Another Open Thread
Okay, this one is for people who want to talk about what video games they’re playing right now so that I can enjoy them by proxy. Or any good books people might be reading...
Tagged: books
Gene Wolfe interviewed
Interesting stuff from the one of the League’s favorite science fiction writers. Of particular note is his pessimistic conservatism (“The government in Home Fires is doing the thing that I expect them to do...
Chabon-Inspired Stray Thoughts on Huck Finn
I know, I know. You thought you were done with that whole Huck Finn controversy. But for a final word — and, in its way, maybe the truest — you should take a look...
Bread & Circuses: A mini-review of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
I finished the third installment of The Hunger Games last night, Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, and my goodness what a read. All three books are absurdly intense page-turners bound to keep one up far...
The Hunger Games (and other books and such)
I just finished the second book of Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy – Catching Fire. Both books have been really great reads – fast paced, suspenseful, extremely and surprisingly violent given their intended audience....
How Boys Learn to Read
Great op-ed from The Wall Street Journal: The appearance of the boy-girl literacy gap happens to coincide with the proliferation of video games and other electronic forms of entertainment over the last decade or...
A Blog of Fire and Ice
For the League’s fantasy aficionados (and Erik, who I know loves this stuff): Alyssa Rosenberg is blogging George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice. Here’s her latest entry.
The Other Tournament
Unsatisfied by First Things’ Tournament of Novels? The Morning News put on a similar tournament of books published last year. The only entrant I’ve read happens to be the winner, but Wolf Hall was...
A few books that have made me
This is more for my own satisfaction than the edification of our readers, but I can’t let a great meme go to waste. I tried for the ‘gut instinct’ approach, but that left me...
Dragonlance
“This book was one of my earliest introductions to fantasy and thus to the limits (or lack of limits) of the imagination. I read Dragonlance before I read Tolkien, and was just amazed by...
Ten Books
Following the meme, here are the ten books that changed my life the most. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. This book de-Catholicized me, or at least it began the process. It set me on...
A list of books from my childhood
Tyler Cowen and Peter Suderman have both compiled (non-definitive) lists of books which have influenced them the most over the years. I have thought about this some, and come to the decision that the...
“I had to get my book game back up”
An entertaining article on the reading habits of NBA players, international and homegrown alike. On a related note, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson distributes books to his players every season; here’s this year’s list.
In Defense of Holden Caulfield
A lot will be written about J.D. Salinger’s death, much of it on the subject of The Catcher in the Rye. Most of it will be more perceptive or better written than this blog...
The Art of Magic in Fiction: An Interview with Lev Grossman
Fantasy is a genre dominated by sword-and-sorcery epics, mysterious dragons, and tyrannical sorcerers. Few fantasy novels have joined the ranks of ‘great’ literature, and fewer still have crossed over into the contemporary literature aisle. The...
Our Twitterific Future
A few weeks ago, I lamented my inability to finish long, difficult books. Over at First Thoughts, Jared Bridges offers a more hopeful interpretation of our changing reading habits.
I’ve lost many books…
…but never one that cost $400. And usually I lost them by loaning them out. May as well give a book away if you’re going to loan it out. In any case, Alan Jacobs...
a reading list for fantasy enthusiasts (II)
My initial reaction to E.D.’s latest post was something along the lines of “oh dear, I’m not sure we need a comprehensive rundown of our favorite erotic fiction.” Fortunately, he’s talking about the other...
a reading list for fantasy enthusiasts
So in the comments to this post, I received a lot of reading suggestions for good fantasy. They are listed below with updates to follow…
