Random House to stop using DRM on its audiobooks. [link]

But the interesting part is why:

Seems Random House, in a fit of unfettered wisdom, ran a DRM-free audiobook distribution program online and found that “none of the pirate editions of their audiobooks online came from those DRM-free editions.” All the pirated versions they found were from DRM-editions that had been cracked, stripped of their protection, or ripped from CD. To quote Cory Doctorow, “DUH.”

Political contributions by people who identify their occupation as "novelist": [link]

OK, I need to step away from that database before I end up putting in everyone I like from my LibraryThing list. If nothing else, there's always the possibility I won't like them after I see what they do with their money!

I can see the whole Dust premise starting to unravel

I love what he does with Dust in the second book, though. Also, how great is Mary Malone? She's one of the good parts about the third book.

Seriously, Pullman couldn't come up with a better name for the knife (not to mention the book title) than the "subtle knife"? Lame.

Heh.

Seriously, Pullman couldn't come up with a better name for the knife (not to mention the book title) than the "subtle knife"? Lame.

Aren't all the titles from Milton's Paradise Lost?

Aren't all the titles from Milton's Paradise Lost?

His Dark Materials and The Golden Compass are* (sort of -- it's compasses in Milton, but close enough). OTOH, no "subtle", no "knife", no "spyglass" (but one "optick glass" -- I think I want one), and a few mentions of amber that have nothing to with with spyglasses or any other glasses.

God I love Project Gutenberg.

* HDM is the only money quote, Milton-wise. The golden compasses in the text are just... compasses. Not a particularly quotable moment

Also, if you'll recall, it wasn't even titled The Golden Compass at first. In Britain, it was released as Northern Lights, and it was only after its retitling in the US (and subsequent, I think, decision on Pullman's part to name all the books The Adjective Noun ) that the existing title stuck.

(And right up through the third book being published, I don't know anybody who called it His Dark Materials as a trilogy; I think that happened only after everything was done, and still isn't general parlance except among the fannish.)

Neil Gaiman's American Gods is available to read free online here for the next month.

My colleague's thought for the day:

The crocuses and the larch turning green every year a week before the others and the pastures red with uneaten sheep's placentas and the long summer days and the new-mown hay and the wood-pigeon in the morning and the cuckoo in the afternoon and the corncrake in the evening and the wasps in the jam and the smell of the gorse and the look of the gorse and the apples falling and the children walking in the dead leaves and the larch turning brown a week before the others and the chestnuts falling and the howling winds and the sea breaking over the pier and the first fires and the hooves on the road and the consumptive postman whistling The Roses Are Blooming in Picardy and the standard oil-lamp and of course the snow and to be sure the sleet and bless your heart the slush and every fourth year the February debacle and the endless April showers and the crocuses and then the whole bloody business starting over again. - Beckett

Hey! There's going to be a new Vicky Bliss book!

How long has it been since the last one? Or am I just hopelessly behind with non-Egyptian Elizabeth Peters mysteries? I am probably hopelessly behind with the Egyptian E. Peters mysteries as I am not entirely sure when the last time I read one was.