Episode 1195: Farewell 2011...

It may be the holidays, but I'm pleased to report that Eunoia Review has chalked up a new monthly high for site visits, surpassing the old record that was only set last month! It's also more than four times the numbers we were getting for the same period in the journal's first year of existence. I think it might be asking for too much to hope for a similar quadrupling by December 2012. Haha! Mostly I'm just glad that the readers have stuck with us. Was fully expecting a slight dip in viewership, what with all the Christmas and New Year's carousing I'm sure people are getting up to, even those who read literary journals. Maybe this month just happned to have more contributors whose posts have greater virality, as Facebook Insights would put it. (Pretty sure the piece published at noon today is an example of this phenomenon.) I think getting people to share the work being published more often is going to be an important part of growing the journal's audience in 2012, and I'm going to look into ways of doing that. I'm considering just extending an open invitation via Facebook and Twitter, asking if anyone wants to come onboard as a sort of publicity coordinator. Perhaps in 2012, it's time for Eunoia Review to become more than a one-man operation?

Episode 1194: Scratch Yesterday's Post Title!

Met up with Shirley at BooksActually to collect the books she bought on my behalf, as well as have a chat with Kenny and, of course, buy some more stuff. Picked up some pamphlets and zines that I'm guessing were showcased at the zine fair earlier this year, including a pamphlet that I'm pretty sure is by the same Samantha Toh that I went to CAP with, way back in 2002. So it's a fairly hefty haul I've brought home this time, although that's really par for the course when I visit BooksActually. I'm thinking that if Kenny agrees to it, I'm going to propose a three-part review of the Babette's Feast series for Sabotage Reviews, divided according to the batches the pamphlets came out in. I know he's in touch with Cui Yin at Woolfson & Tay, an independent bookstore in Bermondsey, so there's a chance that anyone in the UK reading the reviews could eventually pick up copies of the pamphlets too. It does feel like a massive undertaking though, and I should probably clear at least one or two of the reviews I owe Claire of the pamphlets from The Knives Forks & Spoons Press. Have also requested a review copy of the book version of the I Wrote This For You blog, which I'm going to pitch to Scott at The Cadaverine. All in all, it looks like I've got a lot of reading to do, none of which actually even has any bearing on my academic work! Not that I'm complaining though, just have to start being more conscientious about not procrastinating and wasting time from now on...

Episode 1193: Holiday's Over, Back To Reality

Finished Issue 9 of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern before checking out of the hotel, so I managed to finish both the magazines I brought along on this short trip. (Lucky Peach Issue 2 was pretty delicious, some interesting dessert recipes in there!) Started reading Steven Amsterdam's Things We Didn't See Coming, which is an interesting take on dystopian fiction. The first chapter is set on New Year's Eve 1999, and it's implied that in the novel's timeline, the Millennium Bug was the catalyst for plunging civilisation into chaos. The time jumps so far have been slightly confusing, but if you just go with it, the world Amsterdam's created is a disconcerting mixture of familiarity and alienation. Also caught up with the premiere of The Noose Season 5 this afternoon, after getting back from the airport. It never ceases to amaze me how that show gets away with poking fun at Mediacorp and Channel NewsAsia. It's got to the point where The Noose is naming and shaming fellow Mediacorp shows, like Point Of Entry. So hilariously bad, you can't look away. That also pretty much describes DOA: Dead On Arrival, which is currently airing as tonight's Channel 5 movie special. So many plot holes and so much bad CGI!

Episode 1192: David Eagleman Is One To Watch

Finished reading Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman, one of my discoveries at MPH yesterday. It's an interesting collection of flash fiction, reminiscent of Borges in its philosophical bent, and playfully imagining possible versions of the afterlife, occasionally accompanied by speculations as to the nature of the presiding God. What's especially interesting to me is that Eagleman majored in British and American literature as an undergraduate, before going on to become a neuroscientist. That kind of cross-pollination isn't unheard of (David Morley immediately comes to mind), but it's pretty counterintuitive to anyone who's been educated in Singapore, where the separation between arts and sciences is still pretty rigid. Spent an hour or so this afternoon scheduling submissions on my dad's laptop, a tricky affair because the WordPress page kept going crazy in the old version of IE installed on the laptop. Got them all done though, so the journal's all set till the end of March. Tomorrow it's back to Singapore, when I might finally be able to start on my essay on Christian Bök's Eunoia. I'm kind of starting to think that my essay title is too precise and therefore restrictive, but I suppose I could still make it work. Just need to think more deeply about the structure of this long poem. Annoyingly, Marjorie Perloff has done a succinct yet illuminating close reading of it in a chapter in Differentials: Poetry, Poetics, Pedagogy, so I'm going to have to work hard to avoid merely parroting it. (Also, we randomly met Khaw Boon Wan at the hotel today!)

Episode 1191: A&W & Gurney Drive

Turns out that the hotel has complimentary broadband access in its rooms and free WiFi in the lobby, which is just as well since I couldn't figure out how to make my dad's laptop into a hotspot. Just had Penang char kway teow for dinner at Gurney Drive and kind of think it wasn't that much different than what's sold in the Northpoint food court. (Incidentally, that's one of only two places I know of that sell Penang char kway teow in Singapore, the other being a stall in the food court at Tiong Bahru Plaza.) Had lunch at A&W in Plaza Gurney, which I haven't eaten since all the Singaporean outlets were shuttered. Bought a bunch of books in MPH too. Nothing I was actively looking for (didn't even know Orhan Pamuk had a new book out), just stuff I happened to find while browsing the shelves. Would've bought more, but it's hard to justify buying UK paperbacks anywhere else other than Amazon UK, so all I got were Random House paperbacks, from the Anchor and Vintage imprints. Then we all went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows. I've never actually seen the first film, so I've no prior frame of reference, but I thought it was really good. I think the BBC TV adaptation still comes out slightly ahead, so I'm excited that the new series of that is finally premiering next year!

Episode 1190: Okay, Terra Nova, You've Changed My Mind

Watched the Terra Nova season finale before heading to the airport. It's actually pretty good, on par with the pilot. The feel-good factor actually makes sense in the two-part finale, rather than being something that looks like it's there just to make the show more family-friendly. I think the problem's always been that Terra Nova was a two-hour movie trying to be a 13-episode TV show, hence why everything in between pilot and finale has largely felt like filler, right down to the glaring lack of dinosaurs. I was originally rooting for it to be cancelled, but after seeing the finale, I feel like I want it to get a second season. Kind of like when I saw 'Epitaph One', the coda to Dollhouse Season 1 that only appeared on the DVD release (and SingTel mioTV), except that show deserved a second season anyway. So okay, Terra Nova, you've changed my mind about you. Now Fox executives, just make up your mind about the show already! (Ditto for whether or not this is the final season of House.) Anyway, I'm probably not going to have Internet access while I'm in Penang, unless the hotel has WiFi, which will make answering submissions difficult. Could use my Vodafone SIM card, since the data roaming cost on that is significantly lower than for SingTel, weirdly enough.

Episode 1189: Rain-free Christmas!

Given how wet it's been the past week, Christmas was surprisingly dry. Windy, to be sure, with the threat of a downpour constantly in the air, but not much actual rain. (On a related note, I was mildly amused by the flooding in Orchard Road this year. Oh, sorry, I mean the 'ponding', as Singaporeans have been informed by the relevant authorities.) Saw Dick Lee twice in VivoCity, once on the way out after dinner at Bosses Restaurant, once around the GV cinema on the way to the carpark. In the flesh, he looks, well, nondescript. Didn't even notice him in the restaurant until my mum pointed him out! As for the food at the restaurant, I wasn't terribly impressed for the most part. Chief complaint? Every dish was too salty, to the point where the flavour profiles began to run together. The salted egg yolk pau with a molten filling for dessert was an interesting touch though. Speaking of food, my second issue of Lucky Peach finally arrived yesterday, so I've been reading that. This issue is all about 'the sweet spot', in all its incarnations, which makes for a wonderfully eclectic selection of writing. Favourite so far is Adam Leith Gollner's on apricots. They've never exactly been my favourite fruit, but maybe that's because all I've had before are what's available in the supermarket.

Episode 1188: Flipboard!

Just discovered Flipboard today, and I'm a bit obsessed with it now. Went on a following spree in Google Reader and Tumblr right after I downloaded it onto my iPhone. If you don't know what it is, it's an application that pulls your social media streams together and displays them in a magazine format (it was originally developed for the larger screen of the iPad). You can also add Flipboard-curated aggregated feeds, feeds of popular websites designed for Flipboard, or add a basic feed manually if the website hasn't developed one specially for Flipboard yet. The concept must be popular, as Google has released its own version of the concept called Google Currents. What I find cool about Flipboard is how do many sources of information are pulled together in a very clean interface that still proves pleasing to operate even on the reduced screen estate of the iPhone. I will say that discovering an application like Flipboard has done more to persuade me that I should shell out money for an iPad of my own than even watching China Miéville using his in our EN236 seminars! I'll have to work out my budget for 2012 to be sure if I can spare the expense, but I think I should be able to.

Episode 1187: Zephyr Holdings Sounds Like An Insane Working Environment

Randomly decided to pick up Max Barry's Company to read. I read his earlier novel Jennifer Government a couple of years ago, and Company is also a work of corporate satire, but at the level of a single holding company, rather than global capitalism run amok. It actually really reminds me of Better Off Ted, that criminally underwatched comedy that was cancelled too soon. Barry also had a new novel out in August that I wasn't aware of previously, Machine Man, a science fiction novel this time. Going to have to wait till I'm back in the UK to order it from Amazon UK, as the price on The Book Depository is higher. Also going to pick up his debut novel Syrup, when he was still going by Maxx Barry. (Incidentally, a contributor to The Cadaverine once expressed concern that if he used his actual name, he risked being mistaken for the Australian novelist.) In other news, Eunoia Review marks another milestone in welcoming its 300th contributor! The last couple of contributors have been interesting too, including two Macedonian writers, one of whom sent in a science fiction piece that wouldn't have been out of place in something by an author on Gollancz's list.

Episode 1186: First Borders, Now PageOne

Opened the newspapers today to read that PageOne is closing its Singapore outlet in February. Another mega bookstore bites the dust! Kind of ironic, since the homegrown company's business is thriving in the region. Shame, I'd just been there yesterday and bought two Ted Dekker books. To be fair though, I only bought them because they were international edition paperbacks that I wouldn't have been able to buy from the Amazon UK website. Having looked at the prices on other books, I was once again reminded at how expensive books are in Singapore. I'm not even talking about taking into account Amazon's discounts. Even going by the RRP, book prices here just don't make sense, given what the exchange rate with the pound's been in recent years. I doubt the differential can be attributed entirely to shipping costs, since surely there are economies of scale to be exploited. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more at an independent bookstore like BooksActually, but at a chain bookstore, I don't see why I'm paying what I perceive as a marked up price. Thankfully, there's still The Book Depository and its global free shipping. Its prices vis-à-vis Amazon UK are no longer competitive apart from American paperbacks, but if the exchange rate with the pound stays roughly the same, I don't think Kinokuniya is going to get much business from me even when I'm back in Singapore for good.