Good Morning, Prince of Stories, Hard Times For Book Trade

Artwork by E. Burne-Jones, April 1888, for the first book edition of William Morris' A Dream of John Ball, illustrating medieval equalitarian slogan.

Good Morning

This morning, I finished reading Prince of Stories, The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman on the subway to work. I very much enjoyed many parts of this book. The writing is interesting. There are unique pictures including a complete comic book story called Blood Monster written by Neil Gaiman, artist: Marlene O'Connor, Lettering: M. Kelleher.

The section on movies talked about Beowulf and Mirrormask neither of which I have seen. It made me like the idea of them so much that I reserved them to view. I was previously reluctant to do this because I had mixed opinions on the movie Stardust. My understanding is that the next movie that Neil Gaiman will be scripting is Neverwhere after Coraline.

There is a very long complex interview at the end of the book. Gaiman talks about his early obsession with reading all kinds of fantasy books. He could recite Lewis Carroll's entire Alice In Wonderland when he was six years old. I have a deep appreciation for Alice. He also had a fondness for C.S. Lewis's Narnia books as well as everything written by Michael Moorcock.

It reminds me of a truism that I have experienced, the more you read, the more likely it becomes that you write because to understand reading properly it becomes necessary to write. Also, I love his statement about dreams fueling his writing of sandman, and I especially like this little quote from the interview, " I like [Charles] Bukowski more than I suspect I should."

The last thing I can say about this book is that it is very well designed. Everything falls into place nicely, the interviews, the pictures, the stories, the art work, the original articles, absolutely everything seems to fit just right.

Hard Times For Book Trade

Hard times may be coming for the book trade. This is across the board, libraries, publishers, and bookstores. Books are not an essential item in many peoples mind during an economic downturn. I don't think most people live on books and chicken, or intellectual stimulation.

From Bookselling This Week:
http://news.bookweb.org/6457.html

From Library Journal:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6619406.html

New York Magazine:
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/52761/

New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/business/04publish.html?_r=2

Add in the general malaise in the economy and we are facing some hard times ahead. Peoples reading habits have also changed. This will further cause problems because of the problems with the newspaper industry. Publishing looks to go through a very turbulent period. Online publishing may grow, I am not so sure about traditional books right now.

Maybe, the big companies will throw off the most unsatisfied and create little companies that are lean and mean. We are living in interesting times...

Publishers are already calling the event Black Wednesday for Wednesday, December 4, 2008 when it was officially announced.

Daily Thoughts

Daily Thoughts

I am still reading Prince of Stories. The section I have read today is on children's books. I have not read many of the children's books. I just placed Coraline on hold and The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish. Coraline is being produced as a movie. This is a link to the movie trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPft7Sp33fs P. Craig Russell is going to illustrate the graphic novel version of Coraline. I think it should be very interesting.

There is a book only available in the United Kingdom. I could buy it from Amazon UK but it seems a bit difficult. The postage would be quite expensive. It is called Odd and the Frost Giants. It was written for World Book Day, April 23, 2008. I feel like a bit of an obsessive fan as I am writing this. I really enjoy Neil Gaiman's writing.

I have started the section on short stories. If you must read a short story by Neil Gaiman, read A Study In Emerald, Sherlock Holmes meets The Great Old Ones. http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf Lots and lots of short stories are described in this section. Too many to even write a list of. Read the book to see the summaries. They are quite nicely done.

Ah, I think I am at the poems and songs section. I am not sure what to think of this section other than the next one is The Scripts... I was rather surprised by this one. Hayao Miyazaki had Neil Gaiman write the english dialogue for Princess Mononoke, one of my favorite anime movies.
This is a brief interview on the experience. http://www.hollywoodgothique.com/gaiman.html

I think I am on a good stopping point on reading Prince of Stories The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Page 426 seems to be as excellent a place for stopping as any other. It is rather amazing to see the incredible variety of talent which surrounds Neil Gaiman; Dave McKean, P. Craig Russell, Hayao Miyazaki, Ellen Datlow, and others.

Good Morning, Good Evening

Drawn by Vilhelm Pedersen for the fairytale "Ole Lukøje" (mr. sandman) by H.C. Andersen

Good Morning

I read some more of Prince of Stories The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman on the subway home. I am still reading about the comics which Neil Gaiman worked on. Not all of them are to my tastes, I am not fond of Miracle Man or Spawn. The book touches on the lawsuit between Todd McFarland and Neil Gaiman over the issues of Spawn which Neil Gaiman wrote stories for. It also briefly mentions the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund of which, Neil Gaiman is a major contributor to. http://www.cbldf.org/

There is one comic that really stands out which Neil Gaiman wrote, Marvel 1602, which is a retelling of the Marvel universe during the time of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Otto Von Doom is the major villain. I think it is a truly fascinating alternate timeline story for Marvel comics. 1602 was the bestselling graphic novel in 2004 and won the Quill Awards for graphic novels. I really liked the reimagining of the characters.

Neil Gaiman wrote the short story, "The False Knight on the Road" for Charles Vess's graphic novel, The Book of Ballads which I reviewed earlier. It is one of my favorite stories by Neil Gaiman.

I have started the section on Neil Gaiman's novel. Between 1997 and 2000 Neil Gaiman wrote three different movie scripts for the novel Neverwhere. I would like to see this as a film soon. The BBC television series which was six episodes was absolutely wonderful.

Good Evening

Today has been a troubling if interesting day, Prince of Stories has given me a little respite to dream. I read some more of it on the subway. Charles Vess did the illustrations for Stardust which was turned into a movie. I liked the illustrated book much better than the movie. It seems that Neil Gaiman draws the majority of his characters as retellings of myths and legends. Charles Vess is a near perfect match for Neil Gaiman's writing. He also has an interesting blog.
http://greenmanpress.com/news/ Prince of Stories has an original interview about Neil Gaiman with Charles Vess.

I learned something while reading Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman calls writing on a computer writing a single draft then revising it. He wrote American Gods and Stardust longhand first. I find this rather interesting. It must take a tremendous amount of time to do this. There is something wonderful about writing with a fountain pen in leatherbound journals that is artistically intriguing.

There is even a bit on a novel that Neil Gaiman has not written yet. It is in the draft stages. The title is Time In the Smoke. Thus ends the section on the novels. Anansi Boys is described, but Anansi the spider trickster is almost self explanatory, he tricks you with a smile and style.

On another note other than Prince of Stories, someone left me a very special childrens book, Bunnicula meets Edgar Allan Crow, by James Howe. The cover says it perfectly, "Does someone want the vampire bunny to be... NEVERMORE."

On another note while reading Publishers Weekly, I found a book which I definitely want to read, Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Evolution
Adrian Desmond and James Moore.

I am glad the day is done.

Good Afternoon, Comfortable

Johnny Gruelle Rapunzel-- Just a little touch of bedtime stories.


Good Afternoon



This morning, I read more of Prince of Stories The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Every time I pick this book up, I learn a little more. P. Craig Russell who is one of my favorite comic book artists drew a number of the Sandman comics. I really like Russell's opera comic adaptations, Parsifal, The Magic Flute, and Bluebeard. http://www.pcraigrussell.net/



I also found out that Jonathan Carroll who wrote Outside The Dog Museum and Sleeping In Flame is a major influence on Neil Gaiman's writing. Jonathan Carroll is one of my favorite authors. His web site is absolutely fantastic. http://www.jonathancarroll.com/index.php



This morning, I did some weeding of the finance section, spent some more time clearing out my desk, and made some minor adjustments to the displays. It was not a bad morning.

Comfortable

Sometimes I wish I could

Live like everyone else

Big car, big house, dreams

Perfect wife, perfect child, perfect

I wish the American Dream

Cloudy, sweet, false, pretentious

Working husband, working wife, working

Two incomes prosperous happy

But likes so many people

Cracks break up the dream

I am not a comfortable

American dreamer in Neverland

Good Morning, Good Afternoon

Mary Cassatt: Reading "Le Figaro"

Good Morning

I read some more of Prince of Stories on the train to work this morning. The first section is about the ten volume graphic work Sandman. It goes into lots of detail about the graphic novel series. I also looked through the photographs and saw a very intriguing childrens book, The Dangerous Alphabet by Gris Grimly and Neil Gaiman.

When I got to work, there was and still is quite a bit to do. I have started on filing the law looseleafs and done a little more straightening of my files. The career counselor, who comes once a week, gave me a list of suggested titles to order which I did. Mainly books on resumes, job searching, and interviewing.

I also spent about half of my lunch reading magazines to catch up, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. There is one book which had a starred review, Greasy Rider which I think I will order for the library.

Good Afternoon

This afternoon has been quite busy as well. I did a bit of weeding and compiled a list of patron requests. I also called several social service organizations to get them to come to the library for an open forum.

I still haven't had a chance to read a couple of copies of the New York Times Book Reviews.

Good Evening

The Metaxu literary cafe blog network has closed. I am sad to see it go. It was a very nice collection of book blogs. I wish they had stayed open.

Good Morning

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902)Le Journal [The Newspaper]Etching and drypoint, 1883

Good Morning

Sometimes I decied to do things a bit differently. Yesterday, I went to my local library. I think that I often walk there because it is just about a mile away, so two miles there and back is just right for a short walk.

I had my jolt of coffee this morning. I am wide awake now. I haven't read the newspaper yet. It is going to be a long slow day. I am going back to work after vacation. I hope everything will be alright.

I put Watermind by M.M. Buckner on hold. It looks to be an interesting hard science fiction novel.

My muse is wandering today. I have started reading Prince of Stories The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. There are many many pictures throughout the book, a lot of them are in full color. The introduction is by Terry Pratchett. I think I will enjoy this. Prince of Stories is not just criticism of Neil Gaiman, it also contains some of his early journalism articles, interviews, and short stories by him. This should make it very interesting for people who like to read Neil Gaiman's works.

I learned that Dave McKean is the first comic book artist that Neil Gaiman worked with. Dave McKean's artwork can be seen here. http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/ It is more than a little bit interesting. It has a slightly mythic otherness to it.

For some reason I could never get myself to read Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I just could not imagine a novel about the children's book The Wizard of Oz being that great. However, I am going to try one of his early novels, Mirror Mirror, a combination of Lucrezia Borgia and Snow White. It sounds quite interesting.

Yale University Press Books Unbound program has a nice selection of ebooks for free to use on the internet. This includes both computer titles and poetry books. I read one of them as a hardcover, The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It. This is a nice selection to stimulate your mind. http://yupnet.org/home/

Good Morning, Good Evening

Good Morning

There is a new book on Neil Gaiman out, Prince of stories : the many worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner. I am looking forward to reading it soon. I really enjoy Neil Gaiman's writing. I think it is better than his films. Neil Gaiman's graphic novel writing is also very interesting.

If I could put together a panel of interesting fantasy writers and put them in one room, I would put Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore as my first three choices right now. I really like their writing.

Good Evening

I dropped off my books at my local library and checked out a few more; The One Minute Organizer Plain & Simple 500 Tips For Getting Your Life In Order by Donna Smallin and The Complete Idiots Guide To Managing Your Time by Jeff Davidson.

I finished clearing off the top of my desk at work yesterday. Now, I have to go through my files and put them in better order tomorrow. It is a first step. It already has made things a little easier to do.

My house is starting to get a tiny bit better as well. It is going to take a little time. I feel like saying a platitude; the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

Things have been getting a lot more expensive lately. I started clipping coupons this week and used my first $1 coupon for paper towels. I have a really hard time finding worthwhile coupons. I never clipped coupons before. Maybe, I'll learn something. Most coupons are for trash which I really don't need. I usually buy generic.

I found a funny little thing while I was searching the web, The Genuine Haiku Generator. It appears to be a program to randomly generate haiku. I rather like the idea of it. It is of course slightly ridiculous. Please try it out. http://www.everypoet.com/haiku/default.htm