I am bothered, though, by the curious ingratitude of authors who exploit a common fund of imagery while pretending to have nothing to do with the fellow-authors who created it and left it open to all who want to use it. A little return generosity would hardly come amiss.

How much do I love Ursula LeGuin? So very much.

I am de-booking myself. sigh. I'm going to miss some of them, but a lot of them are books I'll never read again and they're just occupying space. I hauled three shopping bags full to the library for their book sale ... when I wandered by (you thought I was going to miss a book sale? silly!) I found I kept reaching for books and then thinking "no, I brought that one".

Ooh, what library, Toddson? Where? Are there limits on donations? I need a place to take a lot of books!

Why do I suspect that LeGuin's review is better written and nicer to read than the book she's reviewing? I do love the phrase "openly commits genre."

That's a great review; Le Guin is a class act. I'm sort of interested to read the book, but I was so disappointed in The Powerbook that I've been too afraid to read anything Winterson has done since. She was one of my favorite, and most formative, authors for a long time, though, so perhaps I owe her another chance.

meara, DC public library. I think the Cleveland Park branch is having their sale this coming weekend. But I think most of the branches will accept bags of books - you might call and inquire. I took mine to the main library (MLK at 9th and G), where they have their Books Plus mini-store. The guy smiled and said "thank you" when I handed over a shopping bag full of paperbacks.

When mainstream writers, particularly those who disdain science fiction, write books on sf subjects, it almost never goes well from my point of view. What they think is a daring concept of the future is usually an overused idea that has been treated often and better by sf writers.

'SF's no good,' they bellow till we're deaf.
'But this looks good.' - 'Well then, it's not SF.'
- Robert Conquest

What they think is a daring concept of the future is usually an overused idea that has been treated often and better by sf writers.

I had this when I read Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go earlier in the year. I didn't realise there was meant to be a twist.

It's like watching Devil With A Blue Dress and wondering when the actual reveal was going to happen. I guess you get around that by casting Jolene Blalock as your racially indeterminate character. What with Al Jolson being unavailable and everything.

ita's funny. Although I think I could possibly come close with that movie made from the Philip Roth book where the elder "passing" prof is played by Anthony Hopkins.