Dreaming About Other Worlds: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Book Blogger Hop January 30th - February 5th: MTV Demanded Three Sets of Breasts be Censored in the Video for "Pop Song 89", Stipe Censored Four

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Do you ever get comments from authors when you have posted or tweeted your review?

I have gotten a few responses from authors: Some in comments here, some on twitter, and some on LibraryThing.

I have gotten a few negative responses from authors unhappy with my review. This is a euphemism for "the author responded and acted like a jerk or a petulant child." In those cases, the authors have generally been relatively inexperienced and mostly self-published. These exchanges have never made the authors in questions look good. These exchanges are also always authors who I have had no contact with other than my acquiring, reading, and reviewing their written work.

I have also had some comments from authors who were either complimentary of my take on their book, or simply appreciative that I had reviewed their book at all, even if I did make critical remarks about it as part of my review. Most of these authors have been traditionally published, all of them have been authors with a reasonably substantial publishing history. It appears that professional longevity in authors is associated with those who can remain professional even if someone is critical of their work in some way. Whereas authors who get upset and write angry missives when you don't give them a glowing review tend to have short and not very memorable careers.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: To Travel Through Time, You Must Get a DeLorean to Go 88 Miles Per Hour

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: Gaius Valerius Flaccus Died in 90 A.D.

Book Blogger Hop Home

Friday, January 30, 2015

Follow Friday - Commodus Was Deified by the Roman Senate in 195 A.D.

It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and two Follow Friday Features Bloggers each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
Follow the two Featured Bloggers of the week - Gail Reads Books and A Writer's Dark Corner.
Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

And now for the Follow Friday Question: Hard print (real thing) or Kindle/Nook, which is your favorite?

I prefer printed books. I actually don't even own a Kindle or a Nook, although the redhead has a Kindle. I don't have any philosophical objection to reading books on an electronic device, I'm just not very comfortable doing so. I read all of the short fiction in last year's Hugo voter package in electronic format, so I can do it reasonably easily. I just don't like reading that way. There's just something about printed words on a page that feels more comfortable for me.

There's also a practical reason. I do a fair amount of my reading on the bus to and from work. And I've lost more than one book by absent-mindedly leaving it behind when I got off the bus. With a paperback, this is a minor inconvenience, as the replacement cost of such a mislaid book is trivial. On the other hand, a Kindle represents a reasonably substantial financial investment. Because of this, the redhead has said I cannot take her Kindle with me when I'm commuting. I tend to agree.

Previous Follow Friday: 194 Prokne Is a Main Belt Asteroid

Subsequent Follow Friday: The 196 Palindrome Quest Is the Search to Determine If 196 Is a Lychrel Number

Follow Friday Home

Monday, January 26, 2015

Musical Monday - Uncle Geek's House by The Doubleclicks

The redhead and I have seventeen nieces and nephews. We are, as you might guess, the aunt and uncle who bring a pile of board games with us when we visit, watch nerdy movies with the kids, and have piles of books around our house. I guess the point here is that I pretty much am Uncle Geek in my family, although we don't have floors covered in cables and walls decorated with motherboards. We do have our house decorated in Legos, Skylanders, and books, with some Justice League pictures thrown in for good measure. I'm pretty okay with being Uncle Geek. I can only hope that my nieces and nephews with have memories about spending time with the redhead and me that are as good as the memories Aubrey and Angela apparently have about visiting their nerdy Uncle Geek.

Previous Musical Monday: William Fucking Shatner by Wil Wheaton (with Paul & Storm)

Subsequent Musical Monday: Pop Song 89 by R.E.M.

The Doubleclicks Paul & Storm Musical Monday Home

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Book Blogger Hop January 23rd - January 29th: To Travel Through Time, You Must Get a DeLorean to Go 88 Miles Per Hour

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The Wenger Swiss Army Knife Has 87 Tools

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: MTV Demanded Three Sets of Breasts be Censored in the Video for "Pop Song 89", Stipe Censored Four

Book Blogger Hop Home

Friday, January 23, 2015

Follow Friday - 194 Prokne Is a Main Belt Asteroid

Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
Follow the Featured Blogger of the week - Asterisk Pearl.
Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

And now for the Follow Friday Question: Do you post your reviews anywhere besides your blog? Where else do you post reviews?

All of the of the book and magazine reviews that I post here are also posted on LibraryThing. In fact, all of the book and magazine reviews that I post here are posted on LibraryThing first, because I use LibraryThing's review posting capabilities to create a rough draft. I usually have one or two half-finished reviews posted on LibraryThing as well, waiting for me to finish them and, do a final editing pass through, and then post a copy here.

Except for the book haiku. Those only get posted here.

Previous Follow Friday: Most of the Defendants in the "Trial of the 193" Were Acquitted

Subsequent Follow Friday: Commodus Was Deified by the Roman Senate in 195 A.D.

Follow Friday Home

Monday, January 19, 2015

Musical Monday - William Fucking Shatner by Wil Wheaton (with Paul & Storm)

This is a story about gatekeeping. Although it isn't phrased as such, this story is an example of someone with apparent authority mocking and belittling someone they don't think belong in their group. The fact that the villain in the story is William Shatner and the target is a sixteen-year-old Wil Wheaton isn't what is really important here. What is important is that gatekeeping, in all of its pernicious and obnoxious glory, has been around for far longer than most people seem to realize.

The sad thing here is that Shatner could have both avoided having this story told for decades and made a sixteen year old fan's day by simply not being an ass. It would have literally cost Shatner nothing to be nice to a kid who was star-struck to see him. And to be perfectly honest, an ass is what gatekeepers sound like when they try to play their self-selected role. We can only hope that all would-be gatekeepers would be the butt of a story told about their public jerkiness for a couple of decades.

And what is also important here is that the target of the gatekeeping was, in all likelihood, a bigger geek who was probably more knowledgeable about Star Trek than the gatekeeper himself. The only targets of geek gatekeepers seem to be nerds who are young, who are women, or who are minorities. It is almost as if the knowledge about, or love of things genre-related is completely beside the point, and the (almost always) white, male, and established gatekeeper is simply looking to punch down at someone who they can identify as potentially vulnerable because of their difference.

But the larger issue stems from a question I would pose to would-be gatekeepers of the genre world: Who cares? Does it really matter if someone isn't as knowledgeable about the intricacies of Batman lore as you are? Or if they can't recite every plot detail of Star Trek: The Next Generation, or aren't able to recite from memory all of the mottoes of the Houses of Westeros? If they love the genre, why does their level of obsession over details matter one way or the other? Does the fact that they don't know that the name of the character Elric in the Babylon 5 episode The Geometry of Shadows was probably a reference to the Michael Moorcock character of the same name make them less of a fan than you are? Fandom is defined by your love for something, not your ability to recall enormous amounts of trivia.

When you meet a fan who is not like you, this is not an opportunity to quiz them on how devout they are in their adherence to the faith of the church of geek trivia. This is an opportunity to celebrate the breadth of people who share common interests with you, no matter their age, gender, appearance, or even knowledge of the genre. This is an opportunity to welcome those who might be new to all things nerdy into the community. This is not an opportunity to check on someone's nerd credentials or to try to impress them with your comprehensive command of vast amounts of useless trivia.

The final, and I think, most important part of this story is how all of the other members of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast and Gene Roddenberry himself provided support to their disconsolate compatriot. And not only that, Roddenberry called Shatner out when he acted like an ass. He wasn't able to do it on the spot, because he wasn't there, but when he found out about it, he clearly made sure that Shatner knew that he had behaved in a manner that was entirely out of bounds. And this, I think, is the only reasonable response to would-be gatekeepers.

Previous Musical Monday: Opening Band by Paul & Storm

Subsequent Musical Monday: Uncle Geek's House by The Doubleclicks

Wil Wheaton Paul & Storm Musical Monday Home

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Challenge - The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2015

In previous years I have participated in the 100+ Books a Year challenge hosted by Book Chick City. This was a good challenge, but I had an ulterior motive for joining it: I used the challenge as an annual catalog of the books I had read and reviewed that year. Unfortunately, it appears that this challenge is no longer a going concern, which means that I cannot use it to track my reading and reviewing. To do that, I've created this tracking page, on which I will link to my reviews as I post them. This isn't really a "challenge", but I'm listing it with my challenge pages anyway, just because I'm a little bit irascible that way.

The Big List of Everything I've Reviewed in 2015: