renaissance poisson

of SFF ebooks, since i've been woefully behind the times in that genre.

the *poing* and i were co-grumbling about the sad tendency of publishers advising authors to switch names in order to beat the crappy software that seems to determine what bookstores buy -- which makes me lose track of authors i like because i don't have the spoons to read industry-watching or individual authors' blogs. the *poing* enlightened me that Sarah Zettel is indeed still writing, except as CL Anderson, and that Laura J Mixon is now MJ Locke. really, guys, a change to a more bland, less unique name is good for you? the gender-neutrality makes up for that? is SFF still so damn hidebound? has anyone done a study on this? do any male authors in SF change names? maybe SFF publishers should develop a logo for "girl cooties" and liberally stamp it on all books so infested to spare overly sensitive guys from exposure.

*grump*.

i set out to do some book buying.

what the heck is wrong with SFF publishers? back lists are still often not available as ebooks! some newer books are too expensive. frex Justina Robson's "Natural History" comes in at C$14. that's too much for me; i won't pay more than C$10 because i don't pay more for a mass market paperback. now, if authors received a much higher percentage of that money, then we could talk. as it is, no. since i am planning to shift all my paper to ebooks, i looked for some lesser known, such as Tricia Sullivan. nothing at all in ebook. *sigh*. how long do publishers hang on to rights? i wonder whether self-publishing might not be a more viable idea than hoping for more than a decade that you'll get a reprint.

*double grump*.

also, kobo.com still does not have a shopping cart, but each book gets bought singly. that is so annoying that it makes me want to go out and download a torrent with 1000 pirated books -- if only that worked as a deterrent to bookstores pissing me off. i have a budget. i want to pile my haul up in my shopping cart to see what it all comes to with tax. as it is, i have to keep track of that in my head (or start writing it down -- yeah, right). maybe this method works to make other people over-spend, but in my case i am under-spending and buying fewer books than i otherwise would, because i hate getting individual statements in my inbox as well.

i would easily have spent double of what i did today if the books i wanted had been available at a price point i am willing to pay, or indeed, had been available at all.

it's a sad day when it is much easier to buy gay tentacle porn than established SFF.

*triple grump*.

also, it makes it much harder to write up a haul because i have to copy-paste everything bit by bit.

Aguirre Ann - Sirantha Jax 1 - Grimspace
Anderson CL (Zettel Sarah) - Bitter Angels
Bear Elizabeth - Jacob's Ladder 1 - Dust
Gould Steven - 7th Sigma
Hallaway Tate (Morehouse Lydia) - Garnet Lacey 1 - Tall, Dark & Dead
McGuire Seanan - October Daye 1 - Rosemary and Rue
Kowal Mary Robinette - Glamourist Histories 1 - Shades of Milk and Honey
Locke MJ (Mixon Laura J) - Up Against It
Robson Justina - Quantum Gravity 1 - Keeping It Real
Stross Charles - Glasshouse
Wilson Robert Charles - Spin 2 - Axis
Wilson Robert Charles - Spin 3 - Vortex

*gah*, i was gonna post these weekly, but have really fallen down on the job.

( latest fictionwise m/m haul )

oh, and one non-m/m book. an old acquaintance has a new harlequin romance out, and hers are the only harlequins i ever buy: Kistler Julie - Scandal. yay, julie! i wish she wrote m/m, *grin*.

last week chapters had a 20% off sale, so i forced myself to go to the store. :) the real catch turned out to be the takemiya, not something i would have expected to find, and the editions (by vertical) look nice (though no dustcovers, no colour inserts, *sigh*), but large, with wide inner margin, crisply printed. this is a classic tragedy by one of the famous "24-gumi" [1] and i grabbed the 3 volume set faster than a speeding bullet.

bujold, louis mcmaster	diplomatic immunity (SFF)
enjin yamimaru	voice or noise v1 (manga, BL)
iwaaki hitoshi	parasyte v2 (manga, seinen)
king laurie a.	the art of detection (M)
lehman, timothy r.	manga - masters of the art (NF, art)
monette, sarah	the virtu (SFF)
rankin, ian	fleshmarket close (M)
rankin, ian	the naming of the dead (M)
rowland, laura joh	red chrysanthemum (M)
shinkai makoto & sahara mizu	voices of a distant star (manga, seinen)
takemiya keiko	to terra v1 (manga, shounen)
takemiya keiko	to terra v2 (manga, shounen)
takemiya keiko	to terra v3 (manga, shounen)

[1] the 24-gumi were a group of mangaka born around the year 24 shouwa (1949), who were pioneers in developing what we now call "shoujo" manga (manga especially marketed to girls), incidentally also setting off the boys' love boom. it was a Really Big Deal for takemiya, a female girls' mangaka, to get published in a shounen (boys) magazine.

as i mentioned before, i had a nice soul purchase some doujinshi [1] for me at comiket [2]. this was my first time buying any doujinshi at all, nevermind doing it long-distance through somebody i don't really know, but it all went very well. deverilin picked good stuff for me (i told her what type of thing i wanted and from which mangaka), packed it all up very well, and mailed it off speedily. if i may channel an ebay buyer for a moment: A+++++, will definitely buy from again.

wow, doujinshi are pretty. it's so much nicer to see the art this large, instead of in paperback size. (they're all about 7x10".)

click on images to see large-size versions.

miyamoto kano song birds (rules DJ)	nekota yonezou 満ちる部屋 # 4 (michiru heya 4) 神様の腕の中 (kamisama no ude no naka DJ)
sakura haiji それはきいてない (sore wa kiitenai)	naono bohra 恋愛痛 ~悪化~ (renai tsuu ~akka~)

oh yeah, i have a new scanner. :)

[1] doujinshi are amateur manga publications, though the "amateur" does not refer to the quality, only to the fact that they're self-published. the ones i've seen look very professional and polished to me compared to say, zines. some of them contain fan art, some original. the ones i bought are all original.

[2] comiket is the world's largest comics convention, held twice a year in tokyo. 3 days, 35,000 circles (amateur mangaka associations, kinda like APAs), 500,000 visitors. i know i would hate it. :) but it goes to show how absolutely huge manga and anime are in japan. no commercial publishers are allowed to sell at comiket, it's a grassroots, fan-based convention.

cause while i was asleep, zie went to our postal drop BY BIKE to pick up my latest book order from chapters, all 6 kg of it.

taeko KAMIDA	the handbook of japanese adjectives and adverbs (lang)
sue a. KAWASHIMA	a dictionary of japanese particles (lang)
hinako TAKANAGA	challengers v2 (manga, BL)
hinako TAKANAGA	challengers v3 (manga, BL)
hinako TAKANAGA	challengers v4 (manga, BL)
fumi YOSHINAGA	ichigenme... the first class is cicil law v2 (manga, yaoi)
HOMERUN ken	clan of the nakagamis (manga, BL)
shoko HIDAKA	not enough time (manga, BL)
chigusa KAWAI	la esperança v6 (manga, BL)
chigusa KAWAI	la esperança v7 (manga, BL)
i bought these a couple of weeks ago locally:
yuki URUSHIBARA	mushishi v1 (manga, seinen)
hitoshi IWAAKI	parasyte v1 (manga, seinen)
fuyumi SOURYO	ES - eternal sabbath v1 (manga, seinen)
fuyumi SOURYO	ES - eternal sabbath v2 (manga, seinen)

everybody uses a different system of romanization, which bites. i can understand why they reverse the normal japanese name order (familyname first, given/personal name last) to adjust to the west, but apparently they don't always reverse it ("homerun ken" is written the same way as it would be in japan (ホームラン・拳), and no, it has nothing to do with baseball; it's pronounced hoe-MEH-roon. though maybe it has to do with baseball, since the author writes it in katakana, and BL mangaka often use pseudonyms, some of which are weird. ok, this might be a special case). but they also drop out lengthening indicators, as in "shoko", which should really be spelled "shohko" to get around the wrong pronunciation english speakers would give to a romanized "shooko" (日高ショーコ). ah well. nobody but me cares. except maybe other people who catalogue their books on computers.

these are the first english manga i've bought in 3 or 4 years, and quality-wise they are quite nice. the dramaqueen editions have lovely separate colour covers, colour inserts, and good quality paper -- they really look like japanese editions, so pretty! the juné editions are slightly larger, which i appreciate (larger graphics are a good thing). they also have separate colour covers, but no colour inserts, and the paper isn't quite as good. del rey doesn't have separate covers (though mushishi fakes it by using really thick paper and flaps), and no colour inserts. dramaqueen uses japanese honorifics (and seems to presume readers know what those are), the first juné book i opened uses "mr." -- *blech*. i have come to hate that because it loses so much nuance, and it now actively sounds wrong to my ears. del rey also uses japanese honorifics, plus a page to explain them -- that's ideal IMO; it teaches english readers just a little bit about a foreign culture, and it preserves the detail that comes with the honorifics.

hey, i can legally buy manga in a bookstore that could get me permanently suspended from livejournal were i to post the smex from it (cause some of the boys are not yet 18). isn't that special.

went to the bank to deposit checque (yay, we shall live another couple months thanks to our small company contract whose owner is fantastic about paying, while the big company screws us over some more). stopped by the little asian food- and giftstore to buy curry and some other random goodies, like coconut spread, kimchee, and japanese "calpis water" (which was, contrary to its somewhat unfortunate name, très yummy, albeit not carbonated as the store owner claimed). and to chapters, to look for farthing and the virtu. they didn't have either, *mope*, though that means i'll be able to calm down about the latter, and make myself wait until it comes out in paperback. the paramour bought up almost their entire stock of kakura puzzles. and of course i couldn't walk out without buying something; that'd be the day.
( small haul here if you care )

also went into canadian tire to see whether they'd have a kickboard, but no win. bought two thick noodles instead, with which, in combination with a piece of lexan yet to be acquired, i am hoping to fashion myself a see-through kickboard.

and now i go swimming with the noodles to inaugurate them. i love floating in the water, looking below at all the life in the intertidal zone. neap tide!