Jamie Todd Rubin's Blog, page 365
December 31, 2010
What Secret Santa left for me
I came home from vacation to find this waiting from me from my Secret Santa:
(Click the image to see a larger version.)
It's a stack of Asimov's and Analog magazines from the 1970s and includes the premier issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (the one showing). It also appears to include most issues of Analog from June 1977-August 1978.
Thank you Secret Santa!
Ten things I've done that you probably haven't
Riffing off John Scalzi's and Mary Robinette Kowal's posts of a similar vain, here are ten things I've done that you probably haven't:
Piloted an airplane myself with no one else onboard
Worked for the same company for more than 16 years
Driven past Harlan Ellison's house dozens of times before I ever realized it was his house
Had Ray Bradbury wish me a Merry Christmas at Dangerous Visions in Sherman Oaks
Had a letter to the editor published in the national edition of the New York Times
Lived in the same neighborhood as Mike Farrell (B.J Honeycutt from M*A*S*H)
Interviewed twice for television news, once for a local FOX station in L.A., and once for FOX News Channel
Followed Arnold Schwarzenegger's airplane in for a landing at Van Nuys airport
Snorkeled with giant sea turtles off the northern shore of K'auai
Had dinner with Robert J. Sawyer, David B. Coe and a bunch of other writers at the very first convention I ever attended
Happy new year!
Rebound books
What do you read after you've finished an astonishing book?
I always have trouble finding something good to read after I read a really superb book and the reason is because superb books are few and far between, the cream of the crop, and almost anything that follows the act will pale in comparison. I call these "rebound books" and they are on my mind today because I am still basking in the glow of Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear and finding it very difficult to figure out what to read next. What could possibly live up to that book?
I went through the list of books I've read since 1996 and identified the rebound books that followed those truly remarkable books over the years. Here they are:
Double Star by Robert Heinlein (followed I. Asimov by Isaac Asimov)
Asimov Laughs, Again by Isaac Asimov (followed Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov)
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robins (followed Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury)
View From a Height by Isaac Asimov (followed Contact by Carl Sagan)
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (followed Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg)
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (followed Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg)
Lecherous Limericks by Isaac Asimov (followed The Forever War by Joe Haldeman)
Truman by David McCullough (followed John Adams by David McCullough)
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella (followed Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella)
Magic Time by W.P. Kinsella (followed Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck)
Let's All Kill Constance by Ray Bradbury (followed Forever by Pete Hamill)
1968 by Joe Haldeman (followed The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger)
Surely, You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman (followed First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong by James R. Hansen)
I. Asimov by Isaac Asimov (followed Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil DeGrasse Tyson)
Spook Country by William Gibson (followed Up From Dragons by John R. Skyoles and Dorian Sagan)
Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight (followed The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman)
Marsbound by Joe Haldeman (followed Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson)
Other Spaces, Other Times by Robert Silverberg (followed Blackout by Connie Willis)
I. Asimov by Isaac Asimov (followed Other Spaces, Other Times by Robert Silverberg)
The Devil's Eye by Jack McDevitt (followed Doomsday Book by Connie Willis)
There are a few discernable patterns in all of this:
Stick with what works. In some cases, I'll try reading something else by the same author (if I haven't read it yet) in hopes of retaining or recapturing the wonder of whatever just blew me away. For instance, I read David McCullough's Truman immediately after finishing his John Adams; and I read W.P. Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy right after finishing Shoeless Joe. But so far, I've never run into a case where the rebound book by the same author was as good as the one I'd just read.
Old reliables. I will sometimes fall back on reliable authors or books. Clearly in many cases, I've turned to Isaac Asimov after finishing an amazing book in the hopes that what I read by him will at least get me through that difficult patch.
Gaps. Often times, however, I can't find anything right away, I am just too blown away by what I read that nothing else stands up to it and I linger in a kind of literary limbo for weeks or even months. I went 2 months without completing a book after I read Carl Sagan's Contact. Ditto for Death by Black Hole by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. And I had a dry spell of nearly 3 months after reading Connie Willis' Doomsday Book.
Lower ratings. In those cases where I do try to read something immediately after a breakthrough book, I tend to rate the rebound book lower than I might if I had read it at some other time. I suspect this was true of Let's All Kill Constance by Ray Bradbury and Spook Country by William Gibson. The one exception is Robert Silverberg's Other Spaces, Other Times which I read immediately after Connie Willis' Blackout and I thought it was brilliant. (But in that case, Silverberg's book was nonfiction and Willis' was fiction.)
I still don't know what I am going to read next. I've browsed through about a dozen books today and nothing is sticking or appealing at the moment. I may need a few days before I find something that works.
What are your rebound books and how do you cope with finding something good to read after reading something absolutely brilliant?
Top 10 most popular posts for 2010
Barring any unexpected or unusual activity on the blog today, here are my top 10 blog posts for 2010 ranked in order of most hits to fewest hits:
Scrivener 2.0: My month-long test drive
Scrivener: The ultimate writer's tool
(Almost) Everything I learned about science I learned from Isaac Asimov
Frederik Pohl v. Mark Rich
A Review of C.M. Kornbluth by Mark Rich
How I became a professional science fiction writer
NaNoWriMo Day 20: The Win!
So this guy walks into a door
Fan first, writer second
The SFWA Author and Editor Reception
All but 2 are writing related and the Asimov one is really tangentially related to writing. The writing stuff seems to be what people are most interested in.
December 30, 2010
New Years Resolutions 2011
These are my personal resolutions for 2011. These are not my writing goals for 2011. I am trying to keep things simple here and so I'm focusing on only 3 things.
1. Get back into shape
In 2006-2007 I went to the gym religiously, worked with a trainer, and by the summer of 2007, managed to get myself into the best physical condition of my life. Since then it has been all downhill. That's not to say that I am in terrible shape, but for the first time in my life, I am seeing physical signs of middle age creeping up on me:
While my weight has not gone up substantially (it hovers right around 160 pounds), I have an increasingly noticeable gut. As someone who has never had to worry about this before, this is particularly embarrassing. Family members have pointed it out in good-natured fun, but in truth, it horrifies me and I'm taking advantage of the new year to do something about it.
Even more noticeable: my face looks fat. "Full" might be the more proper word, but I'm not sugarcoating anything here. To me, it looks fat. I really noticed it for the first time a few weeks ago when I had the 16-year old photograph of me at work updated with something more recent. I was so happy to get rid of that old photo but when I saw my face in the new photo (and in subsequent photos), I was shocked.
My overall energy level has been down and I think it is directly related to a lack of exercise and eating well.
I don't plan on returning to the gym, hooking up with a trainer again and going through all of the pain and agony of getting back into shape that way, but I do plan to take steps to improve the overall state of my health:
Regular cardio activity, primarily on the elliptical we have at home.
Substantially better eating habits, including cutting out a large portion of the junk food and sodas, packing my lunches more regularly, and listening to Kelly about making better food choices.
This is a difficult thing to measure since I'm not really trying to lose any weight. I haven't yet measured my gut (I'm too scared) but I'll do that in the next day or two. I'll also use the new work photo as a benchmark for how my face currently looks and I'll check monthly to see how things are doing. Energy level is much more difficult to gauge so we'll just have to see there.
2. Go paperless
Back in September, I went to a "paperless office" at work. It was surprisingly easy to do and in the months since, aside from books on my bookshelves, there has rarely been a sheet of paper in my work office. In 2011, I'd like to begin doing the same thing at home.
My home office is currently full of paper and we have file cabinets full of statements and receipts and goodness knows what else. For stuff that's already there, I don't plan on going back and scanning it all in, but beginning January 1, I'm going to attempt to get rid of all new incoming paper. I've been using Evernote (premium edition) for nearly a month now and it seems well-suited to this task. I can scan in any paper (receipts, statements, etc.) and then shred the originals. Within Evernote, I can add metadata to the documents and the scanned PDFs are also searchable.
Most of our statements are delivered electronically already but for those that aren't, I will switch them where possible and scan them where not. It is slightly more time-consuming upfront, but saves tons of time on the backend (as I have discovered at work).
And I'm looking forward to a clean, paper-free desk at home.
3. Better manage my time
Ugh! This is a tough one. There is so much to do in a given day and only so many hours in which to do it. Nothing new here, but I feel like this has gotten away from me a bit. During the week, my days involve:
Getting ready for work
Work
Picking the Little Man up from school
Dinner
A short period of time before bed
Bed
At first glance it doesn't leave much time for family or for writing or for exercise for that matter, but I think there are some things that I can do to better manage my time so that I can get in everything I want to do without feeling stretched thin. I'm not sure what those are yet, but certainly getting into better shape is a good start since that will leave me with more energy and requiring less sleep. Other things:
Making the 5-7am period the time in which I do all of my writing-related work and avoid doing any writing-related stuff outside that time
Making better use of the "scheduled" posting feature to post blog updates
Using my lunch hour for reading
Keeping most of my evenings clear to spend with the family
It's still not entirely clear how this will work out, but I hope to do better in 2011 than I did in 2010.
So there you have it: my resolutions for 2011. What are your New Years resolutions?
Review: All Clear by Connie Willis (5-stars)
All Clear is the second part of the book that began with Connie Willis' Blackout (see my review here) which came out early in 2010. Blackout/All Clear are a single book that was broken into two parts; they are not part of a series and it is impossible to read All Clear without first having read Blackout for the same reason that it would be impossible to read the second half of Tom Sawyer without having read the first half. I mention this because All Clear begins right where Blackout left off, smack in the middle of things and someone coming to the book thinking it is an independent volume would be in for an unsettling surprise.
That said, I worried that it would be difficult to keep up the wonderfully complex historical/time-travel story that Willis began in Blackout, and I was delighted that she managed to make the second half of the book even better than the first.
The story takes place in the same universe as Connie Willis' brilliant Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Firewatch. It is 2060 and time travel allows Oxford historians to go back in time to witness events first hand and better fill in and understand the historical record. In Blackout/All Clear, historians are busy researching World War II, in particularly the Blitz of London. However, some strange things have begun happening as historians are sent back in time. "Slippage"–which is supposed to prevent historians from going to divergence points–are growing larger so that historians are coming through days, weeks, even months before or after they are scheduled to arrive. And in Blackout, we learn that the drops are no longer opening to allow the historians to return to their time in 2060.
The story is a rich in historical detail from the era. Reading it, I felt like I was living through the Blitz. Willis does a remarkable job of evoking the terror of the nightly bombings, while mixing in the humor the people of London needed to survive. The characters we follow through All Clear (there are mainly three of them) become attached not only to the struggle of the people of London, but they also experience their fears, both directly (through the bombings) and indirectly, in not knowing the outcome, sacrificing themselves for victory over Hitler.
Time travel plays a larger role in All Clear than it did in Blackout as we discover that a mystery is unfolding surrounding the slippages and why they are happening. The time travel plot alone is brilliantly complex. I used to think The Time Traveler's Wife had the most complex time-travel plot I'd ever come across, but Blackout/All Clear beats it.
When I finished Blackout in March, I could not wait to start All Clear, which came out in early October. I wasn't able to start All Clear right away, but once I started it, I was not able to put the book down, reading almost all day for nearly two days, breathless at the end of each chapter. The characters in the book become as close as old friends and you experience their joys and pains along with them. And as the book unfolds and the mysteries are revealed, the sense of wonder, the sense of awe at the entire literary construction is stunning.
It will be interesting to see how Blackout/All Clear ends up on the Nebula ballot: as a single volume or as two separate books. I've already nominated Blackout for a Nebula award, but if I could, I would nominate and vote for the combined, complete work. It was by far the best thing I've read in many, many years.
Fear of heights
I haven't the slightest fear of heights in real life but in my dreams, I am terrified by them for some reason. The last few nights have been plagued by dreams which involve weird or unusual heights. A few nights ago, I dreamt I had taken a wrong turn on the highway and in order to get to where I was going, I had to take a highway that crossed a river (via a bridge) and before the bridge, the highway arched over a skyscraper. It was not a pleasant experience.
Last night, I dreamt that I left my jacket on an outcropping of a building. In order to get it, I had to step outside a window and walk along a ledge and then reach up for it, all the while, seeing a city sprawled dozens (hundreds?) of stories below me. In that dream I remember thinking how particularly frightened I was and at the same time, I was annoyed by this fear. I rationalized it (in the dream) as having worked for too long out on the ledge so that the heights started getting to me.
I wonder what function this has? I am not one who buys into Freudian theories of dreams. My own understanding of the function of dreams is to help commit short term memories to long-term memories, which is what most studies have shown to be true. Still, I find it odd that while I have not the slightest qualm about heights in real-life, I am unnerved by them in my dreams.
Best books of 2010
I read 19 books in 2010 which is a far cry from those early days in the mid-late-90s when I was reading 40 books a year. I know there are people out there who read a lot more and all I can say is: I'm jealous.
The year started out with the fascinating biography of C. M. Kornbluth by Mark Rich and ended (just 20 minutes ago) with the absolutely stunning All Clear by Connie Willis.
Here are my picks for the year's best reads:
Blackout by Connie Wilis
Other Spaces, Other Times by Robert Silverberg
Caesar and Christ by Will Durant
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
All Clear by Connie Willis
Blackout/All Clear is the finest time travel novel I've ever read, and I've read plenty of them. I'll have more to say about the novel (and it is one novel, despite being split into two books) in a subsequent post. Suffice it to say for now that I was absolutely blown away by the scope of the novel, the historical details, and the wonderfully brilliant writing.
Robert Silverberg said he would never write an autobiography but Other Spaces, Other Times is awfully autobiographical–and brilliant. I enjoyed every minute of that read.
Caesar and Christ is the third volume of Will Durant's "Story of Civilization" and it's richly detailed picture of life in ancient Rome made for a wonderful summer read for me.
Doomsday Book blew me away and I could barely put it down. The ending was unforgettable and proved to me just how remarkable a writer Connie Willis is.
A few honorable mentions:
C. M. Korbluth by Mark Rich
Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer
The Devil's Eye by Jack McDevitt
There was some pretty good short fiction this year, too, but I'll write about that in a subsequent post.
December 29, 2010
The Nine Planets by Franklyn M. Branley
One of the awesome gifts I got for Christmas this year from my in-laws was a copy of the The Nine Planets by Franklyn M. Branley. I've mentioned this book numerous times over the years on this blog. It is the book that turned me onto science back when I was a first-grader. I discovered the book in the library of McAfee Road School back in 1978. There was also a copy in the Franklin Township Public Library and I checked the book out repeatedly from that library, probably much to the annoyance of the librarian there. (I like to think I've paid them back over the years, as that is one of two libraries to which I've donated money year after year.) Now, 32 years later, I finally have my own copy of this wonderful book:
As I have said before, this is the book that first introduced me to science and the universe at large. If it wasn't for this book, I may never have grown interested in science, may never have discovered science fiction and may never have become a science fiction writer. It installed in me the idea of scientific method and scientific discovery and taught me how to understand the universe in all of its glory through observation, experiment and reason. I found it amusing, therefore, to find the following label pasted into the very back of my new book (a former library book):
For those who can't make out the somewhat blurry image, here is what it says:
NOTICE to all STUDENTS and PARENTS
Redwood Christian Schools does not necessarily endorse the content of this book from the standpoint of morals, philosophy, theology, or scientific hypothesis. We have searched diligently for the the best books that are available and we feel this is the best we could purchase at the time. We are grateful when others find better books and then pass the information on to us.
Redwood Christian Schools
It makes me wonder what my 6 year-old self would have made of this statement had it appeared when I checked the book out of the library. And I find it an ironic statement to appear in a book that taught me to understand and love science, astronomy, cosmology and the universe around me. Who knew at the time that I was reading a "dangerous" book.
I love that idea as much as I love my new book.
December 28, 2010
Lullabies
When the Little Man is in a grouchy mood and in need of a nap, it is often my job to get him to sleep. It takes persistence, but I find that singing him lullabies calms him and eventually puts him to sleep. (Granted, he may decide to go to sleep as a way of escaping the sound of my voice.)
I don't sing him the traditional lullabies, most of which I can't stand. Instead, I sing him a variety of Bing Crosby songs. Most frequently, I sing (in no particular order):
Far Away Places
The Wiffenpoof Song
Sam's Song
Dear Hearts and Gentle People
Trade Winds
Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day
Gone Fishin'
Road to Morocco
Usually I get through four or five songs before he finally falls asleep, but as I know more than 150 of Bing's songs by heart, there are always plenty more to choose from.
Kelly thinks this is a little odd of me, singing songs from the 30s and 40s to the Little Man instead of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" but I honestly think he enjoys it and maybe when he gets older, he'll come to appreciate these old songs as much as I do.
Or maybe he'll grow to hate them. Who knows?
