Wednesday reading — gods and zombies
Jul. 30th, 2014 06:23 pmWhat I've been reading
I read Soccernomics, which is sort of like the football version of Moneyball—in spite of the title, I would not so much say that it is the football version of Freakonomics, because it doesn't have quite the same relentlessly contrarian vibe. It was really interesting and entertainingly written and gave me interesting anecdotes to share with my Michael Lewis-loving but soccer-hating dad.
I read Inventing the Enemy, a collection of relatively recent essays by Umberto Eco, who is as always entertaining.
I read the entire run of iZombie, the Vertigo comic that Rob Thomas is loosely adapting for the CW. I am cautiously optimistic about this; the basic premise does seem like it would work well for a TV show with cases of the week and longer plot arcs. On the other hand, the fact that they pulled the pilot at SDCC because they were recasting a character makes the project seem troubled already, and I thought Rob Thomas produced some absolutely atrocious work in season three of Veronica Mars when he was dealing with heavy network interference, so that is actually the opposite of confidence-inspiring.
I reread American Gods, also with a prospective television adaptation in mind, and so unsurprisingly one of the things that struck me was how much the various dream sequences reminded me of the ones in Hannibal, except that in this case they are actually present in the source material. I wonder if and how they're going to incorporate all the side stories; they're an obvious target for excision, but also some of the best bits of the book. I have not yet tackled the 10th anniversary author's preferred text for comparison purposes.
I read Rebecca, which I picked up at the library on a whim. Pop culture had managed not to spoil me for what happens in it, which is nice for a novel of suspense. Also ( not really spoilery but still ).
I read all the issues of Gambit's recent medium-lived solo title, which was okay if not great and did have nice art and a frequent habit of opening with gratuitous shower scenes.
I read Superman: Red Son, which managed to be as interesting as its premise and did not make me want to throw it across the room in spite of being written by Mark Millar. (I was scarred by my experience with The Ultimates, okay. It put me off picking up anything by Millar for a while, no matter how interesting-looking.)
I read The Phoenix and the Mirror, thanks to a rec from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sineala. It is basically AU medieval Roman Empire alchemical fantasy inspired by the medieval AU RPF tradition about Virgil being a magician.
What I'm reading now
I've just begun the second Vergil Magus book. Also temporarily my only working Internet is on my phone, which is very annoying.
I read Soccernomics, which is sort of like the football version of Moneyball—in spite of the title, I would not so much say that it is the football version of Freakonomics, because it doesn't have quite the same relentlessly contrarian vibe. It was really interesting and entertainingly written and gave me interesting anecdotes to share with my Michael Lewis-loving but soccer-hating dad.
I read Inventing the Enemy, a collection of relatively recent essays by Umberto Eco, who is as always entertaining.
I read the entire run of iZombie, the Vertigo comic that Rob Thomas is loosely adapting for the CW. I am cautiously optimistic about this; the basic premise does seem like it would work well for a TV show with cases of the week and longer plot arcs. On the other hand, the fact that they pulled the pilot at SDCC because they were recasting a character makes the project seem troubled already, and I thought Rob Thomas produced some absolutely atrocious work in season three of Veronica Mars when he was dealing with heavy network interference, so that is actually the opposite of confidence-inspiring.
I reread American Gods, also with a prospective television adaptation in mind, and so unsurprisingly one of the things that struck me was how much the various dream sequences reminded me of the ones in Hannibal, except that in this case they are actually present in the source material. I wonder if and how they're going to incorporate all the side stories; they're an obvious target for excision, but also some of the best bits of the book. I have not yet tackled the 10th anniversary author's preferred text for comparison purposes.
I read Rebecca, which I picked up at the library on a whim. Pop culture had managed not to spoil me for what happens in it, which is nice for a novel of suspense. Also ( not really spoilery but still ).
I read all the issues of Gambit's recent medium-lived solo title, which was okay if not great and did have nice art and a frequent habit of opening with gratuitous shower scenes.
I read Superman: Red Son, which managed to be as interesting as its premise and did not make me want to throw it across the room in spite of being written by Mark Millar. (I was scarred by my experience with The Ultimates, okay. It put me off picking up anything by Millar for a while, no matter how interesting-looking.)
I read The Phoenix and the Mirror, thanks to a rec from
sineala. It is basically AU medieval Roman Empire alchemical fantasy inspired by the medieval AU RPF tradition about Virgil being a magician.What I'm reading now
I've just begun the second Vergil Magus book. Also temporarily my only working Internet is on my phone, which is very annoying.
