The novel in question is Grass, by Sheri Tepper, and I am now rereading it. It is the one I was thinking of: hooray for near-infinite searchability.

But that Masterworks list… the most up-to-date index I could find has one hundred and ten books on it. I haven’t read most of them, and the ones I’ve read were mostly in the distant past. (Here’s a less-current list, but with cover images.)

And there’s a fantasy list too, with another fifty books (and here again with covers). There too I haven’t read as many as I’d like, though for both lists many of the books have been on my to-read list for many years.

I haven’t read anything on either list since I became serious about writing fiction. My approach to reading has changed as my writing skills have improved, probably the former even more than the latter.

My new long-term project: track down and read all of both lists, and write short reviews here (main index). These books won’t be all I read, nor do I expect this to read them in order or any such organized approach. As I already said, I’m rereading Grass right now. I got the first volume on the fantasy list out of the library: Shadow and Claw, the omnibus of the first two volumes of The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. New Sun has been on my to-read list longer than most, as I reliably bounce off Gene Wolfe’s writing, short or long.

Want to play along?

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/01/13/2862652/detailsdetails.html#storylink=cpy

Short version: Engage, don’t just advertise. Anything else you think I should say?

I’m in Albany for work, and have been working very hard until a few minutes ago. I may eventually get caught up on email and things-to-post, but I had to start with Mr. Sendak.

But you know industry’s concerns about the internet aren’t going to go away. This is something to keep a careful eye on, if you’d like to be able to use Wikipedia and YouTube and Flickr and Twitter and Facebook and Google, and this site, all of which are in jeopardy.

SOPA and PIPA are utterly appalling pieces of potential US legislation, and would likely destroy the internet as a community.

Not that I expect my tiny participation in tomorrow’s blackout campaign to have any effect, but I want to add my support. The internet has been crucial to my life in many ways, and all of them could go away. All of the sites I maintain will be down, including the business pages, joining many much more influential sites. Like, oh, Wikipedia, and Reddit, and Boing Boing. (Note: this won’t affect the LJ feed; I have no control over their servers.)

Here’s one way to join in if you maintain a website of your own.

And on second thought, be very alarmed.

Edit: All rumors to the contrary, SOPA is not dead, just tabled until February.

Also, irony is not dead.

I don’t think I broke anything, but I trust you to let me know if I did.

Minus the YouTube, of course.

Science first, since that pays the mortgage.

Published:
3 peer-reviewied papers written in previous years
1 peer-reviewied paper written this year
1 peer-reviewied book chapter written this year
2 fact sheets
2 magazine articles

Accepted:
1 paper written this year

Still in review:
2 papers, both with postdocs as first authors

Other academic writing:
1 book chapter on textile archaeology

SFF-related nonfiction:

1 article for Clarkesworld, “Building Forests, Remaking Planets”

11 essays for Science in My Fiction. I’ve taken over as schedule coordinator, for SiMF, and you’ll likely be hearing more from me on that subect shortly.

6 reviews for SFF Portal, before they switched directions

Fiction

Rigor Amortis was re-released by Edge (with distribution), made the list of Barnes and Noble 2011 Best Zombie Fiction

I finished a novel first draft, started rewriting it: first completed book-length work (not that it’s anywhere near done).

3 stories finished
6 more stories started

6 submissions of 4 stories (all rejected)

4 Friday Flash stories published online

Blogs:

It wasn’t a great year for blogging.

stringpage.com: 70 posts
sarahgoslee.com: 83 posts

Guest post, “Collection and Contemplation” at Chocolate Scotch

Books read: 114

That looks like a lot, but doesn’t feel like I did nearly enough. Not enough blogging, not enough novel rewriting, not enough short story finishing, and certainly not enough submissions. I did a lot of science, though: five new papers/book chapters is a lot in my field, especially considering that several were single-author.

2012: more blogging, more fiction? I’m not sure how to make that happen, truly. Ideas?

One of the most fascinating things about this, beyond the obvious “It’s another PLANET!!!!” thrill, is how useless terrestrial ideas of pattern and scale are. I spend a lot of time looking at satellite and aerial imagery, and still couldn’t tell you how large or what some of these features are.

The creators could have snuck some microscope images in there, for all I can tell.

There’s quite a bit of discussion on the Legos for girls I mentioned earlier.

Best bits I’ve seen:

This 1981 ad for Legos. Based on one data point, we’ve come a long way… backward.

And this article by Tansy Rayner Roberts, with my favorite quote on the topic: “Our girls should have toy options other than ‘everything is pink’ and ‘all the characters are boys.’”

You know, like they did in 1981.