Category Archives: Books

Still working my way through Fifty Years of the Texas Observer – these things do go in fits and starts sometimes, you know? The book is divided into sections, with an intro and an afterword by founding editor Ronnie Dugger. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Want to hear Molly Ivins and other Texas Observer authors read from Fifty Years of the Texas Observer, and maybe score an autograph? You lucky duckies in Austin and San Antonio will have your chance in September: Sept 8 BookPeople, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now that Kevin has kindly sent a boatload of readers here to find out about Fifty Years of the Texas Observer, I thought I’d discuss another article from that book, one from the much more recent past. This one, The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Nice article on the conclusion of the “Bone” and “Cerebus” comic sagas. I’ve been a big fan of “Bone” since my ex-roommie Matt introduced me to it a few years ago. I have all of the bound collections of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Mark Evanier reviews the first of the Complete Peanuts volumes and explains why you should spend a few extra bucks and order it straight from the publisher instead of Amazon. Check it out. Continue reading →

I’ll let Julia explain it all to you about Lynne Cheney’s hot lesbian Western bodice-ripper. I just wanted to note that I knew some people at Rice who considered it a good time to crack open a few brewskies and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As you may know, Fantagraphics is releasing the first entry in The Complete Peanuts, a 12.5-year, 25-volume oddyssey that will cover the entire body of Charles Schultz’ work in the dailies. Mark Evanier has been all over this from the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I see that Frank McCourt is dipping into the memoir well once again. Frank McCourt thought writing a novel would be a liberating experience, but the award-winning author said on Thursday he has abandoned that project in favor of something … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I started to read this screed on Salon about mystery writers – the author claims that it’s all been downhill since Ross McDonald – because I thought there’d be some good controversy to dive into. Instead, it was more of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here‘s something for your Christmas list this year. If you’re shopping for a stocking stuffer or an early Christmas present for yourself, you could do a lot worse than a new little book called A Christmas Story. That’s A Christmas … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via Mark Evanier and Greg Morrow comes this story about the extremely reclusive Bill Watterson, the genius behind Calvin and Hobbes. It’s got quite a bit of detail about the man that I did not know, so I highly recommend … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here’s an entertaining interview with Don Novello, whom you may know as Father Guido Sarducci but whom I will always think of as Lazlo Toth, American. He talks about the history of the Lazlo Letters, the challenge of keeping the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I can see a future Surgeon General’s warning: Reading too much Harry Potter may be hazardous to your health. A Washington doctor warned that he has seen three children complain of headaches caused by the physical stress of relentlessly plowing … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Allow me, somewhat belatedly, to add my voice to those (such as Patrick) who have cited and praised Slacktivist‘s ongoing series of posts about the “Left Behind” books (start here and look for posts whose titles begin with “L.B.”) As … Continue reading → Continue reading →

On Saturday, I discovered Tiffany sitting at the computer, logged into a webpage called BookCrossing, which is some kind of crunchy-granola peer-to-peer book swapping network. (My first question to her: Does the RIAA know about this?) She was busily entering … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Finished reading all 766 pages (in the British edition) of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday. It was good, though a bit slow to get started. If you haven’t read it yet, give serious thought to rereading … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We got our copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday from Amazon UK (Tiffany wanted the British edition), so blogging will be light as I take advantage of the holiday weekend to give my typing and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released on June 21, which will probably do more to stimulate the economy than any Bush tax cut ever will. Book Magazine has several articles on Harry and author JK … Continue reading → Continue reading →

From the news wires: The Vatican is giving two thumbs up to the Harry Potter series. The good vs. evil plot lines of the best-selling books are imbued with Christian morals, the Rev. Don Peter Fleetwood told a Vatican news … Continue reading → Continue reading →

You fans of Diane Duane should check out the comments on this old post for an update on the status of her “Door” books. Remember: You heard it here first! Continue reading →

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will make its debut on June 21. Woo hoo! At 768 pages, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is more than one-third longer than its predecessor, “Harry Potter and the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Argh. According to this story, the next Harry Potter book won’t be here until at least 2003, maybe later. The wait is killing me. The good news is that kids haven’t abandoned reading amid the delays, according to local librarians: … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Press has a story about a different form of do-it-yourself publishing called print-on-demand, or POD, which has attracted a number of wannabe authors in Houston. It may be another form of “vanity publishing”, as newspaper book editors are wont … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember The Anarchist Cookbook? It was a straight-from-the-counterculture guide to making bombs, getting high, and generally giving the finger to The Man. I’m willing to bet most people reading this knew someone in high school who had a copy and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Duncan Fitzgerald confesses that he doesn’t read Tom Clancy any more. Says he I got about 2/3 of the way through The Sum of All Fears. It was at that point I realized Clancy was just another poser in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Got into a bit of a debate with Karin today about the Harry Potter movie. Karin has written that while she liked the movie, she felt it lacked by being a straightforward recapitulation of the book. Why do such an … Continue reading → Continue reading →