Bride of Rikers Island

The Department of Corrections, Fly-Specking, and Taunting the Readers returns.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Grand Master of all things Brooklynian, corrected my punctuation of Green-Wood Cemetery. Perhaps if I think of it as the Spider-Man of dead people, the lesson will stick.

Alexx Kay pointed out that I had confused my Gorey books horribly, and that "the pornographic one" is actually The Curious Sofa. Since I'm actually at home now, I walked over to the shelves and have discovered that The Haunted Tea-Cozy is actually "the one about Christmas," or perhaps "the minor one, but still entertaining."

Pawel Baran made a case for the vast differences in the work of Jonathan Carroll. You've convinced me, Pawel; I now completely agree that he's never re-used a setting or theme, and that his characters never re-appear in later books.

(Freudian slip side-note: I originally wrote "You've convinced me, Paran" in the above paragraph, thus proving I've been reading too much Steven Erikson.)

Michael Walsh gently chides me for my horrible typo of "Robert Conquest" as "Kingsley Amis."

Niall Harrison let me know that the judges for this year's BSFA Non-Fiction Award were himself, Geneva Melzack, and Steve Jeffrey, and linked to the complete information on that award (which I'd managed to miss in two minutes of quick googling). The judges for the Richard Evans Award are still unknown to me, but I have a vague memory that Jo Fletcher is involved somehow.

Tony Sailer vehemently objects to my saying things like "Of course," "Complete agreement" and "Simply superb" in my comments on Jeff VanderMeer's list of Essential Fantasy. Wait: maybe it wasn't those opinions he objected to. {checks again} Honestly, I'm not sure precisely what he's objecting to, except perhaps my continued existence as a blot on his life. I seem to have picked up my first stalker, and I direct any available policemen to question Mr. Sailer in the event of my untimely demise. (Though why an Austrian Olympic-medalist skier would care at all about my opinions on fantasy novels is a bit of a puzzle to me.) He also is shocked and appalled to find out that a blogger is long-winded and self-centered, so I shudder to think of his reaction when he discovers that the sky is blue and that gravity pulls things downward.

And I may open myself up for further abuse by posting my own list of essential fantasy novels, if I can find time to wander around the basement taking notes in the next couple of days. Jeff VanderMeer's comment made me feel vaguely guilty for just tearing things down without building up, and list-making is one of my great pleasures. (Yes, that may say something sad about me, but it's pretty easy to accomplish.)