Thursday, March 17, 2011

Books I love.

The single book that I've probably reread more than any other novel I own (or don't own, for that matter) is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's a pretty popular piece of sci-fi literature, if that's what you're into.

The novel is set in the distant future, a few hundred years after an alien war. The world-government set up as a result of the war maintains it's authority by keeping it's people in a constant fear of another impending attack by the alien invaders commonly known as "buggers." Gifted children in this world are taken from their parents at the young age of six for military training to defend the Earth from the bugger threat. Card's novel follows one of these children as he spends years of his childhood in "Battle School," a military training facility in the asteroid belt.

I will not give away any further details, but I will say this book is not all about aliens, and laser guns, and space crafts, but follows the deep psychological impacts that are brought on these children that are raised by military scientists on a space station. I would highly recommend this book to sci-fi fans and casual readers alike.

The novel does have a number of sequels and spin-offs, though they are not as popular as Ender's Game, and there have been rumors floating around for years of a film adaptation, but last I checked it is stuck in development hell. A video game based on the battle training which accounts for much of the novel is also trapped in development. I guess the portrayal of Ender's Game in other media can only be described as cursed, though a few spin off comic books have been released by DC Comics.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

What I'm reading.

I've known about this book for years, but never got around to it. I've been told by numerous sources that this book is life changing, and I finally picked up a copy.


The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Campbell dives into the idea of the monomyth, basically, that every myth, story, fable or fairy tale ever told in any civilization is exactly the same, just with different costumes. It is a very interesting read, and is often regarded as the greatest piece of literature produced in the 20th century. Pick it up for $20 at Barnes & Noble, or where ever you like to buy from.

New Blog

Well, never thought I'd see the day I start a blog, haha. Well, I guess I'll start with the name of my blog: The Bluebird's nest. I named it after my favorite poem "Bluebird" by Charles Bukowski. Here's the text from it:


there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pur whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in

Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?