Accommodatingly

Do you live anywhere remotely near the Twin Cities? If so, do not under any circumstances miss Thursday’s comics-and-subcultures-and-graphic novels event, a public conversation involving Douglas Wolk and Austin Grossman.

Douglas is the author of Reading Comics, a forthcoming critical guide to the medium, which Douglas discussed in Salon. He also wrote a good book about James Brown and several thousand insightful reviews of records, comics, performances, equipment, Burning Man festivals, and some other stuff.

Austin is the author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, a novel about superheroes and supervillains that’s the most fun I’ve had in a while: it’s like a literary novel set in Astro City. (If you know Astro City, you know that’s high praise.) Austin also enjoys some reputation as a designer of video games, including what I’m told is the highly acclaimed System Shock.

The free event takes place at 7:30pm this Thursday June 28 at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (click the link for directions). We’ll see you there!

Once you finish Douglas’ and Austin’s books you may be seeking summer reading: I recommend chasing your adorable toddler around the room until your eyes glaze over and you can’t read anything

Sara Ryan’s absolutely perfect second novel for young adults, set in Portland, Oregon…

Edward Castronova’s Synthetic Worlds, an informative book about online gaming aimed at non-online-gamers, now supplemented by his cool-looking Synthetic Worlds Initiative; and…

Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber, a nearly-perfect work of Afro-Caribbean coming-of-age science fiction, which I’ll likely be teaching this December (note that this is not a general Nalo Hopkinson recommendation).

As for poetry… well, stay tuned.

We haven’t posted much lately because we’re busy packing, and busy seeing friends who live here, as much as we can, before we go. (Yes, we are working on it.) But packing means discovering what you own duplicates for, and what books you really don’t need. I’ve been taking all the bad or mediocre poetry down the street to our local used bookshop (except for the bad or mediocre poetry I need, for some reason, to keep). But I’ve found a couple of good or great ones I own two of, or own in two versions, or in at least one case own three of. Let me know if you want one of my duplicate books by any of: Rae Armantrout, Diane Glancy, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Charles Reznikoff, Lisa Robertson. First come, first serve, and no requests honored after about July 1, when the rest of the books go to the used bookstore. Shipping is free.

Also on offer: a random package of literary magazines I’ve decided not to move. There could be gold in them thar virtually uncut pages…

We’re getting down to the wire here, and one more purge is in order. Let us know if you are interested in any of this stuff, or if you know someone who is:

Garden tools, fertilizer, herbicide
Bamboo porch chairs from Ikea
Small microwave
Wooden outdoor table w/ two matching chairs
2 beat-up, bright green Adirondack chairs

I’ll probably be adding to/subtracting from this list as the date approaches. In most cases, we’ll be happy to hand over stuff right away, but some stuff we’d prefer to hang onto until right before we move out.