Any science fiction fans out there? Or people who want to be science fiction fans but don’t know where to start? Then go to Making Light and start reading the comments. It’s an open thread, and someone asked for recommendations about SF books. Take a notepad and pencil with you. I’ll bet I haven’t read more than a dozen of the (at least) one hundred mentioned so far, and I thought I was reasonably well-versed in the genre.
If economics floats your boat, Brad DeLong re-reads volumes one and two of a biography of John Maynard Keynes and is overcome with laudatory remarks. It’s funny. I’ve read my share of economics textbooks, most of which pay homage to the man, but I’ve never read Keynes himself, and I’ve certainly never read a biography. Time to start, particularly after reading this passage.
Keynes was an academic, but also a popular author. His books were read much more widely outside of academia than within it. Keynes was a politician–trying to advance the chances of Britain’s Liberal Party between the wars–but also a bureaucrat: at times a key civil servant in the British Treasury. He was a speculator, trying to make his fortune on the stock market, but also at the core of the “Bloomsbury Group” of artists and intellectuals that did so much to shape interwar culture.
Sounds like an interesting man.
If you’re interested in fandom, that open thread will tell you a lot; but you might want to also check out the slightly earlier post and thread about attending SF conventions.
Oh, yes indeed. That was very entertaining. I’ve seen some of those behaviors at other conventions, but there are certainly unique aspects to those focusing on SF.