Books for Maine
18 April 2011 15:49My mom and I are leaving this Thursday for a one-week visit with my maternal grandparents and aunt in Maine; I'm planning on driving.
Yesterday, I drove to the main library to check out some books for the trip. I ended up having to weed some out as I didn't think I'd finish more than four novels, even with the one free renewal option. Here are my selections:
-A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. I don't remember where I heard about this book (part of me thinks it was through Thief or Deus Ex), but it's been on my recommendation list for a while. My understanding is that it's post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel with religious aspects.
-Diaspora by Greg Egan. Greg Egan is a hard science-fiction writer, 'hard' being a subgenre of sci-fi that, in general, strives to be more accurate to modern scientific knowledge. I've never read him before, but have been recommended a number of his novels and picked this up as my first.
-Stealing Fire by Jo Graham. This recommendation comes from the BPAL forums, specifically the thread discussing LGBTQ characters in fiction. Stealing Fire is set after Alexander the Great's death and I have rather high expectations for this book as I love Mary Renault's Alexander series.
-Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T. E. Lawrence. This is Lawrence's personal account of Arab Revolt during the first World War. I've been fascinated with T. E. Lawrence, perhaps better known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', even since I saw the film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. [That's Lawrence from A Dangerous Man in my icon.] The 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole was on TV a few weeks ago and revived my interest. I've already read some of Lawrence's writing and his narration is vivid and intriguing.
I only checked out four trades: DMZ volume 3 (Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, published by Vertigo), Ex Machina volume 2 (Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister, published by Wildstorm), and both seasons of Sleeper (Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, also Wildstorm). The library has a number of other comics on my rec list, but I wanted to focus on Wildstorm titles and finishing series I had already started.
Sandman, 100 Bullets, and Unknown Solider, all from Vertigo, are also on my to-finish list. Technically, so are Fables and Runaways, but I have no interest in doing so. My top comics-to-finish are actually Transmetropolitan, Stormwatch, and Global Frequency, but the library doesn't own any of those. (For some reason, it's hard to find anything by Warren Ellis locally.)
Unrelated, last Friday's Batman: The Brave and the Bold was AMAZING. I love BatB's Joker and can't believe this will be the show's last season; I'm highly biased since Batman is my favourite main DC universe character, but I like BatB much more than Young Justice.
Yesterday, I drove to the main library to check out some books for the trip. I ended up having to weed some out as I didn't think I'd finish more than four novels, even with the one free renewal option. Here are my selections:
-A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. I don't remember where I heard about this book (part of me thinks it was through Thief or Deus Ex), but it's been on my recommendation list for a while. My understanding is that it's post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel with religious aspects.
-Diaspora by Greg Egan. Greg Egan is a hard science-fiction writer, 'hard' being a subgenre of sci-fi that, in general, strives to be more accurate to modern scientific knowledge. I've never read him before, but have been recommended a number of his novels and picked this up as my first.
-Stealing Fire by Jo Graham. This recommendation comes from the BPAL forums, specifically the thread discussing LGBTQ characters in fiction. Stealing Fire is set after Alexander the Great's death and I have rather high expectations for this book as I love Mary Renault's Alexander series.
-Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T. E. Lawrence. This is Lawrence's personal account of Arab Revolt during the first World War. I've been fascinated with T. E. Lawrence, perhaps better known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', even since I saw the film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. [That's Lawrence from A Dangerous Man in my icon.] The 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole was on TV a few weeks ago and revived my interest. I've already read some of Lawrence's writing and his narration is vivid and intriguing.
I only checked out four trades: DMZ volume 3 (Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, published by Vertigo), Ex Machina volume 2 (Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister, published by Wildstorm), and both seasons of Sleeper (Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, also Wildstorm). The library has a number of other comics on my rec list, but I wanted to focus on Wildstorm titles and finishing series I had already started.
Sandman, 100 Bullets, and Unknown Solider, all from Vertigo, are also on my to-finish list. Technically, so are Fables and Runaways, but I have no interest in doing so. My top comics-to-finish are actually Transmetropolitan, Stormwatch, and Global Frequency, but the library doesn't own any of those. (For some reason, it's hard to find anything by Warren Ellis locally.)
Unrelated, last Friday's Batman: The Brave and the Bold was AMAZING. I love BatB's Joker and can't believe this will be the show's last season; I'm highly biased since Batman is my favourite main DC universe character, but I like BatB much more than Young Justice.
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