You are currently browsing the daily archive for August 12th, 2008.
It really is Matt Staggs week!
I read in the aforementioned interview that he is working to promote the re-publication of Tim Powers awesomely strange masterpiece The Stress of Her Regard by Tachyon Publications. The book blends Vampires, Poets and Secret Societies in a crazy but seamlessly readable way, and has been out of print for far too long.
I have an old bashed-up ex-library copy with a terrible cover. This one looks considerably better, though I’m not completely sold on the figure with the raised arms…
Tim Powers’ website can be found here.
Whilst waiting some video to render into .mov format, I was browsing through the Octopus’ inspiring list of Literary Links, a task I have set myself to do slowly but surely as time allows, and I happened across this interview with the man of the hour.
It adds some detail into Matt’s work and some interesting sidelights to his week on Jeff Vandermeer’s site. Plus, I thought the Blog title might have some kind of bookish Tarkovsky connection: Bibliophile Stalker indeed!
This incredible site was recommended in this post at Futurismic. I checked it out, joined immediately and started adding such brain-watering classics as Olaf Stapledon’s Starmaker, David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus and William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land (gratuitous namedrop: WHH shares my initials and first two names and was my great-great-uncle) to my favourites.
So, apart from supporting great new writers by buying their books, going to their readings, commenting on their blogs etc. and maybe occasionally indulging in splashing out on the odd collectible re-issue, there really is no excuse to be spending money on classics that have passed their copyright, or for them to have to be made from trees.
I need (or is it want?) an eReader! Now! Particularly for me here in Barbados, where buying new books is prohibitively expensive – they have to be imported, taxed etc. etc. or carried in luggage that rapidly exceeds its weight allowance with even the most modest of libraries. It would be very useful and brilliant to have all these wonderful books to hand (most of which I have hard copies of in storage in London). I’m saving up for one…
