It had been months I hadn’t kept up with my current & past readings listing, and it was high time to dust the place off. The past readings page is now up to date, at least when it comes to the present time—it was too much of a hassle to remember exactly when I had read each book during spring and the end of winter, so I just kept these out for the time being.

Also, I’m not sure I’ll put everything I read in there. Lots of these are/will be for school, and I’m not sure I want to brag much about the ‘How to write a proper text analysis’ books and the likes. I’ll see what I’ll do about these.

Y Tags: books | reading

I don’t know how late I am exactly on this topic, since I only noticed it today on the Niltoy forums. In any case, for those of you who knew this e-zine as well as for those who had never heard of it, Deep Magic is closing down after August 31st, and in the process, they’ve made all their previous issues free for download. It’s sad news—I didn’t knew this website, I admit it, but now that I’ve heard of it and had a peek, it seemed pretty interesting. The magazines contained articles, short stories, interviews of both famous and non-famous writers, and even an ongoing novel, from what I could see just now.

Current and previous issues are available here.

Y Tags: deep+magic | download | e-zine

I’ve just finished reading Who’s There, the new ebook Seth Godin has put up on his blog, and I must say that it’s been a really interesting read, albeit too short to my liking, in a way. However, he goes to the essential, and in an understandable fashion: what more could one ask? The price? No worries, it’s even free, at least for the moment.

If, like me, you’re interested about reading here and there on the subject of blogging, don’t hesitate any longer, and download it here. The book isn’t about “how to blog”, but about why to blog, as a business owner as well as an indivdual who’d like to make his or her niche in the always expanding world of blogs. It also distinguishes the three “main types” of blogs, in a way that isn’t without reminding of the classifications theorized by John and Duncan.

On top of it, it’s nicely written and presented.

Y Tags: blogging | ebook | seth+godin

The first time I ever read one of his works, I was in junior high and the book was called Martians, Go Home—where little green men out of the imagination of a failed author appear on Earth, driving everyone crazy by their silly attitude. Weird? Yes, weird, like many of Brown’s stories, from the knee-slapping funny ones to the disturbingly somber atmosphere instillated in the others. Weird, but so pleasant to read.

At the time, I probably was a little too young to really appreciate this book. Fast-forward to high-school, when I picked one of his collections of short stories. At the very moment I was putting the book down, I realized that I liked this author, and that what I preferred above all were his endings. Each time I finished reading one of his short stories, I had one of these “I should’ve known it’d end like this!” jolts. They’re surprising, somewhat amusing, somewhat bittersweet, somewhat even more than that.

It’s not only about science-fiction (he wrote in the mystery genre, too).. It’s about his writing as a whole, about his way of taking everyday people and situations, wondering “what if?...”, and firing off the pen and paper (today we’d probably say “the laptop”) to give them a much unexpected turn. Granted, not all of his works are of even quality, and the fact that he wrote in two different genres (science-fiction and mystery) may make it a little hard to fully dive into either of them, if one is a “categorizing reader”, that is.

For whoever wants to search around, there are plenty of websites describing his life and works more in depth. However, I’m going to primary link to a few of his short stories. They’re indeed very short, not necessarily his most known ones, yet they’re already a good way to familiarize oneself with what is to be expected from his other works.

Y Tags: authors | books | stories | science-fiction

Today, I changed my “Current Read” in the sidebar, to reflect what I’ve indeed been reading since yesterday evening. This made me realize that in the past few weeks, I’ve read quite often about blogs, blogging, how it all started and evolved… Let’s check: I first started with Rebecca Blood’s The Weblog Handbook, back in June (Rebecca writes theblog What’s in Rebecca’s Pocket). Almost immediately after having finished it, I jumped on Biz Stone’s Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content; I had never read Biz’ blog before that, but it didn’t matter. Now, I’m onto his second book. Among my regular reads, I follow several blogs “about blogging”, in order to keep in touch with what happens in this little world, and because I find these interesting (as long as they’re not the only thing I read). Am I obsessed?

I came to the conclusion that it may, all that simply, be my usual tendency to want to go deeper, to the roots of a phenomenon. Yes, blogging has skyrocketed in the past two or three years, compared to what it was in the beginning. Yes, I am myself quite a “newcomer” to this scene, given that I haven’t really blogged before 2004 (except for some “online diary” on AMV.org that doesn’t present much interest for anyone else than myself). Yes, this may explain why I like knowing more, because it teaches me interesting things, how to behave, what not to do, and what gave birth to all of this. In all of this, there’s a real social analysis; bloggers are, after all, social creatures, in a way (how can one write that much if they never communicate with others — and why would they blog in first place?)

Obsession? Perhaps. However, I’m learning a lot regarding internet behaviors, and this remains pretty interesting no matter what. I’ll die a little less stupid, I guess.