A fourth season episode in which he played an Inspector Spacetime superfan. Wheels within wheels.

Been a long time since I fired up the ol' account, but I need to know if anyone else watched Zoo, which I definitely expected to see on here. I find it hard to believe it'll end up on the Worst list, since it's not terrible in any noteworthy way, just kind of dumb.

I'm finishing up John Brunner's The Compleat Traveller in Black, which I was looking forward to but has so far been disappointing. It's vivid and clever, but feels disjointed and I'm not sure if it's building to anything. Next is The First Bad Man, Miranda July's first novel. If I like it as much as I did her short…

Authority does pull it together in the last act, but I was underwhelmed by it also. I definitely didn't feel the need to get my hands on the next book like I did after reading Annihilation, though I am planning to read Acceptance eventually.

I'm not a huge Vonnegut fan, but I prefer Slapstick to the several others of his I've read. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic scenaria and weird sibling relationships, so it makes sense. I was certainly surprised to hear it was his personal least favorite, since Jailbird exists.

The Talisman is great! Straub seemed to have curbed a bit King's folksiness and tendency to meander (said as a huge fan of King), and the result is well-paced and tough to stop reading once you get going.

Stuff like this is why I can wait 1.5 years for new material. Never would have caught that!

Garth Brooks was pretty morbid for a pop-country act, now that I think about it. "Beaches of Cheyenne" is no picnic either, though no abuse overtones in that one.

This makes me miss 30 Rock more than I do already, which is a lot.

I've re-read it recently, comes off a little dated but still funny. The whole book is worth revisiting if only for the brilliant Kennedy compound bit.

Vineland's 'easy,' but I'm a huge fan of Pynchon and don't like Vineland at all. It felt hollow to me in a way none of his other books do, and (IMO) the characters are indeed irritating.

I will never forget the names of John Mulaney's parents, that's for sure.

I'm halfway through my second read of Gravity's Rainbow. I'm taking my time with it, liking it much more, and taking what feels like a million notes, which has been helpful in retaining and organizing information that inundated me the first time.

Great post, though I didn't particularly like Vineland either. It felt self-indulgent, without the usual humor to compensate. It does make an interesting bridge between his earlier work and his later, and I'd say that after Vineland he has become warmer in his attitude toward his characters and audience; "letting…

If there were a finite supply of likes, I would have just used all of mine in this thread.

Perfect.

Alice Cooper spent a day in the vicinity of my central N.H. hometown (also a cultural wasteland!) before the night of a show, eating at a local diner and playing some golf. It caused a bit of a stir, mostly in the form of Facebook status updates.

From Hell might be right up your alley, in case you're ever feeling adventurous.

Against the Day doesn't get talked about much in these parts, all the worse for those who haven't read it. My favorite Pynchon after V. (M&D remaining my only unread), and I find that I'm reminded of it often in my day-to-day, due to its insane breadth of subject matter.

So ASoIaF and A Canticle for Leibowitz are universe buddies? I'll take it!