My mom periodically cleans out our childhood books and recently asked me if I wanted the Lloyd Alexanders; I said "yes" without hesitation (my brother got the L'Engles, dammit). She just sent them to me and man, I did not remember there being so many! And yet some are missing! I now have:

• The Illyrian Adventure (which I used to pronounce "IL-y-RY-an""
• The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man
• The Wizard in the Tree
• The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha
• The Town Cats and Other Tales
• The Foundling and Other Tales
• Westmark
• The Chronicles of Prydain

Where the eff are The Kestrel and The Beggar Queen? I know we had them. That's my favorite trilogy of his books, somewhat unsurprisingly. I'll have to see if she can find them. Anyway, looking forward to some nostalgic rereading.

The only writers I don't read because of their general unpleasantness are Piers Anthony and Jerry Pournelle. Harlan has always been a jerk, and it's been a very long time since he's written something worth reading.

I have definitely not picked up new authors I might have otherwise read because they've been insane on the internet. Or are connected with people who are insane.

There are advantages to not caring what authors have to say outside the covers of a book.

I have definitely not picked up new authors I might have otherwise read because they've been insane on the internet. Or are connected with people who are insane.

Whoo, yeah. And I am always thankful that Ray Bradbury has come across as a reasonably sane person in all of his interviews.

I usually don't care, but I try to avoid some of the crazier parts of the internet. If an author has irritated me, I do the tiny rebellion of reading the book in a way that doesn't benefit the writer.

It's not like Scott Adams has anything worth saying, or that Orson Scott Card seems to have said anything newly interesting in decades, but there's just no way I can pretend I don't know and just pay attention only to their work. My brain doesn't shut off that way.

Plus, there's also the question of contributing to their personal coffers. I do watch where my money goes.

But, again, I don't presume to think I'm some true arbiter of character and that people have to be in any way exception to be worthy of my dollar. Just--be sensible enough in public, and we're cool.

OSC's writing has declined in almost perfect proportion to how much I like him as a human being, so it's not been a hardship giving up buying his new books. But it's also near impossible for me to reread Ender's Game and pretend I don't know about the character assassination he inflicts upon Petra in the Shadow books. (Ptui, may we never speak of them again.)

I have definitely not picked up new authors I might have otherwise read because they've been insane on the internet. Or are connected with people who are insane.

Dana speaks for me. And there are writers I once read with pleasure whose books will never accumulate dust on my bookshelves again.

Well, I'm a couple books behind, and perhaps very dense, but I'd not have read his tea leaves and worked any of that out. Which books do you think it bleeds through in?

1) Don't think there is a main character who is not a tough guy or tough woman - Vlad, the vampire, Lucifer, Cowboy Feng, the historical in Vlads universe

2)Gambling in most of the Vlad books.

But mostly a matter of voice and attitude. Two people mentioned a fear, one they though Brust had not justified. I agree he has done nothing to justify it, but mentioned a possible trigger. If not where it came from then not. But long before I knew any biographical details, I definitely thought of Brust as a writer with a tough-guy and somewhat macho voice. Which could arouse the fear mentioned without justifying it. If you don't see it, you don't. Not an easy thing to prove. Maybe I'm wrong.