Books to Read: Warped Passages
My sister was reading Vogue the other day and happened upon an article about Professor Lisa Randall. Not only is she a triple tenured professor at Princeton, MIT, and Harvard, a leading expert on particle physics, string theory, and cosmology, in Time’s 100 Scientists and Thinkers for 2007, and author of Warped Passages, she’s pretty good lookin’, too. I’ve been particularly interested in higher dimensions for quite a while. In addition to Warped Passages, which I just started, I suggest reading The Fourth Dimension, which is another great read.
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Wheel of Time Series Encyclopedia
Though this is not an imitation site of Wikipedia like Wookieepedia or Conservapedia, the Wheel of Time Encyclopedia is an equally vast cornecopia of information in a similar format. As I am a fan of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, I understand how hard it is to keep up with everything. This crafty site has assembled information on all of the characters, chapter-by-chapter summaries, and even an inventory on all items in the books. Though this site isn’t really that useful to you if you haven’t started the series, it’s a good resource for all those out there who have. I highly recommend reading these books, but fair warning, Robert Jordan has been diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis which might not give him enough time to finish the 12 book series that began in 1990. However, he is posting encouraging monthly status reports at his official blog that everything is on schedule.
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Wookieepedia: the Star Wars wiki
Not since I first read Shadows of the Empire have I been this excited. Like most Star Wars nerds who discover the expanded universe, I jumped at all the extra plot anywhere I could find it. Whether it was the many novels, the video games, or the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, I had everything.
In fact, I was looking for a specific piece of information today (the planetary location of Incom Corporation, makers of the X-Wing, if you must know) and stumbled upon Wookiepedia. This Star Wars wiki has absolutely everything. I’m not exaggerating, it really has everything, from The First Battle of Kashyk to all the fighters in the TIE series, Wookieepedia is your go-to guide to everything touched by the Force.
Looking for a place to get started? Read about the founding of the Alliance to Restore the Republic (aka the Rebel Alliance). It’ll drop you right into the original trilogy and carry you through to all of the greatest parts of the expanded universe of Star Wars.
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This Week In Ridiculous Bands - Bardcore
Not actually a consistent feature of Duenos, This Week In Ridiculous Bands chronicles some of the more absurd, yet awesome, music groups to grace this fine planet. This installment features the notable bellowing of the hardcore Shakespearean band creatively titled (surprise!) Bardcore.
Their lyrics consist of actual Shakespearean passages belted out to some of the most diametrically opposed music to what you might expect from a group singing Shakespeare. Their website also mentions the fact that they are more than willing to play at your next BDSM club gathering—but you might be able to convince them to play at your beloved English major’s graduation party as well.
Image courtesy of the amazing webcomic Married to the Sea.
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Audio Books at the Right Price
If you’re always on-the-go, a devout book lover, or just plain lazy, librivox.org has many free and legal audio books available for your literary delight. Their catalog is a growing collection of published books with expired copyrights read by volunteers from around the world. I’ve already listened to Alice and Wonderland and, despite the occasional faint dog barking in the background, their books are of decent quality. There’s finally a faster and easier way to get free literature without late fees and actually having to read.
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Books on bytes
Following on from a post I made some time ago about the online book sharing site, Book Mooch, I’ve found another one. Library Thing is a free online book cataloging service that takes the ultimate solo activity (reading… get your mind out the gutter) and makes it social. Now you can chat with others that have similar literary tastes, make recommendations, and even trade books with people. Organize your books however you’d like with the now ubiquitous, but still helpful, web2.0 tagging structure, write reviews, anything you want. I’ve only been messing around with the service for a few hours so far, but I’ve already entered a small part of my library and explored the forums. Below is a picture of my virtual library which is, I regret to say, a lot more organized than the carbon-based one.
Previous posts about similar things are the musical equivalent to Library Thing, Last.fm (yet again) and analog peer-to-peer, sharing in the real world using the internet.
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Last Harry Potter book jacket unveiled
Muggles rejoice! The richest person in the UK is that much closer to becoming even richer. In addition to having the least navigable web-page in history JK Rowling has finished the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and with it the whole Harry Potter series. Here are the British book jackets, no word yet on the American ones.
Oh how much has changed since the first book came out in 1997. Words like quidditch and muggles weren’t parts of the vernacular, Alan Rickman wasn’t creepy (ok, maybe that was already true) and Daniel Radcliffe was yet to be chosen to play the boy wizard on screen and subsequently fear typecasting so much as to cause him to play naked Equus on Broadway.
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No red carpet for most recent Newberry winner
The most recent recipient of the Newberry Medal (the Pulitzer for children’s literature) is not being greeted with open arms as most have been in the past. The reason? On the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky” the 10 year-old main character hears the word scrotum in reference to another character’s dog getting a snake bite in that most sensitive area.
“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”
All over the country now there is a debate raging among school and local librarians as to whether they should stock the book, despite “the word” that graces its first page. To include the book would force librarians and teachers into an awkward vocabulary lesson, but to not do so would be censoring what must otherwise be a very good book. The age old debate takes another turn.
Here is a NYT article on the story.
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