Jan 2011 Bookbrowse #2

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In which I return to the Barnes and Noble at Potomac yards and discover that the New Science Fiction racks have numerous holes in them. Hopefully that means new sf is selling faster than they can keep the shelves full. Actually, I guess that’s what it means anyway. The question is how fast they’re restocking them.

Curious about the Philip K. Dick nominations, I checked with the info-kiosk to see which titles they had in the store. Yarn – 1, Chill – 1, The Reapers are the Angels – 0, Harmony by Project Itoh – never heard of it. Hmmm. Finished Yarn, btw and it’s delightful.

On other notes, I’m looking forward to more controversy about Tiger Moms, Make Magazine takes me back to my model rocket days, Wallpaper rocks, I found the writing section of the magazine rack (not easy), and B&N is the nation’s reading room…

click on image for slideshow (now with captions!)

TV Times

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"the color of a TV tuned to a dead channel" William Gibson, NeuromancerShe turned to me and said
I just don’t get TV
Having grown up
In the jungles of Borneo
With my Peace Corps parents
And stern English nanny
And the treasured books
That I (re)read
By candlelight.

Shhhhhh! I warned her,
As the commercial blared
They’ll hear you.
But she didn’t know
That the Nielsen ears were listening
And the knock at the door
Wasn’t the pizza man
After all. Continue reading →

2010 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

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I just found the list for the Philip K. Dick Award in my inbox (thanks Van Gelder) where it’s been sitting since last night, and I’m moderately mortified to find I haven’t read a single one. Maybe I’ve got that backwards. They look like a pretty good lot, once you get beyond the non-descriptive titles, and are all available in Kindle format for pretty reasonable money. So maybe the purpose of awards has been met, introducing me to books worth considering amidst the crowded shelves.

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This Old Pot

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Like many boomer kids, and some later ones as well, I spent part of my childhood polishing the copper bottoms of my mother’s Revere Ware pots. Actually, I think it was the only part of dish-washing that I liked, revealing the copper gleam on the pots, which were hung on a pegboard in our kitchen. Pegboards are another post I’m sure to get to.

When I moved out some thirty years or so ago, I went out and bought myself my own set…but without copper bottoms. They had the same lightweight and nearly indestructible design, and they served me well until about the turn of the century when my wife and I merged households. Continue reading →