Morrow Planet

The Short Version

I’m not going to post new content here anymore. I’m turning my energies to my new site, Commonplace Cartography. (The site is http://mikemorrow.info/blog. The feed is here.) I hope you’ll come on over, and subscribe, and have fun with me at my new playground.

The Long Version

I started this site back in 2005 primarily as a book blog, because I loved book blogs. But I learned pretty quickly that I’m not really a book blogger, per se, and that in some sense I’m not much of a “blogger” at all.

I’ve never stopped writing, but never felt entirely comfortable posting things here that didn’t fit into my original (and poorly articulated) vision of this site.

Similarly, I’ve never stopped enjoying sharing things that I find interesting or funny on the Interwebs. (But not here)

So Commonplace Cartography is my new web home, and I’m purposely approaching it with very fuzzy boundaries. You’ll find reblogged videos that I think are funny, quick observations about what I’m reading, and many more personal essays.

Eventually I’ll move the most popular content here on Morrow Planet, the stuff that continues to get pageviews and comments, over to the new blog. The rest will probably just drift off into the dusty corners of the Internet Wayback Machine. At some point I may repurpose this URL or even have it point to Commonplace Cartography. I’ll let you know if I do anything fancy like that.

In the meantime, I hope we can stay friends. Join me over at Commonplace Cartography. Subscribe to the feed.

I’m having fun there, and I think you might too.

See ya later!

I was so happy to discover that Audible has added both Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion to their catalog of audiobooks. Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos is one of my favorite scifi series of all time—I re-read them every couple of years—and the idea of being able to re-enter that universe on my commute is very appealing.

Quite awhile ago, I unearthed an old cassette version of Hyperion, but the quality was terrible. So I’m really looking forward to checking out the new Audible recordings.

Folks, as a thank you for your continued readership, I’m pleased to offer you a unique gift—a day of carbon neutrality, courtesy of Brighter Planet.

Click this link to redeem your gift, and Brighter Planet will donate a day’s worth of carbon offsets (136 pounds) in your name. From what I can discern, the first 5 people to click the link are eligible to claim the gift.

Heard about this via the legendary Zeldman, who writes:

So far, Brighter Planet has given away over 3,300 gifts and offset more than 440,000 pounds of CO2. That’s like everyone in America turning off their lights for a minute. The goal is to give away 5,000 One Day gifts and offset 680,000 pounds of CO2.

Happy holidays, everyone. I love ya.

Maud Newton writes about Scroll Motion and the coming explosion of books on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Iceberg Reader has a bunch of titles available, including work by Philip Pullman and Scott Westerfeld. (iTunes link)

Not a week goes by where I don’t find myself reading more and more off my iPhone’s screen. I say bring it on.

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I’ve added Disqus comments to the site. My Disqus profile is here.

Happy Disqussing!

Can’t recall where I saw this, but a nifty idea:

wire & twine : Smart Tees.

Added a tab to the top of the page with my list of books read this year. The list itself is pretty vanilla—if you’d like a more visually appealing and commercially viable version of the list, view it at my a-Store.

If you forced me to choose among my darlings, I’d probably tell you I most enjoyed Eifelheim, Sharp Teeth, Anathem, or The Gone-Away World.

All in all, a wonderful year in reading.

I’m only halfway through Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World, but I love it. Unpredictable, epic, flawed, and funny.

I’m sure I’ll write more on this after finishing (and possibly re-reading), but for now it’s a solid recommendation.