Books:

• Magician: Apprentice (Raymond E. Feist)
• Magician: Master (Raymond E. Feist)
• A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)

Events:

• Lunchstealer had a birthgay
• Sweeny Todd @ Garland Civic Theatre
  • Unexpectedly good
• Montreal & Quebec City
  • Saw lots of bands at Festival Kinetik 2.0, but no where near all of them
    • Interlace
    • Terrorfakt
    • Project Pitchfork
    • Marching Dynamics
    • God Module
    • Reaper
    • Amduscia
    • Grendal
    • Pride and Fall
    • Assemblage 23
    • Das Ich
    • Icon of Coil
  • Walked zillions of miles
  • Was nearly throw off a Zodiac boat into the St. Laurent river
  • Angus Dog!
  • The mysterious Sunkist Tree
• Sealegs had a birthgay
• SerenitySprings finally graduated

Books:

• Nine Princes in Amber (Roger Zelazny)
  
• The Guns of Avalon (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Sign of the Unicorn (Roger Zelazny)
  
• The Hand of Oberon (Roger Zelazny)
  
• The Courts of Chaos (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Trumps of Doom (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Blood of Amber (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Sign of Chaos (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Knight of Shadows (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Prince of Chaos (Roger Zelazny)
  
• Roger Zelazny’s Visual Guide to Castle Amber (Roger Zelazny and Neil Randall)

I read Zelazny’s Amber novels many years ago. Since I setup my book shelves at home they’ve been taunting me to read them again. These are pretty short books, so this big ol’ list isn’t as impressive as it seems.

Events:

• Scarborough Faire
  • The wooden mugs made their yearly outing.
  • We did not fence this year. I am still bitter.
• Crystal Castles @ the Granada
  • Except not. They sold out. And then the whiney babies decided not to play at all. They canceled. A sold out show. They canceled on a sold out house with 1200 people inside waiting to see them. Sheesh. Now I have no wish to ever see them.
• FC Dallas hosts Toronto FC
  • Dallas finally won. Obviously it was our presense that put them over the top.
• Ladytron and The Faint @ the Granada
  • Our electronic concert curse continues as Ladytron’s set is cut short by equipment difficulties.
  • The Faint were good, though.
• Funker Vogt @ The Church
  • Curse lifted!

• Heir to Sevenwaters (Juliet Marillier)
• Harnessing Hibernate (James Elliott, Timothy M. O’Brien, Ryan Fowler)
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Other American Stories (Hunter S. Thompson)

Events:

• North Texas Irish Festival
• Cut Copy @ the Granada
• The Egg & 2020 Soundsystem @ the Granada
• Grygar had a birthday
• Murder on the Nile @ Theater 3

Books:

• The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli)
• Edly’s Music Theory for Practical People (Ed Roseman)
• Head First Java (Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra)

The music theory book convinced me it is finally time to learn the piano. Alas, the make myself marketable project has had me spending more time in Java books than at the (musical) keyboard.

Speaking of Java books, I’m seriously considering getting a Kindle2. It turns out Oreilly makes a bunch of their books available in multiple electronic formats, including Kindle format. Technical books, what with all their examples to type in, seem to be really good candidates for reading electronically. No more dealling with trying to get a fat book to lie flat. Also when the state of the art has passed the edition by, 6 days after it’s published, I wouldn’t have a pile of dead tree sitting on the shelf never to be cracked again. Rather than getting a Kindle2 I could just open a PDF on my computer screen, but especially on a laptop that doesn’t leave a lot of space for other windows. Anyone else out there feeling Kindle2 lust?

Events:

• Ras and Corey had birthgays
  • And a party, which I attended, $deity help me.
  • I rewarded my sacrifice with a piano.
• First Annual Dallas Burlesque Festival @ Texas Theater
  • Overall a fun time, but that DJ has got to go
• Happy birthgay to the Ponylagoon
• Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band @ The Granada
  • I don’t think hillbilly blues gets any better
  • 
• Happy birthgay to SerenitySprings
  • I did make an appearance at Birthday Con
• MystiQal Mardi Gras in Downtown Dallas
  • Of course winter decided to blow back in for the evening.
  • I don’t think New Orleans has anything to worry about just yet.
• Flogging Molly @ Stubbs in Austin
  • For this outside show winter decided once again to blow in
  • 

Spam: 18452 (529 making it to my inbox)

Books:

• A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea) (Ursula Le Guin)
• The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea) (Ursula Le Guin)
• The Farthest Shore (Earthsea) (Ursula Le Guin)

Events:

• Iris/Seabound/De/Vision @ Lakewood Theater
  • Not a bad place for a show, but having all those seats is rather odd.

  • 

    A terrible picture of Seabound performing

• Roberto Devereux (by Gaetano Donizetti) @ Dallas Opera
  • I gotta say, the first half was pretty slow.
  • And there was a lot of floor crawling

Books:

• The Elves of Cintra (Terry Brooks)
• The Gypsy Morph (Terry Brooks)
• Fortress of Ice (C.J. Cherryh)
• The Time Machine (H.G. Wells)

By my count, splitting omnibuses, that makes 41 books for the year.

Events:

• White Elephant @ Grygar’s
  • Boone’s Farm Sangria
  • Crumb Vacuum
• Festivus @ Bavarian
• Did the Chistmas in Houston thing
  • Old people should not attempt White Elephant
• Happy birthday to my cello teacher
• Vortex White Elephan/New Year’s Eve party
  • I now have the awesomest stapler in the office.
  • Mozart joined my action figure collection (Thanks, Sealegs)

I pretty much killed it for the 2008 TBR. I completed all books in the primary list and all but one in the alternates. The only reason I missed that one is because, as far as I know, it still doesn’t exist. That’s all right. I finished a boat load of books not on either list. By my count, if I finish my current book by 2009-01-01, I’ll have read 36 books. (Maybe more. I think there’s an omnibus or 2 that I didn’t break up for listing.)

This year I’m upping the ante. It won’t all be sci-fi and fantasy, though there is still plenty of that. No, sir. I’m going to pick my knuckles off the ground a bit. That probably means I won’t make into the mid 30’s of books read, but that’s ok.

Primary 12, in no particular order except where series are involved:

1. Endymion (Dan Simmons) (June)
2. Rise of Endymion (Dan Simmons) (June)
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway)
4. Heir to Sevenwaters (Juliet Marillier) (March)
5. Empire of Ivory (Temeraire) (Naomi Novik) (July)
6. Victory of Eagles (Temeraire) (Naomi Novik) (July)
7. A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea) (Ursula Le Guin) (January)
8. The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea) (Ursula Le Guin) (January)
9. The Farthest Shore (Earthsea) (Ursula Le Guin) (January)
10. The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli) (February)
11. Edly’s Music Theory for Practical People (Ed Roseman) (February)
12. National Geographic Concise History of the World: An Illustrated Time Line (Neil Kagan) (In Progress)

Alternate 12, again in no particular order:

1. World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction (7th Edition) (Brian M. Fagan)
2. Music for Sight Singing (7th Edition) (Robert W. Ottman, Nancy Rogers)
3. Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold Series) (David Weber) (In Progress)
4. By Schism Rent Asunder (Safehold Series) (David Weber)
5. A Talent for War (Jack McDevitt)
6. Polaris (Jack McDevitt)
7. Seeker (Jack McDevitt)
8. The Devil’s Eye (Jack McDevitt)
9. Candide (Voltaire)
10. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Other American Stories (Hunter S. Thompson) (March)
11. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) (May)
12. Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time (Nicolas Slonimsky) (In Progress)

It was really hard whittling down to 24 books to meet the TBR rules. This probably wouldn’t happen to such a degree if I didn’t forget to turn down the SFBC featured selections all the time. Then again, I’ve read quite a few good books because of my inattention to the calendar. My abbreviated list of also rans follows. In order to fulfill the TBR challenge I’ll definitely read at least 12 of the above 24, but I’ll almost certainly pull from this list of alternate alternates throughout the year as well.

1. The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx)
2. Das Kapital, Gateway Edition (Karl Marx)
3. The Fractal Geometry of Nature (Benoit B. Mandelbrot)
4. Bizarro Buccaneers: Nuttin’ But Pirate Cartoons (Dan Piraro)
5. Tonal Harmony (Stefan Kostka, Dorothy Payne)
   • Tonal Harmony Wkbk with Wkbk Audio CD and Finale CD-ROM (Stefan Kostka)
6. Materials and Techniques of 20th Century Music (3rd Edition) (Stefan Kostka)
7. Slaughterhouse-​Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
8. Sorcery Rising (Fool’s Gold) (Jude Fisher)
9. Wild Magic (Fool’s Gold) (Jude Fisher)
10. The Rose of the World (Fool’s Gold) (Jude Fisher)
11. Howl and Other Poems (Allen Ginsberg)
12. On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition (Jack Kerouac)
13. A Shadow in Summer (The Long Price Quartet) (Daniel Abraham)
14. A Betrayal in Winter (The Long Price Quartet) (Daniel Abraham)
15. An Autumn War (The Long Price Quartet) (Daniel Abraham)
16. The Price of Spring (The Long Price Quartet) (Daniel Abraham) (if published in time)
17. Mistress of Dragons (Dragonvarld) (Margaret Weis)
18. The Dragon’s Son (Dragonvarld) (Margaret Weis)
19. Master of Dragons (Dragonvarld) (Margaret Weis)
20. The Ring of Five Dragons (The Pearl Saga) (Eric Van Lustbader)
21. The Veil of a Thousand Tears (The Pearl Saga) (Eric Van Lustbader)
22. Mistress of the Pearl (The Pearl Saga) (Eric Van Lustbader)

I’m sure some other tomes not listed here will end up in front of me, too. If you have a sadistic need to affect what I read and when you are welcome to purchase stuff for me off my Amazon wishlist.

Books:

• Mad Ship (Robin Hobb)
• Ship of Destiny (Robin Hobb)

Events:

• Evil League of Evil Halloween party
• Elected an adult president of the United States
• Vermillion Lies @ The Allgood Cafe
• Whaelyn Gerald James had a birthday
  • Congratulations Matt & Tiff
• North Texas Mensa Regional Gathering
  • No, I’m not smart enough to be a member

Books:

• Armageddon’s Children (Terry Brooks)
  
• Ship of Magic (Robin Hobb)

Events:

• Gail had a birthgay
• Monasitcvibes’ baby shower @ Grygar’s
• Shiny Toy Guns @ The Loft
• Seattle
  • Scheherezad (Rimsky-Korsakov) @ Seattle Symphony
  • I’m pretty sure I witnessed a drug deal go down at a bus stop.
• King Tut @ The DMA
• Halloween party @ Grygar’s
• HorrorPops @ The Granada

Books:

• Jarka Ruus (Terry Brooks)
  
• Tanequil (Terry Brooks)
• Straken (Terry Brooks)
• Victory Conditions (Elizabeth Moon)

Events:

• Annual Talk Like a Pirate Day party @Sealegs’ place
  • We finally watched a film: ‘Mutiny’
    • Pre-Murder She Wrote Angela Lansbury is just wrong
    • So was the rest of this movie
  • The Blackbeard is a tasty tasty beverage
  • Bumbo ain’t bad either
• Flogging Molly @House of Blues
  • Excellent once again
  • Found a spot up front stage right. Yay us
• Games at Dolly’s
  • I won a round of Shithead, so I consider the night a success
• Cut Copy and The Presets @The Granada
  • We discovered The Granada actually has a pretty good food menu