Sunday, June 10, 2012

Word Up — reading this week in Washington Heights

PERSONAL DAYS, DESPERATE NIGHTS: A Reading with Ed Park, Jon Michaud, S. J. Rozan, and S. A. Solomon A reading with Ed Park, author of the multi-award-winning novel Personal Daysand the founding editor of the Believer; Jon Michaud, author of When Tito Loved Clara (set in Inwood and named as Barnes & Noble Review’s Year’s Best Reading 2011); S. J. Rozan, editor of Bronx Noir; and S. A. Solomon, contributor to New Jersey Noir. Click here for more info.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Stop accepting mediocrity—

Crude Futures is back!

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Thursday, June 07, 2012

Success

Dzyhead Sam writes, in response to my vacuous challenge:

Your question: What are the fictional (invisible) books that are bad for a reader's mental health? The Necronomicon (and other Lovecraftian creations); the manuscript in Amis's The Information...

My answer: In Never Any End to Paris, by Enrique Vila-Matas, the narrator is trying to write a book (The Lettered Assasin) that is so good it will kill anyone who reads it. But! This is actually already a book by Vila-Matas. It's called La Asesina Ilustrada, and it hasn't been translated. Maybe because he SUCCEEDED??!?

Sunday, June 03, 2012

The Vacuous Grimoire

From Grognardia, quoting Gygax's Dungeon Masters Guide:

 A book of this sort is totally impossible to tell from a normal one, although if a detect magic spell is cast, there will be a magical aura noted. Any character who opens the work and reads so much as a single glyph therein must make 2 saving throws versus magic. The first is to determine if 1 point of intelligence is lost, the second is to find if 2 points of wisdom are lost. Once opened and read, the vacuous grimoire remains, and it must be burned to be rid of it after first casting a remove curse spell. If the tome is placed with other books, its appearance will instantly alter to conform to one of the other works it is amongst. 

My question: What are the fictional (invisible) books that are bad for a reader's mental health? The Necronomicon (and other Lovecraftian creations); the manuscript in Amis's The Information...

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