Tag: Things to Read

Various and Sundry

Downloading Local Copies of Kindle Purchases is Kaput as of February 26th

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’m interrupting my usual posting cadence for those seven or nine regular readers who might also have a number of Kindle purchases. Basically, as of February 26th, Amazon is removing the ability for you to download purchases as copies over which you have full control. For more information, you can check out Andrew Liszewski’s piece for The Verge that, like many of us, you may have missed on Valentine’s Day or read David Gewirtz’ article…

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Various and Sundry

The Joy of LEGO Organization

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This Valentine’s Day, have you considered LEGO? If you or your significant other have considered this as a gift, you are more statistically likely to have a lot of LEGO bricks around your domicile. And that means you should have a way to organize the LEGO bricks you have. Enter LEGO enthusiast Tom Alphin and his LEGO Storage Guide over at Brick Architect. You can begin at the beginning, but this guide came on my…

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Writing

A Few Galaxies’ Worth of Space Opera

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’ve been trying to read more, including audiobooks while I’m on the road, so naturally I’m looking for some science fiction, including space opera… all the better to inform my own operatic tales. Thankfully, Tim O’Brien has a list of 55 space operas from the past not-quite century done for Barnes & Noble, who admittedly has a vested interest in getting you hooked on series. I have read many, but far from all, of the…

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Writing

Any Sufficiently Advanced Science Fiction Editor is Indistinguishable from Magic

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I grew up reading scores of science fiction short stories from the Golden Age and “New Wave” of science fiction… and then went on to various fantasy and science fiction novels of the day, many of which were published by Del Rey Books, still active today as an imprint of the mammoth publisher, Penguin Random House. What I didn’t know was the role one Judy-Lynn del Rey played in the creation of Del Rey Books…

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Various and Sundry

Real World Scares: Escaping a Sinking Vehicle

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Now’s the time of year where many of us muse about what we’d do when entering a darkened room, basement, or forest, especially if there’s creepy background music playing. But what to do about the very real world, very freaky possibility of being in a vehicle that’s sinking into a body of water. Whether it’s been caused by a man wearing the face of Captain Kirk or not, if you find yourself in this situation,…

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Various and Sundry Writing

Short Stories to Get the Imagination Flowing

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Okay, so I’ve been posting daily during this Banned Books Week, but perhaps you’re reading this and feeling guilty that you haven’t dived into some banned book. You shouldn’t. The only people who should feel guilty should be people who are say, trying to burn books they haven’t read in a school’s furnace. Bear in mind: Enter Emily Temple compiling a list of 43 of the most iconic and engaging short stories in the English…

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Various and Sundry

The Hunt for Hard-to-Find Films

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

My post earlier this week about the Paramount sale reminded me of one of the annoying aspects of the streaming era: that films and shows can go missing This isn’t a new phenomenon. Even before the succession of VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray (not to forget the attempts of Betamax, LaserDisc, and HD DVD), prints of films and TV shows could be hard to find. But if a longstanding truth of the way to make…

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Various and Sundry

What’s the Deal with Hold Music?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

If you haven’t been on hold with some business or another so far this year, don’t worry: it’ll happen. And when it happens, you might ask yourself, “Why is hold music the way it is?” Alexia Kontolemos has you covered with an informative article for Mental Floss. My main improvement would be the elimination of ads, but I know that won’t happen. And if you want to know more about the grandfather of background music,…

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Raves Various and Sundry

What’s Your Beef?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

So let’s say you just finished binge-watching season three of The Bear in the span of a few days and, with not much food in the house, you just want to get a beef sweet and hot ‘n’ wet and talk about it. But maybe you don’t. In fact, maybe you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. In which case I have two actions for you, should you choose to accept them. 1)…

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