2010 Reading X-XXI

( X: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves (1972) )

( XI: Clifford D. Simak, Out of Their Minds (1970) )

( XII: Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree )

( XIII: Clifford D. Simak, Destiny Doll (1971) )

( XIV: Clifford D. Simak, Cemetery World (1973) )

( XV: Clifford D. Simak, Our Children's Children (1974) )

( XVI: Richard Brautigan, Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel (1976) )

( XVII: Richard Brautigan, The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western (1974) )

( XVIII: Clifford D. Simak, Enchanted Pilgrimage (1976) )

( XIX: Barry Malzberg, On a Planet Alien (1974) )

( XX: Clifford D. Simak, Shakespeare's Planet (1977) )

( XXI: Clifford D. Simak, Catface (1978) )

The Perils of Bargain Hunting

Last night I bought a rover ticket to go and see David O'Doherty. I think I bought the wrong one. I bought a Megarider when I should have bought a Unirider. My four trips to Britain's European campus will break even, and I don't have to scrabble for change. Just not lose the ticket.

Sneakily it last for seven calendar days, not a week, so I can't use it next Saturday morning.

To make a profit I shall have to go to ASDA. Maybe more than once. And maybe go to the campus of the hill twice on the days I'm seeing something in the evening. Maybe go on Tuesday morning, come back for therapy, return early evening. Have I time to go up to ASDA and back between 10.30 and 2.00 on Monday? In theory, yes, but is it worth it? I could go to KFC for lunch...

Atwood at it Again

Margaret Atwood was at it again yesterday, on BBC Radio 4's Toady, er, Today Programme, where she was speaking from Davos (which I blearily heard as Davros). (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8488000/8488841.stm)

The interviewer is one of a new generation on the programme who often respond to an interviewee's sophist response to a tough question with the comment "You've got a point there", and who speculation suggests had nipple rings. He also presents a programme called Dragon's Den (although as Jeremy Hardy has pointed out, dragons don't have dens, they have lairs). He asked her something like, "Apparently you don't like your novels being described as science fiction." (Full marks for avoiding scifi, mind)

No, she said, that would mislead her readers, who might pick up her books thinking they contain dragons or aliens or far far away planets in a distant galaxy. She writes Speculative Fiction which is a subset of science fiction.


Bonus essay question: "Is speculative fiction a subset of science fiction, or vice versa?"

Personally I think she should write an honest to goodness sf novel and get us of her back. The Spacesquid's Tale. Alien Grace. Oryx and Kraken.