Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser redux

As a followup to my previous post, here are the covers to the White Wolf omnibus editions of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, with cover art from Mike Mignola. These editions came out in the 1990s and each contains 2 volumes (except for the last, which is The Knight and Knave of Swords under a different title).

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

I recently picked up the Ace volumes 1, 2, and 5 of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series from the 1970s and 80s, and I already owned volumes 3, 4, and 6. I love the art and font used on these editions. While it would have been nice to find volume 1 in the same edition as the rest, I love being able to see the complete cover art.

Robin Hood: Books and Movies and Miniatures, Oh My!

Illustration by Howard Pyle

Over the past few weeks I've been on a bit of a Robin Hood kick. I reread some of Howard Pyle's stories from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, checked a few history and folklore books on the legends of Robin Hood out from the library, read the graphic novel Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood, and saw The Adventures of Robin Hood, the 1938 film staring Errol Flynn, which (in a fantastic coincidence of timing) was screened at the Paramount Theater here in Charlottesville earlier this month. I highly recommend the film, it's a great swashbuckling adventure with one of the best sword fights in film, between Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and Basil Rathbone's Sir Guy of Gisbourne.

Along with all of these things, I managed to finally finish painting a miniature I started way back in the fall of 2009, but never got around to finishing. It's an old Games Workshop miniature I picked up in a clearance bin a few years ago. In the Warhammer world he's known as Bertrand the Brigand, but it doesn't matter what Games Workshop calls him, it's obvious that this is supposed to be Robin Hood.

The base was entirely made from scratch, the figure just didn't look right on a flat base. I found an appropriately sized stick of wood in the yard, cut and painted a small piece of it to look like a log, and added some other basing material. The lighting in the pictures is not very good, there are some bad shadows and the colors aren't showing up very well. The skin tone looks far more orange here than it is on the actual figure. 

The post-Christmas post

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, it was especially nice to have almost the whole family in one place. It was my son's first Christmas, and he definitely won the Most Loot prize. It'll be a while before he can take full advantage of most of what he got, though, as he's still in the "grab it and stick in mouth" stage. Not quite big enough to use the building blocks or toy truck just yet. It certainly was fun watching him tear paper, examine things, laugh, and occasionally try to eat the wrapping paper.

I made out pretty well myself: a new iPod Touch, a Le Creuset dutch oven (I've been wanting one for several years but never expected to actually get one), some socks, Epic Mickey, and a few books I was not expecting (but really wanted)-The Lego Book, The Secret History of Star Wars, The Making of Star Wars, and Prince Valiant, Volume 1: 1937-1938. I actually gave a copy of the Prince Valiant book to a friend this year, and was planning on getting it for myself at some point soon. What goes around, comes around!

Lord of the Rings? Not in this class!

My well loved boxed set of The Lord of the Rings

Over at Professor Pope, the good Professor is facilitating a reading and discussion of The Hobbit, a few chapters at a time. Rereading the book and thinking about both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings has me thinking of my first encounters with J.R.R. Tolkien's world.

In 1978 I was 6 years old. The film version of The Lord of the Rings by director Ralph Bakshi was released. A few of my aunts and uncles were Tolkien fanatics, and they organized a big party to go see the film (on what I suspect was opening weekend). I found myself with several of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and their friends, in a packed movie theater, watching an animated film that didn't make much sense to me but I loved it anyway. There were cool monsters, elves, dwarves, some little people called hobbits, and lots of sword fighting. For a long time afterwords, my cousin and I spent many days playing in the woods behind our houses, pretending we were Strider and Legolas, out hunting orcs and Ringwraiths.

At some point in the next year or so, I came across a boxed set of the novels at the house of some of my parents friends. This was a revelation, as I didn't realize that there were books that the movie was based upon. Now I could find out what happened to Frodo and Sam! Somewhere in all of this, I saw the animated version of The Hobbit, which I seem to remember watching on TV every year around Thanksgiving, just before the Christmas cartoon specials began airing. For my 8th birthday I was given the very same set of books I had found (apparently, I talked about it quite a bit to the owners of the books, and read a few pages of them whenever I was at their house), a well read set that I still own, in a great gold foil covered box. I immediately read The Hobbit that summer, and to this day it remains my favorite of Tolkien's works. While I love the fantastic and complex story of The Lord of the Rings, the intimacy of The Hobbit has always appealed to me more.

But the rest of this post isn't about The Hobbit. It's about the next one in that set of 4 books, and a particular event that can recall with clarity 30 years later...

So here I was, an 8 year old kid who was reading anything and everything he could get his hands on. I had just been given the 4 books that were the source of the movie that had captivated me a few years earlier (the only other movie to captivate me to this degree was Star Wars).  School started in the fall, 3rd grade. I used to get dropped off in the morning by my dad and I would sit outside the classroom and read until the teacher arrived. At some point I started reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Quite a massive book for a 3rd grader, right? It was slow going but I was making my way through it, trading it off with other, more typical, reading for a kid my age whenever I got bogged down with it and wanted to read something else.

One morning I was sitting in the hallway reading The Fellowship when the teacher arrived, about 30 minutes before the school day started. I recall this very clearly, as what happened next was at that point the biggest shock of my life. My teacher, Ms. Kohlman (a tall, wiry, gray hair in a bun lady who didn't seem to like kids very much), asked what I was reading. I proudly held the book up, smiling, expecting to be complemented for reading a book that was above my reading level. She looked at it, scowled, and took the book out of my hand, telling me "You aren't old enough to be reading that." She disappeared into the classroom with my book, leaving me standing in the hall, stunned with disbelief at what just happened. I went into the classroom, almost in tears, and asked when I could have my book back. Her response? "You won't. You aren't old enough." This was supposed to encourage me to read? A teacher punishing a kid for wanting to read something difficult, something that he obviously loved?

That night I told my parents, and I remember them being mad. Mad because she had taken it away and told me I wasn't getting it back, and even madder that she told me I couldn't read the book. My parents were always encouraging me to read, and the more challenging the book, the better. My mom, an elementary school teacher, was quite upset, as this was not just some random teacher telling a kid he couldn't read a book, but her kid's teacher telling him he couldn't read a book. I don't remember exactly what happened the next day, but I do know my mom went in and had a long talk with my teacher, and I got my book back that night. I was allowed to keep reading the book at school, and never heard another word from the teacher about what I was reading. Eventually, after quite a few weeks, I finished The Fellowship of the Ring. And even if I didn't understand some of it, or thought parts of it were boring, I loved it.

Over on this shelf of the library...

Deep in the recesses of Cthulhu's library in R'lyeh, I'm sure these 4 books are sitting on the graphic novel shelf.

Take a look at artist Murray Groat's other work as well, he has some great stuff!

Thanks to Gamer-X over at Howling In The Dark for sending me an article from Comics Alliance with these images.

listening to: Bolt Thrower-...For Victory

Desert Island Fantasy Books

A few weeks ago,  Risus Monkey posted the "10 Works of Fantasy Literature to have on a Deserted Island" meme. I thought it would be an easy post to knock out in an hour or so, but choosing only 10 books is quite difficult and I've spent more time than I should have swapping things in and out. Some were very easy to pick, but after the first few I had a very hard time deciding how to fill out the list.

So, in no particular order, here are the 10 books, limited to 1 volume per author (I did include a few omnibus volumes), that I would want to have with me if I was deserted on an island:

• The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition-Louis Carroll
• contains both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
• H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America)-H.P. Lovecraft
  
• Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales-Ray Bradbury 
• Very difficult to choose between this and Dandelion Wine
• The Annotated Hobbit-J.R.R. Tolkien 
• Yes, The Hobbit, not LotR. A tough call, but I enjoy The Hobbit more.
• The Anubis Gates-Tim Powers
• The Phantom Tollbooth-Norton Juster
• The Complete Chronicles of Conan-Robert E. Howard
• All the Conan stories by REH, in order of publication
• Bone: The One Volume Edition-Jeff Smith
• Face In The Frost-John Bellairs
• The Chronicles of Narnia (one volume omnibus)-C.S. Lewis

Listening to: Kreator-Enemy of God

50 books. Where do I stand?

At the last check in for my 50 Books in 2010 goal, I was at 3. That was on January 16. Today, on February 8, I'm at 7. Not bad, I'm slightly ahead of the minimum average I want to keep (1 book each week) to meet the goal by the end of the year. This is good, as I know that my reading will drop once the baby arrives in June.

Since my last update, I've read the following: The Pine Barrens by John McPhee, a history and memoir of the New Jersey Pine Barrens; The 13 Clocks by James Thurber, a childrens book that is part fairy tale and part complex poetry for adults; The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs, an author I read another book by recently (The Face in the Frost) but didn't realize he was the same person who wrote one of my favorite books from when I was a kid; and Dark Entries by Ian Rankin, a John Constantine (Hellblazer)graphic novel set in a haunted house that was somewhat curiously published in the Vertigo Crime series for no reason I can figure other than the author is primarily a mystery writer.

Next up: a new take on vampires in The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (thanks to Tim for the recommendation!)

listening: nothing at the moment

Manhood for Amateurs

I completed the first book of my "50 in 2010" on New Years Day-Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Fathr, Husband, and Son by Michael Chabon. I actually started it a while ago, getting about 1/3 of the way in, but it was a library book and was recalled before I had a chance to finish it. I checked it back out a couple weeks ago, and decided to kick off the new year by finishing it. I've read some of Chabon's work before-a few short stories, a couple essays, and his fantastic tribute to the pulp adventure stories of Fritz Leiber and Robert E. Howard, Gentlemen of the Road.  

Manhood for Amateurs is a collection of essays about being male, and the roles in life that men play-son, husband, father, brother, son-in-law, and so on. Chabon is definitely a geek-comics, sword & sorcery, science fiction, to name a few typically geeky things that had (and continue to have) a major impact on his life. Between the writings about being male and those about interests that I share with him, I found myself relating to almost all the essays one way or another.

Reading these essays made me think a lot about who I was growing up, where I came from, who the male figures were that influenced my life, and where my life is now. As I read about his life as a father, especially the birth of his first child, I was thinking to the future. Who will my child be? What will they be like, and what will their influences be? I am looking forward to sharing the things I liked as a kid-Lego bricks, Star Wars, comics, playing in the woods, and so on. Will my son enjoy the same things I did? Or will we be strangers to each other, not able to comprehend what/why we are different?

So, as not to stray too far from the original point of this post, I highly recommend Manhood for Amateurs. Knowing a number of people who read my blog, I have a feeling they will relate to, and enjoy, Chabon's essays in many of the same ways I did.

3 Down, 47 to Go

Just a quick update on my reading goal for the year. I've finished 3 books so far. Not a bad start. I'll be posting my thoughts some of the books I read, but not all.

I've got a post on the first, Manhood for Amateurs, coming up shortly. Second was The Eyes of the Dragon, and third Lyra's Oxford. Lyra's Oxford was really only a short story with a very nice woodcut map (and some other random items) that fleshes out the world of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, but I'm counting it anyway, as it's a stand alone book. I've also read a comic collection that I'm not counting towards the total, Invincible volume 11: Happy Days.

Up next? I'm not sure, but I think I'm going to go for some non-fiction.

Listening: Dark Ages by Soulfly

What To Read?

In my previous post, I mentioned one of my goals for 2010 was to read 50 books. 50 doesn't really sound like all that many books, but I don't think I've read 50 books (not counting graphic novels) in a single year for quite a while. I got the idea for this goal over on LibraryThing, where there are a variety of book challenges going on: 50, 75, 10 books in each of 10 different subjects, books you already own but haven't read, and so on.

I've set a few limits and guidelines for myself, in order to help me focus and keep on target for making my goal this year.

1. Only 20 graphic novels count towards the 50 books: This is to keep me from choosing the easy way out, and finishing early. I tend to read at least 2-3 graphic novels or comic book collections a week, sometimes many more than that. Since I read them both for pleasure and for work (I'm the graphic novel subject librarian for the library where I work), I'll quickly hit 50 books without reading anything but graphic novels.
2. Graphic novels that do count must be complete, stand alone stories: A large percentage of the graphic novels I read are simply compilations of a run of comics. In order to count, the book must be a stand alone story. Titles like Batman: Year One or Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 would count, but Invincible Volume 11 would not. 
3. Focus on books I own, have checked out from the library, or have wanted to read for a long time: I have a very long "To Be Read" list, and it grows longer each week. Instead of reading from this list, I just add to it, and never seem to read what I have already put on the list. Instead I read whatever I saw most recently that struck me as worth adding to the list, so the longer a book is on the list the less likely I'll read it. By trying to read mostly books that I already want to read or own instead of whatever I come across new, I hope to make a small dent in the pile. I'm sure I will not stick to this 100%, but that's fine. 
4. Mix up genres a little: I tend to read the same genres over and over-fantasy, science fiction, horror, and similar. I'm going to make an effort to occasionally read something different, just to make my list a bit more rounded. I'm sure the bulk of titles will be in these areas, though.
   

With those ideas in mind, here is a quick starter list of potential books, taken from my book shelves at home and in my office at the library. A few of these I've owned since high school, yet have never read. Others I've picked up in the last year or so. Any could be next, so could something not on this short list. As of this writing, I've actually completed one (Manhood for Amateurs) and started another (Eyes of the Dragon) from my list.

See anything that I should read right away?

A Feast for Crows	George R.R. Martin
Abarat	Clive Barker
Anno Dracula	Kim Newman
Declare	Tim Powers
Everyday Life in Early America	David Freeman Hawke
Expiration Date	Tim Powers
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	J.K. Rowling
Into the Heart of Borneo	Redmond O'Hanlon
Magician: Apprentice	Raymond E. Feist
Manhood for Amateurs	Michael Chabon
Moving Pictures	Terry Pratchett
Neverwhere	Neil Gaiman
Orchid Fever	Eric Hansen
Return to Lankhmar	Fritz Leiber
The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay	Michael Chabon
The Blade Itself	Joe Abercrombie
The Bloody Chamber	Angela Carter
The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Thornton Wilder
The Children of Hurin	J.R.R. Tolkien
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian	Robert E. Howard
The Crystal World	J.G. Ballard
The Elric Saga: Part I	Michael Moorcock
The Eyes of the Dragon	Stephen King
The Good Life	Helen and Scott Nearing
The Jungle Books	Rudyard Kipling
The Land that Time Forgot	Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Pine Barrens	John McPhee
The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane	Robert E. Howard
The Scar	China Mieville
The Traveling Vampire Show	Richard Laymon
The Truth	Terry Pratchett
Voice of the Mountain	Manly Wade Wellman
Witches Abroad	Terry Pratchett
Wizard and Glass	Stephen King

Listening:  Muse-Origin of Symmetry