I was going to hold off on posting on this until I'd read them. But anyway, everyone hold your breaths for more unqualified bookreviewing.
I'm waiting for the leather-bound, multi-volume edition of "Tales From the Fargo Meetup".
Actually, though, I'm gonna buy the book when I get around to it. I think it's my duty to support other compulsive internet commenters.
There is a nice statue of Zizka, one-eyed and holding a big mace, in the town square in Tabor. Is there an inside joke connecting a Hussite with Mr Emerson? It was Hus himself who was said to be dyspeptic, though this by his enemies; Zizka organized the rabble which Hus motivated.
Front flap copy: "Reading Substantific Marrow will cancel out the ill effects of up to seven Harry Potter novels!"
Please! No spoilers or I'll have to cut someone.
I still want Emerson to publish a light book of aphorisms. That woudl give him money that could allow him to pursue his more serious ambitions. I think it would be a best seller.
re: 3
Isn't there that big one up on the hill next to the big mausoleum. Above Zizkov?
Yes, this one:
http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2007/05/30/new-life-planned-for-vandiacute-tkov-hill.php
lw, John used to use Zizka as his online moniker.
A book of aphorisms can be angry and depressing. That's how Ambrose Bierce made his fortune. Well, the fortune appeared after he died, but still.
If I read this, does it count as o-reading?
Sure thing. But
this one is warmer, less of a monolith, and the tavern right behind it had Velkopopovicky Kozel. Something seemed not quite right in Tabor last time that I was there, though; a surprising density of homeless and guys with neck tattoos. Pity, the town is really nice architecturally.
John used to use Zizka as his online moniker
Oh. Poor taste. It's true that aphorisms tend to the depressing. La Rochefoucauld is great, but not heartwarming. Even Proverbs is a drag. Marcus Aurelius, maybe? But those are longer than aphorisms.
". . . [W]hat motivated the work that marked this feverish period of activity, perhaps the most acute during Zizka's time at the Fargo House? Some speculate that recent philological work on trolling led directly to his publishing The Millenial Troll, however, the works over this span of time do not correspond seamlessly with such an investigation; consider his continental turn on the subject . . ."
Yes, my ambition is to organize rabble, repeatedly defeat the Empire, and crush people with my mace. Some say it's only a dream, but you have to believe in something.
I was going to buy a copy for my wife, but then I thought....
Maybe I should make a Lulu book out of my collected blog comments taken out of context. I'll call it Vignettes: A Threnody.
I have to get SOME reward for spending so much time commenting on blogs while resisting the temptation to start a blog of my own.
I may download it, I can come up with 3.75 after I get my rightrear taillight and the back property taxes get covered.
My concrete slab is cracking under the weight of my library, although I think the books help as insulation.
Um, just a thought, a test might be interesting as to whether bittorrent or newsgroup dissemination increases actual sales. Probably been tested already, and probably not. Is Emerson the rattle at the end of the long tail? Or God,can I comeup with the dinosaur with the mace on the tail? Anklosaurus?
This book is non-polemical and relationship-neutral. It does say something about love and money, however.
My royalty is the same on the download and on the paper book.
Well, in that case, what with the shipping and all, you've just sold a download
Yeah, shipping to Britain is almost as much as the price of the paper book.
A book of E-aphorisms would actually be extremely awesome.
But anyway, this is an impressive thing.
Not the same, but how many bloggers have actually turned their collected blog entries into a book?
I can think of Glenn Greenwald and "Mimi Smartypants".
By "book" I mean "non-self-published book".
It seems like if a blog is popular it has a built-in audience greater than that for...well, any nonfiction, nonsports writer nowadays except the real stars like Klosterman and Maureen Dowd. Publishers like when something has a built-in audience.
Language Log published its archives as a book, didn't it? And that 'Anonymous Lawyer' joke blog wrote a novel in which the fictional blogger is a character.
I'm saving my money for the forthcoming self-help book The "No Relationship" Policy, and What It Can Do for You!.
25. The "anonymous lawyer" book is actually great--I keep meaning to pass it along to you, LB.
A book of E-aphorisms would actually be extremely awesome. Or is that not what you meant?
I've read it. Actually was sent a review copy, and wrote a mixed enough review (Funny! But not realistic even on the cartoon level it's playing on!) that I felt like it would be pointless meanness to post it.
I'm reading Lichtenberg right now. There are a fair number of writers who wrote mostly little snippets. (Lichtenberg actually had a whole scientific career, but he's been forgotten as a scientist.)
23: Also, Riverbend, Poundy and the Julie/Julia project.
29: Fair enough. I liked it in a "good read" sort of way and it's on the enormous pile of books I agreed to review but haven't "gotten around to" actually writing about yet.
31: Haven't read Poundy. Julie/Julia I liked but thought could probably have used some tightening up.
Actually, I sent the review to the author and asked if he wanted it posted in an 'any publicity is good publicity' sense, or if he preferred not. This is probably a violation of intellectual integrity on some level, but I figured it's a blog, and I have no integrity.
Oh, there's that "Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About" guy -- Millington? I read that, and it shared some flaws with the Anonymous Lawyer guy; both were very funny on a page by page level, but poorly constructed to the point that I couldn't overlook it.
34: That's awesome, good for you.
I haven't read that other book--I loved the blog, but yeah, kinda figured, well, there it is; why buy the book? Of course, if one hadn't *read* the blog and was willing to treat the book as a collection of snippets rather than wanting some kind of coherent narrative, I can see it being fun. Like a good gift to a brother-in-law or something.
The 'Girlfriend' book is a real novel, nothing to do with the blog except that the narrator and his girlfriend are recognizably the same people as the blogger and his girlfriend. It was structured as a thriller that really didn't work, but I'd buy his next book if I saw one -- the things that were badly done seemed like 'first novel' problems.
and crush people with my mace
Given John's views on relationships, that s/b "Mace people who crush on me".
On CT, I've bid for them to do one of their "book events", but nobody has picked it up. Get over there.
Mil Millington's written A Certain Chemistry, which amused me a lot, couple of very funny farcical scenes.
I've read four blogs-turned-books this year - Girl with a One Track Mind, a teacher one, a copper one, and a paramedic one. The paramedic one was the most interesting.
Bollocks, clearly didn't check my html well enough.
Teacher: http://frankchalk.blogspot.com/
Paramedic: http://randomreality.blogware.com/
Not a blog book, but a book by an important blogger.
30: I had only ever heard of him as the scientist that Lichtenberg Figures were named after.
How many other physicists are also renowned aphorists?
