Went to a reading and signing by Charles Stross. I bought a copy of his new book, Saturn’s Children, and I also took along my battered copy of The Atrocity Archives.

The event was in San Francisco, at Borders. Did I mention lately how much I dislike going to San Francisco? I don’t dislike it all [...]

This will almost certainly not be as awesome as it should be.

A favorite children’s foodie book heading to the big screen – Slashfood

Robert Asprin died. That really blows.

RIP, Robert Asprin – Boing Boing

I was beginning to hope that perhaps when he invented the communication satellite, he got not only “this t-shirt,” but also, I dunno, alien-bestowed immortality, or something. Certainly he went on living long after they named an award for him, which I would normally assume is a clear sign that you’re no longer alive.

Clarke was [...]

Interesting. For you L’Engle nerds out there, compare with the anti-shark poison switchblade that Polly issues the protagonist in Arm of the Starfish.

One of my favorite of L’Engle’s books, by the way; read it many times when I was a kid. Not one of her best, but it combines spies, new age psuedo-science, regular science, [...]

I really, really like i09, but I was really, really underwhelmed by this list of 20 life-changing science fiction novels.

I know, there’s no reasonable expectation that every book on everybody’s list of books will match up. But some of this stuff is just dumb. The Dispossessed?? Please. “Oh, our societies are different, in a [...]

Okay, so I like birds now. Whatever. After a semi-recent bird-related excursion with a more knowledgeable and better-equipped friend, I developed a profound case of gear envy regarding spotting scopes and high-end binoculars; nothing to be done about that, but I can definitely close the field guide gap. My friend brought several of his books [...]