Brainfood. Yumm…

Welcome to the cybercorner I call,

The Literary Lizard’s List of Books and Sundries.

Admittedly, this is more than a mere list: it’s a jumping off point to thinkishness and commentary, even some groans of dismay and the occasional rant. And the sundries are here (when they’re here) because even the most learned saur cannot read books ALL the time. Usually.

What’s the Lizard Reading Today?

At any one time I have a huge heap o’ books waiting to be read. I have thousands of books in my library, and after a while of seeing titles float through here, you’ll see why that is so. (If you’re interested in what else a literary lizard reads, you can see a fraction of my library online at LibraryThing.)

Here I’ll give you an idea which top few are in my sights this week, and review or comment when one catches my fancy. (Search on “Ruminations” to find all essays including book reviews, or see Archives at bottom of this page.)

On the Cyber-Nightstand, January 10, 2009

I can’t bring myself to absorb other people’s stories right now, and deeply involved left-brainy reading (of which I have stacks around here) is too left-brainy. Am getting my dose of that with my left-brain blurts and posts in this blog of late. Ergo, something else for infotainment for me this week: blogs. Here’s three that are new to me that I like and will probably stay subscribed to for a while.

This is just a short blogroll list of these interesting people. To see why I like them, check my review of these bloggers in my blog post.

The Misadventures of Super Librarian

Pleasure and Pain

Pub Rants

Sundries

January 10, 2009

Same as last week: not much. Have still been doing blog-related geeking as a break (ha) from my writing. Still writing. Still not much to say about this. My list of miscellanea of life and amusement and other work is stacking up around me but it’s all in the ignore zone till I achieve samadhi this month.

January 4, 2009

I begin my Brainfood book excursion with just one title, because it’s late and my brain has turned to mush. I may revise this musing later, but for now, some thoughts on Sidney Sheldon’s Rage of Angels.

It was a best seller about 1980 or so, and is the type of book I would never pick up: mainstream drama, strong emphasis on man/woman love interests, contrived trauma/drama almost romance-like in nature. Or so I thought.

Lately, however, I read that Sheldon didn’t start writing novels until he was in his 50’s, only doing this after a long and successful career of stage and screenplays and television production. This is the man who brought us The Patty Duke Show, Hart to Hart, and I Dream of Jeannie. His first novel won the Edgar Allen Poe Mystery Award, the second was a run-away best seller, and after that he dominated the bestseller lists for years.

He’d go into the studio every day at 9 am, and then have his secretary hold all his calls and leave him totally undisturbed until noon. He dedicated those 3 hours every day to his novel writing, and was a raving success at it.

Curious about what kind of work a man like this produced, I finally after all these many years picked up a copy of one of his books, and decided to give it a read. It is, I am both appalled and delighted to say, a page turner…