aaahfooey: wisdom

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

wisdom

'Maybe it ought to cost £1:99 to buy a Robert Jordan novel and £45.99 to buy a Vladimir Nabokov one. But it doesn’t! Amazingly, it doesn’t! There is nothing stopping you going for the higher quality experience! Honestly!'

- Adam Roberts

No comments:

Regarding copyrights

I don't make money off this blog. It's ad-free and will always be.If I've used an image that you hold the copyright to, consider a few options:

Ignore it. This is just one poorly-trafficked blog and it isn't commercial use.

Cash in. I'll be happy to link to a page where people can buy a print or the rights to use your image commercially.

Ask me to take down the image. I will; however I will also reserve the right to replace it with a statement about crybabies who have nothing better to do than make sure no one ever, ever gets to see any of their precious work without first stumping up for it.

And in that spirit, here's some of my work, absolutely free:

Come Tomorrow
Run For Your Life
Aranya's Last Voyage
Fade Out
In A Room, In A Body
Empty Dreams

Books Read in 2010

January
1. Have His Carcase: Dorothy L. Sayers ***
2. Oscar's Books - A Journey Around The Library Of Oscar Wilde: Thomas Wright *****
3. Bulldog Drummond: 'Sapper' **
4. The Place Called Dagon: Herbert Gorman ****
5. Chatterton: Peter Ackroyd *****
6. The Book Of Dead Philosophers: Simon Critchley ****
7. The Sculptress: Minette Walters ****
8. Gothic: Fred Botting (Routledge New Critical Idiom) ***
9. The Castle Of Otranto: Horace Walpole ***
10. Vathek: William Beckford ****
11. The Monk: Matthew Lewis ****
12. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: David Hume ****
13. The Italian: Ann Radcliffe ****
14. Caleb Williams: William Godwin ****

15. Herland: Charlotte Perkins Gilman ***

16. Wieland & Memoirs Of Carwin The Biloquist: Charles Brockden Brown ****
February
17. Wylder's Hand: J. Sheridan Le Fanu ***
18. The Shilappadikaram: Prince Ilango Adigal *****
19. Anton Reiser: Karl Phillipp Moritz ****
20. The Renaissance: Walter Pater ****
21. A Face In The Dark and Other Hauntings: Ruskin Bond ****
22. Daughter Of The Wind (Yoko Tsuno 4): Roger Leloup ***
23. The Wolves In The Walls: Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean *****
24. Gaudy Night: Dorothy L. Sayers ****
25: Incredible Good Fortune: Ursula K. Le Guin ****
26. The Strange Adventures Of Mr. Andrew Hawthorn And Other Stories: John Buchan ****
27. Tales Of Hoffmann: E.T.A. Hoffmann ****
28. Triton: Samuel R. Delany ****
March
29. Hieroglyphic Tales: Horace Walpole ***
30. Black Hornet: James Sallis *****
31. Bluebottle: James Sallis *****
32. The High Window: Raymond Chandler ****
33. To Live Forever: Jack Vance ****
32. The Time Patrol: Poul Anderson ***
33. Enemies Of Promise: Cyril Connolly ****
34. Unnatural Death: Dorothy L. Sayers ****
April
35. The Lives Of The Great Composers: Harold C. Schonberg ***
36. Hangman's Holiday: Dorothy L. Sayers ***
37. Laughter In The Dark: Vladimir Nabokov ****
38. Mahler by Michael Kennedy ****

39. Bruges-La-Morte: Georges Rodenbach ****
40. The Four False Weapons: John Dickson Carr ***
41. The Mummy Case: Elizabeth Peters ***
42. Invitation To A Beheading: Vladimir Nabokov *****
43. The Heart Of A Dog: Mikhail Bulgakov ***

44. The Emigrants: W.G. Sebald *****

May

45. The Fate Of The Malous: Georges Simenon ****
46. Moth: James Sallis *****
47. Lion In The Valley: Elizabeth Peters ***
48. Blind Man With A Pistol: Chester Himes ****
June
49. You Are Not A Gadget: Jaron Lanier ****
July
50. Wonderful World: Javier Calvo ****
51. The Saga Of The Swamp Thing Volume 1 *****
52. The Saga Of The Swamp Thing Volume 2 ****
53. SOS Meteors: Jacobs ***
54. Delhi Calm: Vishwajyoti Ghosh ***1/2
55. On Beauty: Umberto Eco *****
56. Maigret Loses His Temper: Georges Simenon ***
57. The White Guard: Mikhail Bulgakov *****
August
58. Hotel Savoy: Joseph Roth ****
59. Showcase Presents: World's Finest 1 *****
60. Showcase Presents: Superman Family 2 ****
61. In Defense Of The Enlightenment: Tzvetan Todorov ****
62. Showcase Presents: World's Finest 2 ****
63. The Mersey Sound: Adrian Henry, Roger McGough, Brian Patten *****
64. Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever And Spear: Javier Marias *****
65. Old Masters: Thomas Bernhard ******
September
66. To Siberia: Per Petterson ***
67. Transparent Things: Vladimir Nabokov ****
68. The Eye: Vladimir Nabokov ****
69. Old Goriot: Honore de Balzac ****
70. Tomorrow Is One More Day: G. Nagarajan *****
71. A Month In The Country: J.L. Carr *****
October
72. A Messiah At The End Of Time: Michael Moorcock ***
73. An Alien Heat: Michael Moorcock *****
74. The Hollow Lands: Michael Moorcock ****
75. The End Of All Songs: Michael Moorcock *****
November
76. The Hearing Trumpet: Leonora Carrington *****
77. The Knight Of The Swords: Michael Moorcock ***
78. Showcase Presents: Superman Family 1 ***
79. The Professor's Daughter: Sfarr/Guibert ****
80. The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu: Sax Rohmer ****
81. The Queen Of The Swords: Michael Moorcock ***
82. Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: Kate Wilhelm ****

83. The House Without A key: Earl Derr Biggers ****
December
84. The Book Of Skulls: Robert Silverberg *****
85. Timescape: Gregory Benford ****
86. The Saga of The Swamp Thing Volume 3 *****
87. Murphy: Samuel Beckett ****
88. The Lurker On The Threshold: August Derleth **
89. Selected Poems: Paul Celan *****
90. Selected Poems: Osip Mandelstam *****
91. The Penguin Book Of Victorian Verse *****

Books read in 2009

1. Madam Crowl's Ghost And Other Ghost Stories: J. Sheridan Le Fanu 5/5
2. The Collected Ghost Stories Of M.R. James 5/5
3. Meet Mr. Mulliner: PG Wodehouse 5/5
4. Words From The Myths: Isaac Asimov 4/5
5. Camp Concentration: Thomas M. Disch 3/5
6. The World Of Odysseus: MI Finley 5/5
7. The Virgin In The Ice: Ellis Peters 3/5
8. The Island Of The Colourblind And Cycad Island: Oliver Sacks 3/5
9. Turtle Diary: Russell Hoban 4/5
10. The Savage Detectives: Roberto Bolano 1/5
11. The Stories Of Tobias Wolff 5/5
12. Terra Amata: JMG Le Clezio 3/5
13. The Witches Of Chiswick: Robert Rankin 4/5
14. The Pledge: Friedrich Durrenmatt 5/5
15. In A Glass Darkly: J Sheridan Le Fanu 3/5
16. The Land Of The Headless: Adam Roberts 4/5
17. Plain Pleasures: Jane Bowles 5/5
18. Fata Morgana: William Kotzwinkle 4/5
19. The Sound Of The Mountain: Yasunari Kawabata 5/5
20. William The Outlaw: Richmal Crompton 3/5
21. William Does His Bit: Richmal Crompton 3/5
22. Beauty And Sadness: Yasunari Kawabata 3/5
23. Gradisil: Adam Roberts: 4/5
24. Rubicon: Steven Saylor 4/5
25. Rumpole And The Age Of Miracles: John Mortimer 3/5
26. The Medusa Frequency: Russell Hoban 2/5
27. Brief Candles: Aldous Huxley: 3/5
28. The Beast: Sharman Macdonald 3/5
29. The Thieves Of Ostia: Caroline Lawrence 3/5
30. The Dream Of Scipio: Iain Pears 3.5/5
31. The Carhullan Army: Sarah Hall 4/5
32. The Last Camel Died At Noon: Elizabeth Peters 3/5
33. The Portrait: Iain Pears: 4/5
34. The Moth Diaries: Rachel Klein 5/5
35. The Spider's Web: Joseph Roth 5/5
36. The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood 5/5
37. Rings Of Saturn: W.G. Sebald 5/5
38. The Invention Of Morel: Adolfo Bioy Casares 5/5
39. Love: Angela Carter 5/5
40. The Book Of Lost Things: John Connolly 3/5
41. The Master And Margarita: Mikhail Bulgakov 5/5
42. Requiem For A Lost Empire: Andrei Makine 5/5
43. The Affirmation: Christopher Priest 4/5
44. Cosmopolis: Don Delillo 3.5/5
45. After Nature: W.G. Sebald 5/5
46. The Time-Traveller's Wife: Audrey Niffenegger 1/5
47. The Graveyard Book: Neil Gaiman 4/5
48. The City And The City: China Mieville 3/5
49. Half Of A Yellow Sun: Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie 3/5
50. The Collector Collector: Tibor Fischer 4/5
51. 3 Days To Never: Tim Powers 4/5
52. The Tooth Fairy: Graham Joyce 5/5
53. Electric Michelangelo: Sarah Hall 4/5
54. Frankenstein Unbound: Brian Aldiss 2/5
55. The Casebook Of Victor Frankenstein: Peter Ackroyd 4/5
56. The Flanders Panel: Arturo Perez-Reverte 5/5
57. A Case Of Exploding Mangoes: Mohamed Hanif 4/5
58. A Dead Man In Deptford: Anthony Burgess 5/5
59. On The Natural History Of Destruction: WG Sebald 4/5
60. Ghosts and other friends: Malavika Kapur 3/5
61. A Drifting Life: Yoshihiro Tatsumi 5/5
62. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler: Italo Calvino 5/5
63. The Maltese Falcon: Dashiell Hammett 5/5
64. The Squares Of The City: John Brunner 4/5
65. Kissing The Beehive: Jonathan Carroll 5/5
66. Myth and Meaning: Claude Levi-Strauss 3/5
67. The Lazarus Project: Aleksandar Hemon 3.5/5
68. Royal Highness: Thomas Mann 3/5
69. The Stain In The Snow: Georges Simenon 5/5
70. The Si-Fan Mysteries: Sax Rohmer 3/5
71. The Transposed Heads: Thomas Mann 4/5
72. Stamboul Train: Graham Greene 3/5
73. Mulliner Nights: PG Wodehouse 5/5
74. The Raphael Affair: Iain Pears 3/5
75. The Dain Curse: Dashiell Hammett 3/5
76. Camier and Mercier: Samuel Beckett 4/5
77. Sleeping Murder: Agatha Christie 3/5
78. The Wrong Box: Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne 4/5
79. Pale Fire: Vladimir Nabokov 5/5
80. John Silence: Algernon Blackwood 5/5
81. A Tangled Skein: David Stuart Davies 2.5/5
82. The Big Sleep: Raymond Chandler 4/5
83. Mrs. Henderson and other stories: Francis Wyndham 5/5
84. Two Serious Ladies: Jane Bowles 4/5
84. The Other Garden: Francis Wyndham 5/5
85. Dancing Lessons For The Advanced In Age: Bohumil Hrabal 4/5
86. The Rider On The White Horse: Theodor Storm 4/5
87. A Caribbean Mystery: Agatha Christie 3/5
88. Out Of The War: Francis Wyndham 4/5
89. Dagon: Fred Chappell 4/5
90. Mr. Gaunt and other uneasy encounters: John Langan 3/5
91. The Casebook of Carnacki the ghost-finder: William Hope Hodgson 4/5
92. The Haunter in the Ring and other stories: Robert E Howard 3/5
93. The Terror Of Fu Manchu: William Patrick Maynard 4/5
94. Foxfire: Joyce Carol Oates 5/5
95. The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club: Dorothy L. Sayers 4/5
96. The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight: Vladimir Nabokov 5/5
97. Jealousy: Alain Robbe-Grillet 2/5
97. The Imago Sequence: Laird Barron 5/5
98. Sesqua Valley and other haunts: W.H. Pugmire 5/5
99. The Beast With Five Fingers: WF Harvey 2.5/5
100. Despair: Vladimir Nabokov 4/5
101. All Saint's Eve: Amelia B. Edwards 2.5/5
102. Queen Of K'n-Yan: Asamatsu Ken 3/5