Home  Books and Magazines
Books and Magazines
|
Written by Michael Salsbury
|
|
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 |
I found this article on ICv2 interesting:
JMS Off Bab 5 Novels?
From Mongoose Publishing
December 19, 2006
The saga of J. Michael Straczynski and the Babylon 5 novels from
Mongoose Publishing took another turn recently. After agreeing to
"give Mongoose a second chance" by reviewing the upcoming series of
Mongoose Babylon 5 novels for accuracy and "level of writing" (see
"JMS To Oversee Babylon 5 Novels"), the Babylon
5 creator has washed his hands of the books, according to a post on
his blog.
Complaining that the novels he was shown were "unprofessionally put
together and edited," JMS concluded "my feeling is that as
well-intentioned as they might be, they don't really have the
chops when it comes to fiction... so I've stepped back and said I
really can't be a part of this process because I can't endorse
something if I don't think the quality is going to be there. So
it's between them and WB (Warner Brothers) at this point."
Asked for comment, Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing said that
"the situation is not resolved," and that more news would be
available later this week.
|
|
|
Written by Michael Salsbury
|
|
Friday, 10 March 2006 |
|
If you haven't seen it, MAKE magazine is one of the more interesting "geek/hacker" magazines to be published, ever. Each issue focuses on projects you can do which are unique and/or fun. For example, the current issue discusses how to make a soda bottle rocket, a backyard zip line to fly from tree to tree, a discussion of electronic sensor interfaces, how to make a jet out of jam jars, and more. It's really quite a neat little magazine.
Right now, Amazon.com has a special on a boxed set of the four 2005 issues (the magazine's first year). If it sounds like something you'd enjoy, you might want to pick it up!
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 March 2006 )
|
|
|
Written by Michael Salsbury
|
|
Wednesday, 26 October 2005 |
|
I've watched Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" for longer than Jon Stewart has been the host. I preferred Craig Kilborn to Jon Stewart, but I've grown to appreciate Stewart's sense of humor and the excellent performances by the rest of The Daily Show cast. Lewis Black, for example, is one of my favorite comedians. Since the last presidential election, though, it seems to me that the show's material is more and more complimentary of the Democratic party and increasingly venomous toward the Republican party, rather than taking approximately equal jabs at both parties the way it initially did. (And let's face it, there are losers in all the political parties and none of them is perfect, so I know there is plenty of material available without focusing on any one party exclusively.) |
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 November 2005 )
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Michael Salsbury
|
|
Thursday, 18 August 2005 |
|
As you may be aware, the Project Gutenberg web site offers a number of electronic books at no cost to you. These are typically older books which no longer have any copyright protection (or other intellectual property protection) on them. In addition to their electronic texts, however, Project Gutenberg offers a number of machine-read and human-read audio books of the titles in its collection. These include works by such famous authors as Hans Christian Andersen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Benjamin Franklin, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare. To see what human-read books are currently available, visit this page:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1 For computer-read audiobooks, visit this page:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/2 For 16,000+ electronic texts (not audio books), see:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ For recorded music available free of charge, see:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/3 |
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 26 August 2005 )
|
|
|
Written by Michael Salsbury
|
|
Monday, 01 August 2005 |
|
Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" is a rather interesting place. Firmly located in the realm of fantasy, the universe of Discworld combines traditional fantasy elements like vampires, golems, witches, trolls, and wizards with concepts from the "real world" like equal rights for men and women, technology, and - in this case - mail delivery. The Discworld books have a little of that same kind of British humor we see in Monty Python or Douglas Adams' books, combined with some humor that is uniquely Pratchett's.
From the title "Going Postal" one might think this is a book about a person losing their grip on sanity and killing lots of people, but that's not the story at all here. "Going Postal" opens with the main character Moist Von Lipwig being sentenced to death and about to hang. Shortly after he hangs, he becomes unconscious. When he awakens, the local official tells him he was hanged expertly, within an inch of his life. He now has two options. He may take a civil service job that is being offered to him at the post office, or he may walk through a door leading out of the room. After learning that on the other side of the door is a pit leading to his death, Moist decides that becoming the new Postmaster is the better option. |
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 August 2005 )
|
Read more...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
