So, to share my shame, I thought I would share with you what is on the TBR piles. Yes, piles. I have different piles for each genre. Now, this isn’t the full TBR list – that can be found here – these are just the ones that I already own on the TBR list.

Non-Fiction

1. Making Of Pride And Prejudice Bbc Tie In by Sue Birtwistle. Originally Published 1995. LT. Came with P&P DVDs. Can’t not read it. Love P&P.
2. Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual by Timothy Samara. Originally Published 2007. LT. Purchased as it’s recommended reading for the RGD test.
3. Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton. Originally Published 2008. LT. Purchased as it’s recommended reading for the RGD test.
4. Bachelor Girl by Betsy Israel. Originally Published 2003. LT Procured from BookMooch. Sounds good, but am nervous to start it as some people in blogosphere didn’t like it overly much.
5. The Graphic Design Exercise Book by Jessica Glaser. Originally Published 2010. LT. Got at San Diego Comic Con 2010.
6. Flaunt: Designing Effective, Compelling and Memorable Portfolios of Creative Work by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit. Originally Published 2010. LT. Purchased.
7. The Girl’s Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch) by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio. Originally Published 2007. LT. Purchased. Really enjoyed another book the two women wrote together, but as am not a boss nor will I be one any time in the near future, there isn’t a pressing need to read this.
8. Atlantis and Other Lost Worlds: New Evidence of Ancient Secrets by Joseph Frank. Originally Published 2008. LT. Gift.
9. A Designer’s Research Manual by Jennifer Visocky O’Grady. Originally Published. LT. Purchased as it’s recommended reading for the RGD test.
10. The Corporate Creative: Tips and Tactics for Thriving as an In-House Designer by Andy Epstein. Originally Published 2010. LT. Purchased.
11. In Spite of Myself by Christopher Plummer. Originally Published . LT. Purchased when he was in Caesar and Cleopatra at Stratford – got it signed after the show. LOVE.

General Fiction

1. Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan. Originally Published 1945. LT. Procured from BookMooch. Don’t remember why though.
2. Absolute Honour by C.C. Humphreys. Originally Published 2008. LT. Rachel gave this to me. Read other two in this series. Currently reading.
3. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. Originally Published 1926. LT. Purchased while in England; always need one Heyer on TBR pile.
4. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. Originally Published 2007. LT. Procured from BookMooch. Don’t remember why as it doesn’t seem like my type of normal read.
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre. Originally Published 1974. LT. Borrowed from mother. Wanted to read it before seeing the movie (but seeing as I already saw it, WELL…).
6. Still Alice by Lisa Genova. Originally Published 2008. LT. Borrowed from mother. Don’t remember why.
7. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. Originally Published 2011. LT. Sent by publisher.
8. Jeeves in the Offing by P.G. Wodehouse. Originally Published 1960. LT. Purchased. I love Jeeves and Wooster. Really love them. Oh yes.
9. The Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. Originally Published 1975. LT. I think Rachel gave me this.

Speculative Fiction

1. Grimspace (Sirantha Jax, Book 1) by Ann Aguirre. Originally Published 2008. LT. Purchased so I could read the third one, which I already had.
2. His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) by Naomi Novik. Originally Published 2006. LT. Got at San Diego Comic Con 2010.
3. Personal Demons (The Jake Helman Files) by Gregory Lamberson. Originally Published 2009. LT. Got at FanExpo 2011. This is the first in the series – author mentioned that Cthulhu is in the third. Needed.
4. The Clockwork Man by William Jablonsky. Originally Published 2010. LT. Got at FanExpo 2011.
5. The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin. Originally Published 2010. LT. Purchased as it’s second in a series, and loved the first. Currently reading.
6. Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. Originally Published 2009. LT. Purchased. Loving this series!
7. The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. Originally Published 1984. LT. Procured from BookMooch. Wanted to read more Canadian fiction.

Young Adults

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Originally Published 2008. LT. Purchased. Want to see what the fuss is all about.
2. Guardian of the Gate by Michelle Zink. Originally Published 2010. LT. Got at San Diego Comic Con 2010.
3. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan. Originally Published 2011. LT. Purchased while in England because it sounded so cool.
4. Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr. Originally Published 2009. LT. Read first two in the series, loved.
5. Wings by Aprilynne Pike. Originally Published 2009. LT. I think Rachel gave this to me…
6. Road to Nowhere by Christopher Pike. Originally Published 1993. LT. Procured from BookMooch. I was feeling sentimental and wanted to revisit them.
7. The Eternal Enemy by Christopher Pike. Originally Published 1993. LT. Procured from BookMooch. I was feeling sentimental and wanted to revisit them.

Children’s

1. The Grey King (The Dark Is Rising Sequence) by Susan Cooper. Originally Published 1975. LT. Purchased; making my way through the series. Currently reading.
2. School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari. Originally Published 2009. LT. Purchased; saw it around the book blogosphere when it was first published and it sounded like something I would love.
3. Driftwood Ellesmere (Driftwood Saga) by James Davidge. Originally Published 2006. LT. Got at FanExpo 2011 because it just sounded cool.
4. Shattered by Eric Walters. Originally Published 2007. LT. Rachel gave this to me.
5. Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress. Originally Published 2007. LT. Got at FanExpo 2011 because there are pirates.

Later in the Series that I Can’t Read Yet Because I Haven’t Read the Previous One(s) in the Series

1. Doubleblind (Sirantha Jax, Book 3) by Ann Aguirre. Originally Published 2009. LT. Got at San Diego Comic Con 2010; haven’t read first two yet.
2. Total Eclipse (Weather Warden, Book 9) by Rachel Caine. Originally Published 2010. LT. Got at San Diego Comic Con 2010; haven’t read first eight yet.
3. Silver on the Tree (The Dark Is Rising Sequence) by Susan Cooper. Originally Published 1977. LT. Purchased. Haven’t read fourth one yet.
4. The Glasswrights’ Journeyman by Mindy Klasky. Originally Published 2002. LT. Procured from BookMooch. Read first in the series and loved it. This is the third – need to find the second before I can read this one.
5. The Glasswright’s Test by Mindy Klasky. Originally Published 2003. LT. Procured from BookMooch. Read first in the series and loved it. This is the fourth – need to find the second before I can read this one.
6. Predator and Prey by Christopher Golden. Originally Published 2001. LT. Procured from BookMooch. Read first in the series. This is the third – need to find the second before I can read this one.
7. Driftwood’s Crusade by James Davidge. Originally Published 2007. LT. Purchased at FanExpo 2011. Haven’t read books in series before this one.
8. Driftwood Saves the Whales by James Davidge. Originally Published 2009. LT. Purchased at FanExpo 2011. Haven’t read books in series before this one.
9. Driftwood and the Necessary Forest by James Davidge. Originally Published 2009. LT. Purchased at FanExpo 2011. Haven’t read books in series before this one.
10. Driftwood’s War by James Davidge. Originally Published 2010. LT. Purchased at FanExpo 2011. Haven’t read books in series before this one.
11. Devoted by Hilary Duff. Originally Published 2011. LT. Requested from publisher. Didn’t realize it was the second in a series/trilogy/whatever. Whoops. Need to find the first one.
12. Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning. Originally Published 2011. LT. Purchased. This is the fifth (and last!) in the series – am going to be starting the fourth (relatively) soon, and if the past few are any indication, I’ll want this as soon as I’ve finished the fourth.

Le sigh…

How are your TBR piles looking?

People feel quite strongly about the fictional worlds they imaginatively inhabit. For comic book readers who invest hours of thought and mind-painting into the universe of their choice, they become as attached to character development and progression and relationship as the 19th Century Dickens reader on tenterhook for the next installment of, say, Great Expectations ( the most comic-booky of the Dickens’ novels, perhaps).

I was going to post a comment there, but it got long and full of rambling, and so I decided it would be better to post my thoughts on it here.

From a certain point of view what DC’s doing makes sense… I mean, for anyone getting into comics for the first time, it’s confusing as anything to attempt to read anything about one of the famous superheroes… And someone who is unfamiliar with the genre will probably want to start with something they know a little bit about – so the characters who are in television shows, movies, cartoons, etc. But going in and seeing that what is readily available in comic book stores are going to be pretty far into the series, or finding out that you have years worth of back issues to read if you really want to know all of the character development, etc….. it can be quite scary! It certainly was for me, and I only read comics a little bit. Like any business, DC would want to expand their market and having the consumer start partway through a series IS extremely intimidating, especially when the reader has no real idea what’s going on.

I don’t read much of DC, so I’m not completely familiar with how they deal with their storylines. But I think Marvel does it well. Yes, there are many different series about the X-Men going on at any given time. You can always find a new series that you can start, and you just need a little bit of background info on the characters involved, but you still see the beginning of the story. For the most part you get the same characters in any of the arcs, but they’re sometimes different depending on the series you read: Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Marvel Noir… Wolverine, for example, is in all of them, but in one of them he’s a detective in an almost film-noir story, but in the others he’s the same Wolverine we know from other things. I mean, it’s almost like you need to think of each series as a separate fanfiction story (and yet not really fanfiction, because they are all canon) in which it’s an alternate universe where anything else that has happened in another story has absolutely no bearing in the one you’re reading now.

This could also be why the smaller presses are gaining in popularity, I suppose… their characters don’t have the huge backstory, you don’t have to invest five million years reading all the previous comics to know what’s going on. Like The Walking Dead – these are all new characters. Like the Firefly, Farscape, Buffy, Muppet comics – these are ones that people invested television or movie watching time into already (mediums that are a lot less intimidating than starting comic books is)…

I think DC’s decision is smart as far as doing what you can for a business to survive and make money, and allowing new fans to be introduced in a non-overwhelming way, ESPECIALLY with the massive amount of superhero movies that have been produced in the past few years (and all the ones that are going to be made in the near future).

What do you think?

What I have noticed, however, is that the number of non-fiction books is so much greater than all other books there. All of the ones I have are about topics that interest me greatly, but I just rarely have the motivation to actually pick up the non-fiction books. I am going to try to work on that.

And of course, that’s not to say that the TBR list is doing any better – it keeps growing, I just have acquired less of them.

So, since the TBR pile is doing so well right now, I decided to turn my attention to the actual number of series/trilogies/what-have-yous that I am in the middle of. Each year I count the number of books that I read that are related to a series or trilogy, but I’ve never really looked at the total number I’m in the middle of – which, considering the fact that I don’t always read a book from every single thing I am in the middle of, seems a little silly in hindsight. So I took a more in-depth look (in spreadsheet form, of course) and I discovered that I am in the middle of 34. Thirty-Freaking-Four Series/Trilogies/Etc. What boggles my mind is that for a whole bunch of them I only need to read one more book and then I am finished – so many of these I was so excited to read more after the second-last book… and then just never got around to reading the last one. Hello, D.M. Cornish’s Monster Blood Tattoo, I’m looking directly at you.

I don’t feel as badly about the books like Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls books, Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard Sequence, or Arthur Slade’s Hunchback Assignments, as in these cases not all of the books have been published yet. The ones that really worry me are Christopher Golden’s Prowlers, and Mindy L. Klasky’s Glasswright series that were published early 2000s and are extremely hard to find copies of all the books now. I really don’t know how I’m going to be able to get those finished, and I quite enjoyed the ones I’ve read from them.

Then, of course, there are Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, or P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves books where there are five million books in the series and I’ve only read one so far. At least with these two, I don’t necessarily HAVE to read them in order, and can just pick up a random one whenever I feel like it. (Which is actually what I’ve just done with the Jeeves books, as have just started Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.)

I think I really need to work on a plan to tackle this list.

How do you deal with (and keep track of) the trilogies and series that you’re in the middle of?

This week (February 20-26th) is Freedom to Read week in Canada – a week where we can reflect upon and celebrate our independence to read whatever we want. (Think Banned Books Week that the ALA hosts every year in the USA.)

For those fellow Canadians, I hope that you will take some time this week to browse the Freedom to Read website. Some areas that might be of interest are the list of books and magazines that have been challenged in Canada (and why), posters that have been used to promote awareness of Freedom to Read week in the past, and a history of book bannings and burnings over the centuries.

Side note: what I found most interesting about the list of challenged books was how so many of the books on there were different than the one on the ALA list. I suppose that is partially due to the fact that a lot of them are in the french language. But then at the same time, there was also the fact that a lot of the expected ones – To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, etc – are still there. And so many of the books are so good too! (There are a few of them that I cannot stand – Duddy Kravitz for example, blegh – but I wouldn’t want them banned from allowing others to read them. Totally not cool.)

Anyway, what I want to say is, go ye forth and celebrate reading whatever the heck you want, whenever the heck you want to read it, without anyone telling you what you can and cannot read! Word.

This article, by Anne Kingston, discusses a new paper (Anne’s World: A New Century) written by Helen Hoy, in which Hoy explains to the world how everything that we love about Anne is due to the fact that Anne’s mother drank alcohol when she was pregnant – the chatty, imaginative, and impulsive character is like she is because she has Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

Hoy stated that “she wants to use Anne as a bride to create greater tolerance toward a condition that afficts at least one per cent of Canadians.” And bravo for wanting to have a positive character for people who have (or know someone who has) FASD to relate to, and yes it is important for people to be able to relate to characters like themselves – but it seems an awful lot like Hoy just went into her most recent reading of AoGG looking for ways that it might be possible to call Anne an FASD patient.

We all know that LMM covered some topics in some of her books and short stories that were a little bit darker than what we would expect from a LMM story, but I have a few problems with this new theory. Don’t get me wrong – I have no problem with reading about characters who are disabled. But I do have a problem when people make up stuff about a much beloved character like Anne.

I don’t believe Anne had FASD and this is why (all symptoms referenced from above linked Wikipedia article):

- Nowhere does LMM mention Anne having facial abnormalities, which is apparently a defining characteristic of those with FASD.
- Yes, Anne is scrawny at the beginning of the series. She’s just come from an orphanage. Before that orphanage, she worked for families assisting them raising their own families and most likely not getting the proper nutrition that a growing child would need (from the knowledge that we have of the Hammond’s).
- Anne is constantly one of the few people at the head of her class – she is a very smart girl, both academically and (later on in the series) socially. After graduating school, she becomes a teacher – she has the smarts to deal with a classroom full of growing children, without losing her cool (most of the time).
- She most certainly does NOT have a lack of adaptive behaviour – what about when she is working for Summerside High School in Anne of Windy Poplars. She was able to adapt well to a new town that she didn’t know, she was able to adapt to teaching at a school where all sorts of town politics were pretty much barring her way to succeed (hello Pringles!).

But my biggest problem with this theory was that the majority of characteristics that Hoy said pointed to the fact that Anne has FASD, well, Anne outgrew them by the end of the series. And FASD has an effect on a portion of the brain that cannot change – so if Anne had it, these characteristics would have remained consistent throughout the whole series.

I have no doubt that Hoy is a fan – she said she’s read the books many times and has taught them for classes (she a professor at the U of Guelph), but did she read more than the original Anne of Green Gables when she was coming up with this theory, to see if it would remain consistent throughout the all eight (nine if you include The Blythes are Quoted) books?

I have to say, I completely agree with the author of the article, Anne Kingston, when she says that this theory “makes the nine-year-old in me for whom Anne of Green Gables was a defining book want to shout out: ‘Leave Anne alone!’ It’s discombobulating to see a cherished novel reread as a mental-health primer.”

What do you think? Does this come across as a plausible reason for Anne to be the character that we have grown to love and cherish?

ETA: Lisa just informed me that the Macleans article is now online.

So! Why should FotR win March Madness?

Because it’s more than just a good book. It’s a great book. And I don’t mean this in the “hey, I love this book, omg it’s so awesome!” kind of way (though it is great in that way too), I mean it in the “hey, this is a book that has had such an impact on the fantasy that is popular today” and the “hey, this book is just as, if not more, relevant today than it was when it was originally published in the 1950′s” kind of ways.

Did you know that this book is one of the most translated of and most influential books in twentieth century literature? Did you know that it had a huge impact on the fantasy genre in the ’60s? That it helped forge a way for high fantasy?

Did you know the trilogy this book is a part of inspired not only that awesome Peter Jackson trilogy, but numerous other movie/tv adaptations, plays and even a musical? Did you know that Cassandra Clare (then “Cassandra Claire”) wrote the awesome Very Secret Diaries?

And did you realize that every time you go back and reread The Fellowship of the Ring, there’s something new to discover? Or that the themes in it are just as applicable to today’s world as they were when the book was originally published? And have you taken a look at the world that Tolkien created? I mean, man, you can tell some authors have put their fantasy worlds together really well, but gosh! How many of them have creation myths for you to read, or have made up full languages for their books?

So, tell me, how could a book like this one not deserve to win the HarperCollins Canada March Madness?

(Are you a Canadian blogger? You should totally join in too. Contest runs until April 2nd.)

Apparently,

the beloved little women must keep not just the wolf, but the werewolves, from the door…and the kindly old gentlemen next door and his grandson may have some secrets to hide–or share with the March girls.
Source: GalleyCat

I don’t want to read about Laurie being a werewolf. Or the wonderful Mr. Laurence. This feels much more sacrilegious than P&P&Z because I grew up on Little Women, and only discovered P&P when I was in university. As if those poor March girls don’t have enough to deal with on their own!

What I would be interested in seeing, though, is whether it is just Little Women, or whether Good Wives would be included – I know most people consider these books the same book, and most publishers include the two in the same book, but the copy I have only has the actual Little Women book in it, leaving off when Mr. March comes home, before any of them get married. Which doesn’t bother me, as I never really liked Good Wives.

Anyway! What do you think? Is the monster mash-up genre overdone already? Or are you thrilled to the tips of your fingers and toes of the thought of Jo March battling werewolves?

So, I haven’t really been active in BBAW at all. I’ve been observing, but that’s about it.

I’m on the outskirts of the book blogging community. I know my blog doesn’t have a huge readership, and that’s not something that bothers me. Yes, I wonder how others get their large following, but not enough to investigate and change my blog in order to get that readership as well. I’m happy with my blog not being one of the hugely popular ones because it means that I can avoid (most) of the drama that’s been appearing in the book blogging community lately.

I know part of it is because I don’t comment on others blogs and I don’t respond to comments as much as I should. I don’t participate in giveaways. I don’t (normally) participate in blog tours – I’ll go into more depth about that later. I have a select few blogs that I read regularly and just skim a number of others – that’s all I have a lot of time for. And that works for me.

I’ve been blogging in one way or another for about a decade. I started Once Upon a Bookshelf in August of 2005, and it’s served me well for what it was started for. At that point in time, I didn’t even know there was a book blogging community. I had a few blogs and a LiveJournal going at the same time that was updated fairly frequently. (Those others languished greatly and disappeared, except the LJ which is now only used to crosspost posts from here.) This blog was started solely for myself, to keep track of what I had read and to help me remember what books I loved or hated, what they were about, etc. That is still the main purpose of my blog – I blog to keep a record of books.

Over the past four years, my blog has evolved. I’ve branched out and started reading other genres. I’ve been challenged to read books that I normally shy away from. And my posts about books have also evolved over the years, more into a general review for a broader audience, but the main purpose is still there – I’m blogging for me.

In Which Courtney Talks About Community

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the community aspect, but that part is just a bonus. What I do love about the community is how I’ve met some really awesome people – not just through the book blogging community, but the blogging community in general – and how I’ve reconnected with other people I knew back in the day.

Take Rachel for example. We lived on the same floor in residence at university for a semester, before she up and changed schools. (Not that I stuck around for too much longer after that.) We had a lot of shared interests when we met – a love for White Christmas, RENT, and L.M. Montgomery (she, after all, introduced me to the wonder that is The Blue Castle) – but we lost contact with each other for a period of time until we started communicating through blogs.

Blogging is also how I met the lovely Sabrina and Megan (both of whom I completely adore), how I got back in touch with Erin (a friend from back in the UCC days), and part of how I stayed in touch with Shannon (who is quite possibly one of the awesome people I know). I’ve met (“met?”) a bunch of others, some of whom I can’t link to as they no longer have blogs. And then there are those strictly from the book blogging community itself.

And this community has a lot of awesome people. People I’ve obsessed about Harry Potter with. People who get the whole staying-up-until-4am-because-this-book-is-so-good thing. Other people my age who understand that YA books aren’t just for teens. So many awesome people, and they’ve made this all a lot of fun.

But at the same time, I’m not the best with replying to comments, or posts on my Facebook wall, or e-mails, so I don’t always build those relationships that other book bloggers seem to have. And I don’t have as many non-review posts that other book bloggers have, so this blog doesn’t have the same amount of personalization that others do.

Okay, that went on a tangent and I don’t know how to segue into the next thing I wanted to talk about, so I’ll just randomly change topics now!

In Which Courtney Talks About Her Fear of Commitment

There’s been a lot of debate about blog tours – whether they are beneficial, whether they are morally right and good, whether bloggers should actually participate in them or not. And you know what? If someone wants to participate in a blog tour, that’s great. Good for them. It’s their blog. Not all of the blogs I read participate in all of the same blog tours, and I can tell you right away that if I read too many blogs that are all blogging about the same book around the same time (whether through a blog tour or not), I get annoyed with the book and have no desire to read it (hence why I’m avoiding The Hunger Games and Catching Fire). But it does build up publicity for the book, and it seems to work for the publishers, which is awesome for the publishers. It gets people buying books – yay!

As stated, I’ve avoided blog tours partially because of that annoyance factor, but I’ve actually agreed to participate in one this month. Hypocrite, I know. But this book would’ve been something that I would’ve went out and purchased anyway. (Joy Preble’s Dreaming Anastasia.)

And the other reason I’ve been avoiding blog tours? The commitment factor. Oh gods, the commitment! I have a phobia of commitment. It’s the reason I am 28 and still very happily single after never being in a serious relationship ever. So, the fact that I have to be committed to posting about a book on a certain date has always terrified me – what if I wasn’t able to finish it by that date? Oh, the pressure!!

In Which Courtney Sums It Up In A Short List

Right. So, in a nutshell:

• I still blog for me
• Though, community is awesome, even if you’re on the outskirts
• I don’t participate in blog tours normally because I’m terrified of commitment
• This could quite possibly be the longest blog post I have ever written

Basically, steampunk is rather alternate realityish. I like to think of it like this: it’s what would happen if, instead of the Industrial Revolution happening, things remained very much steam and gear powered. It’s used a lot in fantasy, but it doesn’t necessarily equal magic, as some may think.

Steampunk as fashion
Oh, goodness! It’s typically Victorian looking, but not always. With little accents that are gear-related, machinery-related, or whatnot. Cameos, goggles, pocket watches all make appearances. I’ve seen gothic elements included as well at times – skeletons, bats, etc. Check out Etsy for some awesome steampunk fashion stuffs.

Steampunk as home decorating
It’s old (sometimes scientific) stuff meshed with contemporary items. Clockwork and gears, antique furniture, Victorian prints, natural science stuff, etc etc.

I love the blog The Steampunk Home. It has some really awesome stuff on home decor that is very fun and rather inspiring. I stumbled upon this blog when it posted about Holly Black’s Hidden Library. It includes a lot of reader supplied images, images of stuff designers have done, among random product posts.

Steampunk in books
There are two sorts of categories I would include here – new books that are based on an alternate reality, and classics that developed a future that they believed would happen based on the science they knew.

Contemporary steampunk books that I’ve loved and would recommend: Tracy Lynn’s Snow, Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics, Catherine Webb’s Horatio Lyle books, D.M. Cornish’s Monster Blood Tattoo and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. These are all mainly YA/children’s books, which means I’m missing a lot of awesome adult books that are out there, but these are my favourites that I’ve read.

Older books that I would include are, as I said, books that were written anticipating a science that never happened. These ones would include Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

There are also a lot of books coming out that are in this genre that I cannot wait to read. Arthur Slade’s new book looks very awesome. And Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices, too! Oh, it should be awesome. I cannot wait to see what else will be appearing.

Steampunk in media
There’s a lot of elements of steampunk in movies these days, especially the more fantasy-ish movies. Some of the most notable for me are Stardust, The Golden Compass (did not enjoy the story of this movie, MUCH preferred the book, but the steampunk elements were AWESOME) and A Series of Unfortunate Events. As far as anime goes, Howl’s Moving Castle is a bit steampunkish, as is Fullmetal Alchemist (haven’t read the manga, but I assume it would be too). I know there are television shows that are a bit steampunkish, but I don’t watch any of them, so don’t really know what they are.

Other interesting notes and links
I think it was Nymeth who tweeted a link to an awesome article on Steampunk last week: Steampunk: What it is, why I came to like it, and why I think it’ll stick around. This article is DEFINITELY worth a read.

I get a lot of my steampunk news in media from io9. Regularly a scifi website, they do include some steampunk books, artwork, movies, fashion, etc etc. The blog at Brass Goggles is one that I’ve recently discovered and it has a lot of awesome stuff going on there too.

So, I hope that helps a bit for those who were curious. For those already introduced into the genre, am I missing anything important??

And of course, thinking on this, I started wondering what other books I’ve loved that would greatly benefit from the addition of zombies. I’ve picked five of my favourites to share with you.

1. Flying Colours by C.S. Forester. Flying Colours and Zombies? Yes please! Imagine: Hornblower, Bush and Brown are in France, escape from their transportation to Bonaparte’s court to be tried, attempt to make their way back to England and all the while they have to dodge and fight zombies as well as the French!

2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. After Scarlett returns to Tara from Atlanta, she finds that her mother is dead, and her father isn’t sick so much, but is instead a zombie.

3. Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery. Okay, yes, was sick of all the Anne buzz this past year. And the fact that a prequel was made rather made my heart break. But … zombies might actually make this particular book in the series fun and (imo) actually worth reading. While working at that school filled with Pringles, there is a zombie pandemic, and she has to protect the children from reanimated corpses.

4. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol. As if poor Alice doesn’t have enough madness to deal with already! Throw a couple of zombies into Wonderland, and it would be madness as they had never seen it before. I can imagine the White Rabbit already – “Oh dear! Oh dear! Where are my white gloves? And what is this? Oh my dear paws! Zombies! The Queen of Hearts will not be pleased!”

5. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. I would pay good money to see any one of Shakespeare’s plays with zombies in it. But it would certainly be just as fun to read about. But since Twelfth Night is one of my favourites comedies, I would have to pick this one. A woman disguising herself as a man, fending off the attention of another woman, while courting that woman for another man, and fending of zombies? What fun would ensue!

What books would you like to see zombified?