penmage: (holy stupid ideas batman)
I rarely post about TV shows, but Lost? Was awesome.

I cut because I care. Not because you should care about Lost spoilers, especially ones as ridiculous as these. But I do it anyway.) )

In further upsetting news, Dan Brown won his copyright infringment case. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who wrote The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail sued him for stealing thier ideas, that they carefully researched, traced, and came up with on their own. His basic defense was that their work was nonfiction, his was fiction, and it wasn't the same thing at all because he never claimed it was true.

Guys, I read that book. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, I mean. I found it in a used bookstore in Inverness this summer and spent an hour paging through it. I still wish I had bought it. That book is a careful exploration and discovery of every single idea America finds interesting and innovative in The DaVinci Code. Dan Brown even stole character names from real people in their book.

He stole their ideas. I have no doubt about it. I didn't even know that they were sueing him when I read it, and I was all rightiously angry on their behalf, that he had so blatenly ripped them off.

They did a lot of detailed and difficult research, tracing bloodlines and searching for a secret over many years, and he found thier book, read it, ripped it off and called in fiction, and made millions.

That's not cool. It's not cool that they lost. That gives me a very bad taste in my mouth.
penmage: (Default)
So I decided to go book hunting today. I checked at Book Crossing and it said that a bunch of books had been released recently into Bryant Park. So off I went. AS I stepped out, it started to drizzle, so I felt very much like a girl with a mission - rescue the books before they got rained on!

I made my way very quickly to Bryant Park. It wasn't really raining, only drizzling very very lightly by then. I looked all around - at all the statues, on all the tables - nothing. This seemed wrong, somehow. If so many books were released so recently, the odds ought to be very good that at least one is still there. So I went to the park maintenance guys and asked them about it. The manager thought he remembered somebody bringing in the book I was looking for - it turns out they collect everything at night! So he gave me his card and told me to call him - he'd see if he could find it. So that was that, a loose end, but promising.

Then, I decided to explore the Library, because it was right there. It's beautiful. It's this huge building for storing books - most of which are referece only, and most of it isn't really browsable - you have to ask for a specific book - but even so, it's cool. I spent a bunch of time in the library gift shop, lusting after beautiful book related things that cost more money than I have.

Then, I went across the street to the lending branch of the New York Public Library, and became a card carrying member! This is wonderful for a variety of reasons, most specifically because they have about ten bookshelves of SF/F books, if not more, and that's not counting the paperbacks. I found so many lovely books there, I felt like a kid in a candy store - and settled for taking out 7 - all I could carry home - including Diana Wynne Jones's Tough Guide to Fantasyland, which I've been looking for for ages.

And, it's thursday. I love thursdays because they're not wednesdays. Two classes, starting at 10:30 and ending at 1:15. What more could I ask for? Blessed, blessed thursdays!
penmage: (Default)
Okay. So, as part of New York is Book Country, they had Alan Lee come and give a discussion on behind the scenes art of Lord of the Rings. It was excellent - really informative and interesting, and we got to see never before seen footage of TTT, as well as the trailer - a longer one that the others I've seen so far.

And - I got an autographed copy of The Hobbit, and a picture with him.

Very, very much fun.

I'll post more details a little later, when I have time!

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