The 100 Books Challenge™

The 100 Books Challenge™ is a challenge in which you read 100 books in 365.25 days.

The goals of the 100 Books Challenge™ is to:

• Read 100 Books
• In 1 Year

It is not an educational program. It is not designed for children. You select the books (where a book is some written material with a certain level of structure and coherence, defined by you), and you read 100 of them. You may read more. You may read less.

There is no incentive for participating in the 100 Books Challenge™, other than your own sense of self accomplishment. No flashy medallions or bard songs. Sorry.

The program nominally starts January 1 of the respective year, but may start on any day, as it is a truly personal program. Just be sure to finish before 365.25 days have elapsed.

Also, chronicle your progress on your blog or web page, and be sure to declare loudly to the world, that you are taking part in the 100 Books Challenge™!

Legal Disclaimer: 100 Books Challenge™ is not affiliated by any means with other programs of a similar name. But. any moron in a hurry could determine that. Participants are welcome, and encouraged to use the 100 Books Challenge™ phrase when participating in this program.

Attention Rose-Hulman Students/Alumni: Samuel F. Hulbert Bobblehead!

I'm cleaning out my house, and I came across a rare Samuel F. Hulbert bobblehead. This item was a limited release of 2520. I have #1404. It is still in the box, but the box is somewhat worn.

If you would like to have #1404, let me know. Make me an offer.

If you would like to see pictures, let me know.

If I don't get any bites before the end of the year, it will no longer be available for purchase.

Please e-mail me or leave a comment here (if you don't have my e-mail address), and if you know somebody who might want it, LET THEM KNOW! I'll ship it anywhere domestically.

All right?

The Zombie (Literature) Outbreak

Twilight of the Living Dead by ~aethercowboy on deviantART

So, I got an e-mail today from Amazon, partly because I bought into the whole Pride and Prejudice and Zombies hype. They said that I might like the book, and I am NOT making this up, The Undead World of Oz, which further recommends Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim.

Now, where did this recent outbreak of remixed zombie literature start? Most would argue P&P&Z, but I think that the roots are much deeper. It's been show that a rise in zombie films is directly proportional to social unrest, but what of a rise in zombie literature? Is it simply the fact that it's essentially costless to rehash a public domain work. Will we get The King James Guide to Zombie Slaying? Maybe Gray's Zombie Anatomy? Alice in Zombieland? I could go on.

I won't.

I blame The Zombie Survival Guide, which has practical advice for wilderness survival, but is disguised as a deadpan comedy book. It gave rise to World War Z, which I suppose opened the floodgates for the shambling undead, arm in arm with your favorite Victorian literary characters.

Fortunately, the co-author of P&P&Z has moved away from zombies, and is venturing into the world of sea monsters¹, and then a biography of Lincoln as a vampire hunter.

But, what will come next, now that zed is THE undead? Will we have a rise of zombie romances? I mean, we have books like Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, but how soon until we have teen romance, like Twilight of the Living Dead?

EDITED

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1. Seth Grahme-Smith did not, in fact, pen the changes to S&S&S. It was Ben H. Winters. The publisher is the same, however.

NOTICE

Notice: If you are following this feed on LiveJournal, you are not seeing my book reviews. Follow the FeedBurner feed in an alternate reader for those.

The Beastly Melange!

The other day, I had a severe hard drive malfunction. My computer would start up, flash a BSOD, and then auto-reboot. I tried to diagnose the problem (software or hardware) through my PDA, but my best guess was that I needed a new hard drive.

So I got a Seagate 1TB SATA.

My old hard drive was an IBM Deskstar 120GB PATA. It was seven+ years old. Once I get my Ubuntu live CD, I'll see if I can better diagnose the problem. Though, suggestions are very, very welcome.

A funny thing, though, is that with the purchase of a new hard drive, my computer's original parts are now as follows:

• One optical mouse (originally from RHIT laptop, which is older than the MONOLITH that is my desktop)
• One case fan (it hasn't annoyed me enough to replace with a more quiet version)
• The case (If you've seen it, you know why. I can use it as an apartment if I ever lose my home.)

Everything else is relatively new, at least, new since I move to Texas.

But, again, any pointers on what went wrong with the HD, or suggestions on how to fix it (at least enough to get some files moved over) would be greatly appreciated.

New Toy!

My wonderful wife got me a nice, yet belated birthday gift, and I'm writing this post on it :)

Book Reviews

I decided to try to enter the business of book reviews, or at least flesh it out already.

Here's the deal: if you are an author who wants someone to read your book and then review it, and make said review available for the public to read, particularly on Amazon.com and LibraryThing, and quite possibly my blog, I'm your guy.

If you're interested in honest reviews (and I will tear you a new one if your book sucks), please contact me by e-mailing me. Currently, I will only do print books.

Well, I'll do eBooks, but under very, very limited circumstances. If you can convince me that I owe you a favor, I will read and review your eBook. If you print out your eBook and mail it to me, I will read and review your eBook. If you, or someone else, procures me a portable eBook reading device, I will read your eBook.

Also, please, please, please don't send me multiple copies of your book. Since I have no friends, there is nobody for me to share the book with.

I like books that are of a speculative nature that don't involve teenage vampire romances.

If you'd like to read a sampling of my reviews, check out the following link:

http://www.librarything.com/rss/reviews/aethercowboy

jacob.silvia@gmail.com