Seriously, You Guys Can Do Better

http://cypheroftyr.tumblr.com/post/151334701894/robothugscomic-new-comic-link-this-comic

I have to believe there is something inherently wrong with our view of society if every time someone writes about its fall one of the first things to go right out the window is the ability TO NOT FREAKING RAPE PEOPLE! Yes, I know it's fiction. But that doesn't excuse the fact that we all seem to believe that with no infrastructure the majority of people are going to either join an orgy or rape people and that women will have no role beside those of victim, baggage, or both.

In many ways reality takes its cues from the stories that we tell. Just look at the upswing in searches for creepy clown sightings worldwide since the remake of IT came out.

CMB Crew Read Harder Philly Trip: July 2016

So Sunday was the official July meeting for the 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge at Frankford Hall in Philadelphia, Pa. Usually I attend the local, unofficial, group at Cupboard Maker Books which is just down the road from me but this month I decided to step out of my comfort zone and join the group of folks from the local group who were heading to Philly for the Official group and boy am I glad I did.

We decided to get an early start so we could hit a local used book store on the way there and still have plenty of time to get to Frankford Hall for the 1pm group. Our first stop of the day was The Spiral Bookcase in Manayunk, PA.

While the shop itself is small the owner has managed to collect a very nice variety of books and has the best folklore/mythology section I've found in a long time. They also carry bookish buttons and bags as well as some more supernaturally themed things in the same room as their folklore section. They actually had a new copy of Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book which I snagged up since I've been wanting to read the multi-colored fairy books since I was a child. I also picked up a used copy of Joseph Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time and a Penguin Classics edition of The Mabinogion.

My total was more than $25 so I got one of the free gifts mentioned on the signboard outside, a mystery book! I was presented with a book wrapped in brown paper with a small blurb about the book written on it. When I unwrapped it I found that I had received an advance reading copy of This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison. Though not normally a book I would have chosen for myself I'm going to give it a shot since I'm trying to branch out this year.

Next on the day's agenda was the actual Read Harder group at Frankford Hall. I've never been to a beer garden before so this was new experience in and of itself for me. While I'm not really a beer drinker, okay so I never drink beer, I was able to find something right up my alley. They have alcoholic shakes in different flavors and the current seasonal flavor is berries and cream which is a flavor combo I love. I felt a little silly at first drinking a milkshake while everyone else was having beer but the whole group was just so congenial that it didn't become an issue.

There was a lot of great discussion of what everyone had read recently and were planning to read for various categories within the Challenge as well as some general pop-culture discussion and book recommendations. I was given a copy of Ready Player One when I mentioned that it had been recommended to me a few times and someone in the group was looking to re-home their copy. Score!

The last stop of the day before heading home was House of Our Own which has been running out of a Victorian house just off the University of Pennsylvania campus for 41 years now.

I have never seen so many books in one place in my life! Every possible surface has books on it including inside a pair of ornate wardrobe closets built into a wall and stacks on the steps up to the second floor; yes, the store takes up two whole stories. If you love the smell of books then this place will be a heaven for your nose as well as your passion for books. The majority of the books seem to be non-fiction in nature covering any and every topic you can imagine, but there is a whole hallway devoted to fiction and a small section of scifi/fantasy and children's/YA books.

I found more books here than I anticipated including The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, my choice for the Challenge Topic "Read the first book in a series by a person of color." I also picked up:

• The Discovery of King Arthur by Geoffrey Ashe
• Beowulf  Translated by Howell D. Chickering, Jr
• A Penguin Classics Edition of The Niebelungenlied
• Welsh Legends and Folk-Tales by Gwyn Jones
• Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein
• That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
• All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane
• Choose Your Own Adventure #4 Space and Beyond by R.A. Mongomery
• Choose Your Own Adventure #22 Space Patrol by Julius Goodman
• Choose Your Own Adventure #38 Sabotage by Jay Leibold

Youthful Fantasy With a Mature Edge. Review: Lev Grossman's The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As a child I was enchanted by C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, so much so that I wished I could find gateway into an enchanted world to escape my boring life here in plain old reality. Adventure, magic, talking animals, and the ability to make a real difference in the world all called to me from between the pages. Fast forward to 7th grade, my first year of High School and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone comes out and draws me once more into a world of magic and adventure with the twist that it isn't happening in another world but just along side the world we “Muggles” know. These two series have stayed with me over the years and have been old friends to turn to when times are tough. So when I started seeing recommendations for Lev Grossman's The Magicians mentioning that fans of these two series would find Fillory and Brakebills familiar in many ways I was at first skeptical of the quality of the story thinking it would turn out to be Harry Potter and Oh Look it's Narnia. I was delightfully wrong in that assumption.

I was surprised by how little detail is used to describe protagonist Quentin Coldwater's 5 years at Breakbills, yet it felt like I was there with him from the day of his acceptance test to the day of his graduation. More than Hogwarts in all of its grandiose detail ever did I felt Breakbills as a living place. The simple descriptions of the way the students interacted with each other and the school grounds felt like something I could have experienced while away at college myself, minus the magic of course.

Breakbills even has its own magical sport, Welters, which gives you the basic rules and then seems to go out of its way to become nearly incomprehensible even to the players themselves. Still the descriptions of the Welters matches (of which there are far fewer than Rowling's Quidditch) kept me enthalled without feeling like the book had become a sports story. Instead of feeling like a break in the action the Welters segments served to give greater insight into the characters and their relationships with each other, the school, and magic itself.

While the Fillory elements of the story draw heavily on the foundation laid by Lewis' Narnia it is its own world entirely and has plenty of nasty little surprises in store for both the characters and readers. Where Narnia, though conflicted, is primarily a realm of truth and beauty Fillory at first presents the same face before revealing a darker and more mature view of the realities of such a fantasy world. Not all creatures who offer help are all they seem and the reality of conflict is that not just the “bad guys” are hurt or even killed. This more than anything is what amazed me the most.

The Magicians is that rare thing, a fantasy story set in our own world as well as in another world with a maturity unlike anything else I've encountered in the genre. This is a world where not everything can be solved at the flick of a wand and, in fact, magic in many ways causes as many if not more problems than it solves. This is the story of that child I once was who longed to disappear into Narnia to escape her problems here learning that no matter how far away you may run, you always bring yourself with you. There's a very real reminder that war, no matter how it's dressed up, is a horrible thing and those who fight with you may not always get the happily ever after.

Quentin's journey from our mundane world to Breakbills and back to the mundane world could be a whole novel on its own in the hands of another writer, but Grossman uses this as the spring board for the deeper story of Quentin's journey from the mundane world to Fillory, the land he always dreamed of. The way that Grossman handles the question of what a Magician does once they've been trained and sent back to the “real” world parallels the dilemma faced by so many students upon graduation. “Well, I've got my degree. Now what?” What do you do when you can do practically anything?

Overall The Magicians was an amazing novel, hooking me right off the bat. I stayed up far later than I should've when I have work the next morning because I started this book before going to sleep one night because I was so enchanted by the world Lev Grossman was weaving. I haven't been this excited by a book in a long time and was sad to find that I had come to the end. The Magicians is book one of a Trilogy and I will definitely be picking up the remaining two titles The Magician King and The Magician's Land the next chance I get. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who has read and enjoyed C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series.

Why Do So Many People Sniff Books?

Once upon a time I worked in the campus library at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. It was a dream job for me because of how much I've always loved books and the size of the library was huge compared to the nearly one room library I'd grown up in. To this day my Mom loves to tell the story of when I first saw the Baron Forness library on our trip there for an open house day before I had even applied. I walked into the lobby of this 7 story library, took a deep breath in through my nose, smiled and looked at the librarian then asked "Can I live here?" as I sank to my knees in awe. At least that's how my Mom tells it. If I remember correctly the answer from the librarian was "I think the college has rules against that." Part of the joy I felt in that library came from the glorious intermingling smells of books both old and new. For me there has always been something enchanting about the smell of books. That smell is like a living aura which can tell those who recognize it many things about the books around them. That first smell of a library or bookstore I've never been in before tells me so much about the type and age of books on the shelves; I think of it as an olfactory card catalog.

It turns out there's a lot of science behind not just why books smell but the fact that old books smell different from new ones. Scientists have been studying the causes of "Old Book Smell" for years, to learn not only what causes it but also as a way to help determine the age and condition of very old books. It all comes down to the breakdown of chemical compounds in the paper and binding. The folks at Compound Interest put together a great infographic about the science behind both old and new books smells.

I used to think that I was alone in loving the way books smell, but as e-readers have become more popular I have seen more people online expressing their love of it. So many memes and social network posts expounding on that mysterious and delightful scent must have gotten someone's attention because now there are ever increasing numbers of products on the market simulating it. From candles to high-end perfumes, bibliophiles have more and more options for keeping the smell of books in the air about them even when they can't be in the library.

Louisiana Judge Issues Injunction on Enforcement of Online Age Verification Law

It's a normal instinct of those in positions of authority to try to enact legislation that will protect children from the many threats, real and perceived, in our world. I can only think that it was with that purpose in mind that the state legislature in Louisiana put into place what is being called the online age verification law. It's stated intent is to limit minors' ability to access non-obscene materials that could be considered "harmful" by requiring anyone in Louisiana operating a website where material considered "harmful to minors" is published to have any user attempting to access those materials attest that they are eighteen year of age or older. Failure to comply is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000.

In November 2015 Media Coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Louisiana on behalf of GARDEN DISTRICT BOOK SHOP, INC.; OCTAVIA BOOKS, L.L.C.; FUTURE CRAWFISH PAPER, L.L.C.; AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION; AND COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND challenging the online age verification law as Unconstitutional. Their argument boils down to the law violates the First Amendment rights of older minors and adults by limiting access to books on topics that may be considered harmful younger minors but appropriate for older audiences. Because of the volume of titles sold online placing the verification on just the "harmful" titles is cost prohibitive so these booksellers would have to effectively bar minors from buying any books by placing the age verification at the very beginning of their webpage.

On May 1st Judge Brian A. Jackson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of the online age verification law determining that the vague description of what actions are considered "harmful" provided by the law "creates a chilling effect on free speech." So, for now, online booksellers in Louisiana are free to continue in the way that they have been, but the fact that such a law was passed in the first place is disturbing to me.

Our world is a diverse place full of people with differing views on any number of issues. To create a law for one small portion of that world that hinges on what is or isn't considered "harmful" is incredibly short-sighted. Even within a single family this definition can vary greatly, I can't imagine trying to get an even larger group to agree to a single definition. To my way of thinking trying to legislate information is pretty much always a terrible idea. When it comes to what is appropriate material for a minor to be accessing I feel that parents are better judges than any legislative body could ever be. And I don't mean groups of parents making the decision for everyone either, this is something that should be decided on a child by child basis by the people raising the child.

2016 Read Harder Challenge Update

As you may remember back in January I started participating in the 2016 Read Harder Challenge from bookriot.com in an effort to read more and more diversely. We are officially one third of the way through the challenge so I thought it was time for a progress check!

This year's challenge consists of 24 tasks which means participants have a little over 2 weeks per task in order to complete them all by the end of the year. What I have come to realize is that the time constraint isn't the hardest part of this challenge. No, the real challenge is picking books that fit the categories. I have to admit that I've been a trifle lazy and some of the books I've read haven't stretched me as far out of my comfort zone as I would like.

My progress as of April 27, 2016

I'm actually not as far behind as I had feared I would be! So far I've completed seven out of the 24 tasks putting me just one task away from a third of the challenge completed. Not too bad considering I've been mostly just reading whatever books grab my attention lately (I'm looking at you Dresden Files) and not focusing making choices based on the challenge.

Tasks Completed 

• Read a Non-Fiction Book About Science: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Read a Middle Grade Novel: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
• Read a Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic Novel: The Stand by Stephen King
• Read a Book Originally Published in the Decade You Were Born: The Harp of Imach Thyssel by Patricia C. Wrede
• Listen to an Audiobook That Has Won an Audie Award: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Read a Non-Superhero Comic That Debuted in the Last Three Years: Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson
• Read a Food Memoir: The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman

In the coming weeks I'll be doing reviews of the books I've already read for this challenge as well as doing reviews for the the books I'll be reading to complete the remaining tasks. If this sounds like something you'd like to get in on, there's still plenty of time to challenge yourself! Just head over to the official Book Riot 2016 Read Hard Challenge Page and download the pdf. It doesn't cost anything to participate and if you complete the challenge before Dec 31st and send a picture of your completed list to readharder@bookriot.com you'll get a 30% discount in the Book Riot store!

10 Bookcovers From The 90's With Amusing New Titles

People have been using software like Photoshop to manipulate book covers almost as long as the internet has been around. Recently a Twitter account by the name of Paperback Paradise has been getting lots of attention for their high quality updates of book covers from the late 80's and early 90's. Anyone who has even glanced at the teen and tween book section at their local library will recognize many of the covers being lampooned which include well known series such as Sweet Valley Twins and The Hardy Boys. The profile has only been active since March 11, 2016 but it already has over 50 thousand followers and updates regularly.

Learn to Play Munchkin Steampunk Today!

A friend of mine sent me a link the other day from Steve Jackson Games where they were looking for folks to run demos of Munchkin Steampunk at Books-A-Million and 2nd & Charles locations across the country. Since I've been playing various versions Munchkin for years now I decided to get in touch with them and see if they needed anyone for the BAM in Harrisburg, PA. Turns out they hadn't had anyone volunteer for there yet!

So, today from 2 pm to 5pm I'll be at BAM on Jonestown Road in Harrisburg, PA teaching Munchkin Steampunk. Even though I've been teaching friends to play Munchkin for years now I'm a little nervous about this demo event. What if no one shows up? I'll feel pretty silly standing there in my neon pink tie-dye Munchkin Apocalypse shirt waiting to teach people this fantastic game if no one shows up!

If you're not in Pennsylvania there is a whole list of locations across the United States where demos will be going on at the same time today. If you are into games that spoof your favorite genre and have you competing with your friends to see who can reach the winning level first come on out to your local BAM or 2nd & Charles today and have a great time!

Daily Illuminator: Munchkin Steampunk Events At BAM And 2nd & Charles This Saturday!
As a thank you for running the demo for them I'll be receiving some neat Munchkin swag from the folks at Steve Jackson Games.

Five Facts About Reading

What's in a (Whovian) Name

One of the biggest mysteries in Doctor Who is what was the Doctor's name before he became "The Doctor". His name has been used as a plot point on more than one occasion, most notably during the 11th Doctor's run when the question "Doctor, who?" was being transmitted through a crack in reality from his lost home planet, Gallyfrey. His companion, Clara, tells the Time Lords on the other side of the crack "You've been asking a question, and it's time someone told you you've been getting it wrong. His name is the Doctor! All the name he needs, everything you need to know about him..."

So, what's in a name? Are we defined by the name we are given at birth, or do we chose who we are and the name that goes along with that identity?

As we grow up we go by many different names, until as an adult we settle on the nickname most people know us by. We define ourselves on a daily basis through our actions and the way we present ourselves to others.

Sometimes it's fun to think about what our name would be if we were in the world of our favorite piece of fiction. I stumbled across a Time Lord name generator today and the result it gave me surprised me by how much it made sense for the person I like to think that I am.

Your time lord name is: The Oracle

Your original Gallifreyan name is Bydrinwinagorsor, or Bydrin for short. Back on Gallifrey, you led a dull and uninteresting life, working as the Head of the Chancellery Guard – but now, you travel Time and Space in search of adventure!
Your Type 77 TARDIS is currently stuck in disguise as a 14th century gothic cathedral, and your latest travelling companion is a rough-and-ready cop from the 1970s, whose hard-drinking ways don't always fit in with his battles against evil.
Get your own time lord name from the time lord name generator!

Happy Read Across America Day

The love I bare for books was instilled in me at a young age, my parents actually taught me how to read before I was in Kindergarten, much to the surprise (and occasional dismay) of my teachers, and I was actively encouraged to read anything that piqued my curiosity. If I didn't know what a word meant I was encouraged to look it up in this huge dictionary my Dad kept on the bookcase in the living room, or maybe it only seemed huge because I was so small back then, either way I will never forget the way the weight of that book felt in my hands. I remember thinking to myself that it wasn't the book itself that was heavy but the accumulated knowledge within its pages. It is that love of books that has shaped who I am my whole life. I buy books like some other girls buy shoes, after all one can never own too many books.

Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside

I was having a conversation the other day with my Mom about the books I'm reading for the 2016 Read Harder Challenge and was lamenting the fact that what I had chosen for my Horror book really wasn't living up to the genre. I'm reading Stephen King's The Stand and while it has been entertaining as a piece of Post-apocalyptic fiction it doesn't really seem like a Horror novel to me. While discussing this she mentioned that I should avoid reading IT and I assured her that I have no intention of ever doing so.

via Goodreads

I Spent Valentine's Night With a (Regenerating) Degenerate

My all time favorite character from the Marvel universe has to be The Merc With a Mouth, Wade Wilson A.K.A. Deadpool. Often referred to as the Regenerating Degenerate, Deadpool is a morally flexible mercenary who gained the ability to heal from pretty much anything you can dish out thanks to the same experimental program that created Wolverine. But what makes Deadpool unique is the fact that he is aware of his own fictionality and often breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the readers of his comics. A habit which other characters take as a sign of his insanity.

Yes, he can see his thought bubbles. Marvel Comics

Who Said it: Shakespeare or Batman?

How well do you know your Shakespeare? Or your Batman? You would think that it would be easy to tell the difference between the words of the Bard and those of the Bat, but both men have both a violent and poetic streak within them. See if you can tell which one each quote belongs to. For each quote respond with either S for Shakespeare or B for Batman.

I got 24/30 because Batman's poetic side kept tripping me up. Share your results in the comments and see how you stack up.

Musings Upon Snow, After Digging Out Cars

Living in Central Pennsylvania all my life I thought I had gotten used to the crazy changes in weather. I was wrong, and I will most likely continue to be wrong so long as I live. This weekend saw record snowfall and instead of enjoying the beauty of freshly fallen snow and the way the sun makes big fat flakes sparkle like diamonds I spent it wondering if I would be able to dig my car out in time for work on Monday. I guess there is something to be said for not growing up, you get to enjoy the beauty of nature even at its extremes.

As a child I loved snow and couldn't wait to go out and turn that blank canvas of white into a whole new world with my imagination and would spend as long as I possibly could in it. These days I can't seem to recapture that same sense of innocent joy and spend as little time as possible "out in the elements". One thing hasn't changed though, no matter how long you stay out in snowy weather it's always great to come back inside to a mug of hot cocoa or tea and curl up under a warm blanket with a book to keep you company.

If I've noticed one thing over time it's that people who enjoy books tend to also enjoy playing word games. Crossword puzzles, scrambles, fill-ins, and most recognizably Scrabble and its newer rival Words With Friends bring hours of delight to the linguistically minded the world over. With this feature I plan to help you up your game, and your vocabulary, by highlighting words from The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary Fourth Edition that you don't see every day and might not come to mind right away while playing.

Today's word is worth 9 points (10 points for the plural)







\ˈwēld\
n pl. -s a woodland
  

In a sentence: The future of the growing wild boar population in the Weald is set to be decided within the next few weeks.

Petition Launched to Name Newly Discovered Element 117 "Octarine"

I was interested to hear the other day that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has announced the verification of the discovery of four new chemical elements, completing the 7th row of the periodic table of elements.  At this time the four elements, 113, 115, 117, and 118, are going by temporary working names and symbols while the teams who discovered them decide on the final ones to be announced in the coming months.

In the meantime a petition has been launched by Blogger/Chemist Dr. Kat Day to name element 117 Octarine. As she writes in the introduction to the petition:

"This petition is to name element 117, recently confirmed by the International Union of Applied Chemistry, as 'Octarine', with the proposed symbol Oc (pronounced 'ook'), in honour of the late Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series of books."

The effort already has the support of the late author's Twitter feed, @terryandrob, which has been run by Sir Terry's assistant Rob Wilkins since the author's passing in March of 2015.

Name element 117 Octarine? If you think that's a good idea - and we do - please sign the petition here; https://t.co/j9MzGXCfFf

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) January 6, 2016

At the time of this writing, just 3 days after it launched, the petition has already received 37,408 of the targeted 50,000 signatures. Mine is included in that list. I encourage you to check it out and add your name to the effort. Who knows, maybe the scientists responsible for this discovery are fans Terry Pratchett as well.

I would like to thank The Guardian for their lovely and in depth article which brought this petition to my attention.

Why the Phrase "New Year, New You" Needs to Stop Being a Thing

It's that time again. Everywhere I turn I'm being bombarded with the phrase "New Year, New You". No matter what kind of content you view, no matter the medium you receive that content through, and no matter how hard you try to avoid it the "New Year, New You" machine will find you. Heck, in its own backwards way it's even managed to invade the content here!

2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

A few weeks back I was playing Trivial Pursuit: Book Lover's Edition at the monthly bookstore mingle that Cupboard Maker Books hosts and realized that I have dramatically narrowed the field of books that I read and am knowledgeable on. This thought troubled me but I didn't really see a way to fix it. You can't help but read what you enjoy, and if what you enjoy has narrowed down to Science Fiction and Fantasy that leaves a lot you aren't reading.

For 2016 I decided to participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge which has you set a goal for how many books you want to try to read in the course of the year. While this encourages me to read more it doesn't encourage me to read more broadly. That's where the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge comes in.

2016 Read Harder Challenge Checklist via bookriot.com

The challenge consists of 24 reading tasks designed to make you read outside of your comfort zone and think more about what you are reading. Tasks range from the simple like "Read a play" or "Read a horror book" to more challenging like "Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia" or "Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate the differences".

Anyone who is interested in broadening their literary horizons should definitely check this challenge out, even if you don't do everything at least you will have read something you wouldn't have otherwise. As a bonus, Book Riot offers a 30% discount to their store for anyone who submits a picture to them showing that they completed the challenge. A .pdf version of the checklist is available on their website where I linked it earlier.

This really ought to get me reading more outside of my Sci Fi/Fantasy niche this year! Who knows, maybe next time we bust out the Trivial Pursuit: Book Lover's Edition I might know some more answers.