So, have some pictures of the book in the  meantime. Maybe they’ll go partway towards communicating the extent to which I love this book.

It’s not an outstandingly pretty edition, but there are so many little things I love about it: the size (it’s about the same height as but an inch or two wider than a modern mass-market paperback), the worn teal binding, the fact that it’s still printed in letterpress, the unmistakable dry sweetish old-book smell. Also, it was one of the few things that I bought at the archetypal local bookstore-that-was-independent before the owners sold it in 2007.

Also, the brief and mysterious inscription on the endpapers:

Anyone out there who can read Sanskrit…?

Just two more photos under the jump.

Why yes, it is a fictional biography that includes an index before “THE END.”

I have also seen Sally Potter’s 1992 film adaptation with (swoon) Tilda Swinton, and thought that it was much lighter, but not without substance; it’s also massively eye-candyish, and enjoyable for me from that respect alone. I’d love to see it another time – same goes for re-reading the book, needless to say.

- E

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Additions to the horde
Isaac Marion Stash and a Story
New books for August

In “Making  Squid The Meat of the Story,” China Miéville talks about his preferences in cephalopods; his newest novel, Kraken (speaking of which, I covergasmed recently over the art for Subterranean Press’ limited edition); why he found Star Trek horrifying as a child; and more.

“At a certain stage some people end up not trusting their own imagination,” Mr. Miéville said. “You get this kind of baleful set of voices in your head that tell you, ‘That’s silly; you’re being silly.’

“But I think most people have more ideas in their heads than they think they do. It’s just that those of us in the fantastic fields — either we don’t listen to our own filters, or we have a much higher ridiculousness threshold.”

And in “Hero of Comic-Book World Gets Real,” Alan Moore discusses his current work-in-progress, “a lengthy spoken-word recording accompanied by an atmospheric musical soundtrack and a book of photographs” about Steve Moore, the comics writer and early mover and shaker within British comics. (Sorry if this is completely not-news within the realm of Moorephilia; I’m behind on news about pretty much everything imaginable.)

Also made my week to see continued confirmation that Moore will be continuing work on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, one of my most-beloved series, despite his plans to otherwise leave behind the world of graphic novels.

- E

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China Miéville

You might remember that back in January, I attempted a visit to Argosy (Old and Rare Books, Prints and Maps) in New York, only to find that it was unexpectedly closed for most of the month. Two weeks ago, Kakaner and I finally made it there together, this time in some borderline torturous heat and humidity. It proved to be possibly the handsomest bookstore I’ve ever visited:

Everything immaculately labeled and presented, and gorgeously lit. (You can also see the store’s namesake dangling from the ceiling in the above photo – I neglected to take a better photo of it, but it was a marvelous model.) Very rich, very Old World.

The first floor is all old and rare books, plus a fascinating selection of old maps, prints, sheet music, and so on, in a wide range of qualities and prices. I was tempted to pick up some botanical prints, which I always have a weakness for, but couldn’t really justify the acquisition (sigh). It all also made me wish I were any good at collages.

The above photo is from a glass case full of luxuriously rebound rare copies of classics. We checked out such interesting specimens as an edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Kakaner’s a Verne addict) with hand-colored illustrations, an original Edmund-Dulac-illustrated edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, and some sort of small-press artist edition of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, massive and slipcovered and filled with fold-out photographic illustrations. As you can imagine, these were all well over $1000.

Downstairs was the non-rare books section. I didn’t take a picture, but the contrast to the jewel-case of a first floor was stark and hilarious: the basement was the picture of pretty much every other crammed, fusty-smelling, poorly lit, and generally slightly manky used bookstore you’ve been in, although still better organized than the average. Also, they seem to take only hardcovers, which also puts them one step up from the average.

In our usual fashion, we went on a hunt for the sci-fi section, and after a somewhat confusing search located less than half a bookcase, mostly of Anne McCaffrey, at the back of one aisle. So, not much to really get excited about there.

I was kind of amused that sexuality and gender went under “Curiosa.”

Gorgeously battered leather bindings, $10. A little reminder that basement presentation aside, it is one classy bookstore.

- E

Go to:
Roosterguarded
Bookstores of New York: Skyline Books
Bookstores of New York: Books of Wonder

I think I never got around to posting about the nominations here, but there was, of course, a lot of overlap with the 2010 Hugo nominees, and the winners included some familiar faces. Kij Johnson’s “Spar” won for Best Short Story, and Catherynne Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making won the Andre Norton Award for best young adult novel, which marks the first time that a self-published novel has won a major literary award.

Woo hoo!

Also, I really really want to read Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl…

- E

e.g. (on a photo featuring precariously free-standing towers of books) “The point is that while your system is aesthetically pleasing and features all the “right” authors—Updike, Agee, Chekhov, Keats, Capote, Orwell, and Roth, with a little Wells Tower thrown in—it does so at the expense of practicality and, furthermore, safety.” (har)

or, on the twin shelves of an engaged couple:

“Michael, you’ve got Heinrich von Kleist’s “The Marquise of O,” Kafka’s Complete Stories, a couple James Baldwins, and lots and lots of philosophy. This, coupled with Jessica’s above claim that you wanted to take the shortest route through your pre-marital counseling, leads me to believe you value rationality highly. Jessica’s books are perhaps a tad lighter in spirit, but still quite serious and thoughtfully selected—your collections complement each other.”

Once I get back home to my primary bookshelves, I’d be way tempted to be self-indulgent and submit a shot or two…

- E

So this has been one of my absolute favorite finds: the blogger at The Cantos of Mutabilitie has written, in great detail, an astrological analysis of Carter. I can’t pretend to understand any of the technical (?) aspects of it, but it’s both highly entertaining, and a wonderful tribute to Carter’s style and career. Some of my favorite bits:

“There’s a huge stellium (or planet cluster) in Taurus – Mercury, Saturn, Sun, Moon and Uranus all huddling together, with Jupiter just over in Aries – and then we find Neptune and Pluto swung out to one side. Accordingly, this is an extremely ‘earthy’ chart: the other elements are all relatively weak. This intense concentration on earth evokes the baroque celebration of the mundane in Carter’s writing, her heady ability to work mud and blood into her otherwise very mannered and super-sophisticated prose.”

…

“One senses that Carter’s taurean Mercury liked to hoard words like trinkets, cherishing dialect words and obsolete terms for the tackle and trim of various trades. … There’s almost a hunger to possess – a Taurus keyword – language, rubbing words as though they were pieces of smooth bottle-glass on the tideline, grubby and history-filled.”

…

and this particularly amusing part about Carter on Lovecraft:

“I find interesting that in a piece of criticism she derided H. P. Lovecraft for his horror writing, for two reasons. First, for his naivety; she saw that Lovecraft thought of evil as visible horror, and no one with a strong Pluto could fall for that one. Secondly, she wrinkled her nose at his sheer gloopiness, his childishly putrid slimes. She was a hard-edged writer; in contrast to Lovecraft, her kind of horror is the lurid glamour of the knife in the hand of the insane surgeon, always with the frisson of style – not deliquescence and gunk.”

(worth noting that the blogger is himself decidedly unfond of Lovecraft – he explains why at length in an equally ornate and amusing post here.)

- E

There’s a full list of the bookshelf’s contents here, along with a couple more photos.

- E

In the meantime, please enjoy the ever-encyclopedic David Forbes’ mind-blowing essay,  “Sovereign Bleak” (via Coilhouse) on sci-fi landmarks and the philosophical trends that shaped them.

- E

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(can you tell I painted the last one 15 minutes before the deadline? yeeeah.)

- E

…and yet again, remind me of the extent to which I don’t have time to keep up with current reading. Boo.

Between the two of us, I think Kakaner and I have read 5 things on the ballot (Boneshaker, The City & The City, Palimpsest, “Spar,” and Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader), which I suppose isn’t thaaat unrespectable… but still. I’d love to make it my goal to read everything on the short story ballot, at the least.

Go to:
Hugos a go-go
Awards season