Cult of Observation

 

On Douglas Adams, James Burke, and the People Who Taught Me to Notice.

This essay started the way so many of mine do. With an observation that leads to one of my patented wandering conversations.

Old Roads: The Road Forward

 

On Understanding How We Got Here.

So this series finally comes to a close. It's been some journey. It was, for me anyway. I always find the best way to work through things is by writing about them. This time it actually led to an interesting discovery. I'll try not to do that again.

Old Roads: Returning to the Books That Made Us

In You've Got Mail Meg Ryan is writing an email (via AOL, speaking of old roads. Though to be fair, the UI looks more like an IM than an email, but it's been decades and I could be wrong.) and she writes "So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?" It probably should be the other way around, but I know, for myself, that so much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, or saw in a movie.

Changing Sentiment

When I was a kid a bookstore was a magical place. A holy place. Full of action and adventure, science, and imagination.

Every trip to one of my local bookstores was something I looked forward to like a vacation.

Escape

As a lifelong fan of sci-fi and fantasy I have been experiencing make-believe worlds and caring for make-believe people for as long as I can remember. There are those who would have me believe this is somehow unhealthy as if entering into these worlds means I am escaping from my own. Maybe I am escaping the real world... but who would blame me with the world the way it is now.

Spring. My favorite season

I live in Michigan because I enjoy seasons. 

Well, that’s not entirely true. I live in Michigan because I was born and raised here. I stay in Michigan because I enjoy seasons. I could never really live anywhere the weather is the same all year long. 

Of course, if I could find someplace that was 65 degrees and sunny all year-'round, was surrounded by water, beaches, and had great internet access I would consider moving there. But since, to the best of my knowledge, no such place exists I will stick with Michigan.

The Hobbit Trilogy: Tolkien? or not?

With the release of The Battle of the Five Armies The Peter Jackson Directed Trilogy of Hobbit movies has been completed. With that completion comes the questions, second-guessing, and complaining that one would expect from such an undertaking.

J. R. R. Tolkien, Part Two - The lesser known Tolkien

In my previous post about J.R.R. Tolkien, I wrote about The Hobbit and how it began what eventually became a deep love of faerie and fantasy stories. I was originally planning on writing about The Lord of The Rings next, but lets face it, everyone writes about Lord of The Rings and what more could be said on the subject. I will get around to writing my impression eventually but today I would like to look at his less well known work. I say less well known but really that's only to the world at large and not to Tolkien fans. Fans of his work know these stories as well as they do The Hobbit or Lord of The Rings.

J. R. R. Tolkien, Part one - The Hobbit

As I talked about in my post Books That Captivated My Youth though I grew up reading Sci-Fi the past 25+ years or so have been dominated by Fantasy, or Faerie (Fairy) stories especially the sub-genre Epic Fantasy.

I would like to talk specifically about one author who almost single-handed brought me wide-eyed and fascinated into the world of fantastic fiction.

Field Notes Notebooks

I have been using Field Notes notebooks for years now. I purchased my first set in 2010. It was the Balsam Fir set and the State Fair Edition (Michigan). These are the perfect notebook. Small, tough, classic. I have not used a paper product from anyone else since that first purchase and I don't know that I ever will. They are that good.

The Books That Captivated My Youth…

Most of the books I read nowadays are epic fantasy. There is nothing I like more than to start a series where the books are 700 to 1000 pages long and there will be 10 or so books in the series. (Think Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan) It wasn't always like that though, when I was much younger science fiction was all I read.

As I believe I have mentioned before most of my childhood is lost to my memory, this includes a number of the books that I read. Some titles, however, stick in my mind and they left a lasting impression and I can still remember the stories to this day.

The earliest books that I can actually remember reading were written by Isaac Asimov and they were part of the Lucky Starr series. I still have all of these books in paperback in my library. These books would compare most effectively to the Tom Swift (third series) books which I also remember reading though I liked Lucky Starr more. I first read these when I was 8 or 9, but I have re-read them many times since then and they stand up really well. This is not something I can say about Tom Swift (any of the five separate series).