The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

I’ve been thinking lately about how books get on my radar. I usually consider reading a book for one of three reasons: (Note, this is all regarding books by authors I’ve never tried before . Authors I follow, I already know whether I’m going to read their next one.) One: Proximity and Pretty Covers There have been times in my life, some not so long ago, in which the easiest way for an unknown book to end up on my list was for it to be available at my local library and have an interesting cover. That’s how I read Recursion and Illium and By the Mountain Bound when we lived in New York. It’s why I picked up books from the middle of these series before reading the first one: Lost Fleet , Mercy Thompson , Kris Longknife , probably others. It’s why I’ve read a great deal of odd/obscure stuff from the 90’s. The Winter of the World . King of Morning, Queen of Day . It’s probably how I started on Anne McCaffery and Mercedes Lackey. In the town where I grew up, I eventually read al...

So I hadn't chimed in yet on the ridiculousness going on at DC Comics. I thought I'd give it a little time for the dust to settle, but most of the fallout is looking unhappy from my perspective. In case you haven't heard, DC is canceling all of their books and 're-launching' (not rebooting) their line with 52 #1 issues in September. They've said they realize that their titles weren't modern and diverse enough... or something. Which is fine, and maybe a few of the titles that were obviously green-lit to court a non-white audience will do well. From the part of “diversity” known as the female comic reader, I'm less thrilled. Most of the characters I care about look to be either changed or missing/dropped from prominence/made 'edgy'. Damn, I hate doing things in the name of 'edgy'. I haven't seen one pitch yet that looks fun: it's all spiky art and oh-look-how-dark-and-tormented-we-are. It sucked in the 90's, DC, and it sucks...

I learned the most delightful bit of fanspeak the other day. Watsonian Vs. Doylist. (Time-Sink Warning, that is a TVTropes link.) In short, this means the difference between rationalizing a story element within the context of its own continuity, or within the context of its author's purpose or circumstances. For example, a Watsonian might say: "I guess the character is right that they never noticed the vampires before because they were hiding", when a Doylist might say "I bet the author is just jumping on the bandwagon, there weren't any vampires in this series before!" Another example: whether a character was 'meant' to die in a particular TV episode vs. whether the actor wanted to leave the show. I am personally quite Doylist, more and more so as I get older. I am fascinated by authors, and the larger stories behind, for example, making movies. Audio Commentaries are often a Doylist's dream come true. But few people are always one...

So we're told by fairy tales, and authors of novels spend plenty of time coming up with names for their characters.  Names are tricky, and I'm sure different readers are more or less forgiving of different naming conventions. I can be forgiving of many naming sins if I like the story enough, but here are a few starting rules, starting with the most important: Names must be pronounceable.  Simple, right?  I just need to be able to read the name and have some idea of how it would sound.  I don't even have to be correct in my pronunciation.  I read about Eilonwy ( The Prydain Chronicles ) for a long time before I realized I was mentally pronouncing her name wrong. Quit it already with the weird spelling/punctuation! A little of this goes a long way.  A few works get a pass for when they were written, or if it's not too pervasive.  Mercedes Lackey popularized the abuse of apostrophes in the Valdemar books, (Shin'a'in, Ma'ar, k'Whatever) but at lea...

This is the first in a trial series of pieces from a more personal point of view, each focusing on a subject related to reading or books, but not necessarily on one specific work.  Comments are encouraged! I've been thinking recently about the controversy surrounding the Twilight novels.  You can slam them for being badly written, or for warping the archetype of the vampire, but some of the more interesting commentaries I read were from people worried about the message absorbed by young girls.  Bella is a doormat, and apparently the later books are even more troubling in their messages about love: Simmons, an educator who specializes in raising girls' self-esteem, lays out what parents and teachers are up against. "Among the cringe-worthy morals of this story: When you're in love, the only thing that matters in life is your man. If you get dumped, your life is over, so feel free to act suicidal to get him back. Even if he tells you he never wants to see you a...

So I've come to the end of my trip through vampire country, for now anyway.  Although I have picked up the first two issues of the new comic book American Vampire .  It's currently split into two related story-lines, written by Scott Snyder and Stephen King, and set respectively in LA in the 20's and in the 'Old West' in the 1880's.  Given the title, no surprise that it's about uniquely American vampires.  So far I'm intrigued, and I like the art, so I'll probably collect it through this first arc (five issues, I understand) and see where it goes. I'm not going to make a big chart of vampire characteristics and powers, but the one at Wikipedia is pretty great .  Also of interest, if you missed this link in a previous article: the Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness (Productivity warning, that's a TVTropes link...) Instead, today I'm going to give you a quick meditation on the importance of opening lines.  A good opening encourages...

"A Scandal in Bohemia," Strand Magazine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891 The Annotated Sherlock Holmes William S. Baring-Gould, 1967 "A Scandal in Bohemia" The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Granada Television, 1984 To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. So begins the account of one of the most talked about, argued over, reinvented and reinterpreted characters in Holmes canon.  Irene Adler was invented for, and only appears in, the first Sherlock Holmes short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia". A series of novels by Carole Douglas star Adler as a detective in her own right.  Laurie R King posits her further encounters with Holmes in The Language of Bees , and invents a son who is an artist.  John Lescroart implies that the son of Holmes and Adler is Rex Stout's 30's detective Nero Wolfe.  In the 2009 movie...

As you probably noticed, I like books. I also like lists.  So, for your reading amusement (and not just because I'm super-busy this week), I'm wrapping up the Animal Society Theme with a quick statistical-ish comparison of the six books I read. Reviews, in case you missed 'em: Wind in the Willows The Rescuers Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Redwall Mouse Guard Watership Down Stats Away! Continuum of Anthropomorphism: Extremely human-like society Wind in the Willows Redwall The Rescuers Mouse Guard Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Watership Down   Slightly human-like Positions on various species: Weasels are jerks, along with all their kin Wind in the Willows , Redwall , Mouse Guard Cats are bastards The Rescuers , Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH , Watership Down Rats are evil Redwall , Watership Down Rats are great! Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH , Wind in the Willows Birds?  They're okay Redwall , Mrs. Frisby and the Ra...