Saturday, July 31, 2010

Join The Great Twitter Bond Read!

I'm going to be reading all of the Ian Fleming James Bond books and twittering about them chapter by chapter. If you want to read along or just read what I have to say, get on Twitter and follow me @upwithgravity .

I was going to tag it #gtbr but that's already taken by the Great Texas Balloon Race. I'm serious. It takes up a lot of precious characters, but I'm going to tag my Bond tweets #bondread. I don't have a lot of time for reading so this could be a very long and drawn out process. The good news is it'll be easy to catch up if you jump in late. The tweets may not be comprehensive, but maybe they'll be entertaining enough that you'll be tempted to read the books.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! But, shit, you've had like fifty years to read these things!

We'll be reading chronologically. This, according to the Big W:

* 1953 Casino Royale
* 1954 Live and Let Die
* 1955 Moonraker
* 1956 Diamonds Are Forever
* 1957 From Russia, with Love
* 1958 Dr. No
* 1959 Goldfinger
* 1960 For Your Eyes Only
* 1961 Thunderball
* 1962 The Spy Who Loved Me
* 1963 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
* 1964 You Only Live Twice
* 1965 The Man with the Golden Gun
* 1966 Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Jump in! Swim around! It will be an epic adventure in miniature. We may all come to the end of it and discover that we've become worse human beings. You may also discover that Fleming's Bond is a bit more human than Hollywood's.

See you there!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Milkman

Welcome to new follower Mike! Scoot over, everyone!

Not sure why anyone would want to, but I just added some sharey buttons to the bottom of each post. So go share.

There's got to be someone out there who hasn't seen this. Of course, those people may not know what a milkman is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJZM3X4dpzo&videos=TYclA49_y3s

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Billy's Picture Book

Illustration by Rudy Rucker

Billy's Picture Book has been released and the e-book is available online for free! It collects 13 Billy Stories by Terry Bisson and is Illustrated by Rudy Rucker. These are wonderful, funny, creepy tales of a kid caught between two mundane, strict parents and fantastic creatures with bad attitudes. Get it here:

http://www.rudyrucker.com/billysbook/

Two of these stories are available in audio from from StarShipSofa, narrated magnificently by Gareth Stack. Gareth's readings, coupled with the stories themselves, had me cackling with glee. Two of my best Sofa experiences ever. And that includes with girls. Check them out here:

Billy and the Wizard
http://www.starshipsofa.com/20080821/aural-delights-no-38-kage-baker/

Billy in Dinosaur City
http://www.starshipsofa.com/20090916/starshipsofa-aural-delights-no-100/

Go!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Prancing Through The Bookstore

Welcome, new follower Bradzooks! Awesome name, bro.


The other day at work:

Regular Customer: Has anyone ever told you that when you walk, you prance?

Me: No. I've been told that I've frolicked and gamboled, but never pranced.