Saturday, 6 June 1998:

Tigers 9, Brewers 3

I woke up feeling a little melancholy today, but I think it was just because I was lying around in bed not doing anything. Once I stood up and started my day, I felt generally better. Well, okay, my electric razor finally dying on me was a bummer, but I needed a new one anyway. So I bought one.

I didn't accomplish a whole heck of the lot in the afternoon. Did some cleaning, read a few comics while sitting with the cats down the hall. I'm watching them while their owners are on vacation. One of them is very friendly and playful, and the other is rather stand-offish, although not especially nasty unless I try to pick him up. (BTW, I've been reading the reprints of the Neal Adams Deadman comics that DC issued about a decade ago. I have #s 1-6, so I'm missing #7. The '80s follow-up series, with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, is quite good, too.)

This evening I went with my friends Karen, Beth and Brian to see the Brewers/Tigers game. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead, and won 9-3. It was a largely unremarkable game, other than a good defensive play in left field by Brewers rookie Geoff Jenkins, and a towering home run by Tigers first baseman Tony Clark. the best part of it for me was that Tigers starter Bryce Florie, who got the win, is on my fantasy team. Still it's always nice to go to the ballpark; you never know what you're going to see.

Boy, I am pretty bushed tonight, though.

One thing I've been playing around with lately is Alexandria Digital Literature, which I've mentioned before. It's one of those "rate a bunch of stuff and we'll recommend other stuff you might enjoy" systems, and this one focuses on books. It's got an SF&F bias, which is fine with me. I've rated most of the stuff that I can recall reading, and here's what it recommended I read:

7
Rating Confidence Book
Near-Fabulous! Wild Guess Clouds End by Sean Stewart
Excellent High Dark of the Moon by P. C. Hodgell
Excellent Medium Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Excellent Extremely High Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Near-Excellent Medium The Last Dancer by Daniel Keys Moran
Near-Excellent Quite High Last Call by Tim Powers
Near-Excellent Medium Seeker's Mask by P. C. Hodgell
Near-Excellent Medium For A Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny
Near-Excellent Extremely High Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Near-Excellent Quite High Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Near-Excellent Extremely High Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
Near-Excellent Quite High "Ender's Game" (short story) by Orson Scott Card
Near-Excellent Quite High The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
Near-Excellent High Sorcery and Cecelia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede
Near-Excellent Quite High Persuasion by Jane Austen
Near-Excellent Extremely High Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Near-Excellent Extremely High The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Near-Excellent Very High To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Really Good Extremely High Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Really Good Extremely High Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

This is an interesting list, and it's hard to deconstruct all of it. I presume it recommended the Jane Austen books because I very much enjoyed Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I enjoyed Bujold's Memory (though not enthusiastically), so I figure it recommends Mirror Dance (often touted as her best book) and Barrayar (which I think is her newest book) on that strength. Good Omens is presumably recommended since I've read much of Gaiman's comics work.

I'm not at all sure why it thinks I'd enjoy the P. C. Hodgell stuff (I know zippo about her, although I've seen her at a con or two, if I recall correctly), and I really did not like the movie The Princess Bride so it's hard to believe I'd like the book. And I generally dislike fantasy - especially the "high fantasy" kind - so I'm not sure I'd like the Guy Gavriel Kay book at all.

I actually just borrowed a copy of Tim Powers' Last Call from a friend (along with The Anubis Gates), and I'll probably read Good Omens eventually (I've generally stayed away because I don't find Terry Pratchett very funny, although this one collaboration has gotten rave reviews). As for the rest - we'll see.

I'm a bit surprised it hasn't recommended more space opera, since quite a few of my likes fall (at least loosely) in that category. I don't have much inclination to read, say, David Drake, but it wouldn't surprise me to have a computer recommend them. I'm more surprised that it didn't recommend any Larry Niven. Either this system knows nothing about me, or else it's an awful lot cleverer than I'd have guessed.

Ironically, it recommends the Sean Stewart book with a low degree of confidence, but I've been more intrigued by Stewart's stuff than by almost any other author on the list.

I enjoy playing with systems like these. I got a little mileage out of Reel before they took down their rating system. On the other hand, of the movies it most strongly recommended to me (The Shawshank Redemption, Hoop Dreams, Glory), one friend commented that I'd have to be inhuman not to like those films.

I more-or-less assembled by set of books to take on my California trip. Most of them are not from the reading stack I've been working through this year. They include Lucius Shepard's The Jaguar Hunter, Damon Knight's book on SF criticism In Search of Wonder, Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct, Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates, and Michael Swanwick's Stations of the Tide and A Geography of Unknown Lands. I'm probably overloading myself, but it'll be a long plane trip, and I'll probably have some time to myself while John is at work a couple or three days. (This would be a good thing, actually. I'll probably be glad to have a little mindless downtime.)

It's been a struggle not to hopelessly overload myself in planning this trip. It turns out I know or am acquainted with a lot of people in the Bay Area. If I saw one per day then I'd already be looking at a 2-week vacation. And the truth is I want to spend much of my time with John, who is, as I've said, an old friend who I miss having around. So I hope you'll forgive me (if you're reading this) if I don't manage to see you while I'm out there...

Previous Entry Month Index Next Entry
Back to the Main Index
Michael Rawdon (Contact)