Latest ten days of posting

Weblog | I don't like the word blog, it's ugly. Anyway, new content happens here. (Swedish dito)

About me and the site | Twenty-something male who likes text. Obsessed with things such as books, reality, communication, and one or two tv-shows.

Archives | Things written here since... well, 2001. Some of it is good, some is utter shait.

Books | Books read, not books written. So far I've struggled to maintain unpublished.

Photo | I like my camera and it likes me.

Links | Outwards, away, flee.

e-mail | J. Nicklas Andersson

Search the site

2001-08-29

The feeling of bad karma-boyness sweeps over me. I don’t know why, but I honestly thought that an very important package would arrive today. It didn’t. No cds at all. No books either. I need those cds, I want to hug them, place them on the rotationdisc and call them George — or Bob, just because I can. But I can’t do that right now.

It’s like I really am bad karma-boy, and to top that, I seem to have forgotten my outfit. Thank God, because I simply don’t think I would look good in spandex. Not good at all...

All I can say is wow. The paper used in the Gollancz edition of Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle is outstanding. It suck down the ink into the pages, so that when you put your thumb or whatever over the text, the risk of smudge is really low. It isn’t as nice to touch as it’s a bit too smooth, I want paper to feel more rough — without losing in quality of course. But I can live with that. The persons responsible for the choice of paper in the trade paperbacks for various publishers usually agree with me. And those who don’t agree, who cares? They’re wrong, the choice of paper is important and nothing to ignore.

Once, not so long ago as it might seem, I got this idea. How about an old-fashioned fanzine? You know, the ones made with an extinct machinery commonly called “mimeograph”. The problem was, and still is I might add, that I do not have any mimeo. And the ink for these heavy machines is almost impossible to find.

So I had to cross that idea over and that’s when it hit me. Something even better would have to be a fanzine copied onto really old pulp paper. The kind that’s already yellow of age. If I thought the first idea was though to realise, this would be ever harder. For instance, did you know that paper shops don’t store paper for about fifty years? In the aftermath, which was filled with disillusionment and sorrow, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions:

a) Mimeo ink is impossible to find.
b) No one, and I truly mean no one, sells old paper.
c) While recklessly pursuing two impossible dreams,
sometimes you just have to breath in fresh air.
d) It is more than possible to wander around,
aimlessly for hours and hours, in a good paper shop
and at the same time have a great time.