Tag: Books

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I found this funny review of Les Miserables (the book) [ack! link deleted!] on GoodReads via Kobo. It’s been 20 years since I read it myself, but it rings true.

…you will not read the abridged version. Don’t you dare. Don’t even think the word “abridged.” Yeah, I know, Victor Hugo frequently turns away from the main narrative to focus on side characters, historical events, religion, philosophy, and other subjects. That’s why this isn’t called “Jean Valjean’s Excellent Adventure.”

The review even mentions the Paris sewers. Because, really, it would have to.

The crazy thing is that, after seeing the movie, digging out my own review of the new stage version, and stumbling on this review of the book…I’m starting to consider re-reading the novel. Because obviously I have gobs of spare time and no new books to read. And at 1200 pages, it’s only 1 1/3 times as long as A Memory of Light! By page count, anyway. It’s not as if the Les Mis edition I have has tiny type, making those page counts not comparable. And it’s not as if Victor Hugo’s prose is that much denser than Robert Jordan, right?

*sigh*

If I do this, it’s going to take me months.

On the other hand, Katie suggested I could live-tweet the re-read. It would be slow, but hey, it could be interesting.

Hmm…

Update: I’m moving forward with the re-read and online commentary!

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For the past decade, Phil & Kaja Foglio have been spinning the mad science/gaslamp fantasy adventures of Agatha Heterodyne in the award-winning comic book-turned-webcomic Girl Genius. Now they’ve stepped into a new medium, adapting the first story into a prose novel: Agatha H. and the Airship City.

The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been sixteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over – and terrorizing – the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Heterodynes’ return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach – and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.

The comics are great fun, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they’ve filled in the details in the novel version!

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Two comic strips about book collections:

Comic strip with old-timey art featuring an argument between a man and woman over whether to keep the books. She wants their future children to discover the wonders of reading. He thinks there won't be any room for children if they keep acquiring more books.
Wondermark #442: In Which Beth Keeps Her Books

I stumbled on the Wondermark strip at Long Beach Comic-Con and it really hit home, between the fact that I grew up loving books for exactly this reason, and the impending arrival of the next generation.

As for Girl Genius, I think Castle Heterodyne’s library could give the Beast’s a run for its money.

Looking up at many floors of a gigantic library, all of them full of books.

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The Great Typo Hunt by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. HersonNPR has an article on The Great Typo Hunt: Two friends cross the country with a Sharpie pen, correcting grammatical and spelling errors in road and shop signs. And there’s a book.

I may need this.

When I was in college in the mid-1990s, I kept a “Bent Offerings” newspaper cartoon on my bulletin board. One person was scrawling “I before E…” on a wall. Another was correcting a menu, muttering, “It’s Brussels Sprouts, not Brussel Sprouts!”. A third was examining someone’s T-shirt, disapprovingly asking, “Is that how they taught you to use an apostrophe?” The strip was captioned, “Roving Gangs of Rogue Proofreaders.”

The appeal hasn’t stopped. You may have noticed I have two categories on this blog devoted to weird/funny signs and mistakes in signs.

Yeah, this sounds like a good bet. Update: I finally read it.

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As a spinoff of the “lesser books” meme on Twitter (taking a classic book title and making it mundane, trivial, or otherwise lesser), someone started in on “lesser plays.”

I came up with a few:

  • Less Miserable (admittedly this one’s a gimme)
  • Spring Just-a-few-more-minutes-before-I-wake-up.
  • The Importance of being Ernie.
  • Eleven Mildly-Annoyed Guys
  • The Prince and I
  • The Rose Temporary Tattoo