SF Tidbits for 7/22/09
- Interviews and Profiles:
- @Fantasy Book Critic: Liz Williams (Shadow Pavilion).
- Book Banter podcast-interviews Robert J. Sawyer, author of WWW: Wake, and Christopher Golden, author of The Map of Moments.
- Sci-Fi Fan Letter interviews Tony Ballantyne (Twisted Metal).
- Adam Roberts’ Hugo rant to fandom is making waves. Check out these responses from artist John Picacio, author John Scalzi…and web comic My Elves are Different.
- Jim C. Hines is not happy with Realms of Fantasy covers and says “Sexism is Not About Your Ego“
- At the Washington Post: Kim Stanley Robinson has the essay Return to the Heavens, for the Sake of Earth: “Does the notion of sending humans to space still make sense in the age of climate change?” [via Locus Online]
- It’s Brent Weeks vs. Joe Abercrombie at Borders SciFi blog.
- Barnes & Noble Plans an Extensive E-Bookstore: “Barnes & Noble said that it would offer more than 700,000 books that could be read on a wide range of devices, including Apple’s iPhone, the BlackBerry and various laptop or desktop computers. When Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise in March, that online retailer had about 60,000 books in its catalog.”
- Orbit Books has whittled down the enormous outpouring of responses received from their Worst Book Cover Contest and came up with the Top 5 Worst Book Covers. Head on over and vote for your favorite!
- Entertainment Weekly’s new book blog, Shelf Life, asks Why aren’t there more bookish types on TV? But the even cooler item in that post is the mock-trailer for the PBS soap opera about well-read youngsters called ‘llectuals.
- BBC Film Network has a short film called Pop Art which is based on a short story by Joe Hill. [via Charles Tan, who listed this very story in today’s Mind Meld of favorite short stories.]
- At Avalanche Software Art Blog, Adam Ford presents this cool Space Cowboy.
- Lists:
- @Total Film: 20 Movie Worlds That Could Make Great Holidays.
- Bibliophile Stalker Charles Tan (Him again?) lists 5 Quick Points on Print vs eBooks
- Matt Staggs points us to this list of 61 essential post-modern reads on which you’ll find several genre-ish titles.
- Joseph Mallozzi’s favorite Movie Twists.
I’ve been using the Barnes & Noble iPhone eReader for two or three days now. No one is more surprised than ME that I’m finding it really nice and useful. I’ve read the first four chapters of “Pride and Prejudice” (which I’d never read before, and am really enjoying) entirely on my iPhone. And I’ll continue reading it, in odd moments.
I’m halfway between a Technophile and a Luddite, and I haven’t enjoyed any of the reading programs I’ve downloaded so far. So I was pretty surprised when I found this one useful.
And the Plastic Reader that Barnes & Noble is partnered with looks interesting too. I doubt I’ll get one, I still think they’re missing the point (please don’t throw rocks oh god oh god oh god) but it’s interesting to see developed.