Category Archives: Books

Women and sci-fi

June 27, 2008 – 7:53 pm

I came across this interesting post on how to get women more interested in sci-fi writing and film. I’m probably not the best chick to ask about this - all my favourite films are sci-fi films, as well as most of my favourite television series. I also have a large sci-fi/fantasy book collection. I think [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Feminism, General, Literature, Science | Comments (77)

The Left Hand of Darkness

May 26, 2008 – 9:03 am

The other day I was reading Ursula Le Guin’s novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. I hadn’t read it for 10 or so years; I had forgotten what an excellent book it was.
Shortly, the book involves a male human diplomat and explorer arriving in a world, Gethen, where the sentient inhabitants are humanoid androgynes. For [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Children, Law, Sex, Society | Comments (10)

Not so much gibberish as derivative and boring

April 18, 2008 – 8:37 pm

I was rather amused to see that the Judge hearing the J.K. Rowling copyright infringement case has described Rowling’s plotlines as “gibberish”.
To explain briefly, as outlined in this article from The Times, Rowling is asking the Manhattan Federal Court to block publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a guide to places and names in the [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law, Literature, Society | Comments (2)

Property law and the One Ring

April 4, 2008 – 11:57 pm

Can it really be true? Yes, it is true. The blog Law is Cool features an essay about Lord of the Rings from a property law perspective! Here is a brief extract:
Consider the following facts which seem ripped from a first year property law exam:

Sauron holds ownership in the Ring through accession, by working one [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Fark!, Law | Comments (5)

Through the looking glass darkly?

February 22, 2008 – 3:17 pm

After the rather serious and contentious nature of my previous post, I thought I might move to less serious material (hat tip to Dave Bath for sharing this with me).
Comparative Law Blog notes that Lewis Carroll’s books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are the most widely quoted children’s books in judgments. I [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Fark!, Law | Comments (9)

I want to be a hobbit

July 3, 2007 – 2:04 pm

When I was in Grade 2, we had to write down what we wanted to be when we grew up. I wrote something to the effect that I wanted to be a hobbit, and if I couldn’t achieve that, I’d like to be a fairy with wings. There was nothing about being a lawyer. I [...]

By Legal Eagle | Comments (7)

Marrying Libraries

June 11, 2007 – 4:12 pm

Unfortunately, the poor baby has been very sick with a terrible cold since Thursday. Her nose has been streaming, her eyes are watering, she’s had a temperature and developed a terrible cough. So we have had a very quiet long weekend, looking after the poor girl.
This afternoon, while she was asleep, I decided that I [...]

By Legal Eagle | Comments (15)

Old fat spider spinning in a tree…

June 2, 2007 – 9:24 pm

Anyone who knows me will know that I love Tolkien. And anyone who is a fellow Tolkien fan might find the title of this post reminiscent.
Do you remember the song Bilbo sang to the spiders in Mirkwood forest in The Hobbit?
Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can’t see me!
Attercop! [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Fark! | Comments (1)

Dolly and Ferris

May 27, 2007 – 11:43 pm

“Dolly clasped Ferris to her ample bosom. ‘Promise you’ll never leave me,’ she said, tears welling in her eyes.”
If I ever write a novel, I have decided that I will steal names from the wonderful people who send me spam. Dolly Burroughs and Ferris Kasper are two of those people. I’ve decided that they are [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Fark! | Comments (2)

Potter Schmotter

April 19, 2007 – 5:27 pm

Why do we read books? And what makes a book “well-written”? I have been thinking about this in the run-up to the imminent publication of J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final installment to the Harry Potter series. Seems I’m not the only one who is a bit sick of the series.
Litlove wrote a great blog post [...]

By Legal Eagle | Comments (7)