Some old reviews

Hope y'all had a good New Year! I spent mine installing a staircase, about which probably more anon. But in the meantime, here's a brief bookpost.

Max Gladstone — Three Parts Dead

Sep 6

OK, I like this series a lot. This was the first one, going by publishing order, but it's real strong right out the gate.

Alison Bechdel — Are You My Mother? (comics, re-read)

Nov. 11

I might just let my prior review stand for this one. Or better yet, don't even read my prior review; this is one of those books where it's probably best if you don't have any idea what you're getting into.

Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond — The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way

Dec 11

A long time ago, I heard a rumor that this manual existed, that Chumbawumba had obtained a rare copy and followed it to the letter, and that the result had been that fucking "Tubthumping" song.

Years later, I read a story about the KLF dumping a sheep carcass outside a record industry awards afterparty and then setting a literal £1,000,000 on literal fire, and it included a link to an old OCRed scan of this book, which I read half of immediately and eventually got around to finishing after a Goodreads update from Suzie reminded me of it.

I can't speak to the efficacy or feasibility of the method described here, but it was definitely an entertaining ride and a real intriguing time capsule of the British record biz in 1988. Short, fast, and weird.

2017 book census

Ah, right, and it's January now, isn't it? Here's one particular way to divide up the things I read in 2017.

• Book-length prose works, female authors: 21 (previous year: 25)
• Book-length prose works, male authors: 10 (previous year: 9)
• Book-ish-length comics or other works, female creators: 8 (previous year: 9)
• Book-ish-length comics or other works, male creators: 4 (previous year: 2)
• Book-ish length comics or other works, mixed-gender or unknown team of creators: 5 (previous year: 4)

That count is silent on race and countless other axes, and it's sometimes misleadingly silent on divergence from a binary gender model. But it's what I've tracked in years gone by, and I still think it's interesting to see how my ratios move year-to-year.