pedestrian saga

Do you know what they do to book thieves up at Santa Rita?

–Special Agent Bay, in Bookhunter

A historic bible on loan from the Library of Congress has been surreptitiously swapped for a fake, and the library detectives at Oakland Public have only three days to find the original before the feds “come to collect.” The mild-mannered public library world has previously collided with the denizens of hard-boiled crime fiction (a fabulous Bogart and Bacall trailer springs to mind), but this time it’s personal. Shiga portrays microfilm readers and book demagnetizers in such loving detail that it is obvious he developed a deep affection for the public libraries of his native East Bay through years of experience. This is bibliophilic storytelling of the nerds, by the nerds, for the nerds. Yet nothing is sacred in the hilarious fantasy of breaking the rules in order to enforce them. If you enjoy any combination of procedural dramas, tough cops in a 1970s Bay Area milieu, old technologies, and librariana, you will want to spend some quality time with this graphic novel. And if you have ever daydreamed of kicking ass in a library, you will not want to miss the action-packed finale.

Read it on shigabooks.com, if you must, but I highly recommend finding it at your local library, both for the book design humor and for the heady rush of self-referential play.

*** liked it

Inspires me to…

• explore Meanwhile, Shiga’s choose-your-own-adventure comic, recommended at some point by I can’t remember who
• read Rex Libris (public librarian, fighter of crime: “from loitering zombies to fleeing alien warlords who refuse to pay their late fees”)
• watch Bullitt and Dirty Harry (and the other late ’60s/early ’70s action lingering in my Netflix queue)

There was a big turkey dinner at night and time flowing on.

“April 2000—The Third Expedition”

Heterogeneous short stories, originally published throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, then weaved into a loose narrative that chronicles our colonization of Mars at the turn of the 21st Century. My idea of an excellent beach book, it also lends itself to reading aloud beside a cozy fireplace. (Note to self: Next spring break, find a beach or a cozy fireplace.) “The Third Expedition” showcases the creepy nostalgia for the small-town Midwest that is a Ray Bradbury specialty, and “Usher II” delivers an anti-censorship warning in the guise of a maniacal revenge tale (Poe… in… space!) Meanwhile, “Ylla” casts a classic domestic melodrama in the gold and silver tones of a surreal Martian abode, all fire and metal and fluid crystal. Many of the tales end with a twist sure to delight devotees of “The Twilight Zone” (especially “The Third Expedition,” “Night Meeting,” and “The Silent Towns”), while the stories related to the fourth expedition (the one that sticks) are likely to amuse fans of the space western.

How fascinating to experience a science fiction future that by now corresponds to the past, offering further insight into the era of its imagining. I wonder, has an official term emerged from academia or fandom to describe such expired futures? Turns out that as the turn of the century approached, Bradbury tried to buy some time for his Chronicles by pushing the chronology forward three decades in some editions (and replacing the story that critically depicts 1950s racism). Such revisions don’t sit well with me, and I am grateful to have encountered an original version of the collection. What can I say? Feet firmly planted in the “Han shot first” camp. Plus, a cataloging headache.

*** liked it

Inspired me to…

• watch Forbidden Planet (1956)
• play Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on repeat
• conclude my Christopher Isherwood project by actually reading some Christopher Isherwood