A Few Of My Favorite Things…

Been a while since I’ve posted, so how about a long list of things I like, June edition?

• Books:
  • Fiction (yes, it’s all speculative fiction, “reality” is boring to me right now):
    • Look to Windward, Ian M Banks – If you don’t already, you should know I have a rule about fiction books. I read the first chapter, and if I don’t like the way the chapter reads, I put the book down and never read it again. This rule does not apply to prologues, just first chapters. I prologue may bore me to tears, and I will still stick around for the first chapter. That having been said, I almost put this book down after the first chapter. Not because of the above rule, but because the first chapter of this book could have been an awesome short story in and of itself.
    • Android’s Dream, John Scalzi – The first chapter of this book is basically one long fart joke, and the teenager in me laughed hysterically.
    • Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe – This could say ‘Anything by Gene Wolfe’, as he’s my favorite fiction author ever, and this is book only reinforces that opinion.
  • History
    • The Slave’s War, Andrew Ward – I’ve been on a Civil War kick recently. This book contains snippets from interviews of former slaves to tell the story of the war. A great, unique perspective on the war that managed to change my perspective on it a bit too.
    • Manhunt!, James L. Swanson – The story of the 12 day hunt for John Wilkes Booth. While not my absolute favorite book on the subject, I still find this book well put together, and worth the read for those who haven’t read up on the subject.
    • Stealing Lincoln’s Body, Thomas J, Craughwell – I had no idea that someone had attempted to steal Lincoln’s body until I noticed the books title. A very interesting read on a subject not often discussed
• Music
  • Curtis Eller – Banjo. Yodelling. Mustache. What’s not to like? I’ve had the lyrics to Sugar in my Coffin stuck in my head for weeks. So much so, I made him a little poster with some lyrics for. You can see that here.
  • Beruit – Sounds like the music you hear in all those indie movies.f

Old Man’s War

Tor is launching something new on their website (which is being kept secret for now), and if you sign up for their newsletter, they are giving away a free (as in beer), non-DRMed e-book once a week.  This week it’s Old Man’s War, a book written in complete awesome by the awesome John Scalzi (John’s blog).  I understand that reading it may make you more awesome, just by seeing the words.  You never know!