A three CD set of outtakes etc. from Tom Waits.

Thanks to Felix for introducing me to Terry Pratchett. The Color of Magic is worthy of a place on my bookshelf next to Wodehouse.

Final Fantasy XII is really slick.

Books and Culture: A Christian take on rock criticism:

Pop music criticism has grown so insular, full of itself, hipper-than-thou, and, most important, aesthetically disjointed from the thing it claims to examine that we'd best start over—beginning with a rediscovery of the granddaddy of all modern rock critics, Lester Bangs. I took out a subscription to Spin but found the reviews to be pretty worthless, so I concur. But no mention of Christgau? I haven't read Bangs but anyone who raved over Astral Weeks is worth a look.

NYT: Four Mothers of Manga Gain American Fans With Expertise in a Variety of Visual Styles

Japan Times: A native of Idalou and Texas Tech grad, John Toler, West Texan turned Zen abbot, dies. There are some fascinating people in this world.

New and improved edition of Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft.

Back from Fort Worth. I found that audiobooks help while away the long hours of driving much better than does music. Castle Roogna and A Spell for Chameleon were nostalgia-inducing, since I read the novels some 25 years ago. Cousin Bette was gripping, but not surprisingly Balzac seems to lose more in abridgement than Piers Anthony. It may be a stretch, but I wondered if C. S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces owed a little bit to Cousin Bette (ugly envious woman sets out to destroy her beautiful and saintly kinswoman).

Thanksgiving dinner at Pablo's brother's spacious home in the historical district of Tyler. Made the rounds of the DFW Half-Price Books Fri and Sat. They don't have quite the deals they used to--clearance items are now $2 or $3 instead of $1, and those attractive Gollancz sci-fi and fantasy classics volumes they used to sell for $1 are now $5. The most notable item I got was a Dover paperback facsimile of the Kelmscott edition of William Morris' Wood Beyond the World.

This looks like the perfect anime for librarians and bibliophiles. I wonder if Felix also has his mugshot on bookstore walls.