales numbers (especially The Arcade Fire), Merge is much closer kin to DIY/shoestring-budget labels than major-distributed labels like Sub-Pop and Matador. The parallels to DisChord are particularly striking, with Mac playing Ian (enthusiastic, expansive) and Laura as Jeff Nelson (a little more pragmatic and cautious about releases that might not meet expectations of the label).

Comment on Michael Moorcock: Gloriana by villain

villain — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:27:55 +0000

I’m probably over-reacting.

Comment on Michael Moorcock: Gloriana by Tim Walters

Tim Walters — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:59:45 +0000

Hm. I always cite this as my favorite Moorcock fantasy novel despite not having read it since I was a teenager. I don’t remember it being *that* nasty, but probably I’ve just repressed it–all I can recall is the cool Peake-y mannered weirdness of it. I should read it again and see how I feel now.

If you want to give him another chance, Mother London is kinder, gentler Moorcock, and a great book. Not fantasy, though.

Comment on Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon by KPinSEA

KPinSEA — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:55:29 +0000

One of the first books I loaded onto my Kindle because it’s one of my all-time favorites. I work at a network security start-up (that’s actually survived for my 12 years here!) and the storyline set in the present day continuously had me recognizing people from my company, Stephenson nails the crypto/security dev community dead center.

The dialogue of Bobby Shaftoe … well, he would have spoken that way about those of Nipponese origin, so it didn’t put me off … and Shaftoe is just so danged funny that it made up for a lot. When he has his interview with young Ronald Reagan and answers the question about what he and his buddies did at the end of the day: “Pile up dead Nips with a bulldozer and set fire to ‘em … then go down to the beach with a jar of hooch and watch our ships get torpedoed …”, how can you not laugh at the mental image of Ronald Reagan listening to that?

I recommend the book to every friend who hasn’t read it, and warn them that getting through the lengthy Lawrence Waterhouse tangents on math and cryptography will either be a chore or joy depending on their background, but the book as a whole is so worth it, and so frequently laugh-out-loud funny.