K 3 3 G

A mountain of paper, a sea of ink

Posted on June 15th, 2007 by ephemere.
Categories: ink & paper.

(cross-posted from the Read Or Die Weblog)

Two hours or so ago, while trying to draw, I somehow came up with the idea of reading some books for inspiration. I remembered that I hadn’t read my copy of C.S. Lewis’s Narrative Verse yet, so I thought that I would just grab the book, read a few pages, and return to my drawing with renewed energy.

Then again, I hadn’t considered the state of my bookshelves.

I think it’s a common problem for readers: you buy and buy and read and read until you run out of shelves — and then any space not occupied by a household appliance, piece of furniture, or person is commandeered by crazy book piles. In my case, I have three bookshelves, and most of the shelves have double rows of books. Trying to get one of the “hidden” books often results in the whole front row crashing down on the unfortunate person. My room often resembles a disaster area, except instead of rubble I have books and the occasional stray page.

Once I tried to organize my books. It took me the better part of a day, but the sense of satisfaction lasted for weeks. The ordered arrangement didn’t.

So as I looked for my book I navigated shelves of physics textbooks jostling against high fantasy and apologetics, Christian devotionals rubbing shoulders with science fiction anthologies, books about cats and drug addiction and Japanese history; tragedies and comic book anthologies and cookbooks and computer magazines; and, just to confuse me, my old notebooks (empty of coherent notes) and sketchpads (which contain more equations than drawings). I dived into piles upon piles of hardcovers and paperbacks. Then I moved on to the books stacked on the floor, inside my cabinets, and in the space under my desk and computer table.

One and a half hours later I found Narrative Verse in my brother’s room, where it lay under two Calvin and Hobbes collections, the illustrated Stardust, vol.1 of the School Rumble manga, A Game of Thrones, Ateneo’s standard Theology textbook, Mathematical Physics, and Asterix at the Olympic Games. And a bedroll. I don’t know when my brother started lumping sleeping gear and books together, but I guess he’s just trying to make the most out of the available space. I’m just glad he isn’t piling his shoes on top of my books. Messy bookshelves are one thing, muddy covers are another.

Sometimes I feel that I should take better care of my books; should make sure, at least, that I know where things are instead of having vague combinations of Title-Author-Location floating around in my head. A lot of bibliophiles may think that I don’t treat books with respect and should stick to maltreating photocopied versions. But I do try. I certainly love my books and hunt the missing ones down with persistence, if not efficiency. I just can’t guarantee they’ll be the kind of copies secondhand bookstores will want to buy.

I don’t let books stay on their shelves too long. I believe in re-reading good books, in taking them around with you and sneaking a few pages in between classes or while standing in line, in slipping them into backpacks and handbags so you can share them with friends you happen to meet, in going to sleep with your head pillowed on Arfken and then waking up because the Belgariad is giving you backache. We have our own ways of loving for books. Mine is to live with them.

0 comments.

Legendary notebooks in not-so-legendary hands

Posted on December 12th, 2006 by ephemere.
Categories: ink & paper, art & music.

The one bright spot* in my life right now: I have new Moleskines! They arrived yesterday afternoon.

*Okay, maybe it’s not the only one– fine, it’s not the only one. But allow me a little exaggeration. For artistic effect, you understand.

Though I do most of my writing on my laptop (I call her Fel, short for Felinity) I still do quite a bit of creative scribbling on paper. My reasons have less to do with the quality of writing and more to do with my vanity: I like looking at sheets of paper covered with my handwriting. It’s influenced by calligraphy, so it looks very scripty and romantic on the page; I have been told several times by fellow students and professors alike that my handwriting is better suited for declarations of undying love than for equations and lab recordings.

Because I like writing by hand so much, I have a lot of notebooks. Ideally each notebook has its own purpose: the hardbound ones are for writing, the spiral-bound ones for physics and note-taking, the logbooks for problem-solving. That doesn’t work in real life, though, since I end up using my “creative” notebooks for scratch and random equations and I don’t use my “in-class lecture” notebooks at all. The sole exception to this haphazard notebook abuse is my Moleskine, because I respect it so much I don’t let the slightest hint of crazy science touch it. After all, who wouldn’t be impressed by this:

Moleskine is the legendary notebook, used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. (from the Moleskine history)

The paper is beautiful, too. Truth be told G has been talking about her Moleskine for as long as I’ve known her, six years or more. I didn’t exactly pay attention — a notebook is a notebook is a notebook — until my cousin brought me a Moleskine from Singapore a few months ago. It was love at first sight.

And now! My little Moleskine Cahier (hereafter known as Xai, pronounced “kai” and alternatively spelled as “chai”) has been joined by two large notebooks**: a Classic Plain notebook (Xhel) and a Classic Sketch notebook (Sai). Xhel will be the repository of my scribbles and draft sketches, while I’ll be doing a lot of experimentation with Sai, ink, watercolor pencils, and pastels. So happy.

**I was actually hoping a freebie 2007 organizer would be included in the package. Sssshhh. I’m going to try ordering again in a week or so.

Xhel is the one bound by green and Sai the periwinkle one. Both were ordered from Moleskine PH and were delivered promptly (as in “next business day” promptly) in a lot of protective packaging — it was evident that Moleskine PH wanted the notebooks to be in perfect condition when they arrived. I’ll post writing and art from my Moleskines in ephy from time to time. If I’m not mistaken, several of us have Moleskines too, so it might be interesting to post excerpts from our Moleskines every so often.

Ah, and I have a question for the writer-types: how do you do your writing? Do you write by hand and then type the completed chunks? Is everything completely computer-based? What about your outlines — do you write them on paper (or type them in your text editor of choice) or just keep them in your head? I’d love to read about your approaches to the process of writing.

12 comments.

If We Had Blackboards Like These…

Posted on December 6th, 2006 by sofimi.
Categories: everything else, science/math, tech, ink & paper.

ASSIST: A Shrewd Sketch Interpretation and Simulation Tool
(also known as Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation around the net)

I’ve never really embedded a YouTube video before because it kinda ruins the look of most blogs, but this is too geeky an opportunity to pass up. The video below features a man, possibly an MIT professor, demonstrating a computer program hooked up to a whiteboard. The program interprets what is drawn on the board as objects within a physics simulation scene. When he presses the “Run” button, the computer animates the drawing according to the laws of physics.

I hear that the Microsoft Physics Illustrator for TabletPC is quite the same thing. I wouldn’t know since I don’t have a tablet PC!

We’ll have to be content with the Line Rider game, which I’ve been hearing about lately. I’ve tried it once, just now. Draw some lines and have a little critter on a sled ride on ‘em. Check out a blog dedicated to the whole thing.

Footnote: I noticed you guys are unleashing your “inner geek,” while I have a stronger “outer geek” tendency, if you catch my drift!

6 comments.

Duplicate Books, Anyone?

Posted on December 5th, 2006 by Corsarius.
Categories: everything else, ink & paper.

A recent experience of mine taught me an invaluable lesson when you’re in love with books — don’t judge a book by its cover. Really, it’s a cliche line that’s almost irritating to hear, but I guess I didn’t pay attention to it the first hundreds of times I heard it.

Result? A duplicate book — Tangled Webs of Elaine Cunningham, part of the Starlight and Shadows saga of Forgotten Realms. My only consolation was that at least, it’s a good enough book to have a duplicate of. Tangled Webs is my first ever duplicated non-acad book, making it utterly special.

Seeing that many of us KEEGsters (or SK33G? or 5K33G? bleh.) are bibliophiles, allow me to pose this question — have you ever (unwillingly) bought a duplicate book? If so, what did you do with it? But maybe the question my subconscious really wants to ask is, is it perfectly normal for a book lover to commit this kind of mistake?

Your thoughts please.

5 comments.

Groupmeme 1: One book that…

Posted on November 27th, 2006 by ephemere.
Categories: opinions, ink & paper.

Encouraged by inkstone’s post regarding books, I thought it would be nice to do this again (some of you may have seen this and answered it already, but it’s a nice meme so… ;p). Post your answers in the comments. You don’t have to answer with just one book.

One book that changed your life:

One book that made you laugh:

One book you have read more than once:

One book you would want on a desert island:

One book that made you cry:

One book you wish had been written:

One book you wish had never been written:

One book you are currently reading:

One book you have been meaning to read:

Some links to previous booklist posts: Strange Joys 1, 2, 3. Please add yours~

4 comments.

Once Upon a Time

Posted on November 27th, 2006 by inkstone.
Categories: ink & paper.

On New Year’s Day, I started keeping a list of the items I read in 2006. Partially inspired by the 52 Books in a Year challenge offered in various venues; and partly because I’ve never kept count. Since I’m fond of categorizing, I separate novels, nonfiction books, manga, graphic novels, and unpublished manuscripts by my writer friends. It makes things easy to track and find.

Yesterday, I finished reading my 51st novel. It’s been an interesting exercise, to say the least, since I never had any idea regarding the number of books I consumed, but also because as I go down the list from the start of 2006 until now, I can see how my reading patterns changed or perhaps what mood I was in at any particular time. The first half of 2006 was dominated by the genres of young adult, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. The second half of 2006, however, is characterized by “literary” novels or, rather, what often gets called “literate genre” novels in critical book reviews. Because, obviously, if it has something worth saying, it’s not really genre. (Oh, I’m sorry. Did I let some snark slip past?)

So my booklist isn’t so much a list of the books I recently read, but rather novels that stood out in particular, for one reason or another.

Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones
It took me a couple years to read this, which stirs up vague feelings of guilt as I sort of know the author, but I did get around to it. This is very firmly a genre fantasy novel, but it’s also very different from other novels currently on the market. There are no farm boys with mysterious lineages who claim the sword of power to save the world. There are no asskicking girls in leather sexing it up with hot vampires of questionable repute. In a nutshell, this is a forensic murder mystery in a fantasy setting. The main character is cursed by a goddess to see ghosts. The murders are brutal and ugly. Guess who the ghosts of those victims go to for help? This was the author’s first novel, and also the first in a series, and I think it’s definitely worth a read. If you mostly read mysteries, it might not be as complicated as you’re used to, but if you’re a longtime fantasy reader, this is definitely something new.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
This novel actually comes out officially in January 2007, but I managed to snag an ARC (advanced reader’s copy). This is a Victorian mystery, which I admit is a genre I don’t read much of. To be honest, I think this is my first such novel. For that reason, I can’t judge its merits based on subgenre conventions or subversions, but I can tell you it was entertaining and very fresh. The protagonist, Lady Julia, has a highly engaging voice and I think the plot and characters do an excellent job of highlighting the confines of proper Victorian society and the repressed sexuality that permeates it beneath the surface.

Benighted by Kit Whitfield (also known as Bareback)
Unless I read something completely mindblowing and amazing in December, this is going to be my favorite novel of 2006. In the United States, in addition to the title alteration because apparently we can’t handle a naughty title like Bareback, it’s marketed as an urban fantasy, which is a double-edged sword. The marketing label introduces it to the widest audience possible (urban fantasy is very big in the US market right now, mostly because there’s a lot of crossover readership between romance and fantasy), but at the same time, if you go in expecting this novel to be like Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, or any of their ilk, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

I think the novel is highly underrated. The people who would like it the most don’t want to read it because it’s about werewolves. And many urban fantasy loyalists hate it because they say it’s boring and slow. If by boring and slow, they mean the main character, Lola, doesn’t have five guys wanting to have sex with her at any given moment or doesn’t do a mini-travelogue where she meets all the supernatural bad guys of the city, then yes, it is boring.

This is a challenging novel in many ways but at its heart, it is a novel that examines race, prejudice, bigotry, and how growing up a minority both marks and damages you. It’s just that it does it through the lens of a werewolf urban mystery. The trick here, though, is that it’s not werewolves who are the minority. It’s the people who don’t change shape with the full moon who are.

Thanks to the wonders of Bookmooch, I currently do have a To-Be-Read pile. Select titles I’m looking forward to are:
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Farber
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Aubrey Niffenegger
Neuromancer by William Gibson
(I’m a terrible, horrible person who is sorely lacking in her science fiction reading, so I’m trying to remedy that oversight by going back and reading the classics. I figure you can’t get any more classic than the novel that gave rise to cyberpunk.)

8 comments.

Swimming in paper

Posted on November 26th, 2006 by ephemere.
Categories: ink & paper.

Here there be booklists! Do post your own — either in the comments, or if you prefer, a separate Keegy post. Books reside permanently among my fascinations and loves, and every so often I get the urge to write an ode (or a blog post, or a list compilation) about books. Please note that spoilers may follow, in case you don’t like that kind of thing.

Books recently read (excluding, of course, academic textbooks)
• Malcolm Gladwell, Blink. From the author of The Tipping Point, which talked about the memetic spread of ideas, comes a book that attempts to spark another revolution of perspectives– this time in what we think about the way we think. While the anecdotes were interesting, I thought it was much less substantial than The Tipping Point; maybe because I came away with nothing new after reading it. But then again, I’ve always been the kind of person who can make decisions in seconds, so the theory of snap judgements wasn’t that surprising.
• Christopher Paolini, Eragon. Borrowed this from the Jake, and he was right — it was fun. Nothing really unexpected happened and I don’t think it’s groundbreaking fantasy, but I enjoyed reading it, which is more than I can say for a lot of fantasy titles out there. The writing is good, though the fact that this is the author’s first novel is painfully apparent at times. I’m looking forward to watching the movie. I think I’ll enjoy it. If you want uncomplicated fantasy that carries you away from the mundane and soars with you on dragon’s wings, this is a good choice.
• James Gleick, Genius. A Feynman biography. Gleick has written about science before, and his familiarity with the subject shows in how he writes about the research that made Feynman one of the century’s greatest physicists. He didn’t gloss over Feynman’s less-than-exemplary habits, as most biographers are wont to, and is painfully honest without being maudlin when dealing with some difficult episodes in Feynman’s life. This doesn’t have the humor of other Feynman-centered books — Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and its cousins are much funnier — but it’s a very instructive read for the student of physics or just about anyone interested in science (or scientists!).
• Ursula le Guin, Tehanu. This is the last of the Earthsea cycle books I read, so by the time I picked it up I already had a general idea of the storyline. Reading it was… an experience. Though le Guin has her faults — sometimes she tends to lose the thread of the narrative, or at least hide it away while she explores a certain idea — I still find her prose beautiful and graceful. Among the books in the Earthsea cycle, Tehanu is probably the one that focused most on the characters as human beings with emotions, pasts, and phobias. It made Ged more real to me since I saw him not as a mage (okay, ex-mage) but instead as a person who was making a rather difficult transition in life. Ah, and the scene at the end — the one at the cliff-side — took my breath away.

Books to read
• Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker. I’ll be honest. I don’t like Dawkins and I didn’t like The Selfish Gene. I have the feeling I won’t like this book either. But whether I like it or not, Dawkins was a major influence on the way scientists — and other intellectuals, and even the general public — interpreted scientific data vis-a-vis philosophical questions on existence and meaning and why we are here and… well… the purpose of life, I guess. Rather than hear other people parroting Dawkins I’ve decided to read him myself. His prose is clear and coherent, at least.
• Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. I’m not exactly sure what this is about, but… Godel! Escher! And Bach! How could anyone resist? (Though, um, I still don’t like Bach as much as I like other composers.)
• Ibsen’s Selected Plays. I’ve read this before, but I like reading Ibsen’s plays every so often. They make me feel human.

I don’t have a lot of books to read. Hmm. I should look for a good fantasy series to start reading soon, since I think I’ll be sick of scientific stuff by the time I finish my to-read list. Or maybe something light and funny? You can never have too much silly humor in your booklist. Unless, you know, you have to take things seriously.

10 comments.