#418. Hub City, Scouring Monk, Yoshimi

While adding to the Scouring Books archives at Hub City, it occurred to me that all that work to list the contents of my library, a task I'd been neglecting for months, probably should also be reflected on the Reading List page, which made me turn once again to Scouring Monk's own archives.  Except I was reminded that until recently I didn't have the capability to names posts here (something that was corrected in a very timely manner just before A-to-Z in April).  Which led to many hours titling some four hundred posts.

So yes, I'm my own editor, and I waste a good amount of time editing my family of blogs.  But I have fun doing it!  I'm just insane enough to even consider making an archive page for Scouring Monk, with a list of all my entries, because labeling can be so inadequate a system.  (Yes, I'm crazy.  My mother did not have me tested.)

Anyway, some of this is to say I've been working at Hub City, even though I don't write about it as much here as some of my other blogs.  I've been making steady work at my Reading List, and there I write about those books and subsequent thoughts on those experiences, because I love reading, even though it sometimes seems the only books bloggers care about are the ones their friends are writing.  That's fine and all, but there's a whole wealth of literature out there, both old and new, and if that's not supported, it's that much more unlikely that a wide audience will ever discover new talent.

Which is not to say I'm above doing the same kind of shameless self-promotion so many of my fellow bloggers do (both for their and their friends' works).  I'll be talking about some of my previous manuscripts in the coming weeks, and hope by the end of it to have some concrete news about the publication of Yoshimi, now that Hall Bros. Entertainment has provided its contributors with a schedule update.

Hope to keep you sufficiently amused!

#398. Flex Mentallo, the Escapist, Star Trek

I've been plugging away at my family of blogs again:

Comics Reader has a pair of new entries, one on Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery and another on Michael Chabon Presents the Amazing Adventures of the Escapist.  Both feature superheroes with fake publishing histories!

Hub City features updates on my Reading List, continuing the Homeric marathon.

Fan Companion has thoughts on five more episodes from the sixth season of Star Trek: Voyager, including the not-to-be-missed "Pathfinder" and "Blink of an Eye."

Sigild is once again offering a selection from my "Star Trek '12" project, this time taking a cue from the oft-overlooked Animated Series, in perhaps one of the more quirky stories in the cycle so far.

And don't forget Epistles from the New Fade, offering new poems on a near-daily basis (I apparently missed a day this month).

#392. Homing in on Homer

Yeah, so I've been writing away at Scouring Monk for many years, and starting back in 2010 I started having this crazy idea to split off various topics to their own blogs.  A while back, I thought it would be a nice idea to chronicle my reading habits, which at that point had been streamlined into a Reading List to keep track of the many books in my personal library and the order of importance by which I would work through it.  I began writing about this experience here, but last year began Hub City.

At first I was going to try and blog about each of my books, and also continue the Reading List in a fairly straightforward manner, but soon realized it would be a pretty good idea to go back and start writing reactions to the books in the List as I finished them.  Lots of people spend a lot of time providing this very kind of feedback on bookstore websites like Amazon, to help others figure out what to read.  Me, I decided to keep it in my own family, so to speak.

Anyway, I just finished reading The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason, which quickly became one of my favorite books.  I've got my thoughts on it, as well as the next book on the List, and they happen to be part of a small marathon concerning books inspired by Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which have long fascinated me.

If you care to see what kind of reader I am, have a look at Hub City.

#389. Sphere Builders, Wasteland, Batman

At Comics Reader I've concluded my look at the existing trade collections of Oni Press's Wasteland, rounding out with the fifth and sixth volumes (which were published two years apart, thanks to art issues I mention), as well as talk about some of the recent comics I've read from recent trips to Heroes & Dragons in Colorado Springs and Toys 'r' Us (where I'm glad they have comics again).

Fan Companion features thoughts on five more episodes from the sixth season of Star Trek: Voyager, including standouts "Riddles" and "The Voyager Conspiracy."

Sigild, meanwhile, has another entry in the ongoing "Star Trek '12" project, this time having a look at the legacy of the Sphere Builders from the excellent third season of Enterprise.

Additionally, Hub City recently featured some updates from my Reading List, including thoughts on the book I just finished reading and the one I just started.

And Epistles from the New Fade continues to feature new poems.  Hey, it's Poetry Month.  You will read this blog.  You can and you will.

#378. Wasteland, A Distant Mirror, Black Elk Speaks

Today I continued my look at Oni's Wasteland at Comics Reader, examining the second trade paperback collection and its developments for the superb comic book series.

I also put some updates at Hub City, tracking my Reading List.  I've just concluded Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, and have begun Black Elk Speaks, which happens to also be one of several subjects breached in my manuscript for Ecce Homo, the book that tracks a realistic approach to Adam & Eve, and also some special looks at other religious experiences and their unlikely participants.  (This is a plug for a book that is not published.  Yes, it is gratuitous, but on oddly humble terms.)

Be sure to check in at Epistles from the New Fade, where new poems are written for your near-daily amusement.  Today's featured a take-off on the one written by my former bookstore colleague Philip Kroagmeier, who posted a poem referencing cherry blossoms at Sword of the Ancients.  Having studied Japanese poetry in college, I'm fully aware that cherry blossoms are a traditional subject of inspiration.  So that's how these things sometimes happen.

#359. Poems, Star Trek, Reading List, Comics

#359.

More new content!

New poem at Epistles from the New Fade, for those interested.  Small little nugget of a thought, in as close to what most people think of when they think of poetry as I usually get.

Thoughts on five more episodes from Star Trek: Voyager's fourth season at Fan Companion, with notables including "Mortal Coil" and "Message in a Bottle."

New "Star Trek '12" entry up at Sigild, with a look at elements from the Original Series episode "Arena" (the one with the Gorn), which featured another of those god-like species that seemed to appear in every other episode.  This story features my interpretation of the Metrons.

I've also got updates on my Reading List at Hub City, including thoughts on the book I just finished and the one I just started.

Be sure also to check out the latest "Quarter Bin" at Comics Reader, where I talk about Superman/Batman, the Challengers of the Unknown, Cerebus, and some obscure property known as Star Trek.

#349. Hub City TLC

#349.

I've giving Hub City some TLC, catching up with the work I've done across my other blogs, gathering archives for the three main facets of my book blog: "Scouring Books," where I write about the contents of my personal library; "Reading List," which is an extension of what I started doing here a few years back and was the main reason I started this particular spin-off in the first place, detailing the books I'm currently reading; and "Thoughts On," which is itself a spin-off of the Reading List, where I started writing, well, my thoughts on the books I just finished reading.

So not only did I do that, but I just posted new "Thoughts On" and "Reading List" entries (go have a look a look at Hub City!).  I felt like having a blog like that would be a good example, should anyone stumble onto it, for my belief that there's a lot more interesting stuff to read than I typically experience people exhibiting.  Most of the time, readers tend to stick to one particular genre, or steer toward safe picks like bestsellers, and otherwise avoid trying to find what I find to be a vast assortment of fascinating material, because school left them so scarred about reading that for most people, it's enough to repeat the platitude that reading is important (and that attitude that reading is intellectually better than watching), but mostly avoid actually doing it.

Everyday I kind of kid myself into believing that any day now hundreds if not thousands of readers will spontaneously discover my blogs, any one of them, and it won't seem to ridiculously indulgent and nonsensical to be so much of it.  Hub City is the blog I've had the hardest time finding even tens of people to stumble upon, but I'm still proud of the work I've done and will continue to do for it.  Oftentimes people associate "work" with what you're paid or otherwise have to do, when work can and should be what you want to do.  Those same people give lip service to the idea of the American Dream that suggests anyone can achieve that with enough, ahem, hard work, but the fact is, those same people are busy securing their own success at the direct expense of anyone else trying to do the same.  That's not capitalism, that's not reactionalism, that's the American Reality.  I'm currently working a job Stanley Milgrim would have recognized (and that's all I'm going to say about that), and that's the American Reality, that it's incredibly convenient for the expectation for most Americans to be that they either obey or find themselves jobless, and woe be their own shortcomings.

Anyway, enough ranting...

#343. Percy Jackson

#343.

I've got a new "Thoughts on..." post at Hub City about the Percy Jackson books, which my sister motivated me to read.  I explain my conclusions about the series, which ends up sounding a little tortured, but on the whole, they're not that bad.  Now, hopefully I'll be able to jump back into that Reading List of mine, which got a really strong push last fall, but has slowed quite a bit in the early months of this year.

Yay!

#337. Blogging Updates, Yoshimi, Bluewater

#337.

Since I went back to work a few weeks ago, my blogging activity has slowed and will continue to be slowed down from what it was like the last few months of 2011.  I'm making an effort to maintain my posting at Comics Reader, plus reading updates at Hub City (which does feature that streamlined Austen Paradise store at the bottom!).  The Fan Companion seems to have lost all the momentum it struggled to maintain after the Star Trek posts of 2010 and the early film talk of last year; apparently my wrestling thoughts couldn't rouse much interest, at least in that forum.  I'm taking something of a break from that, and maybe a little time off from Sigild as well, even though I've done "relatively popular" work there with some of the stories I've written for it (again, Star Trek seems to find an audience).

I'm waiting to hear back from the Brothers Hall about Yoshimi (as well as my last submission to its latest anthology), and some work I've done for Bluewater Comics.  Fingers getting sprained from being crossed!

#334. DC Decades Project, Best of 2011 Movies, QB50, Reading List

#334.

Got a ton of stuff done in the last few days, including "DC40" at Sigild V, a Best Of for my dormant Examiner movie page, and the annual QB50 report at Comics Reader, for which I went to the not-inconsiderable trouble of tracking down links for the five previous editions.  I suffer for my art!

Oh!  And I've also got thoughts on the thirty-fourth book completed from my Reading List this year at Hub City.

#326. Hub City Cleanup

#326.

Hub City is the latest blog in my little family to receive a little tweaking.  I've just added a new label identifying critical analysis on the book I've just completed from the Reading List.  There are now three labels, actually, "Thoughts on..." (the one I've just introduced), "Reading List" (otherwise known as a running catalog of the books I'm reading, and something I previously did here at Scouring Monk), and "Scouring Books," which is a straight listing of books from my personal library.  On the surface, "Scouring Books" entries and "Reading List" may look remarkably similar, but "Reading List" will now have the added distinction of a subsequent "Thoughts on..." entry, should I have sufficient reactions to what I've just finished reading.  There are 11 "Reading List" entries to date, and only 4 "Thoughts on..." essays, starting from October, and many more "Scouring Books."

...Y'know, just in case you were interested...

#320. Trial of the Flash, Jabroni Companion, Your Face Tomorrow

#320.

One of my current blog projects actually ties two of the branches together, a reimagining of the 1980s Trial of the Flash I'm writing at Sigild V that I wrote about at Comics Reader thanks to a recent Showcase reprint volume.  (This update confirms what I wrote last time, for the record.  Everything proceeded to plan.)

I'm officially quitting the Jabroni Companion at Fan Companion in favor of a new "Comparative fAnalysis" that'll take closer looks at several different topics.  Should launch fairly soon.

Hub City continues to feature the Reading List, which will finally advance past Javier Marias' masterful Your Face Tomorrow, which I've included commentary on in a series of essays, if you were interested in that.

Last week was Thanksgiving/Black "Friday," as you know, so I had a little more family time with my sister than usual, and I went on three interviews earlier in the week.  That accounts for the lack of activity in the Scouring family, in case you were wondering.

#317. Yoshimi, Comic Books, Your Face Tomorrow, Jabroni Companion

#317.

I've slowed a little, recently, working around my Mouldwarp family of blogs, but I'm always the scouring kind.  I've been working at the conclusion of Yoshimi (hopefully to be first-draft-finished by the end of next week), so I'll use that as my excuse.

Sigild V did recently see my "Occupy Wall Street" story completed in five acts, and there has been a little bit of interest from readers, probably more or on par with my most popular writing to date in that forum.

Comics Reader has easily seen the most activity in recent weeks, with some feverish manipulation of my regular schedule, so that it has sometimes been possible to read the regular Reader column and the Quarter Bin column in the same week, plus some specials like another look at Green Lantern, and shout-out to Karl Kesel's web activities, and an earlier review of the graphic novel Dear Creature.  Most recently I've talked about Grant Morrison's inspirations from the Black Casebook trade collection, and will very soon be talking about the 1980s trial of Barry Allen.

Hub City hasn't really caught on with readers, but I'm continuing to plug away at it, listing books from my personal library, the Reading List, and thoughts on Your Face Tomorrow, the latest of some modern literary classics I wish everyone were aware of.

Fan Companion continues, still discussing professional wrestling.  Readership on this blog has slowed considerably.  I'm not sure if it's because of the wrestling talk or what, but I did have for an extended period some lightly feverish reading of my Star Trek fan thoughts, which launched the blog last year, while the Film Fan was a fairly successful follow-up.  I guess I'll wait and see about this one.

I'm not sure if it's because I made a Google profile recently or not, but I've had some huge spikes of interest here at Scouring Monk, the most of all the blogs, which hasn't exactly translated to business throughout the whole family.  I guess that's another thing I'll just have to accept.

#311. Hub City, Occupy Wall Street, Jabroni Companion, Flashpoint, Message Boards, Good Reads

#311.

Just some quick updates about current activity around my family of blogs...

Hub City continues to host the Reading List, recently featuring Dave Barry, Roberto Bolano, and Javier Marias's Your Face Tomorrow. 

Sigild has begun a special Occupy Wall Street series, a literary look at some of the influences that have brought that group/movement together.

Fan Companion continues to talk professional wrestling, with recent topics revisiting the Nexus and JBL (a "Wrestling God").

Comics Reader just looked at a completely different Flashpoint mini-series.

I've also recently begun posting at the WrestleView message boards, and continue to visit the Comic Book Resources forums, to the possible regret of some members. 

Also, got a Good Reads profile, maybe establish my writerly credentials a little.

Also, debuted Flawless Kitty Logic here at Scouring Monk a few days ago, which will probably reappear.  Because cats possess flawless kitty logic!

#306. Hub City, Yoshimi, TV, Wrestling, New 52

#306.

Hub City is humming along nicely (new addition to the Reading List up today, for those keeping score). Maybe it's insane to try and maintain a billion separate blogs, but so far it seems to be working. Probably doesn't hurt that I'm also looking for a job at the moment.

I'm also spending some of that time working on Yoshimi, including three days of 10,000 words each, which is pretty remarkable, considering I could sometimes struggle to fill my old pace of 1,667 (NaNoWriMo), and scramble like mad when needing to catch up for several days. Well, I guess the more experience I get writing, the more I can write in a single day. Yay for progress!

The new TV season has been a little interesting on my end. I've been staying with my sister since Borders bit the silver bullet, so some of my habits have changed. I haven't watched many of the new shows (Person of Interest being the one I was always most keenly interested in, conveniently enough). I also haven't really had an opportunity to watch Raising Hope or Community, either, the latter because it plays at the same time as The Big Bang Theory, which is something of a family obsession. That also means I haven't seen The New Girl yet, even though that's another new one I'm keen to see.

I watch How I Met Your Mother on Mondays, plus WWE Raw, The Biggest Loser, NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles on Tuesdays, Survivor (down with Hanz family! up with Mustache Rick!) and Criminal Minds on Wednesdays, TBBT and as much TNA Impact as I can on Thursdays, WWE Smackdown and Fringe on Fridays, and then The Amazing Race on Sundays.

I haven't seen Terra Nova yet, for any number of reasons. I still think I'd enjoy it, but part of me looks at previews for the newer episodes and sees Earth 2 kind of written all over it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you.

Haven't seen a movie since the terrific Warrior. Examiner.com wonders when I'll see something else. I wonder when Examiner.com will pay more than a few cents into my account.

The whole walkout thing on Raw this past Monday is certainly interesting. It's a direct extension of what CM Punk made possible a couple of months ago (quite frankly), but his presence is a little on the backburner at the moment. Maybe that'll change soon.

Jeff Hardy's return to TNA will certainly prove interesting. Will people actually give him a chance? Wisely, TNA is making his return all about that. I expect Bobby Roode to beat Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory, but I wish the company had a different homegrown star they could be elevating for the first time. The whole card looks pretty spectacular, even the "fight" between Sting and Hogan. TNA has done a pretty good job in recent months making things that work for them actually work for them. Hopefully they will get over that hump and be accepted as a legitimate rival to WWE by the wider wrestling community.

ROH, meanwhile, also looks like it's doing the right things with its new TV deal, even if it's making wrestling observers question them by pushing Haas & Benjamin as one of their most visible components. You'd think those fans would be happy, because the World's Greatest Tag Team is finally getting the respect they deserve, from a company that can really appreciate them. But we are talking wrestling fans here...

My enjoyment of DC's New 52 has been handicapped by not technically making money, so I haven't been able to keep up with all the comics I'd like to. That and Heroes & Dragons apparently doesn't see the wisdom in stocking the hot new relaunch they themselves are promoting in their store. If I were at the other end of Colorado Springs right now, the situation would be different, at least halfway. Escape Velocity is doing its best to keep up. Well, I'm going to try on Wednesday at Heroes to catch James Robinson's The Shade #1. Wish me luck...

#305. Hub City

#305.

Okay, so I've begun another spin-off blog, Hub City, all about my love of books, which will now house my Reading List, which has been a feature of Scouring Monk for the past few years. Like Comics Reader, it also features a strong link to Amazon.com, including my new Austen Paradise bookstore, which is located at the bottom of the page. The origin of Austen Paradise is a long and complicated one, just something that started to dawn on me the longer I worked at Borders. I read Pride & Prejudice in college, and then just a few months earlier Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, so I knew of Jane Austen's rich skills as a writer, and her enduring appeal in the world of literature. But I began noticing just how many books Borders had that had been directly inspired by her writing, spin-off that imagined what happened next, or delved deeper into characters like Mr. Darcy (on whose legacy the career of Colin Firth continues to rest, Oscar or no). I dreamed of opening a physical bookstore where I could sell these books directly, which gave birth to a wider idea of a store that catered to literary tastes, the idea behind the name "Hub City" itself (comics readers will known The Question called that place home). The blog and the online storefront, then, are my first steps toward making that dream a reality. Hopefully there are readers out there who find merit in all of this...

#302. Reading List: Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic

#302.

Finished Bright Shiny Morning pretty quickly. James Frey is a great writer. Not sure I would actually want to hang out with him, though. Who knows?

Next on the Reading List:

Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones. I obsessed over this book for years, scouring used book shops and having absolutely no luck, having passed on its original publishing in 1997. Regular bookstores don't carry it, naturally (which always baffled me). Finally found it at Poor Richards in Colorado Springs last year, and now am finally going to read it. (!!!)

#301. Reading List: Bright Shiny Morning

#301.

Just submitted a story to a Glimmer Train contest. One slight problem here is that I submitted the same story to Hall Bros. Hopefully everything'll sort itself out...

Next on the Reading List:

Bright Shiny Morning from James Frey, a writer who was publically hosed by Oprah a few years back. This book was his comeback, and notably did not receive near as much attention as the inciting material, which is a real shame, because true literary fiction deserves to have trumpets heralding its arrival. It appears this really is one of those works.

#300. Reading List: Star Trek

#300.

Good news! I've been blogging here at Scouring Monk for a decade, and have just reached three hundred posts!

In slightly less pathetic news, I've got a new book in the Reading List:

Star Trek novelization by Alan Dean Foster. Back in 2005, I would have been devastated to learn that the next Star Trek movie would be a reboot. I did and still do love the Star Trek franchise with about as much totality as you can get (onscreen version, anyway), as readers who keep digging up the the Fan Companion at said blog can attest. I originally posted a season-by-season, series-by-series, film-by-film review of the franchise last year, but I keep getting hits. I don't mind! Anyway, when I learned that J.J. Abrams, genius behind Alias, Lost, and Fringe, not to mention Super 8 and Cloverfield, would be helming it, my apprehension quickly turned to enthusiasm. I wasn't disappointed. So it's another nice little diversion to read this novelization, too.

This past Wednesday was my last-ever day working for Borders. I purchased The Beaufort Diaries and Charles Simic's Master of Disguises, the last things I'll ever buy from the store. (I bought too much from the liquidation process, but these were only a dollar each!) So long, valiant crew and faithful customers of Borders 500 in Colorado Springs!

#299. Reading List: Heidegger & a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates, The Dark Knight

#299.

The Reading List continues:

Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, a stroll through philosophical ideas about life, the universe, and everything. Loved the jokes!

The Dark Knight novelization by Dennis O'Neil. The movie was instantly one of my all-time favorite movies. I don't expect O'Neil's book to quite reach a comparable level, but it's always fun to read these things (not that I do it that often).

The John Adams book, meanwhile, was pretty interesting, a nice little consolidation of American history from around his lifetime and times, if a little dry on analysis. I'd call him an inconvenient pragmatist!