Chaos Sleeps

Typewriter Porn

2009-11-21T06:23:38Z

The Royal # 10 that started it all. Found in a little antiques shop in Oak Ridge. Has it been over ten years ago? Tripped and fell while carrying it across Robert's parents' driveway, skinning up my elbow and chin but holding the typewriter safely off the ground. Michelle laughed her head off at that.

The Royal Arrow that my "little" brother-in-law Tyler got for me three(?) years ago for Christmas. The first typewriter that I seriously began to write on.

A Hermes 3000, one of the latest additions to the collection. It's a French-made Hermes, supposedly not as good as the earlier Swiss-made typers. The keys and action feel a little cheap, and the bell is the saddest thing I've heard, but it's not a bad little machine at all. I just love it for the 70s retro-futuristic stylings. It wouldn't look out of place on the bridge of the Death Star.

These pictures are pretty crappy, but it's taken me this long to get around to posting them, so what the hell? Maybe more later. I certainly need a photo of the Royal KMM that has clacked its way into my heart, even with its several mechanical failings.

50,000 words!

2009-11-10T05:51:58Z

50000 / 70000 words. 71% done!

Only a year and ten days after I began. I intend to finish this bastard before the end of the year. The vague shape of the end came to me Saturday. Feeling sorry about not writing the last four or five months won't get me any closer to the end.

On writing

2009-11-05T02:38:36Z

Something of which I have done very little of lately.

Three blog posts by Justine Lee Musk which are very wise:

Form Vs Formula

On the Anxiety of Writing

Failure is Good for You

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

2009-08-10T04:37:50Z

This might just be the most perfect popcorn summer action movie ever made. It is also very bad. So bad that I want to spank it. Or maybe just the Baroness and Scarlett. Anyway, I would like to list the ways in which it is perfect yet horrible, but I'm just too damn tired, so maybe later.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

2009-08-03T03:42:31Z

Since I haven't updated my wordcount in almost three months, I thought it was time. I haven't written a lot in that time, but a few words here and there add up. Not to much, mind you.

The last two or three months have sucked ass. I would like to officially declare war on this year, and I will not stop until it is dead. Five more months, motherfucker. Bring it.

New goal: At least 10,000 more words before Dragon*Con.

Done!

2009-06-28T17:28:44Z

Finished Lord of the Flies (blah) this morning, bringing my 12 month book total to 52. Yay me. Still feel a bit like a cheat for including graphic novels, but the way this year has gone, I should be elated to have met my goal at all.

52. (30) Lord of the Flies, Golding
51. (29) The Drunkard's Walk, Mlodinow
50. Lucifer 7: Exodus, Carey
49. Lucifer 6: Mansions of the Silence, Carey
48. (28) Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks
47. (27) 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, Michael Brooks
46. Swamp Thing: Love and Death, Alan Moore
45. (26) Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
44. (25) Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
43. Lucifer 5: Inferno, Mike Carey
42. Swamp Thing v. 1, Alan Moore
41. (24) World War Z, Max Brooks
40. (23) The Last Colony, John Scalzi
39. Captain Marvel: First Contact, Peter David
38. Lucifer 4: The Divine Comedy, Mike Carey
37. American Virgin v. 1, Steven Seagle
36. Alias v. 1, Brian Michael Bendis
35. (22) The Color Purple, Alice Walker
34. (21) Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
33. Lucifer 3: A Dalliance with the Damned, Mike Carey, etc
32. Fell v. 1, Warren Ellis
31. (20) The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
30. (19) Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
29. (18) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
28. (17) The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
27. (16) The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
26. Bone: Old Man's Cave, Jeff Smith
25. (15) The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
24. Bone: Eyes of the Storm, Jeff Smith
23. Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Alan Moore & Gene Ha
22. (14) The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1, Robert Silverberg, ed.
21. Runaways vol 7: Live Fast, by Brian K. Vaughan
20. Lucifer: Children and Monsters, Mike Carey, etc
19. (13) Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
18. Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway, Mike Carey, etc
17. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
16. (12) The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
15. (11) Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
14. (10) Jumper, by Steven Gould
13. (9) Alabaster, Caitlin R. Kiernan
12. (8) Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, Jennifer Ackerman
11. Runaways Vol 6, by Brian K. Vaughan
10. Justice Volume 2, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
9. Justice vol 1, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
8. (7) Specials, Scott Westerfeld
7. (6) Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
6. (5) The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
5. Transmetropolitan: Gouge Away, Warren Ellis
4. (4) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
3. (3) Jhegaala by Steven Brust
2. (2) The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman
1. (1) Alexander the Great: Journey to the End of the Earth by Norman F. Cantor

Double Damnable Netflix

2009-06-17T02:05:20Z

Well, Netflix pissed me off a couple of years ago with their Watch Instantly shenanigans, and they've done it again. The new Silverlight player won't even play on my desktop without stuttering, much less on my laptops. Watching Dexter last night was like watching a flip book rather than a TV show. Netflix claims the next version of Silverlight will solve these problems, but I'll believe it when I see it. After all, Silverlight is a Micro$oft product. Guess it's time to put Netflix on hold again after only a month back. I'll give 'em another shot in the fall or winter once Silverlight 3 is out. Not like I don't have enough DVDs to watch without them. And with Redbox, I can get 90% of the new releases I want to see for a buck a night anyway.

Down to the wire

2009-06-07T04:19:08Z

As if there were any doubt. Finish early? Pshaw.

47. (27) 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, Michael Brooks
46. Swamp Thing: Love and Death, Alan Moore

Though I am well into three books, this will be close.

ETA:
48. (28) Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks

"That children of a newer day might remember and avoid our fate"

2009-05-12T01:49:07Z

Still typing away, though I still can't decide which goddamn typewriter to use all the time. I'm switching between three of them. Perhaps I'll do a write-up of each one's various merits and (demerits?) disadvantages. Don't hold your breath on that one, since I think I'm nearly alone in my fascination with this topic.

The home stretch

2009-05-10T22:54:17Z

7 more books to read in a month and a half. Or 26 if I want to complete the challenge w/o counting graphic novels. :P

45. (26) Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
44. (25) Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
43. Lucifer 5: Inferno, Mike Carey
42. Swamp Thing v. 1, Alan Moore
41. (24) World War Z, Max Brooks
40. (23) The Last Colony, John Scalzi
39. Captain Marvel: First Contact, Peter David
38. Lucifer 4: The Divine Comedy, Mike Carey
37. American Virgin v. 1, Steven Seagle
36. Alias v. 1, Brian Michael Bendis
35. (22) The Color Purple, Alice Walker
34. (21) Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
33. Lucifer 3: A Dalliance with the Damned, Mike Carey, etc
32. Fell v. 1, Warren Ellis
31. (20) The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
30. (19) Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
29. (18) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
28. (17) The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
27. (16) The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
26. Bone: Old Man's Cave, Jeff Smith
25. (15) The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
24. Bone: Eyes of the Storm, Jeff Smith
23. Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Alan Moore & Gene Ha
22. (14) The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1, Robert Silverberg, ed.
21. Runaways vol 7: Live Fast, by Brian K. Vaughan
20. Lucifer: Children and Monsters, Mike Carey, etc
19. (13) Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
18. Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway, Mike Carey, etc
17. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
16. (12) The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
15. (11) Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
14. (10) Jumper, by Steven Gould
13. (9) Alabaster, Caitlin R. Kiernan
12. (8) Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, Jennifer Ackerman
11. Runaways Vol 6, by Brian K. Vaughan
10. Justice Volume 2, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
9. Justice vol 1, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
8. (7) Specials, Scott Westerfeld
7. (6) Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
6. (5) The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
5. Transmetropolitan: Gouge Away, Warren Ellis
4. (4) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
3. (3) Jhegaala by Steven Brust
2. (2) The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman
1. (1) Alexander the Great: Journey to the End of the Earth by Norman F. Cantor

I started reading Joyce's Ulysses oh a couple months ago. I have probably spent more mental angst on that book than on any other literary concern in the last fifteen years. I felt lost in the shadow of Joyce, somehow unworthy to take up the pen if the ultimate novel had already been written, and certainly ignorant for having never managed to finish reading the whole book. Yet I was filled with a certain ambivalence -- was the book a failure because it was unrepentantly impenetrable (at least to a large percentage of readers) or was it a success because it was a dense intellectual alchemical blending of a day in a mundane life with mythology?

So I've worried this over in my head off and on for many years (more off than on the last several), and I put it on my "Books I Want To Have Read" list sometime last year, and earlier this year I thought whatthehell it's about time to put a bullet in this zombie book's head. And I read oh about 5 or 6 chapters, and it was hard going but not especially incomprehensible, and then I put it down to read something else and never picked it up again. Basically, my response was: meh. The obsession ends not with a bang but a whimper. Ulysses is a puzzle book, and I don't really like puzzles.

Maybe I will return to it in a few years with a different perspective again, but right now I feel about Joyce sort of like I feel about Nietzsche, that he is more of an adolescent experience. "Look at this shit!"

An inch closer to freedom, a step toward chaos

2009-05-06T17:42:38Z

Wow. Just wow. I got chills reading that headline.

I still expect that it will end in fire. Why can't I just be happy when good things happen? Because I'm a cynical bastard, that's why. Freedom is never that easily won.

ETA: Like, perhaps, this?

Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head

2009-05-01T02:40:43Z

It's been a month since I've updated my novel wordcount. One might infer that my output in April has been rather pitiful. Part of this is because of the new job (which required two full weeks of training, one of them with a commute 30 miles each way) and part is because on April 8, issue 14 came out. (Although I did write a story arc for I14's new player-created content. I know, I don't think that really counts either.) So I wrote about 4000 words this month. That sucks, but it's more than I wrote in all but a couple months in 2008, so ya'know, Puritan work ethic guilt: Bite me.

Happy 50th Strunk & White!

2009-04-17T05:20:17Z

In the interest of fairness, a grumpy grammarian.

Let them drink tea!

2009-04-16T03:00:04Z

Tea bagging!

LOL! Someone tell those silly Republicans that no one has raised their taxes in over eight years. (Did Clinton raise taxes? Certainly not much, since he was "the best recent Republican president" as Alan Greenspan said.) Maybe we should set the highest tax bracket to what it was during the most prosperous period in American during the last century: 90%. Oh, sorry, we wouldn't want to become "socialists" like those queer French people, then we couldn't eat our Freedom Fries!

Repeat after me: "Money isn't real." You'll feel better.

Or it might make you mad--imagine all the suffering that is caused by the manipulation of a fiction--Bernie Madoff, Enron, the entire banking system--Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can.

March book update

2009-04-03T03:38:39Z

I started several non-graphic novel books in March, but only managed to complete one:

40. (23) The Last Colony, John Scalzi
39. Captain Marvel: First Contact, Peter David
38. Lucifer 4: The Divine Comedy, Mike Carey
37. American Virgin v. 1, Steven Seagle
36. Alias v. 1, Brian Michael Bendis
35. (22) The Color Purple, Alice Walker
34. (21) Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
33. Lucifer 3: A Dalliance with the Damned, Mike Carey, etc
32. Fell v. 1, Warren Ellis
31. (20) The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
30. (19) Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
29. (18) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
28. (17) The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
27. (16) The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
26. Bone: Old Man's Cave, Jeff Smith
25. (15) The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
24. Bone: Eyes of the Storm, Jeff Smith
23. Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Alan Moore & Gene Ha
22. (14) The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1, Robert Silverberg, ed.
21. Runaways vol 7: Live Fast, by Brian K. Vaughan
20. Lucifer: Children and Monsters, Mike Carey, etc
19. (13) Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
18. Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway, Mike Carey, etc
17. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
16. (12) The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
15. (11) Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
14. (10) Jumper, by Steven Gould
13. (9) Alabaster, Caitlin R. Kiernan
12. (8) Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, Jennifer Ackerman
11. Runaways Vol 6, by Brian K. Vaughan
10. Justice Volume 2, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
9. Justice vol 1, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
8. (7) Specials, Scott Westerfeld
7. (6) Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
6. (5) The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
5. Transmetropolitan: Gouge Away, Warren Ellis
4. (4) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
3. (3) Jhegaala by Steven Brust
2. (2) The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman
1. (1) Alexander the Great: Journey to the End of the Earth by Norman F. Cantor

Watched the end of ER tonight. Reminded me a bit of the end of West Wing. It was not a very good episode, especially in comparison with the early seasons. I haven't watched a full episode in at least three or four years. But I was hoping for a little dazzle for the end of such a long-running and (deservedly) critically-acclaimed show, but it was mostly just a normal episode, not a particularly well-written one at that, with a few cameos. Ho-hum. I suppose fifteen years is much too long for a show to remain fresh anyway.

I planted three trees today. Two apple trees (red and golden delicious) and a crabapple with pretty blossoms. We'll see if I ever get any fruit--the golden delicious claims it will bear fruit this season. I find that unlikely. Hopefully the rains did not wash them all away.

In you I taste God

2009-03-30T04:26:21Z

I want to get all of this out. Maybe I'm on the downhill slope of the novel. I don't even care if it's good anymore, it just has to get out.

Over four pages today, and over three Friday, even though I'm apparently suffering some sort of upper respiratory infection. I want it to go away without taking antibiotics. I hate antibiotics.

38250 / 70000 words. 55% done!

Random Things:

I'm still pissed about Battlestar Galactica. I'm starting to wonder if I will be able to successfully declare the last two seasons non-canonical in my own mind the way the last two Matrix films are. To me, they are just big budget fan-fic. If I think about the BSG finale that way, my blood pressure lowers. Sometimes a creator is not worthy of their own creation.
I now know what's wrong with the Olympia SG-1 typewriter. That doesn't mean I will be able to fix it, but I'm going to try. And I'm optimistic.
In the meantime, because I wanted to use a desktop typewriter, I've set up the Royal KMM, the second typewriter that I bought. It seems somehow appropriate to be drafting such a blasphemous novel on a typewriter with a metal tag that reads, "Methodist Pub House".

I see angels and they're laughing at me

2009-03-25T02:46:32Z

The more I've thought about the BSG finale (I haven't been able to get it out of my head all day), the more pissed off I've gotten. In some respects, I think that it's spoiled the rest of the series for me. Though I want to go back and watch at least the first couple of seasons again, I'm afraid it will be tainted with the knowledge that Ron Moore is waiting at the finish line to piss all over the dramatic tension and subtext and subtlety.

I am feeling very burned today. As if Ron Moore saw the genuine emotions that people poured into this series and laughed. Either that, or he completely misunderstood the strengths of his own series. Another reason I fear to go back and re-watch--I'll see him lurking behind every reference by Head-Six that "God has a plan." Yep, God sure do, but it's fucking idiotic.

At least I can go to my screwed up little world with angels and try to make it more compelling:

35680 / 70000 words. 51% done!

Thoughts on the BSG finale

2009-03-24T04:18:49Z

The trend holds--I am once again disappointed by the end of a series that I love. There was a lot to like in the finale, and I'm hanging onto that, but several things made me want to scream (or laugh inappropriately anyway).

They did try to cram a little too much into three episodes, but I really liked all of it up until about the last twenty minutes. If they had stopped with Galactica pulling into view of the earth we all know, maybe even up till the point of seeing the hominids on the plain (H. Erectus? Or would 150k years ago have put those as H. Sapiens?) I think that would have made a pretty good end. But for a show that has resisted the easy way out for most of four years, to suddenly have almost 40,000 people agree to just give up all their technology and start living in grass huts? Gimme a break. Not to mention, without tech, that means they had to breed directly with the natives, what would have seemed to them little more than glorified monkeys. Yuck. And that Hera turned out to be mitochondrial Eve? (Cue Parasite Eve music ;D ) That was a double gimme a break.

I did kind of like that the hallucination Baltar and Six are basically God and the Devil (or Shiva and Vishnu?) repeatedly building up and destroying civilizations.

Anyway, I thought the ending on Earth (Two?) was forced and more than a little silly, but the climax at the Cylon colony before that was very good. And the preview for Caprica, which I'd had little interest in before, looked pretty promising, too.

ETA: The series that have disappointed me with their endings (usually not just their final episode, but entire seasons): Babylon 5, Buffy, The West Wing, Farscape, Gilmore Girls, Felicity, Alias, X-files, Deadwood, and Veronica Mars (though the last two were canceled rather than concluded, so they get a bit of a pass). Series that have had generally satisfactory or better endings: Angel, Dawson's Creek, (Does Firefly/Serenity count?), Twin Peaks (though I hated it originally).

Not sure what that proves, but just random data points for my eventual upload into cyberspace.

Half Time

2009-03-23T04:57:14Z

Yes, I used a sports metaphor. But in my defense, I didn't use it very well.

35130 / 70000 words. 50% done!

Almost 5 pages today! (I'm back to using the SM-9 until new ribbons come in the mail for the Royal KMM.) Halfway to the goal. A little late, but who's counting? The story was not ready before now. I guess I'm just proudest of the fact that even when I missed a day (or ten!) I've come back and pushed, even when it felt like I was shoveling shit (though it remains to be seen whether I'm not).

I hereby promise that if I get this part time job I will not use it as an excuse not to write. Writing must come before video games and TV (even TV on DVD).

Too tired to think of a subject

2009-03-21T04:47:01Z

33630 / 70000 words. 48% done!

The Butler did it.

2009-03-19T03:17:34Z

32530 / 70000 words. 46% done!

I think whodunnit just changed on me again! I have a feeling I'm going to be editing a lot if I can ever finish this thing.

11 pt = More Words/Page

2009-03-16T05:14:44Z

3 and a half pages! Yay me!

31680 / 70000 words. 45% done!

In which I take Olympia typewriter model names in vain

2009-03-15T04:51:16Z

1780 words for the week. Which is rather weak, I realize. But I'm not going to quit, either.

Also, the Zokutou meter seems to be acting up, so I'm switching to the one Robert uses:

30630 / 70000 words. 44% done!

In the continuing typewriter saga: UPS brought the Olympia SM-3 on Tuesday. The exterior of the typewriter case was very well packed, but the seller had not packed anything around the typewriter inside the case, nor had s/he indicated which side was up on the outside of the box. When I unpacked it, the typewriter was upside down. Opening the case revealed that the ribbon spool cover had come loose in transit, and there was now a tiny but nasty little scuff on the cover. It took some investigating to discover that the cover doesn't just snap on, it's supposed to be on a hinge, but I got it re-attached. Okay, I wasn't thrilled that the otherwise mint SM-3 had been scuffed by a little thoughtless packing, but really I was more interested in how it would type, yes?

Oh my God. This is the Platonic ideal of a manual typewriter. At least portable. The spring-loaded keys make for such a smoother typing experience over the solid, functional, but rather clunky SM-9. It makes me even more grumpy that the SG-1 came in busted because it has the same style of spring-loaded keys. (Plus lots of other nifty features besides.) Also, the smooth movement of the keys almost entirely solves the dancing typewriter problem--only the carriage return and the tab key can cause it to move, and even those seem reduced.

But I soon discovered that not all was perfect with the SM-3. At random intervals, the space bar would stop working. Mostly at the end of sentences. Not sure how it could tell, but there you go. I set it up at my new plain jane typing desk, and tapped out 300 words on Wednesday:

FFX's Lulu watches over my typing.

A sample of the new SM-3's unusual Micro Italic typeface.

After typing a couple of paragraphs tonight, I decided that I couldn't take the space bar problem any more. But rather than switching back to the SM-9, I tilted the typewriter up and looked underneath. Since none of the other keys appeared to have the problem, I suspected it would be a fairly easy fix if I could just figure out how all the little bars and levers hook up. Sure enough, after a few minutes of hitting keys and the space bar and watching the action of the guts, I saw a little metal ring, an O-ring if you will, that could be adjusted by loosening two small screws. That tightened up the action of the space bar, and voila, a fully functional typewriter. I am a fucking genius. Or at least I felt like one for a brief moment.

We have to create the future... or others will do it for us.

2009-03-09T05:48:06Z

About 850 words for the week, most of them tonight.

28,850 / 70,000
(41.2%)

While driving to and from Daytona Beach, I think I worked out the major portions of the rest of the story. I'm looking forward to getting it down on paper.

The Olympia SG-1 I ordered was a bust. It does not work. I think something is wrong with the escapement, and I may tinker with it some more, but I'm afraid it's beyond my meagre skills. And because it took so long getting here, I didn't order the other SG-1 that looked potentially better. In a fit of self-pity, I bought an SM-3 on ebay while in Florida. It's the older model of the Olympia portable that I'm currently using, but it's supposed to have nice spring-loaded keys like the SG-1 desktop. The one I bought also has an unusual typeface. It comes in Tuesday. *fingers crossed*

Saw a talk by Michael J. Panzner today on CSPAN-2's BookTV. His basic prediction is that the entire global economy is going to collapse, that the DOW is still overvalued, and that basically we are heading into the end of American influence, if not indeed the end of modernity. It's troubling stuff, but, really, I've been expecting this shit for years. Maybe he's overstating the danger, maybe not. I suspect he's more right than wrong, and that we are in store for a full blown crisis in the next ten to fifteen years. (civil war? Maybe John Titor was right. Though I think he was more interested in the flashiness of war than economics. World War 3? Not impossible, if global oil reserves are lower than we imagine.) I hope that it will be bloodless, but maybe I should stop putting off going to the shooting range like I've been planning on doing for ages.

So, global catastrophe spinning through my mind, I sat down to do bills. And things are tight right now. You wouldn't know that from all the typewriters I've been buying, but yes. Very tight. As I did the bills, the overwhelming notion of economic collapse blew my mind open, and I thought of change and the opportunities that come with it, and I felt optimistic. Still do. Things will change. Spring is coming, and this time of year often seems to bring change for me. The thing is to seize the change, not for a day, but for the future.

February 52 Update

2009-03-04T03:08:33Z

A week of "vacation" was good for my reading. And maybe my writing, at least in my head, but we'll return to that anon. For now, the list of books read since last July:

36. Alias v. 1, Brian Michael Bendis
35. (22) The Color Purple, Alice Walker
34. (21) Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
33. Lucifer 3: A Dalliance with the Damned, Mike Carey, etc
32. Fell v. 1, Warren Ellis
31. (20) The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
30. (19) Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
29. (18) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
28. (17) The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
27. (16) The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
26. Bone: Old Man's Cave, Jeff Smith
25. (15) The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
24. Bone: Eyes of the Storm, Jeff Smith
23. Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Alan Moore & Gene Ha
22. (14) The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1, Robert Silverberg, ed.
21. Runaways vol 7: Live Fast, by Brian K. Vaughan
20. Lucifer: Children and Monsters, Mike Carey, etc
19. (13) Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
18. Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway, Mike Carey, etc
17. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
16. (12) The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
15. (11) Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
14. (10) Jumper, by Steven Gould
13. (9) Alabaster, Caitlin R. Kiernan
12. (8) Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, Jennifer Ackerman
11. Runaways Vol 6, by Brian K. Vaughan
10. Justice Volume 2, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
9. Justice vol 1, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, & Doug Braithwaite
8. (7) Specials, Scott Westerfeld
7. (6) Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
6. (5) The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
5. Transmetropolitan: Gouge Away, Warren Ellis
4. (4) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
3. (3) Jhegaala by Steven Brust
2. (2) The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman
1. (1) Alexander the Great: Journey to the End of the Earth by Norman F. Cantor