Gordon Korman

Losing Joe's Place by Gordon Korman
My favorite young adult author as a kid. I read all the Bruno and Boots stories, Bugs Potter (no relation to Harry), Son of Interflux, Don't Care High, Our Man Weston and probably a few more that I've forgotten. Thing I loved about Korman's books, there's always some sort of a riot at the end.

second favorite superhero

Machine Man
Don't remember when I discovered it. High school maybe. 1984? More like 6th grade.
It was a four part series, Machine Man 2020.
From Wikipedia: Machine Man was reactivated in the year 2020 by a group of outlaw scavengers called Midnight Wreckers (led by X-51's old friend Gears Garvin), and forced to battle his old enemy, the industrialist ice queen Sunset Bain, as well as mercenary Arno Stark, the amoral Iron Man of 2020.

After reading up a bit on this character, I realized that I know very little of it's history outside of the four issues I had read. At the time I was just getting into Heavy Metal magazine and Blade Runner. I wanted to be a Midnight Wrecker and live in an abandoned McDonalds.

To me Machine Man was a cross between the Terminator and Inspector Gadget. Not as cheesy as Gadget, but not as threatening as Arnold.

I've decided to create a comic book hero dream team here. First memeber was Longshot, second is Machine Man. Don't know how many more yet, to be continued...

the two walls

The Wall of the Sky,

The Wall of the Eye

by

Jonathan Lethem

at the library 6

sequel

Night of the Living Rat
Daniel M. Pinkwater's
Melvinge of the Megaverse Book 2
by Doyle and MacDonald
This is the book I would have read

if the Colts had won the last Super Bowl.

excerpt

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young adult

Singularity by William Sleator

Bad Monkeys

I was hesitant at first, to put such a long video on here. But after watching it last week, I decided it was definitely relevant, and it was very interesting. Here's some info:

AtGoogleTalks — June 18, 2008 — Author Matt Ruff visits Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA, to discuss his book "Bad Monkeys". This event took place on September 19, 2007, as a part of the Authors@Google series. For more information about Matt Ruff please visit http://www.bymattruff.com

Longshot

shopping spree

Yesterday was my day off and I bought a half dozen books at the used book store. Here they are:

1. Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon. Recently read Maps and Legends by this author. Tried to find the one that he won the Hugo and Nebula for, but they didn't have that one.
2. Ender in Exile - Orson Scott Card. I read Ender's Game and War of Gifts last year. Now I have Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon as well as this one. They're all thick-ass books.
3. Losing Joe's Place - Gordon Korman. This guy was one of my favorite YA authors growing up. I used to have a bunch of his books, now I'm trying to collect them all again. I'd never even heard of this one before.
4. Singularity - William Sleator. Another favorite from my youth. I still have 3 of his books sitting on my shelf: Fingers, Into the Dream and The Green Futures of Tycho.
5. Doctor Who & the Talons of Weng Chiang - Terrance Dicks. Did I mention that I love Dr. Who? Nerd Alert! This was a 6 part story starring Tom Baker (my favorite Doctor) and Leela (my favorite companion).
6. Doctor Who and the Android Invasion - Terrance Dicks. Another book based on a Tom Baker story, but one which I don't have on DVD yet. I vaguely remember seeing the episode on PBS back in the mid 70s. I seem to recall Sara Jane's face falling off to reveal fake eyes and computer circuits inside. Probably traumatized thousands of Brittish boys and girls for life.
7. Anthrax - Return of the Killer A's. Not a book. Gardner's also sells music, videos and toys. I was a little disappointed to learn that the version of I'm the Man on this CD was the censored version.

unfinished business

Sewer, Gas & Electric

by Matt Ruff

I first started reading this book in '01 or '02. I remember I was working at the cafeteria in the TU dormitories at the time. I actually had a locker at work and kept this book in there a couple of times. I think I stopped reading after about 200 pages because I started a second job at The Hardwood bar and grill across the street. I think I went about 3 or four months straight without a day off. Plus it's a pretty long book, 560 pages! I must have gotten tired of it and gave up. My bookmark tells me I left off at page 195. That leaves 365 pages to go.

Legend

Douglas Adams, author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," plays with Pink Floyd in celebration of his 42nd birthday. The songs are "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" and Douglas is playing rhythm guitar. No video was taken of this event, but there is a nice picture of Douglas on stage with David Gilmour that I've included. Hope you enjoy it! - mhspiper

And Another Thing...

6 of 3

And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer

Found this hardcover on sale for $5 @ B&N!

Red Gem and the Ancient Food Plan

Ruby and the Stone Age Diet
by Martin Millar