Author: Ian Denning

Shelf Aware Machines

Shelf Aware Machines

When I was a kid, I loved the Barnes & Noble in Seattle’s University Village. It was one of Barnes & Noble’s flagship stores, at that time the largest bookstore I’d ever seen: forty-six thousand square feet over two floors. I spent hours in its expansive science fiction and fantasy section, ogling the covers and…

“The Fireworks are Fireworks”: Michael Chabon’s Joyful Sentences

“The Fireworks are Fireworks”: Michael Chabon’s Joyful Sentences

Michael Chabon wrote one of my favorite sentences of all time. It’s in a story called “Blumenthal on the Air,” first published in Mademoiselle in 1987 and collected in 1991’s A Model World. I’ve forgotten what “Blumenthal on the Air” is about, but this sentence has stuck with me ever since I first read it:…