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Jaybird

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

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29 Responses

  1. I just picked up Nobody’s Home,, a prequel to The Anubis Gates, which is one of my very favorite SF books. Also Skink – No Surrender, which seems to be a juvenile featuring the last honest governor of Florida. Very much looking forward to both of them.

    I’m currently in the middle of Light in August, which, like most of Faulkner’s best books, is tough going but well worth the effort. It’s an unusual book for him, because it’s more about individuals than families; some of the main characters are carrying the weight of family history (Confederate [1] veterans, or abolitionists), but the other is an orphan with unknown parentage, and for him that’s harder still.

    1. And also watching the Wossamatta U Bullwinkle arc, which features the annoying Southerner who keeps correcting anything that sounds even vaguely like “civil” to “between the states”.)Report

  2. Tod Kelly says:

    Read the play W;t, which was a quick/easy read, even as it was haunting and difficult to deal with. I would love to see a production of it someday.

    Otherwise, have been savoring the last Pratchett novel The Shepherd’s Crown, which I am grateful is one that centers on the Witches. Am also close to finishing Under Major Domo Minor, the sort-of literary fairy tale by Patrick DeWitt, who wrote the marvelous The Sisters Brothers.

    A little anxious to start David Wong’s John Dies in the End and This Book is Full of Spiders, after having loved the heck out of Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. Also very much want to get my hands on the new John Irving, and the Elvis Costello autobiography.Report

    • Zac in reply to Tod Kelly says:

      Oh man, my Tod, you are in for a real treat with those two David Wong books. I’ve read them both a couple of times, and they’re just fantastic. I’m looking forward to scoring Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits when I make my yearly pilgrimage to Powell’s next month.Report

      • Kazzy in reply to Zac says:

        I’m about 4/5 of the way through FVFS and am loving it. Got it from the library and queuing up Wong’s other books next.Report

      • Kazzy in reply to Zac says:

        @zac Is “Spiders” actuallg a sequel? Or just the follow up? Library got me that one but not “John” yet.Report

        • Zac in reply to Kazzy says:

          Well, it’s not a sequel in the sense of a direct continuation of the storyline of the previous one. It’s the same characters and it uses a bunch of the same concepts, and it happens sequentially after the events of the other one, though, so I’d recommend reading them in order. It’s not 100% essential, but I suspect you’ll enjoy it more if you do.Report

  3. aarondavid says:

    I started reading a fairly decent SF from the oughts, Mirrored Heavens, which so far is holding my interest. I also started reading JK Rowlings Casualy Vacancy and while I never read the Potter books, I will just say that from reading Vacancy, she had some things she wanted to get off of her chest. Heroin addiction, teens who hate their parents, swearing, casual and graphic sex. Yeah, she needed to get some things out.

    I am also still working on Kaputt, which is starting to give Blood Meridian a run for its money in the fun deptment.Report

    • CK MacLeod in reply to aarondavid says:

      I read MIRRORED HEAVENS. Kind of liked it, but not enough to read the sequels. However, just browsing around, I see now that John C Wright – whose “Golden Oecumene” trilogy is near the top of my all-time sci-fi list – has written a four book “sequence” that began with COUNT TO A TRILLION. May set that aside for first non-philosophy, non-history, not code-related book-reading in a long time…Report

      • I liked Wright’s contribution to Songs of the Dying Earth a lot; he really captured both Jack Vance’s voice and the feeling of the Dying Earth stories. But I can’t enjoy his work any more since I’ve learned what an awful human being he is.Report

        • CK MacLeod in reply to Mike Schilling says:

          Wud he do was awful othern practice law?Report

          • That’s forgivable, particularly since he was apparently very bad at it. It’s the bigotry against gays, woman, and Muslims, not to mention his embrace of the execrable Theodore Beale, that leaves such a bad taste in my mouth.Report

            • I reserve the words “awful human being” for people who have actually done awful things or done things awfully.

              I also don’t presumptively apply the word “bigot” to people like Wright, based merely on their positions or stray utterances – though I might to others whose views overlap with theirs, and to others whose views are opposite – but we don’t need to re-open that discussion today, and I won’t lecture you on my views on the views of writers. I’ll just say I found his books quite enjoyable, certain passages quite transportively beyond whatever government of his or anybody’s political conscience, and that that was enough for me.

              As I think about it, the Golden Age books can be read as the far-futuristic romance of a retrograde (quasi-traditional) hero seeking a place and a mission in a universe of psychedelically polymorphous perversity. The scenario of his recent series seems to be open to a similar reading. One of these days, I’ll dig up an interesting passage on this theme, the one I think of most often when I think about his books. Haven’t looked at it in a long time, so I’ll be curious to see how well it holds up as writing.Report

            • aarondavid in reply to Mike Schilling says:

              So, basically he is your Hillary Mantel*?

              *(Borderline competent author who props up their writing with Right On! ™ politics.**

              **Its right on! for the right crew of readers, if you are not of that crew it sticks out like a sore thumb. Others include Tom Clancy, Iain Banks, Mike Resnik, Steig Larsen. Children seem to like these writers, as they get to say Right On! a lot and they do not engender any thinking.)Report

  4. Glyph says:

    I finished S2 of The Fall. Boy, that was terrible. Do not bother. Aside from Anderson, the only bright spot amongst the serial killer cliches and icky exploitative stuff and contrived plot elements, was a pretty good David Holmes score – the main theme sounds a lot like the 1985 New Order instrumental “Elegia”.

    https://youtu.be/Mitw5haqx5YReport

  5. Maribou says:

    I am flailing a bit in my reading and watching due to some personal worries I won’t get into here.

    But! Jaybird and I watched an episode of Babylon 5 together today and I just started Book 4 of Ex Machina and I’m about to leave to go over to C’s house to watch the librarians and I’m halfway through Proven Guilty (Dresden) on audiobook and season 4 of Continuum just hit Netflix and…

    So it’s not that there is a lack of things to enjoy, just a lack of focus on my part, and/or ability to settle down.

    Also I have read few writers as fluid and elegant (including in their characterization) as Hilary Mantel, and I can’t possibly imagine feeling any of her books were a confusing hash. So now I am confused. But I’m sure it will pass. De gustibus, etc.Report

  6. Fish says:

    “DO YOU NEED MORE THAN THAT?!?!?”

    No. No, I do not.Report