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Why don't I have a reading icon? Still?
Apr. 3rd, 2011 05:11 pmI just found out that Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas is available for both the Nook and Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. I haven't read it yet, but it's one of those books people periodically throttle me for not having read yet, so it's probably worth checking out.
Also, Barnes & Noble's Free Friday book, God's War, is still available for free. There's been a lot of low-grade buzz about it lately, and again-free. I'm not that far into it, but so far seems to be a light read with an original world.
This is all to say: If I've promised you my thoughts on Palimpsest any time soon, it might take a little while. I seem to have gotten distracted by other shiny things.
In other literary news: I refound the bookslut's blog the other day. It's amazing-I used to check it religiously my senior year in high school: it was one of those things I thought that I should be into, that I should read all of these books and be able to talk about them at length and know the temperament of every critic employed of the New York Times' book review (all four of them now). Literary fiction and I had a bad breakup my freshman year of college-it's gotten better over the years, we're friends now, and we get along for my parent's sake, but it's been at least six or seven years since I read Bookslut. It looks exactly the same, layout and all. Anyway, they do have good links in their blog section, especially about writers, writing, and trends in the literary world-so if that's your thing, check it out.
I went to a two-part lecture on the Munsingwear underwear advertisements (you know, these guys) from the early 20th century-pretty much talking about the changing social mores of the first decades of the twentieth century, but also a lot about the homoeroticism in a lot of these advertisements, and how much of that would have been coded as homoerotic by their contemporaries, and why these ads would include homoerotic content. Now, when I think vintage homoerotic underwear ads, I think my friendslist. So I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet looking for more information on this to share with you guys, but mostly, I keep on finding the same ad over and over again: I think it's important to note that there were multiple series of them, stretching between the 1930's to the 1960's, and with various shades of homoeroticism. The best thing I could find was the author's book trailer, here and someone else's writeup of the same lecture I went to, here. Ah well, maybe one day they'll actually update their website with more information.
The other half of the lecture was on Gil Elvgren, the Norman Rockwell of cheesecake pin-ups, who is mostly notable for being the first famous cheesecake pin-up artist to have a boring personal life. He was the sort of pin-up artist you could safely introduce to your mother. You know, if that's what you look for in a pin-up artist.
In something that has nothing to do with reading whatsoever OMG NEW DOCTOR WHO TRAILER (stolen from zeitheist) OMG OMG OMG OMG
(eee!)
Other thoughts on other things (spoilers)!
( The City & The City )
( Downton Abbey )
Also, Barnes & Noble's Free Friday book, God's War, is still available for free. There's been a lot of low-grade buzz about it lately, and again-free. I'm not that far into it, but so far seems to be a light read with an original world.
This is all to say: If I've promised you my thoughts on Palimpsest any time soon, it might take a little while. I seem to have gotten distracted by other shiny things.
In other literary news: I refound the bookslut's blog the other day. It's amazing-I used to check it religiously my senior year in high school: it was one of those things I thought that I should be into, that I should read all of these books and be able to talk about them at length and know the temperament of every critic employed of the New York Times' book review (all four of them now). Literary fiction and I had a bad breakup my freshman year of college-it's gotten better over the years, we're friends now, and we get along for my parent's sake, but it's been at least six or seven years since I read Bookslut. It looks exactly the same, layout and all. Anyway, they do have good links in their blog section, especially about writers, writing, and trends in the literary world-so if that's your thing, check it out.
I went to a two-part lecture on the Munsingwear underwear advertisements (you know, these guys) from the early 20th century-pretty much talking about the changing social mores of the first decades of the twentieth century, but also a lot about the homoeroticism in a lot of these advertisements, and how much of that would have been coded as homoerotic by their contemporaries, and why these ads would include homoerotic content. Now, when I think vintage homoerotic underwear ads, I think my friendslist. So I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet looking for more information on this to share with you guys, but mostly, I keep on finding the same ad over and over again: I think it's important to note that there were multiple series of them, stretching between the 1930's to the 1960's, and with various shades of homoeroticism. The best thing I could find was the author's book trailer, here and someone else's writeup of the same lecture I went to, here. Ah well, maybe one day they'll actually update their website with more information.
The other half of the lecture was on Gil Elvgren, the Norman Rockwell of cheesecake pin-ups, who is mostly notable for being the first famous cheesecake pin-up artist to have a boring personal life. He was the sort of pin-up artist you could safely introduce to your mother. You know, if that's what you look for in a pin-up artist.
In something that has nothing to do with reading whatsoever OMG NEW DOCTOR WHO TRAILER (stolen from zeitheist) OMG OMG OMG OMG
(eee!)
Other thoughts on other things (spoilers)!
( The City & The City )
( Downton Abbey )